Q. 1. Do not the best readings give an entirely different meaning to Rev. 5:9, 109And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9‑10), from that represented by the Authorized Version? and how then can it be proved that the Church is in heaven when the judgments are poured upon the earth? By 'judgments' is to be understood not that ON the Antichrist, but the judgments during his rule.
2. Does not 2 Thess. 1:77And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (2 Thessalonians 1:7) appear to teach that the saints do not enter into rest until the Lord is revealed from heaven taking vengeance on them that know not. God, and 1 John 18, that they will be here with the Antichrist?
A. 1. The only question as to readings of importance in verse 9 is the insertion or omission of ἠμᾶς. The Sinaitic and Vatican (2066, not 1209), with the great majority of minuscules insert; the Parisian Rescript is defective; the Alexandrian and a minuscule in the Propag. at Rome (44) omit. To this last, though the evidence be small, recent editors (Afford, Lachmann, Tischendorf, &c.) incline. It seems to me confirmed by the true text of verse 10, which exhibits, without question, the third and not the first person (“they,” not “we”). The proof that the Church is then in heaven is quite independent of these verses, and mainly depends on the fact revealed in chapter 4.—the presence of the enthroned and crowned elders around the throne of God. Who are meant by this symbol but the glorified saints? Spirits as such are nowhere said to be glorified, but the saints in their changed bodies. These are so represented from Rev. 4 onwards. If ἠμᾶς be, as I suppose, rightly omitted (the insertion being due to an early corrector who could not account for the absence of an object after the verb, from ignorance of such an ellipse, which is not uncommon with John), there is no necessity for taking the ξῶα as the redeemed; for the song would then simply celebrate the Lamb's worthiness and His efficacious death in purchasing a people to God, priests and kings to reign over the earth, without here defining who they are.
2 Thess. 1 speaks solely of publicly awarded rest and tribulation when Jesus is revealed. Nobody thinks either can be till Jesus appears. A previous translation is no more a difficulty for the saints caught up to heaven than a previous tribulation for Jews and Gentiles on earth. Nor does 1 John 18 hint that those addressed would be on earth when Antichrist comes, but affirms many antichrists now as an evidence of that coming man of sin, and no more.
Matt. 1:2121And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21) confirms, instead of weakening, the plainly future bearing of Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18). For just as the one text shows us that no one, before Jesus came and died, could be said to be saved from his sins, so was no Church of Christ begun to be built before. Previously to that believers rested on a revelation or a promise; afterward, on the work accomplished. Then, not before, it could be said, “By grace are ye saved through faith.” Redemption becomes the basis not only of His own present salvation in Christ, but also of gathering in one (i.e., in the Church) God's children who were before this scattered. For this, too, the presence of the Spirit sent down from heaven was requisite to baptize into one body.