THE second Lecture calls for fewer words. How strange the doctrine that Christ through His death bound Satan!—that this is the true interpretation of Rev. 20:1-3 (pp. 37-44)! and that the first resurrection of vers. 1-6 is not bodily but spiritual by baptism! Hence they live with Christ and are made unto God Kings and Priests in Him (p. 52), and even now judge the world and angels by the precepts of the Law, &c. represented by the 24 elders, as the four cherubim typify the Gospels! This Bp. Wordsworth will have to be the authorized interpretation of the church, attested for more than a thousand years by such as Origen, Dionysius, Jerome, Augustine, &c.
On the face of the prophecy this scheme ignores its plain structure. For Rev. 19 beyond a doubt supposes Babylon on earth fallen forever, and in contrast the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven, followed by heaven opened, and the Lord with His armies, His saints, emerging to execute judgment on the Beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies. Thereon, not before, ensues the binding of Satan for a thousand years (not days), and the long predicted reign of the saints over the earth for the same long period. Yet during it the Beast reigns also, not only the ten horns but his the one great authority to whom the dragon gives his power! What?....during the reign of Christ and His saints! Such is Dr. W.'s scheme, hear on the contrary the scriptural expectation. “And it shall come to pass that Jehovah shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth” (Isa. 24:21). “In that day Jehovah with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (chap. 27:1). Only the N. T. is fuller and more precise, giving stages in Rev. 12:2; 20:1-3, and ver. 10, of which the present vision is intermediate. The same N. T. leaves no shadow of doubt that, though the work is wrought by which Satan will be crushed forever, he is still active in deceiving the nations, as well as in tempting, hindering, and accusing the saints: Acts 5:3; 19:13-16, Rom. 16:20, 1 Cor. 5:5, 2 Cor. 2:11; 4:4; 7:5; 11:14; 12:7, Eph. 2:2; 4:27; 6:11, 12, 16, 1 Thess. 2:18; 3:5, 2 Thess. 2:2, 9, 1 Tim. 1:20; 3:7; 4:1; 5:15, 2 Tim. 2:26, James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8, 1 John 2:13, 14; 3:8, 10; 4:4, 6; 5:18, 19, Rev. 2:9, 13, 24; 3:9; 9:11; 12:7-17; 13:1, 2; 16:13, 14. These scriptures abundantly prove that the promised binding is still future, and that Bp. W.'s notion is hopelessly at war with revealed truth. Nothing could be farther from his intention; which the more illustrates the peril of deserting the plain word of God in deference to the thoughts of then, however venerable or numerous. The binding of Satan is reserved for the presence and day of the Lord.
“The first resurrection” only, and brightly, confirms this. The O.T. saints and those of the N. T. the church were already in heaven; for how else could the Lamb's wife have made herself ready for the marriage? These saints had been symbolized by the 24 elders (Rev. 4, and in 5. also by the four cherubim): which is as sure from the context as the application to the 24 books of O.T. scripture and to the four Gospels is a chimera. Here that symbol changes to “the bride,” and “the guests” at the Lamb's marriage supper; and this again to “the armies” that follow the Lord out of heaven, when He assumes the character of Warrior. Then in chap. 20. we have the change from “white horses” to “thrones,” when the reign is to begin. In Dan. 7 the thrones were set. Here they are filled. “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.” These were the saints already glorified, who had followed the Lord out of heaven (Rev. 18:14; 19:14).
“And [I saw] the souls of those that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God.” These were the martyrs whose souls were seen under the altar in Rev. 6:9, who were slain in the earlier persecutions of the hook after the elders were seen complete in heaven, and who were also told that they should rest yet a little while till their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed even as they were should be fulfilled. But now as these were fulfilled under the later persecutions of the Beast, these two classes are raised together. Hence we read, “and such as (or whosoever) worshipped not the beast nor his image, and received not his mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” “Souls” is therefore strictly correct, as in chap. vi. 9, so here in ver. 4. They had died and were seen in the disembodied state; but now “they lived,” which has no reasonable sense but in a resurrection from the dead, as it must be also to “reign with Christ a thousand years.” And this is the uniform apostolic doctrine of the N. T. “If so be that we suffer with [Him] that we may be also glorified with [Him]” (Rom. 8). “If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him” (2 Timothy H.). “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14).
Granted that “a thousand years' reign” must not be confounded with “reigning in life,” as all saints shall throughout eternity. But the principle of the difference is as clear as it is scriptural. The millennial reign is for those that suffer with Christ, which embraces all that are His in Old. and N. T. times till He comes for them and presents them on high. It is not restricted to saints who suffer for Him. All saints who from the beginning suffered with Christ share that reign. But those who suffered in the Apocalyptic troubles were only called of God while the glorified are seen on high. As they did not survive to welcome His appearing for the reign, they are thus raised at the last moment, not to be reigned over, but to reign with Christ like those already seen seated on the thrones. Those thus honored are then fulfilled. “The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of the Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Such is the simple and unforced interpretation of the vision, as worthy of the Lord and of the prophet, as that of the Lecture is mean, and harsh, as incongruous with the Apocalypse generally as with this particular context. The plain and just meaning furthers the action of the Book and is consistent with all revealed truth, not to say requisite for God's glory, and the Lamb at that juncture. “Know ye not that the saints (not the martyrs only) shall judge the world? Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” Those converted during the millennium escape all suffering with Christ; for there is no enemy there to sift or tempt, Satan being forcibly kept away. Hence they will have no such reigning before the world, then for the first time, as the millennium affords for Christ's holy sufferers. Yet like all saints, they “shall reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:17.
It would have been easy to have criticized the lecture in detail from first to last; as it would have been difficult in that case to have avoided sharp notice of singularly wild sentiments, if one dealt with the statements as they deserved. It is preferred therefore to let the distinct enunciation of the truth itself dispel the error, which leaves a lamentable blank in the future of the universe, where God has revealed, in both Testaments, the grandest scheme for the glory of Christ and the saints of the heavenly places to the joy of all creation, especially of Israel and all the nations, before the judgment of the dead and the eternity which follows. How blind are all who, listening to tradition, fancy that the state of things which began with the cross, wherein Satan is still the prince and god of this age, is the reign of the saints with Christ predicted by John! No, that reign is the restitution of all things (Acts 3), the revealing of the sons of God, when the whole creation ceases to groan, the idols utterly pass away, all families of the earth are blessed in Christ, He and His heavenly ones shine in heavenly glory, and Jehovah alone is exalted in that day. The gospel and the church are given their special development in the N.T. But the visions of glory promised to Israel and of blessing for all the nations of which the O.T. speaks must surely be “in that day.”
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