Apocalypse Revealed #36
36. I became in the spirit on the Lord's day. (1:10) This symbolizes a spiritual state then owing to Divine influx.
"I became in the spirit" means, symbolically, a spiritual state, the state in which John was while he was experiencing the visions, and which we will take up in the following exposition. "On the Lord's day" symbolizes influx from the Lord then, for that day brings the Lord's presence, as it is a holy day.
Concerning the prophets we read that they were in the spirit or in vision, and that the Word came to them from Jehovah.
When they were in the spirit or in vision, they were not in the body, but in their spirit, a state in which they saw phenomena such as are found in heaven. But when the Word came to them, they were then in the body and heard Jehovah speaking.
These two states of the prophets must be properly distinguished. In the state of vision the eyes of their spirit were open and the eyes of their body closed; and they heard then what angels said, and what Jehovah said through angels, and also saw representations produced for them in heaven. Moreover, they sometimes seemed to themselves to be taken then from place to place, their body remaining where it was.
[2] This was the state in which John was when he wrote the book of Revelation, and the state sometimes experienced by Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel. They also said that they were then in vision or in the spirit. For Ezekiel says,
The Spirit lifted me up... and brought me back into Chaldea, to those in captivity, in a vision (of God), in the spirit of God. (Thus) went up from me the vision that I had seen. (Ezekiel 11:1, 24)
He also says that the Spirit lifted him up, and he heard behind him an earthquake, and more (Ezekiel 3:12, 24). So, too, that the Spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven, that it brought him in visions of God to Jerusalem, and that he saw abominations (Ezekiel 8:3f.). He was likewise in a vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four living creatures, which were cherubim (Ezekiel 1; 10), as also when he saw a new earth and a new temple, and an angel measuring them (Ezekiel 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48). That he was then in the visions of God, he himself says (Ezekiel 40:2), and that the spirit lifted him up (Ezekiel 43:5).
[3] The same was the case with Zechariah, who had an angel with him at the time, when he saw a man riding a horse among the myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8ff.); when he saw the four horns, and then a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 1:18; 2:1ff.); when he saw Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1ff.); when he saw the lampstand and two olive trees (Zechariah 4:1ff.); when he saw the flying scroll and the ephah (Zechariah 5:1, 6); when he saw the four chariots coming from between two mountains, and the horses (Zechariah 6:1ff.).
Daniel was in a like state when he saw the four beasts coming up from the sea (Daniel 7:1ff.), and when he saw the combat between the ram and the male goat (Daniel 8:1ff.). He himself says that he saw these things in visions (Daniel 7:1-2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7-8), and that the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a vision (Daniel 9:21).
[4] The same was the case with John, as when he saw the Son of Man in the midst of the seven lampstands (Revelation 1), and finally, the new heaven and the new earth, and then the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (Revelation 21, 22. John himself says that he saw these things in the spirit and in vision (1:10; 4:2; 9:17; 21:10). This, too, is meant by the statement, "I saw," everywhere it occurs in this book.
[5] It is clearly apparent from this that to be in the spirit is to be in a state of vision, which is brought about by an opening of the sight of a person's spirit; and when this is opened, phenomena found in the spiritual world are as clearly visible as those in the natural world are to the sight of the body.
The reality of this is something I can attest to from many years' experience.
The disciples were in this state when they saw the Lord after His resurrection, which is why are told that their eyes were opened (Luke 24:30-31).
Abraham was in a like state when he saw the three angels and spoke with them. 1
So, too, Hagar, Gideon, Joshua and others, when they saw angels of Jehovah. Likewise when Elisha's lad saw the mountain full of fiery chariots and horses all around Elisha, for Elisha prayed and said,
"Jehovah, open, I pray, his eyes that he may see." And Jehovah opened the eyes of the lad, and he saw. (2 Kings 6:17)
As regards the Word, however, it was not revealed in a state of the spirit or of vision, but the Lord dictated it to the prophets in an audible voice. Consequently we are nowhere told that the prophets spoke it from the Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah. See The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, no. 53.
Footnotes:
Ezekiel 39
1
You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:
2
and I will turn you around, and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel;
3
and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
4
You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to be devoured.
5
You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
6
I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in the islands; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
7
My holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I allow my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the holy One in Israel.
8
Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh; this is the day about which I have spoken.
9
Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;
10
so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.
11
It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon Gog.
12
Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
13
Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh.
14
They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15
Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any sees a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog.
16
Hamonah shall also be the name of a city. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17
You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.
18
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19
You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20
You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.
21
I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.
22
So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.
23
The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.
24
According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I to them; and I hid my face from them.
25
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name.
26
They shall bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;
27
when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.
28
They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land; and I will leave none of them any more there;
29
neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.
