For why should not God bring back the creatures that He has made, and about which He takes a far greater interest than men suppose, to a state at least as good as that in which they were created? Why should not God root out all the evil consequence that sin has brought in, physically as well as morally? Because the sin of Adam had effects far beyond his own race: all that was put under his dominion got into ruin and disorder. And this is not a mere imaginative notion of ruin, nor a fanciful exposition of Old Testament prophecy. It is the doctrine plainly and positively laid down in Rom. 8. It is written there, that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that had subjected the same.” There you have the fall of him that was over the creature. He fell; and creation, being under the headship of Adam, fell along with him. It was he who made it subject to vanity; misery and death came in through him. For there is no reason to suppose that death would have reigned with regard to the brute creation of the Adamic world, any more than with regard to man, if sin had not entered. I am aware that the wise men of this world often speak of fossil remains which show the death of animals before man was created. Into such disquisitions I do not enter, but would only say that there was not the same state of things under Adam. Supposing, now, the facts and inferences of geologists to be sound—whatever living creatures may have been made and destroyed in the earth, before Adam was created, scripture is entirely silent about; and so I desire to be in expounding it. They are questions of no moral importance, and, therefore, a Christian need not meddle with them. I add that these theories, if true, do not contradict scripture in the slightest degree. For there is not a trace of man connected with that state of things which preceded Adam; and scripture passes over it, hastening to what is immediately connected with him When the human race begins upon the earth, the moral dealings of God are gradually developed. But man quickly fell, and then creation was degraded through its fallen head. Death, as far as regards the Adamic world, entered through the disobedience of Adam—death, directly as to men, and as a consequence, its ravages spread throughout all the lower living creation.
When the Second Adam, exalted above the heavens, shall come again, He, will not merely have such a dominion as the first Adam had, when all things in heaven and earth shall be put under His glorious sway. There is not a single spot nor creature of God's universe but what will feel the effects of His glorious power, whereby He is able to subdue even all things unto Himself. Thus, if once man fell bringing in sin and death and misery, and if all the attempts of the race to remedy the mischief, outward and inward, have been but expedients and no real cure, the Lord Jesus will be the good and, sovereign and almighty Healer of every evil and sorrow of creation. And God will have such joy—His own joy—in relieving all the wretchedness that sin had brought about according to His estimate of the worth of His Son. And if all, up to this time, will have been but the filling up of man's cup of woe, how blessed will be the time when God reverses the history, and when His own Son, no longer rejected and despised, shall fill the throne of His earthly and heavenly glory! When all wickedness shall be put down, and righteousness forever exalted, not by bare power and glory, but by the One who in grace had borne all the sorrow first, and suffered the consequences of all the wickedness, according to the full holiness of God, upon the cross! And how sweet to think that God will there show that there is not an evil, nor a degradation, nor a pang for which He has not some suited and glorious answer in and through His Son! For He will then put forth all His might to glorify His own Son in the presence of all flesh, even of those who sent the message after Him, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” But when the Blessed One returns, having received the kingdom, and will reign as the risen exalted Son of man, all creation will feel the gladdening effects of the Savior's headship and rule.
The Lord will exalt Israel on earth and make them, who have been so peculiarly His bitter enemies, to lead the song of praise with their once rejected Messiah, now in the midst of the congregation. Then it is that they will take up Psa. 100, the psalm of thanksgiving, and will invite all lands to come and praise the Lord; yea, to enter His courts with praise. What a contrast to all that has gone on, or is going on still! How different from the hatred which the Jews have ever shown against the mere sound of grace going out to the Gentiles! For when Paul tells them how the Lord had said to him, as he prayed in the temple at Jerusalem, “Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles,” they heard him to that word; but it was more than their proud hearts could brook, and so they lifted up their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth: it is not fit that he should live.” But how will grace have changed and enlarged the narrow hearts of Israel, when they will themselves go forth with the invitations of mercy to the Gentiles, who had insulted them in all their weary wanderings over the face of the earth, and who had trodden down Jerusalem during their appointed times!
