Verses five and six are the doctrinal basis of all the Apocalypse. It’s the heart of the whole of the book. Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, risen from the dead, King of Kings, loved us, redeemed us, made us a kingdom, priests of heaven, to Him glory in empire forever and ever. That’s what Apocalypse is all about.

Verse six, „He hath made us a kingdom.‟ A kingdom, because Christ has destroyed the empire of the devil in our souls, and replaced it with His own. This is the kingdom of heaven; „the kingdom of heaven is within you.‟ „The kingdom of heaven is at hand.‟ The kingdom of heaven is like unto the gospel. „He hath made us a kingdom,‟ the kingdom of Christ, because He’s destroyed the empire of the devil in our souls, He’s replaced it with His own.

Why is every Catholic a priest in heaven? In what sense is every Catholic a priest in heaven? What’s the essence of a priest? A sacrifice. Yes, that’s right. What sacrifice is every Catholic offering in heaven? A sacrifice of praise, you may say. A sacrifice of praise and glory. So every Catholic in heaven is offering a sacrifice of praise and glory to God, so priests in that broader sense, to be strictly distinguished from the ministerial priesthood. But the modernists, of course, fool around with that distinction.

Priests by baptism, the priesthood of souls offering a sacrifice of prayer and good works. The interior priesthood of souls offering a sacrifice of prayer and good works on the inner altar of their hearts. John 4:23, „God is Spirit and will be adored in spirit.‟ „The hour cometh and now is when the true adorer shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father also seeketh such to adore Him. God is spirit and if they adore Him, they must adore Him in spirit and in truth.‟ So the priests, by the interior priesthood, souls offering a sacrifice of prayer and good works on the inner altar of their hearts.

The distinction here is between the interior priesthood and the exterior priesthood: the priesthood by baptism, the priesthood by ordination. The priesthood of the faithful, the ministerial priesthood. It’s a distinction which is perfectly clear, but the modernists fool around with it. Priesthood by baptism versus priesthood by priestly ordination. That’s the ministerial priesthood. The priesthood of the faithful is not priesthood in the strict sense, but an analogous sense. This equates to interior priests and exterior priests. Priesthood in the heart, priesthood by hands, if you like. Priesthood by hands are anointed and offer the sacrifice. Priesthood of the heart, priesthood of the hands.

Someone mentioned laity being considered priests according to Aaron because of their work for him. There’s absolutely nothing to that. Again, it’s purely comparison, designed to blur the distinction. If you say that the faithful are priests according to the order of Aaron, you’re getting… The order of Aaron was quite different from the laity. How did a priest become a priest according to the order of Aaron? They were born into it. If you were born into the family of Aaron in the Tribe of Levi, every male child was a priest. And then every Levite outside the order of Aaron was a Levite; he was a deacon without being a priest. So it was by birth.

First Peter the Apostle, 1 Peter 2:5: „Be you also as living stones built up a special house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.‟ That’s the interior priesthood, spiritual sacrifices. The ordained priest offers up physical sacrifices: the host and the wine, consecrated, the body and blood, but they’re physical. The priesthood of the faithful is a spiritual priesthood. Be careful. That’s a classic boobytrap used by Modernists.

„Behold he comes with clouds…‟ This is of course Our Lord. „With clouds…‟ Literally, as in Acts 1:9-11, Our Lord at his ascension speaking of His second coming. „You will behold the Son of Man on the clouds.‟ Either literally, mystically, or spiritually, the clouds are the apostles. In Africa, it seems that a chief could very well understand there being statues in a Catholic church because the head man had to have counselors or adjutants around him. It was understandable that the head man should have sidekicks; therefore, the Protestants got it wrong. But the Catholics who have statues of saints around the altar have got it right. Clouds around the principal glory. So, He will come in clouds, the apostles.

