Is the expression to be strictly limited geographically? For that there is a special local sphere, in which the closing scene of the Revelation is laid, is apparent to many. It would appear that by “the earth” in the Revelation is meant what we regard as the civilized world: that a special geographical sphere into which the light has come, and at least externally remained, however really it may have become darkness, is readily conceded. But, in allowing all this, the several passages in the Revelation, where the expression “them that dwell on the earth” occurs, will be found readily to bear a moral meaning. It is a class who, with all the outward profession of the light, acknowledging even the truth of the testimony in the word of God, both to the present grace of the gospel and to the coming judgment on the world, nevertheless have their interests exclusively on the earth. There may be an actual crisis, as undoubtedly there will be, when this will be clearly manifested; yet, as a principle, it is one of the deepest practical importance to recognize the light in which “dwellers on the earth” are regarded by God.
The two great subjects of the testimony of the Holy Ghost are the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. When these two connected truths are received into the soul by the teaching of the Spirit, they necessarily sever it from the absorbing power of earthly interests. Take the cross, for example. “They are enemies to the cross of Christ who mind earthly things.” On the other hand, take the resurrection. “If ye then be risen with Christ... set your affection (the same as “mind,” in the former quotation) on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3).
The great morale of the gospel, if I may so speak, is heaven as a present enjoyable reality, as the home of our affections, the center of our interests. This is indeed a wondrous truth; but how little do we know the power of it in our souls! The characteristic of our present calling is, that it is “heavenly.” We are addressed as “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.” Our true tabernacle is in heaven; our only Priest is in heaven. The Epistle to the Hebrews sets forth the heavenly worship, which faith alone can recognize in direct contrast with earthly worship, which the senses could recognize. The priest of the Jews was a visible person; the sacrifices, tangible objects; the temple, a material structure: all beautiful and orderly, and suitable to the system with which God Himself had connected them; but, to faith, they are mere shadows of glorious and abiding realities. The heart of man naturally lingers about the shadows; and the full-blown evil of the Judaizing tendency, with which the apostle dealt so sternly, is now become habitual to the thoughts of Christians, and has helped to form the characteristic of “dwellers on the earth.” Judaism has been taken as the pattern of what men call Christianity, and thus Christianity itself is regarded as a mere improvement or refinement of Judaism, instead of being regarded according to the apostle as its direct contrast. “The new piece has been added to the old garment, and the rent is become worse.” “The new wine has been put into old bottles,” and all the liquor is soon gone.
But, to turn again to our calling. We are exhorted to walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called (Eph. 4:11I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (Ephesians 4:1)). This implies the knowledge of our “calling.” It is a “high calling.” The word rendered “high” is the same as that rendered “above” in Col. 3 “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” This explains its meaning: we are called of God from beneath to above, from earth to heaven. We are locally and bodily on this earth and in this world, yet we belong not to either; even as the Lord Himself said of us when here, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Hence also the pilgrim and stranger character of the saint: heaven is his home, though actually he is away from it; and oh, that we as ardently desired to be with Christ where He is, as He desires to have us with Him! So entirely is heaven regarded as our home, that the apostle, in speaking of those whom God by His grace had quickened, affirms them to be “raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ.” God has done this for us, however feeble may be our apprehension of its blessedness. The only place as it were, in which we can now sit down and take a calm survey of all around us, is heaven. “Our conversation,” rather our citizenship, “is in heaven “; and this is stated in a passage in contrast with minding “earthly things” (Phil. 3). It is from heaven too that we “look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”
On the other hand “dwellers upon the earth” can only regard Christ as coming in the character of a judge. It must necessarily be so; because the coming of the Lord Jesus to the earth is invariably represented in scripture as coming in judgment, in order to introduce righteousness and blessing into the earth. The popular thought of Christ's coming is in judgment. This indeed is a truth, and a most important one; but it quite overlooks, and, as it were, overleaps, the great truth of Christ's coming with respect to His body the church, which will not be in judgment, but in deliverance. He comes not to the earth, but to meet the saints in the air. He comes to receive His own unto Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.
We then, as “heavenly,” wait for the Savior (not the Judge) from heaven. We then “wait for His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, that delivered us from the wrath to come.” If by faith we take our place as tabernacling in heaven, such a distinctive hope appears to us as suitable as it is blessed. But if, declining from our high calling, we settle on the earth, then Christ's coming can only be the expectation of dreaded judgment; for the great event of Christ's coming must necessarily take its character from the point from which we look at it, from heaven or from earth. The day of the Lord, so often mentioned in the Old Testament, is invariably connected with the thought of judgment on the earth.
The consideration of the peculiarity of our calling and the distinctiveness of our hope, will very naturally lead us to consider the expression, “those that dwell on the earth,” as characteristic. Moralists, philanthropists, and politicians, all recognize something valuable in Christianity, and use it as helpful to their own ends; and thus has Christianity been dragged down from its lofty eminence, till almost all that is distinctive is lost amidst so many elements which are foreign. The long continued attempt to apply Christianity to the world, merely as an aid to its civilization, has led to the loss of even the theory of the church. And if things progress in this line, I can readily believe that nothing will be so offensive to “the dwellers on the earth” as the assertion of the peculiar privileges and special hope of the church.