The Jews, like Cain, have the mark of the Lord on them, that they shall not be utterly extinguished, in spite of their blood-guiltiness. But the Lord will give them repentance in the latter day, and thenceforward they will be the suited and blessed heralds of His grace to the uttermost parts of the earth.
This time of blessedness under the Messiah is what is found so often and so fully in the Old Testament scriptures. The Gospels, too, open with similar expectations on the part of the Jewish saints. But further light begins to dawn, as the rejection of Christ becomes more decided, till at length, redemption being accomplished, the Holy Ghost was sent down from heaven, and He brought out the full mind of God. Then it was that the distinction between the kingdom and the eternal state was made plain. (1 Cor. 15:24-28.) It was shown that the earthly reign of Christ, which in the Old Testament might have appeared unlimited, will, in reality, come to a close when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power.
There are many who think that the millennial state of things is to be gradually brought in by the preaching of the gospel, and other agencies that are now in operation. No doubt they look for God to bless them in a still greater degree; for no Christian, perhaps, would say that present appearances warrant such expectations. But they think that if, instead of the few, there were many servants of God, and that if it pleased God to bless the word to the conversion of multitudes everywhere; and if a spirit of greater love and union and devotedness prevailed among those that love the name of Christ, generally, there and then would be the reign of Christ on the earth.
Now, I would ask, How do we know that there is to be a millennium at all? You answer, From the word of God. But, how is the millennium to be brought about? Humility would answer, We must learn this, too, from the word of God. We all acknowledge that the earth is to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.-How is this to be effected? It is remarkable that, in the very scripture (Isa. 11:9) where these words occur, the Holy Ghost intimates that judgment must precede this time of blessing. (See ver. 4.) In that passage the universal spread of the knowledge of the Lord is made to follow His smiting the earth with the rod of His mouth, and His slaying the wicked with the breath of His lips-the very scripture that the Apostle Paul applies in 2 Thess. 2:8, to the destruction of Antichrist, the man of sin. The Lord shall consume him with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy him with the brightness or manifestation of His coming.
It is perfectly true, then, and agreed, that there is to be a millennial time of blessing on the earth; and the answer to the question, how it is to introduced, is this: the same scripture which reveals that blessed change tells us that it is to be brought in by the Lord's coming and smiting the wicked one (in other words, by judgment, and not by the preaching of the gospel.) The gospel is of all importance for calling souls from earth to heaven; but it is not the means of dealing with the whole world, and filling it with blessing. It is the means of gathering the church out of the world to Christ. When judgment has had its full course, then the Lord will send out His servants. The Lord will give the word, and great will be the company of those that publish it. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The present dispensation is one of gathering out in separation from the world. The gospel ought to be preached to all, but not with the vain hope that all are ever to believe it. Thus the Lord, in Mark 16, while bidding His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, takes pain to add, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.” He prepares them for an individual and partial reception of it. Thus they would not be cast down, if they found but a few here and there who received the word of life. It might be but a Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them And what were they to the crowds who listened to the Apostle on Mars' hill? It was a matter of joy and thankfulness to hear of any who believed to eternal life, for it is thus that God preserves His servants from being cast down. It is well to know that all are not going to receive the gospel, but that God is accomplishing His own purposes. Therefore, when the Lord blesses the word and awakens the conscience of a poor sinner here and there, it is a cause of rejoicing.
But we know that as a whole, evil will increase, and “evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” How can that be, if the millennial blessing is to be the result of the present or suchlike efforts of Christians in the gospel? But the Lord, is to smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and to slay the wicked with the breath of His lips, which is said to be like a stream of brimstone (Isa. 30:33).
Is that like the gospel? It is the exact opposite-a figure of destructive judgment. The gospel delivers from Tophet, but the judgment of the Lord casts into it irrevocably. Clearly, then, it is a judgment from the hand of God Himself, and not one which man, much less the church, will execute. It is not the business of the church to cast into Tophet. No power but God's can consign to hell.