„And every eye will see him, and they too that have pierced him and all the tribes of the earth shall wail.‟ All the tribes of the earth, the tribes are the slaves of earthly goods, who will be wailing. The bad guys will be sorry. The good guys will rejoice. So these are the bad guys. The tribes are the slaves of earthly goods. „Shall bewail themselves because of him.‟ This is reference to the Second Coming. The bad guys will lament. „Even so. Amen.‟ In Hebrew, etsem, amen. Greek and Hebrew. Etsem Greek, amen Hebrew. The Apocalypse is for Gentile and Jew. Etsem Gentile, amen Jew. In other words, the Apocalypse is for everybody.

Verse 10, „I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. I was in ecstasy on Sunday.‟ „In the Spirit.‟ That’s an expression we’ve already seen. „In ecstasy on Sunday.‟ „And I heard behind me a great voice like of a trumpet saying, ’What you see, write down in a book and send it to the seven churches,‟ which are in Asia: one Ephesus, two Smyrna, three Pergamum, four Thyatira, five Sardis, six Philadelphia, seven Laodicea.„ So, a trumpet to get his attention. ‟Saying, ‚What you see, write it down in a book and send it.’„ Saint John is being told to put what he will see in writing, and then send it to the churches. This verse is why they say the immediate addressee of the Apocalypse is the seven churches of Asia Minor. The mediate addressee is the whole Church.

Someone asked if this was due to his Gospel. It might be, but more likely, the Gospel is simply part of his whole ministry. The Romans probably didn’t bother with what he wrote, but they did bother with his setting up this Christian church in Ephesus. So probably his whole ministry.

Someone once asked Dr. Samuel Johnson to define light. He said, „Nobody can define it. Everybody knows what it is.‟ Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote a dictionary. He was an Englishman who didn’t like Scotland very much. He said, „The best sight any Scotsman can ever see is the front of England as he’s crossing southwards.‟ He wrote a dictionary with various things. For example, oats: „Oats are a feed that the English give to their horses and that Scotsmen eat by themselves.‟ He was a Tory, an outstanding Tory. He should have been a Catholic, but I don’t think he ever did convert. I would guess he died about 1780, born about 1710. He said, „He who hates London, hates life.‟ He was a character. He hated Whigs, the descendants of the Puritans and forefathers of the Liberals. The line went from Puritans to Rationalists, who in politics were Whigs, who turned into Liberals. The opponents were Tories. Boswell’s Life of Johnson contains many of his sayings. Towards the end of his days, he knew an Italian abbot of a Benedictine abbey. I don’t know if he converted, but he knew what the modern world was up to.

How did we get on to Johnson? His definition of light. Yes, that’s it. Light. Everyone knows what it is, but nobody can define it. Somebody once told him, Berkeley, the philosopher, says that we get our senses… Dr. Johnson went up to a big stone, gave it a big kick and said, „Thus do I refute Berkeley.‟ Common sense. On predestination, in the Calvinist sense, he said, „All argument is for it, all experience is against it.‟ There’s some truth in that. It’s a man with some good sense speaking.

So the candlesticks all carry one light. They carry a lot of little lights, and yet all those lights make one light. The same, the churches each carry their own little light and yet all of those lights are the one light which is Christ. Therefore the candlesticks are the churches, carrying Christ the light of the world. Gold is charity. And seven candlesticks… Seven. Well, of course seven is the number… He’s picked seven churches, but it’s also the number of the sacraments, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, the virtues, the works of corporal and spiritual mercy. All of those are sevens. And he’s picked seven churches which stands for universal. Undoubtedly there were other cities with churches in Asia Minor, undoubtedly they also needed letters, but those seven churches will stand for them all. So seven is universal.

„Clothed with a garment down to the feet.‟ The tunic of the Jewish high priest stands for his priesthood. From head to foot stands for charity. It’s a garment like that of the high priest, and it symbolizes the charity of Christ from head to foot. This garment signifies both His charity and His priesthood.

„And girt about the paps with a golden girdle.‟ That’s the chest. Again, mortification of concupiscence. The New Testament mortification even of desires, the heart. It’s mortifying the heart, the movements of the heart. In the Old Testament you are not allowed to act. In the New Testament you’re not allowed to desire. So here is girt about the chest, standing for the chastity of desires as well as action.

