Chapters 25, 26 Revelation 19 and 20

CHAPTER XXV

Chapter 19: THE DEFEAT AND DESTRUCTION OF THE BEAST

19.1: After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power belong to our God: for true and righteous are His judgements; for He hath judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornications, and He hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And a second time they say, Hallelujah. And her smoke goeth up for ever and ever. We have done with the Harlot power. This has been judged, and the blood of God's servants shed by it has been avenged. The fire whose smoke goes up eternally shows that we shall never meet this system again. It is strange and interesting, though, that the fate of the Harlot is contained entirely in the oblivion which the kings of the earth inflict on her. They strip, and devour, and burn her to destruction. The other enemies of God yet to be dealt with, the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Dragon itself, will all in due course come under direct judgement from above, and will all, together with those rejected at the judgement of the quick and the dead, end their activities in "The Lake of Fire" (19.20; 20.10, 14-15). This is the place of destruction of those who are judged directly by God or by His Son. The harlot has been dealt with by the earth.

But the removal of the Harlot is God's judgement nonetheless, for all the fact that He allowed earthly powers to carry it out for Him. That was the way God had dealt with harlot Israel, through the Assyrians and the Babylonians and Romans, and this will be the way in which He will deal with the Harlot of our epoch. It is a dog's death that the harlot died, like the death of Jezebel her prototype (1 Kings 21.23; 2 Kings 9.30-37).

19.4: The four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah. And a voice came forth from the throne, saying: Give praise to our God all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth (-19.6).

The exultation of these verses must still be in anticipation. The Beast and his False Prophet are still at large, and their destruction is still to be spoken of later in this chapter. But the Harlot has gone; the saints have, it now seems nearly certain, been removed

from the scene; and only one more stage is needed. The heavenly powers are rejoicing in anticipation of the climax. Though there is, of course, the judgement seat to come which shall decide who are indeed the saints qualified to form the Bride of the Lamb, those saints are now safely out of reach of the malevolence of the Beast. Two alternative sequences are discussed below.

19.7: Let us rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should array herself in the fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he saith to me, Write, Blessed are they which are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he saith to me, These are the true words of God (-19.9).

It is true that the Bridegroom has one more act of war to complete before He is ready to return in peace, and 19.1 Iff will concern itself with this. But the potential Bride needs to be assured of the outlook so that she may see in proper perspective the events now being revealed. It is, of course, possible to view the chronology rather differently, and very likely that the Book is making it impossible for us proudly to suppose that we have unveiled the secrets of its sequences. We can set out the following two possibilities at least:

First sequence

1 The saints are caught away.

2 The Bridegroom defeats the Beast (19.11-20.3).,

3 The judgement takes place, and the saints receive the blessing of immortality (20.2-5).

4 The marriage of the Lamb, anticipated in 19.7-10, takes place, as described in 21.9ff. Second sequence

1 The saints are caught away.

2 The judgement takes place, and the saints receive the blessing of immortality (20.2-5).

3 The marriage of the Lamb occurs as described in 19.7-9, to be elaborated in grateater detail later in 21.9ff.

4 The Lamb defeats the Beast (19.11-20.3), assisted by the immortalized saints (19.14) who are, of course, the Bride.

Since we have to dislocate the sequences as it is given in the Book in either case, and since this is inevitable (for the Bride and Bridegroom are not married twice, and there is a description of her advent at the wedding scene in two places, one before and the other after the defeat of the Beast; and also one before and one

after the picture of the judgement), there is no issue of principle at stake in preferring the one solution or the other. In fact, however, since the "fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" of 19.8 in the wedding-scene, is immediately followed by the army following the Lamb being similarly arrayed (19.14), that would appear to be more than an accident, and it looks as though the second solution is to be preferred.

One thing is very clear: since the four Living Creatures and the twenty-four Elders and the great multitude are there to acclaim the coming marriage, and to rejoice in the revelation of the Bride in her purity and splendour, those Creatures and Elders and that Multitude are not the saints themselves. This point was made much earlier in this exposition when the same groups were encountered in 4.6-10; 5.11 (see pages 89-104), and was overwhelmingly probable even then. It has now become quite certain.

The Marriage of the Lamb

As in the rest of the New Testament, the figure of the Marriage of the Son of God and His Wedding Feast are not carried through with the consistency which a more pedantic age expects of its figures of speech. Though the title of Bridegroom is always reserved for our Lord Jesus Christ, His saints appear in various guises. They are "the children of the bridechamber" in Mark 2.19, they are guests at the wedding feast in Matthew 22.1-10, Luke 14.16-24, Revelation 19.9; they are five wise virgins sent to meet the Bridegroom in Matthew 25.1-13; they are a chaste virgin espoused to Christ in 2 Corinthians 11.2; they are the wife-to-be whom the Lord loved so much that He died for her in Ephesians 5.25-32. They are even, leaving for the moment the figure of Bridegroom and Bride so as to concentrate more fully on the fact that "He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one" (Hebrews 2.11), members of the actual body of Christ, members in particular under the surveillance of the Head in Ephesians 2.15, to desecrate which by association with physical or spiritual unchastity is to defile the Lord Himself: "Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?" (1 Corinthians 6.12-20). In Revelation, though, the Bride-figure is dominant (as already anticipated in John 3.29) in 19.7-9 and later in greater detail in 21.2,10, we have the same mingling of figures, for those who are "invited to a wedding feast" are guests, and therefore those who are bidden as in Matthew 22 and Luke 14, and therefore the saints called to their Lord, and therefore the Bride! But is not this just as it should be? Vagrants in the highways and byways are invited as guests to a feast. They find, however, that they are also invited to accompany

their Lord as He repairs to the banqueting hall, as virgins chosen, and well-prepared. Yet when they come to the hall they find themselves, not merely guests at the lower tables, but the very Bride herself by the Lord's side. We have good reason to be glad of the mixed metaphors of Scripture.