But there is another thing that characterizes the millennium-the binding of Satan in the abyss. Can the church bind Satan? Will any one tell me that Satan can be absolutely hindered from deceiving the world by men? But there can be no universal blessing for the world till he is bound; and every Christian must acknowledge that God alone can either bind or crush Satan. He may employ an angel, or associate the saints with Himself, as it is said in Rom. 16:20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” The church is united to Christ, and then will be actually with Him, who, as the woman's Seed, is to bruise the serpent's head; but the power is in Christ, and not in the church. He will put down all adversaries when that day of judgment comes; as it is said, “He will smite the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 19) And we shall do the same in virtue of our association with Christ. (Rev. 2) In the reign of peace (Rev. 20:4, 6) we shall still be associated with Him. It is by the church in its heavenly condition, not while we are on the earth, that Satan will be thus bruised.
But it is perfectly clear, on the other hand, that the millennium is not exclusively the reign of the glorified saints; the earth, as such, with its inhabitants, will be brought into deliverance and blessing. This we saw in Eph. 1:10, where the true key to its character appears-the union of heavenly and earthly glory under one and the same Head, in whom also we, the body, have obtained an inheritance. There will be Jews and Gentiles, blessed as such in their natural bodies on the earth, the subjects of the kingdom; while the glorified saints will be the instruments of blessing to the earth.
Now the earth is made miserable, and men hardly know how far they are gone in rebellion through sin. This is not all; for there is an unseen enemy, a dark and untiring adversary of God and man, who has his hosts of wicked angels subject to himself (Rev. 12), and use them as the instruments of his seduction. A 11 this will pass away; and those very scenes which are now filled by wicked spirits, the heavenly places (not of course the place where God dwells in His unapproachable glory, but the lower heavens that are connected with the earth) will be a part of the dominion of the church in glory, and the heavenly saints will be as much used to be the means of joy and blessing to the world, as the wicked spirits are now the chief agents of all its misery. They may for a little season emerge from their prison, after the millennium to lead the distant nations of the earth into a last conspiracy against the Lord; but they will never regain their former access to the heavenly places, where their influence was the more subtle and dangerous.
Then will dawn the day of the greatest glory for the world. Of course I am not speaking of the cross; for there is no exaltation Christ will ever have given Him that can be compared with the real, deep glory of His death. It has, as it were, put it into the power of God to show mercy, according to His own heart; and, therefore, there is not a single joy of the millennium but what will flow from the cross, of Jesus. Nay, it has eternal consequences, and not for the millennium only. But the age to come, or millennium, while very important, and a time of wonderful blessing, will be imperfect. And for this reason. There will be men still in their natural bodies upon the earth, many of whom will be unconverted. Accordingly, this very chapter shows us that, after the termination of the thousand years, “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together unto the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” (Ver. 7, 8.) We do not read this in the Old Testament; for as it does not intimate the close of the reign, so neither does it show us the epoch when Satan will be let loose. The terms in which the judgment upon the evil one is spoken of there might be construed into a single stroke, which made an end of the matter.
From Isa. 24 we learn that the scene of the punishment of the high ones is to be on high, as the kings of the earth will be punished on the earth. It is evident that by the host of the high ones the Spirit of God does not refer to exalted men on the earth, (for they are in contrast with the kings of the earth,) but to the powers of evil in the heavenly places. (Compare Eph. 6:12.) This is exactly what we find, though with fuller detail, in Rev. 12; 19:20 The kings of the earth meet with their punishment on the earth, while Satan and his minions suffer, the host of the high ones, on high. Satan is cast out to the earth, and his angels are cast out with him Their place is found no more in heaven. The particulars are not given till the Revelation. That day will see the judgment of all foes above or below. For that this is the millennial day requires no proof.
