The Christadelphian Bible Journal
Oct 2006 Volume 3 Number 28
We understand the author of the above work to have been a PhD in either something or another. However, you would never know it from his exegesis. Many years ago we listened to about five hours of tapes, provided by the Williamsburg Christadelphian Foundation (WCF). In these tapes, A.D. Norris set forth his notions concerning the Apocalypse. Never before had we heard such an exercise in utterly shallow reasoning. His view is simply another version of the Futurist Scheme originally set forth by like shallow thinkers: The Romanish Church.
Of this, one author has written: Although A. D. Norris would refuse the name "Futurist" as being a suitable description of his exposition of the Apocalypse, he does believe that all of the book applies to the future beyond the sixth chapter and the tenth verse. In his study entitled The Apocalypse For Everyman put out a few years ago, we are told that all history since the gospel was first preached is contained in Seals one to four. He says that the words of the souls speaking from beneath the altar (chap 6:10) together with the reply of verse 11 "that they should rest yet for a little season" means that the end must be near. The reply means "it will not be long now" says Norris, so that we today are about - if not in - this 5th seal period. The remainder of the Revelation is yet future.
We should note that according to the Old Testament "a little while" can mean many centuries - see Haggai 2:6,7.
But the language of the Sixth Seal does not have to mean that "the end" has arrived; it merely describes a change in the political rulership. If Revelation 6: 10 be read carefully, we find that the question "How long" relates to the avenging of "our blood on them that dwell on the earth." Certainly the blood of those brethren slain by the Pagan Roman world was avenged during the Constantinian revolution A.D. 312. This is the subject of the next seal (chap. 6:12) which shows a political earthquake taking place, removing the Pagan order and establishing a new one.
Norris has refused this understanding of the prophecy however. "It is impossible" he claims, "to limit the language to the fear that some men might have felt at the advance of a human conqueror in bygone ages" (Part 6, page 54).
But is the traditional Christadelphian interpretation as "impossible" as Norris has demanded? Almost identical language was used to describe "the advance of a human conqueror" against Babylon in Isaiah Chapter 13. Here it is the advance of the Medes which is referred to (verse 17). Compare the language of Revelation 6:12-17 with that of Isaiah 13:9-13 -
Revelation 6:12-17
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places . . .
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Isaiah 13:9-13
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible . . . Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Moreover, in Jeremiah, chapter 4, the prophet foresees the destruction of the cities of Judah: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly." (verses 23-24).
So it is not "impossible" to limit the language to the advance of a human conqueror. Norris is wrong, and his reason for rejecting the traditional interpretation of the sixth seal is unjustified.
In seeking to find an alternative for the traditional view, Norris has some difficulty in making his exposition fit the requirements. On page 55 of his work we are told that "it is the return of Jesus to which this Sixth Seal points", and that this is "absolutely beyond question". On page 56 however, this certainty wanes, and the Sixth Seal draws a picture only of "the portents heralding the Lord's return." It would be most inconvenient for Norris if the Lord actually returned in the Sixth Seal - he has to fit in the rest of the Revelation yet!
Brethren and sisters should be aware that Brother Thomas encountered similar ideas to those found in The Apocalypse For Everyman over 100 years ago, and that he saw fit to dismiss them. In The Christadelphian for 1871, page 90-91, he wrote:
"What! A person claiming to be a Christadelphian, and not to know whether the seals have been opened! For shame! The same ecclesia could also hear (as I am informed) one of its own affirm that the scene exhibited in Rev. 4 and 5 has its counterpart in heaven above, in John's past and present (compare A.D.N. Part 5) What is the use in writing an exposition of the Apocalypse, if the author's professed brethren manifest such gross darkness as this? Let such know that we are now living under the Seventh Seal which was opened A.D. 324, and the opening characterized by 'silence in heaven for half-an-hour'."
Are we now expected to accept theories which Brother Thomas found necessary to reject over 100 years ago? The failure of Norris in his attempt to eliminate the validity of the Eureka interpretation, his ambiguous treatment of so many parts of the Revelation, together with the fact that he subscribes to the Future Antichrist theory -- another Roman Catholic doctrine -- (The Apocalypse For Everyman, Part 12, page 116) will be enough to convince most Christadelphians that his exposition is not according to truth. Ecclesias that permit such wrong teaching may well receive the Master's rebuke; it would appear so from the Apocalyptic epistles.
(This article is a compilation of both the reviewer and information contained in the booklet: The Revelation: An Appeal for Right Understanding.)