The Creation of God - Jacob Hartmann (readict TXT) 📗

Chapter xxii: Sin.

Chapter xxiii: Whoredoms.

Chapter xxxviii: Boneyard.

Chapter xlvii: Visions of holy waters.

Daniel’s visions, dreams:

Verse 3: Four great beasts came up from the sea. The first was a lion and had eagle’s wings. The second was like a bear, it had three ribs in the mouth between the teeth, etc. The third was like a leopard, and had four wings of a fowl, and had four heads. The fourth a beast dreadful and terrible, strong exceedingly—had great iron teeth—and it had ten horns. A little horn came up; in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, a mouth speaking great things. Throne whereon an ancient sat, the hair of his head like pure wool, garments snow-white, etc.; throne of fiery flame, wheels as burning fire.

Verse 19: “Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast,” etc. His teeth were iron, nails of brass, etc., etc.

Chapter viii: A ram had two horns; one was higher than the other. He saw the ram pushing westward, northward, southward, etc.

Verse 5: A he-goat with a horn between the eyes; the goat smote the ram, broke the two horns, etc.

Zechariah iv: A candlestick all of gold, a hood upon the top of it. Seven lamps thereon, seven pipes to the seven lamps; two olive trees.

Chapter v: Flying roll twenty cubits long, ten cubits broad.

Verse 9: Two women, and the wind was in their wings; they had wings like a stork.

Chapter vi: Four chariots between two mountains of brass. The first chariot had red horses, the second chariot had black horses, the third chariot had white horses, the fourth chariot had grizzled bay horses, etc.

The most prominent men in the Old Testament that were endowed with high imaginative powers, were not many. The most noted among them were Isaiah, 681 B.C.; Ezekiel, 591 B.C.; Daniel, 559 B.C.; Zechariah, 535 B.C. These four visionary gentlemen lived during a very exciting, troublesome period. It was the ending of national life. There were continuous wars, constant changes, invasions, robberies, plunder, and all other barbaric crimes that ordinarily accompany these revolutionary events. Israel was made captive 721 B.C.—the lost ten tribes, as they are called. The conquest of Jerusalem was 606 B.C.; the captivity of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem, 588 B.C.

It must be remembered that all the prophets, so termed, lived during a time of approaching national dissolution, and date from the death of Jonah, 761 B.C., to the death of Nehemiah, 430. These political preachers, agitators, and fault-finders were altogether some twenty in number. And when national life ceased, these prophets ceased. Men of this particular type and character were no longer needed. They had outlived their usefulness. Their national greatness was rapidly disintegrating—short-lived it was. Luxury, licentiousness, and crime; rapacity, internal disorder, factional strife, lack of order and discipline, made them the prey of neighboring nations, that finally proved their destruction. It was not a question of God or Jehovah or idols; it was a question of organization, discipline, and a higher civilization, that wiped the Jews out as a nation. They struggled as long as they could maintain their existence as a nation. They were overpowered and subdued. It is not, therefore, surprising that these men appealed to their patriotism—their moral sense, of which they had but little—and made every endeavor to reform them. The national pride, love of country and patriotism, fired their imagination. They talked, wrote, and scolded in the name of the visionary God in fashion among them, employing the phraseology then in use, giving vent to their feelings, their passions, their lamentations, their dreams, their visions, the product of an over-excited nervous system, mixing poesy, philosophy, and facts indiscriminately; producing a heterogeneous, fantastic creation of the brain, part true, but false as a whole, dovetailed together as the fancy of the moment suggested. These rambling fireworks of the imagination have little meaning and less sense, except that they portray their feelings, emotions, and practical impressions for the time being. Eliminate the facts out of their writings, and you obtain a residue of wild, incoherent ravings of an over-excited, over-heated brain.

We hear nothing of any great mental disturbance or loss of equilibrium, until we reach a new crisis. For nearly four hundred years not a vision, not an angel, not a prophet, is heard of.