Next in Isa. 25:6 it is said, “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things, full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” It is a time of blessedness never known before. Nor is it confined to a certain number gathered out as now, but “in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast,” &c. “This mountain” is said of the land of Palestine, because it will be to the whole earth the spot where the Lord will be exalted. Of course, this is to be understood morally, not physically. Remark what we have in the next verse. “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people.” The Lord will destroy the darkness that is over the face of all nations now, “and the veil that is spread over all nations.” But this era will be also characterized by the resurrection. “He will swallow up death in victory,” evidently referring to the first resurrection spoken of in the Revelation. Then only is the victory complete. (Compare 1 Cor. 15). “And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” It is the time of blessing for the Jewish people, “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.” Here, beyond a doubt, it is persons upon earth that need to be saved. The church is saved already, and we do not wait for “that day". to come that our God should save us. They will be saved in the day of glory; we are saved in the day of grace. “This is the Lord: we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.” There we have one of the neighboring enemies of Israel trodden down; for it is to be a day of judgment as well as blessing.
In ch. 26. it is written, “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city,” &c. In the latter part of it, which I would refer to because of its importance, Israel says, “We have been with child, we have been in pain.... we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth,” &c. “Thy dead men shall live,” (the words “together with” having no kind of business there,) “my dead body shall they arise.” “Thy dead men,” that is, the Jewish people, who are regarded, in a figure, as being dead; just as in Ezekiel, where they are represented as not only dead but in their graves. But as the Lord causes His wind to pass over those dry bones, and they live; so here, “Thy dead men shall live, my dead body shall they arise.” Not merely thy dead body, but Mine. I own them-they belong to Me. Jehovah appropriates them as His, dead though they may have been. They are to be so no longer; they shall arise. “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee.” This is not like the church. The heavenly saints do not enter into their chambers on earth, but are taken away to be in the Father's house in heaven. But here is a question of the Jewish people. They are comforted, and are told to arise out of their degradation, “for thy dew is as the dew of herbs.” “Come, my people hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” The indignation that God had so long against His people will be turned now into indignation against their enemies. The Assyrian, used heretofore as God's rod for chastening Israel, must now meet with his own final doom. “For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” And yet this is manifestly the time when He introduces the millennium, not after it is over. The Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth. Is the like the gospel, where instead of proclaiming the remission of their sins He comes to punish them 1 Not at all. Further, “In that day the Lord, with his sore, and great and strong sword, shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent: and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” Doubtless there is a general reference to the wicked one, Satan, the ancient serpent. Only here he is not seen as one that had a place on high, but defeated and rejected here below. He is not spoken of with the same minuteness as in the Revelation, which gives us the full light of God upon the subject and the details.
Moreover, we find that at the end of the millennium God will show that the day of glory (the thousand years, which from the part of the day of the Lord, when Satan is bound, and the Lord Jesus reigns manifestly) will no more convert souls of itself, than the day of grace and the publishing of the gospel to the ends of the earth. For if the day of grace requires the immediate power of God to save an individual soul, of course the same power will be requisite here below in the day of glory. Whilst the Lord is there, evil will be kept down; there will no leader of man in his evil. But the moment Satan is allowed to come out of his place, and again exercises his power, we have plain proof that the heart of man is unchanged. He goes out to the four corners of the earth to deceive the nations, and gathers them together for destruction.
