And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Read Chapter 19
Bede
AD 735
prophecy: For whatever the Spirit of prophecy said, is the testimony of Jesus, Who receives testimony from the law and the prophets. Do not thou, then, worship me, he says, as God, seeing that I have come to bear testimony to His powers. Thus far concerning the fall of Babylon, henceforth concerning the future glory of Jerusalem. <a
testimony: After that the Lord Jesus Christ raised the person of man, which He assumed, above the heavens, the angel feared to be worshipped by man, namely, as worshipping the God-man above himself. Yet we read of this having been done before the Incarnation of the Lord by men, and not in any wise forbidden by the angels.
fellowservant: He had said above, "I am the first and the last." He shews, therefore, that the angel was sent as a figure of the Lord and the Church. In the same manner he also says at the end, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you in the churches."
And I fell before his feet, to adore him. They of the pretended reformation think they have here a clear proof that no veneration is due to Angels and saints, and that papists in so doing are idolaters. In answer to this: First, they make St. John the apostle guilty of that idolatry which they lay to our charge. For they must suppose and grant that St. John, as to the dispositions of his mind and will, was just ready, or rather falling down, did pay an idolatrous worship to the Angel; and what Christian can believe this of so great an apostle, that after he had been favoured with all those extraordinary visions, he should either be so very ignorant as not to know what was idolatry, or so impious as to become guilty of it, and give divine honour to any creature? And what makes St. John altogether inexcusable, (had it been idolatry) we find him doing the very same a second time, in the last chapter of the Apocalypse; (ver. 7 and 8) that is, falling down at the Angel's feet to adore. Seco...
Yet these also have spoken beforehand of the punishments that are to light upon the profane and unbelieving, in order that none be left without a witness, or be able to say, "We have not heard, neither have we known. "But do you also, if you please, give reverential attention to the prophetic Scriptures,
