Guyon understands Jesus Christ’s actions as full of meaning with layer upon layer of meaning and purpose that comes from God’s will. The Lord has multiple purposes in each action. Guyon shows the great harmony and unity of these purposes when we live in and act on the will of God. As we experience and live the states of being of Jesus Christ, we grow naturally into union with him. This transformation of the interior life becomes a good fruit out of human suffering.
Guyon’s commentary on Revelation shows the complexity and beauty of her symbolic interpretation. She combines many of the symbols to show the meaning Jesus Christ gives us in three specific arenas: the consummation of historical events, the role of the church, and the growth of the individual soul.
One of Guyon’s distinctive interpretations shows the meaning in these arenas for the four-winged creatures who each call out a different colored horse. Guyon compares the character of the four living creatures with the four horsemen of the apocalypse and interprets these as a unified message describing both the historical events of the apocalypse and the consecutive states of the growing soul. The living creature of a lion calls forth the first white horse of easy victories. The living creature of an ox calls forth the second red horse of being hurt and proclaiming truth. The living creature of a human being calls forth the third black horse as the living judgment of the living God. Fourth, the living creature of an eagle calls forth the fourth pale horse of death, which brings consummation.
According to Guyon, in history we are moving toward or are in the final stage of the eagle. Guyon believed that in the seventeenth century, she was living in the third stage and history was moving toward the time of interior spiritual animation called the eagle. Could we be in the fourth stage now when we will be animated by the Spirit like the Eagle?
In Guyon’s second distinctive interpretation, she states that the woman giving birth to the son in the sky is the church giving birth to those of interior prayer, as well as a reflection on Mary giving birth to Jesus. The dragon wishes to destroy this interior life of prayer and yet God intervenes to stop this ultimate destruction of faith.
In Guyon’s third distinctive interpretation, the seven seals show truthful historic events through which the world must pass. They also show seven states through which the individual soul must pass to find perfection and fullness of truth.
Every symbolic event has multiple interpretations. In her basic structure, she says every symbol has a meaning for the soul, the church, and the universe. All of these symbols can be interpreted for the faithful and nonfaithful, for the spiritually mature and the immature. Guyon contrasts these distinctions between those living in the simplicity and truth of the New Jerusalem or living in the multiplicity and lies of Babylon.
Guyon believes that the goal of Revelation is to show Jesus Christ’s ultimate victory for human beings and the persecuted church. She states that the time of apocalypse spans from the beginning of the church until the end of time. Her understanding of the many centuries needed to fulfill the apocalypse does provide a dignity and meaning to the history of human suffering. The intense suffering that many have suffered for generations will have an answer in the judgment given by God in the apocalypse. In Guyon’s perspective, the events of the apocalypse are indeed already happening, but we do not know when the final consummation will happen. During our lives, God sends rays of understanding that interpret the suffering circumstances described in the apocalypse to prepare us for the universal joy of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Guyon’s profound thinking about the apocalypse, the marriage of the Lamb, and the second coming needs a longer exposition in future publications. This book is already underway and should be published soon.
Jeanne Guyon’s Apocalyptic Universe
Her Biblical Commentary on Revelation with Reflections on the Interior Life
Copyright © 2019 Nancy Carol James. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Pickwick Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
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Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-6282-9
hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-6283-6
ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-6284-3
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Names: Guyon, Jeanne, author. | James, Nancy Carol, translator. | Roberts, William Bradley, foreword.
Title: Jeanne Guyon’s apocalyptic universe : her biblical commentary on Revelation with reflections on the interior life / by Jeanne Guyon ; translated by Nancy Carol James.
Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2019 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-6282-9 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-6283-6 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-6284-3 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte,—1648–1717 | Bible—Revelation—Meditations | Bible—Revelation—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible—Revelation—Devotional literature | Spiritual life—Catholic Church | Quietism
Classification: bx4705.g8 a25 2019 (print) | bx4705.g8 (ebook)
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 04/05/19
The Apocalypse of the Apostle John
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. (Rev 1:1)
Jesus Christ expresses many hidden and profound mysteries in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ reserves the right to show to his servants his mysteries. He gives his servants a gift to understand and a taste for this sweet and clear intelligence in Revelation. The book uses ordinary terms to write about things that are distant from ordinary reality However, Jesus Christ will make the message heard in the hearts of believers who read it.
John says that this book will describe what must soon take place. First, we understand that centuries for God are only moments. Also, this begins the revelation of what was to come from the birth of the church until the end of the world, but particularly what must happen at the end time. O strong and prodigious time that begins a new era which consummates all other times with mystery and rigor. God finds pleasure in revealing the mystery of all ages to the eyes of his servants and showing the effects of his power, so contrary to the thought and knowledge of human beings! O God eternal, Word of God, immolated Lamb, here is the day of your glory and triumph. Here is the time when the dragon will be chained for all time. Here also the time of the most horrible war and the strangest tempest of oppression on your servants. The dragon makes his last attacks, but you will defeat, O Lord Jesus, you defeat. Amen!
John says that these mysteries are made known by sending his angel. God uses two ways of revealing himself to his servants. First, God reveals himself in them and for them, so they reveal this to others. This profound revelation comes immediately and without mediation within the advanced soul. The soul discovers that she possesses a treasure, but she does not know how God communicated this to her.
The kiss of the mouth (Song of Solomon 1:1) reveals these secrets. John received the ineffable wedding kiss in the eternal generation of the Word from the bosom of the Father and his incarnation. Through the kiss of Jesus with his flock, the Word makes an indissoluble marriage with humanity. Jesus Christ paid for this painful kiss with