These nations are called by a symbolic name, which is a sort of allusion to the enemies of Israel spoken of in Ezek. 38 xxxix. But they are not the same, and must be carefully distinguished. For in Ezekiel Gog is literally an individual person—the prince of the vast northeastern territories and peoples, known in our time as the empire of Russia. Gog is to be the then leader of that country, which is called in scripture “the land of Magog.” Indeed this is the positive meaning of the words rendered in our Bibles “chief prince.” It ought to be “prince of Rosh.” But when the Scriptures were translated into Latin, (which had a great influence upon succeeding versions,) the Russian empire did not exist and could not be known by that name. For the north of Europe and Asia was then merely inhabited by hordes of wandering barbarians, called Sarmatians, Scythians, &c. So when the corrector of the old Latin, Jerome, came to the Hebrew “Rosh,” he thought it must be taken not as the name of a people, but as a common noun, meaning “head” or “chief,” just as the Franks, besides giving their name to a neighboring country which they conquered, also meant “free men.” Hence, probably, in our version “Rosh” was translated chief, which the Hebrew word might equally well bear, if a proper name were not required by the context; for “prince of chief, Meshech and Tubal” makes no good sense. Therefore, I suppose, the translators, not knowing what better to make of it, put the clause down vaguely as “chief prince of Meshech. and Tubal.” However, it is well known that learned persons who had no light, or a very partial one, on prophecy -scholars who examined the subject a hundred years ago, concluded that Russia was meant. But what is much more important, the Greek version, or Septuagint, which was made two centuries before Christ, left it as ρώϛ, They did not know what place or race was meant; but seeing that Meshech and Tubal were given as proper names, they understood the preceding word similarly. Thus, Gog is really to be “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,” which will all be found in the Russian empire. Ezekiel then shows that, when God restores Israel and plants them in their own land, Russia is to be the last great enemy that comes up to attack them, and meets with its own demolition from the hands of God on the mountains of Israel. His prophecy, I think, does not bear on recent events, save as these may lead on to it; much less is it to be confounded with the gathering of Gog and Magog described in verses 8, 9. It cannot mean the same as these; for the Jewish prophet speaks of a vast confederacy before the millennial, or at least at the very beginning of it; while in the Revelation it is after the thousand years are past.
Gog and Magog here are symbolical expressions, founded, it is true, upon the prophet of the Chebar, but entirely distinct. The word by Ezekiel has its accomplishment when Israel is restored. (See chaps. xxxvi. xxxvii.) Gog comes up when they are dwelling in their unwalled villages, and thinks to make them an easy prey: but the Lord interferes. Gog is put down and Israel live and flourish quietly in their land. Here they are symbols borrowed from Old Testament circumstances, but applied to a time long subsequent. The last enemy which Israel had to encounter before the millennium was the literal Gog the last rebellion after it derives its name from that well-remembered effort of the outside nations. Countless swarms from the four quarters of the earth, under the guidance of Satan, will repeat (never to be repeated again) what the Russian chief will have done before them. They will go up on the breadth of the earth, and compass the camp of the saints about and the beloved city. Of course the earthly people and city are meant; for Israel will then be a body of saints, a holy people, and Jerusalem will be the beloved city,-not in mere name, but then, in truth, the city of the great King. These nations come up and surround them, and God will, if I may so say, be compelled to destroy them forever. “Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.” (Ver. 9.) Fire is always the figure of God's judgment. Thus do they perish. Their leader is not touched by, this judgment: a worse fate is reserved for him “And the devil that deceiveth them was east into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also [are] the beast, and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” His followers are destroyed by a divine judgment upon earth, but the devil, who had led them by his deceits, is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.
