[Transcriber’s Note: In the book, the above table had the following text for each of the seven sections; they are laid out here to make it look correct with modern readers.]
IV—A Vision of Warfare—the Church‐Historic World‐Conflict of the Evil against the Just. (Ch. 12:1‐14:20)
III—A Vision of Threatening—the World’s Punishment Threatened. (Ch. 8:2‐9:21, and 11:14‐19)
V—A Vision of Judgment—the World’s Judgment Executed. (Ch. 15:1‐16:12, and 16:17‐21)
II—A Vision of Trial—the Church’s Trial Foreshown. (Ch. 6:1‐17, and 8:1)
VI—A Vision of Vindication—the Church’s Vindication Manifested. (Ch. 17:1‐20:15)
I—A Vision of Sovereignty—the Throne during Conflict. (Ch. 4:1‐5:14)
VII—A Vision of Triumph—the Throne after Victory. (Ch. 21:1‐22:5)
If we follow the natural order of the visions from I to VII, we find it to be one of _progression_, viz. from Sovereignty to Trial, then to Threatening, and on through Warfare, Judgment, and Vindication to Triumph, each being a separate step in advance: if we compare I with VII, II with VI, and III with V, we find the order to be marked by _parallelism_, viz. Sovereignty corresponding to Triumph, Trial to Vindication, and Threatening to Judgment, vision IV, that of Warfare, holding the balance between them: while if we regard the central vision in relation to the rest, we find the arrangement to be one of _climax_, vision IV forming the connecting link between I and VII, II and VI, and III and V, the visions preceding and following it forming an ascending and descending scale to and from the center, viz. that of Sovereignty leading through Warfare to Triumph, that of Trial through Warfare to Vindication, and that of Threatening through Warfare to Judgment. The movement of thought is thereby indicated to be from the throne challenged to the throne triumphant, from the church tried to the church vindicated, from the world threatened to the world judged, through a world‐conflict which forms the acme of the dramatic purpose, and discloses the entire sweep of redemptive history as buttressed upon the eternal throne. The seven visions, according to this view, are not bound together by any temporal succession, but each displays a world‐process complete in itself, and they are so arranged that the climax is reached at the center instead of the end, after the analogy of Hebrew poetry, the central vision furnishing the key to the interpretation of the whole.(61) The value of such an analytic interpretation, when sustained by the contents of the book, lies not alone in the help which it affords in penetrating the deeper purpose of the writer, and of the revelation made through him, but in the illuminative effect which, in a case like this, it throws upon the disputed question of unity; for if any such clearly marked and continuous current of thought can be shown to thread its way throughout the entire book, despite all by‐ currents and eddies, then the various theories of diverse or composite authorship cease to be credible except to pure theorists.