The religious disputes, the ecclesiastical quarrels, the heated discussions, the hatred, hostility, and opposition that the differences of opinion engendered, caused considerable nervous irritation, mental excitement, and a display of the imagination. This new religion, this reformation, this new organization, produced no small amount of fermentation. It was all nervous, stimulated to a degree of exaltation, rising in intensity to enthusiasm and religious ecstacy, wherein many varieties of nervous phases were exhibited. St. John was on the isle of Patmos when he wrote his Revelations. He could not have chosen a more suitable spot for his visionary work. An isolated little island situated in the Archipelago near Asia Minor, it is one of the smallest islands in that region. It could certainly not contain many inhabitants. It is surrounded by sea and exceedingly lonely. A man with a highly nervous temperament could almost see anything in that dreamland of melancholy and seclusion. John’s visions resembled those of his predecessors several hundred years previous. But John came four hundred years later, and had the advantage of more culture. Ideas had multiplied, experience had increased, the imagination was amplified. Education had advanced, and the mental faculties were better developed. He had therefore the brain, the opportunity, and a very favorable locality, to dream, to have visions, and to imagine to his heart’s content. He had the material, the impressions, and the state of mind to aid him. Of course we take it for granted that John wrote these Revelations—or some one imagined these things for him.

John wrote to the seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatera, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. None of these places was any considerable distance from Patmos. What he sees:

Chapter i: Seven candlesticks. One was like (verse 13) the Son of Man, clothed in garments down to the feet, girt about the paps with a golden girdle. Verse 14: “His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow.” Verse 15: His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. Verse 16: He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

The second and third chapters are advisory to the seven churches.

In the fourth his imagination takes a great flight.

A more romantic spot to have visions could not be found—about 38° north of the equator, a beautiful sky, mild climate, calm waters, and a solemnity of surroundings that would impress a less imaginative mind. It would have a marvelous effect on an excitable fanatic zealot, brimful with fantastic religious notions. No wonder he beheld the doors of heaven open, and heard a sound of a trumpet—and he was immediately in the spirit; that is, he was either dreaming or in an ecstatic state, and could see all the things he did see with his eyes either closed or open.

He saw a throne. One sat in it. It looked like jasper and sardonyx. And he saw a rainbow like emerald. Round about there were twenty-four seats, wherein twenty-four elders were sitting clad in white raiment, with crowns of gold on their heads. Thunder and lightning came out of the throne. There were seven lamps before the throne, and seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal; and in the midst of the throne and round about were four beasts, full of eyes before and behind.

The first beast was like a lion, the second beast was like a calf, the third beast had the face of a man, the fourth beast was a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within.

Chapter v, 6: There stood a lamb with seven horns, seven eyes, seven spirits, etc.

Chapter vi: He saw a white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse. The first had a crown, the second a sword, the third a pair of balances, on the fourth sat Death and Hell. There were seals opened, etc., etc. The fifth seal was the souls slain by the sword of God. The sixth seal, earthquake, the sun became black and the moon red, and the heavens departed as a scroll, etc.

Chapter vii: He sees four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow, etc. He saw another angel with a seal—for various tribes, etc.—very fanciful, very fantastic, very imaginative.

Chapter viii: The seventh seal opened. Seven angels with seven trumpets standing before God. One angel stood with a golden censer. Five filled the censer with fire. Voices. Thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

Verse 7: The first angel sounded. There followed hail and fire, mingled with blood; trees and green grass were burnt up.

Verse 8: The second angel sounded. A mountain of burning fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood.

Verse 9: A third part of the creatures and a third part of the ships were destroyed.

Verse 10: The third angel sounded. A great star fell from heaven, burning.

Verse 11: The fourth angel sounded. A third part of the sun and moon were smitten, a third part of the stars, etc.

Chapter ix: The fifth angel sounded. A star falls into the bottomless pit. He mixes smoke, locusts, scorpions, torments, horns, battles, crowns of gold.

Verse 7: Faces of men with hair of women and teeth of lions. He sees breastplates of iron. There is sound in the wings, sound in the chariots running to battle, etc., etc.

Verse 17: He sees the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth and brimstone; and the heads of the horses