But there is another scene that follows—the most solemn for man where all indeed is solemn. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sitteth on it, from whose face fled the earth and the heaven; and there was found no place for them,” (ver. 11). Mark it well. There are many persons who suppose this to be the time of the coming of Christ, and who consequently put the millennium before His coming. But this will not bear the light of Scripture. Without going to proofs outside the chapter, I would just take another ground, which is short and simple, and, to my mind, perfectly conclusive of the question. When the Lord Jesus comes, He comes to the earth from heaven. This is the universal belief, as far as I know, of all persons who have any defined thoughts about the matter. But such is not the case here, For the Lord sits on a great white throne, and instead of His coming from heaven to earth, both earth and heaven are all gone. It cannot be His coming to the earth, for there is no earth to come to. The entire system of earth and heaven, as they now are, will have vanished out of the scene—not annihilated but destroyed; for there is a great difference between those two thoughts. However, the earth is no longer found filling its own place; it has disappeared. The great white throne is not therefore on the earth at all; for, from the face of Him that sat on it, the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. Lest it should be thought that their fleeing away was a mere figure of speech, it is added that “there was found no place for them.” And it is said in 2 Peter 3, they shall be dissolved and their elements melt with fervent heat. Observe, then, that when Christ is seen seated on the great white throne, the earth and the heaven are fled away. What are we to draw from it? Either the Lord Jesus Christ must have come before this, or He will never come to the earth at all; for it would not be the same thing to suppose that He merely comes to the new earth, after all judgment—even of the wicked dead—is over. Now we know that “the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” — “ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” The general faith of Christians is that He will come back to this earth. His feet shall stand in a day yet future on the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east, and which thenceforward is to be, not destroyed, but divided in the midst as a witness of it. These circumstances cannot apply to what the Apostle John calls the new heaven and new earth, but before the last physical change When the great white throne is found, the earth is gone, and therefore the coming of Christ to the earth must have been before that final scene of judgment. In point of fact, too, we have had the -coming of Christ already described in chap. 19. and His reign in the early part of chap. xx. This gives distinctness to the character of the great white throne. Nothing can be more simple, if you take it in the order in which God arranges it. But man is ever perverse; and so he blots out the coming of Christ from chap. xix. where it is given, and imagines it in chap. xx. 11, where it is not and cannot be.
Observe, also, that the judgment of the great white throne is not a general judgment, any more than the resurrection spoken of here is a general resurrection. In fact, the mixed idea is mere imagination. I hold that every soul of man (i.e., of those that have died) must be in one or other resurrection. But Scripture shows us that the resurrection of the just is a totally different thing and at a different time from the resurrection of the unjust: they have nothing in common, save that in both cases soul and body must be reunited forever. There is no Scripture for an indiscriminate rising of all. A few passages are used to make out a show of proof. The Lord says in John 5:28: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” But this does not show that they will rise at the same time. The hour is coming in which both these classes shall rise; but, instead of saying that they are all to rise in one common or indiscriminate resurrection, He takes pains to state that they that have done good are to come forth from their graves for a life resurrection, and they that have done evil for a judgment-resurrection. There are two resurrections, then, not a common one. The very passage that men cite to prove a general resurrection teaches, in fact, the reverse. The Apostle John's gospel shows their distinctness in character; his Revelation shows their distinctness in time.
Persons may say, “the hour is coming” implies that all are to be raised much about the same time. But the word “hour” is often used in Scripture (and indeed everywhere else) in a large sense. It might comprehend a thousand years or more; so that if one resurrection took place at the beginning of the millennium and the other at the end of it, it might still be the same “hour.” “The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear it shall live.” (John 5:25). This refers to what has been going on ever since Christ was on earth up to this very moment. “The hour” there takes in nearly two thousand years; and surely it is not too much to infer that “the hour” in verse 28 might embrace, if necessary, a period equally long. Scripture decides it. The same John who shows us the rise of all the flesh from the grave, divided into two contrasted resurrections of men characterized by opposite moral qualities, shows us with no less plainness and certainty the interval between these resurrections. The chapter that we are now examining in the Revelation is the answer to the question, and proves that there will be an interval of at least a thousand years between the two.
But this is not all. There is a deep fundamental difference in the nature of the resurrections, as well as a distinction of time. In the gospel of John, the first is said to be a resurrection of life, the second is one of judgment. In the former are the righteous; all who are judged in the latter are the evil. Our translators call it the resurrection of “damnation” though the real meaning of the word is “judgment.” It is the same word that is used in a verse or two before. (Ver. 21, 27). “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” And it is necessary to bear this in mind, that Christ, while as the Son of God He gives life, as Son of man comes to execute judgment in His kingdom. He gives life to the believer, and executes judgment on the unbeliever. So there are two resurrections answering to these titles. There is the resurrection of life or the resurrection of the believer. It is the application to his body of that power of life which he has already in his soul. But those who have refused Christ, what will they have? The resurrection of judgment. They have despised Christ now; they cannot escape the resurrection of judgment then.