Verse 15, „And His feet like unto fine brass as in a burning furnace and His voice as the sound of many waters.‟ Fine brass stands for strength and stability. „His feet like unto fine brass.‟ Strength and stability. The burning furnace is the Passion. He was strong and stable through all His terrible Passion. „His voice as the sound of many waters.‟ Many waters are the worldwide flood of truth that came with our Lord. When our Lord took flesh, the truth began to flood through the world. Various heresies have dammed up the floodwaters of truth, but those floodwaters kept breaking out again. Now in our own time, it looks as though Christ is allowing his enemies almost to shut the truth down. But if you cast your mind back over 20 centuries, it’s clear that the truth that our Lord brought did flood through the world.

Verse 16, „And he had in his right hand seven stars, and from his mouth came out a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was as the sun shineth in his power.‟ „He had in his right hand seven stars.‟ In his right hand, in the hand of Christ to lead to Christ. The stars are bishops. In the beginning of chapter two you’ll see, „Unto the angel of the Church of Ephesus write…‟ and that is actually the bishop of the Church of Ephesus. The angel is the bishop, the star is the bishop. Spiritual stars to shine in the darkness of the world. Like stars shine in darkness, so the bishops must shine in the world.

He quoted William Wordsworth’s Lucy poems: „She dwelt amidst untrodden ways… Or like a star when only one is shining in the sky.‟ Wordsworth (1770-1850) was initially enthusiastic about the French Revolution but grew wiser. His early poems are very clear and simple. The star shining in the darkness is meant to be a bishop. The stars represent bishops because they shine out in the darkness with the brilliance of the Gospel, not their own brilliance.

„And from his mouth came out a sharp two-edged sword.‟ The sword is the word of God, with the power of God. „Sharp‟ means it’s powerful. „Two-edged‟ because it has a quite different power upon the good and upon the bad. The sword makes the good feel good about themselves, but it makes the bad feel bad about themselves. That’s why it’s two-edged.

„And his face was as the sun shineth in his power.‟ The face of the one like the son of man shines out in strength, like the Transfiguration (Matthew 17). The sun in its strength, the sun at noon, in full brilliance. Compare Matthew 17:1-6. Matthew compares the appearance of our Lord to snow and the sun. Souls that actually see the Mother of God or our Lord say that the sun and the snow are very poor comparisons; it’s so brilliant.

„And he laid his right hand upon me saying, ‚Fear not, I am the first and the last.’‟ This is still Our Lord, or the angel standing in for Our Lord. „I am the first and the last.‟ I am the highest of creatures, treated as the lowest. That’s one interpretation for the God-man in his humanity. In his divinity, the first and the last is obviously each end of eternity.

Verse 18, „And alive, and was dead, and behold I’m living forever and ever and I have the keys of death and of hell.‟ Obviously, our Lord in his humanity, for whom the angel is standing in, so that Saint John understands clearly that it’s as if our Lord himself was speaking.

Verse 19, „Write therefore the things which thou hast seen and which are and which must be done hereafter.‟ Write the past life of Jesus, the present tribulations of the church, the future coming of the Antichrist, et cetera. Put down in this book the past, the present, and the future.

Notice that verse clearly gives you the meaning of some of the details already presented, which suggests that all of the other details also have a meaning. Verse 20 doesn’t give you the meaning of every detail, but the couple that it gives you suggests that all the other details can also have their meaning. To say that gold means charity, or that the waters are the flood of truth, it’s not just imagination. Verse 20 tells us that these details mean something, have a spiritual meaning. Visions are full of physical detail. The physical detail always means something.

Question: Regarding the expression „Like the Son of Man,‟ is it similar to its use in Daniel? Bishop Williamson: Daniel 7:13, „And I saw one like the Son of Man came with the clouds…‟ It obviously refers to the Messiah. I’d need to know Daniel very well to be sure if that is the same. The commentator Dom Guéranger gives that meaning to „like to the Son of Man‟ in verse 13 here, that it’s an angel.

Question: Why wasn’t he adored? Bishop Williamson: He’s not adoring him here. He simply falls down as if dead. Maybe he is falling down in a swoon or a faint or horror rather than in adoration. I don’t know.

Any other questions on chapter one?