Looking then at Rev. 20, is not this what we have here? First there was the resurrection of life, of “those that have done good.” “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” What was said about them? They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. It is a life-resurrection. But look at the others, the wicked— “they that have done evil.” “The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished.” What have you here? “The rest of the dead lived not again till,” &c. So they do rise. “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne.” None but dead are there, and how differently do they appear before the throne! “And the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works,” (ver. 12). Now I fully believe that the saints of God will have all their works examined: what they have done in the body will come out. We shall have praise or censure according to our faithfulness or unfaithfulness, when the Lord Jesus takes His place on the judgment-seat, and we stand before Him and are manifested there. It is the Apostle Paul that tells us this. (Rom. 14; 2 Cor. 5). But the object of the Holy Ghost, by the Apostle John, is to contrast the two resurrections. Therefore not a word is said, in the account of the first resurrection, about our appearing before Him, that each may receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad; but we are represented as judging others. Such is the way in which the life-resurrection is described. “I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.” They do, of course, give an account of themselves to the Lord, and receive accordingly; but the Holy Ghost has His own wise reasons for omitting all allusion to it here. It is a resurrection of life in the Gospel, and of life in Revelation. But when you come to the rest of the dead that have not done good, when they are raised and stand before the throne, it is the very opposite of a life-resurrection. They have only done evil; and when the book of life is opened, no name is to be found there; for this is not a resurrection of life, but of judgment. They are to be judged according to their works, written in these other books; but their works are calling aloud for judgment. Their works being only and always evil, they are judged according to them; and what is the result? There might be a difference among them in some respects: there were great and small. But they were all alike in this—they were not found written in the book of life; and whosoever was not found written there, “was cast into the lake of fire.” Not a word is said or hinted, that were written there. This is a resurrection of those who have no part in that book, and they are cast into the lake of fire. It is, as if God were saying, The books of their works call for judgment: is there nothing to be said in defense of these wretched men? The book of life is accordingly opened; but they are not found there: the last hope is gone, and if “any one was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” (Ver. 15). It is the resurrection of judgment There is no life, no mercy there. Those that had their part in the life-resurrection had been raised long before, and never come into judgment at all; for it is said (John 5:24), “He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment (the same word as in verses 22, 27, 29), but is passed from death unto life “
Nothing then can be more certain than that this is a separate resurrection, distinct in character, and long severed in time. The resurrection of life had taken place long ago, and now comes the resurrection of judgment. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it,” The depths which man could but imperfectly explore cannot hide for a moment longer. Nay, the unseen world, over which he has no control, is also forced to give up its miserable inmates. “Death and Hades delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged each according to their works,” (ver. 13). And their works condemn them. Not a word is said about them in the book of life, and they are cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. They are raised from their first death to be cast forever into that place of torment, whence there is no escape.
The other scripture of most weight, often used for the purpose of proving a general resurrection, is the one in Daniel. What do we find there? It is written in chap. xii. 1: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people (meaning Daniel's people, the Jews); and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” Evidently, this is not the millennium. “And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” This is not the time when the church is delivered; for we have been delivered long ago through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But since the cross of Christ, the Jewish people have only been in misery: that cross was their guilt. They cried “His blood be on us and on our children.” The time of their greatest suffering is to be immediately before the hour of their deliverance. (Jer. 30:7) Our deliverance, as theirs, is through the sufferings of Another; but what we suffer is after our deliverance. For the Jews it is a different destiny. They have a tremendous tribulation to go through yet; and it is to be the worst they have ever had. But immediately after this their final deliverance comes— “At that time thy people shall be delivered,” &c. They will not only be delivered as a people, but they will be saved and converted individually, according to God's purpose— “every one that shall be found written in the book.” “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
This is commonly applied to the resurrection; but I am persuaded that it does not apply to the rising of the body. It is a figure which is taken from it indeed, and which supposes that great truth to be known. But it is the same kind of expression, and applied to a similar subject and end, that I have referred to, in Isa. 26:19, where Israel was described as “my dead body,” and was called on, as one dwelling in the dust, to awake and sing. So here it is said, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” This does not suit any scheme of interpretation, if it be applied to a literal bodily resurrection of good and bad at the same moment. You will observe that this is before the millennium. It is evidently before the time of deliverance and blessing. There is a time of trouble, immediately after which Daniel's people are delivered, and those who might have been forgotten (sleeping, as it were, among the Gentiles), reappear, but not all for the same end -some to shame, and some to everlasting life. (Compare, also, Isa. 66:20, 24.) This does not answer the purpose of those who quote the text. For their idea is, that there is the millennium first, and then the resurrection of good and bad. This resurrection, literal or figurative, is before the millennium, and after it is a time of greater trouble than Israel ever knew.
My conviction, therefore, is that Dan. 12 refers to the Jews. First, in ver. 1, those who are to be delivered are spoken of in connection with the land of Palestine. Then, it is shown that many of them who have been sleeping in the dust of earth, will come out of their degradation, will awake, some to everlasting life, &c. Some of those Jews, that are to come forward out of their hiding-places all over the earth, would prove to be rebels, and be treated accordingly; while others will learn that the Lord has wrought with them for His name's sake. We may compare this with Ezek. 37, where the dry bones set forth the house of Israel. No doubt can be left on any serious mind as to that passage; for the Lord Himself has interpreted it as the figure of the future resurrection of Israel. “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves.” And, if in Daniel it is said that some are to have everlasting life, Ezekiel says that the Lord will put His Spirit in them. It is a spiritual as well as a national restoration. So the passage in Daniel refers to a figurative resurrection of Israel, when some will awake out of their moral death.
We may now come back to Rev. 20 with the increased conviction that the doctrine of one general resurrection is a total mistake, and that God's word teaches a resurrection of the just, and another of the unjust. This which is spoken of at the close of our chapter, is solely of the wicked dead; it is a resurrection of judgment. I appeal to you, whether you could rest the salvation of your souls on your works? I admit that our works will be examined, and that we shall receive accordingly; but this is not the same thing as being judged according to our works. In the one case the person is accepted, but his works are reviewed for praise or blame; in the other, the person is judged according to works that are not mingled but altogether bad. For a natural or unconverted man has no life towards God; therefore he can have nothing but evil works to be judged for. Not so with the believer. No doubt there are works sometimes mingled, sometimes even worse in him; but he has a standing beyond all that, painful as it is. He has the new nature that God has given and will not take away. His works will be examined, and they have a most important bearing on the position that the Lord will assign him in His kingdom. To be saved or lost is never a question of reward, but of the grace and power of Christ. When you talk of reward, it is a debt due for work done; but when of salvation, it is never spoken of in Scripture as a reward of works. It is the work of Christ—the fruit of another's work and suffering, which God has given to us in sovereign love.
And when we stand before Christ, it will not be to take our trial for condemnation or acquittal: this would be to deny our justification and the value of His own work. All our ways will be manifested in God's light, and the Lord will bring us triumphantly through; but He will not pass over a single thing that has been done against Him And as a Christian now can, before God, examine his ways, pass judgment upon them, and thank God for His faithful discipline, so it will be in a still brighter and more blessed and perfect way before the judgment seat of Christ. It will then be no question of being saved only, but of vindicating the Lord's glory and goodness. This is not a thing that we ought to dread: it is what we shall have to be thankful for through all eternity. For self-judgment even now is the best thing, next to the joy of worshipping God and serving Him faithfully through grace. We shall not have a word to say in defense of ourselves, but the Lord will have much to say for us. He will bring out all that we have done, and we shall receive according to it. For evil we shall suffer loss, for good we shall get reward.
But what a difference is here! The dead that stand before the throne; they have no life—nothing but dead works. They had not Christ, and what do their works deserve? They are cast into the lake of fire. Death and Hades are now no longer needed; they are personified as the enemies of God and man, and as such are, in the vision, (ver. 14,) cast into the lake of fire also.
(Continued from page 314.)