19.10:1 fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith to me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow servant with thee, and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

22.8: When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he said to me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them that keep the words of this Book: worship God (-22.9).

This is presumably the angel entrusted with the revelation in the first place (1.1). He must have been a being of particular splendour, for despite the injunction given here, John repeats the gesture of worship and meets with the same response as the Revelation draws to its close in the last chapter. The involuntary prostration is characteristic of one in a dream, as natural and yet as unreasoning as John's fears when, earlier, no one was found worthy to open the Book in the hand of God (5.4). In his waking life as an apostle John knew perfectly well that angels were not to be worshipped, just as he knew perfectly well that all power had been given to Jesus in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28.19), and that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (as illustrated in chapter 7). But in his vision he makes the mistake so as to bring out for us all the needed instruction. Angels are ministering spirits to them that shall be the heirs of salvation; they are fellow-servants with the prophets because, at least from time to time, it was through the ministration of angels that God's messages were communicated (see pages 296-298). Angels, too, are creatures, and, though in their different sphere, are pledged alike to minister to the honour of their Creator, and in no wise to usurp the worship due to Him. This angel was no exception, and in this respect differed profoundly from that angel in whom God's name was placed, to reject whom was to blaspheme against God Himself (Exodus 23.20,23). There is no place for such an angel now that the Son of God has come, and has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they (Hebrews 1.4).

19.11:7 saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon was called Faithful and True: and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes were as aflame of fire, and on His head were many diadems; and He hath a name written,

which no man knoweth but He Himself. And He was arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name was called The Word of God.

The white horse was the first to go out under the Seals (6.1-2). It has been making its conquests of men and women for the gospel through the ages, in season and out of season. But it went out "conquering and to conquer, and it is its ultimate conquest of the nations before which now we stand. On the former occasion its rider was not identified, but the fact that whoever it was — and every witness to the gospel through all the times that followed is in some way incorporate in that Rider, — was armed with a bow, which shoots arrows from a distance, represents well enough the thought that during all that long period the Lord has been working from afar, through His disciples on the earth. Now, though, the Rider is identified beyond any doubt.

First, He is called "Faithful and True", and those are the names of "the Faithful and True Witness" (3.14) to the congregation in Laodicea, the One like to the Son of man who walked among the congregations and now has mounted the horse which is to lead Him to victory. Then "In righteousness He doth judge", which is precisely what Paul said He would do on His return (Acts 17.31). Then "His eyes are as a flame of fire" and (19.15)" a sharp, two-edged sword proceeds from His mouth", both of which are taken from the description of that same One in 1.14, 16; 2.12,18. This is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and the very certainty of this identification confirms the exposition in chapter 1 that this was true there also.

19.14: The armies which are in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceeded a sharp, two-edged sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (-19.16).

The titles of the Rider of the horse are many, and not free from a certain complexity. That He is Faithful and True presents no problems. That He is King of kings and Lord of lords has already been said of Him in 17.14, and depicts His power and plan to subdue all nations so that the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of God and of His Christ (11.15), also symbolized by the "many diadems" of authority, which He is now about to remove from the heads of the Beast and the Dragon and take to Himself (12.3; 13.1). There remain "a name which no-one knoweth but He Himself, and "His name is called the Word of God". Are these two names, in which case what would be the

purpose of mentioning the ineffable one, or are they the same? In which event, how are they unknowable?

There are evident parallels. The Lord promises just such a name on the stone to be given to "him that overcometh", bearirig "a new name, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it" (2.17); and the redeemed are to sing "a new song, which no-one can learn save the 144,000 purchased out of the earth". What was said about the former on page 71, and about the latter on page 263, applies here also. It is not that the term 'The Word of God' cannot be learned: it obviously can, by anyone whatever: but rather that the inward meaning of it can only be apprehended by the One to Whom it belongs. Only Jesus could know what it was to be the embodiment of the eternal purpose of God (John l.lff), what it was to enjoy the fellowship with God even in His mortal days which that relationship conveyed to Him, and what it was to be "that life, the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us" (1 John 1.1-4). The Lord will return in the fulness of the power of His Father, to complete His Father's will; He will be uniquely the Father's representative, and until they share His nature — and only as spectators even then — no man, no sain-teeven, will know what it is to bear that Name.

Excursus IX: THE WORD OF GOD

One of the most characteristic expressions among conservative believers is, "The Bible is the word of God". What it means is quite clear: the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, Who is the guarantor of all that they contain. But if each of the terms is supposed to be the equivalent of the other, then to say "the Bible is the word of God", and "the word of God is the Bible" would be the same thing. If that in its turn were true whenever we meet the expression the Bible in ordinary speech, we could substitute the word of God without changing its meaning or its import; and whenever we meet the word of God, we could substitute the Bible without making any difference in substance.

Now the former substitution affords no problem. We can read the word of God instead of the Bible without changing the meaning at all. If we have done anything, we have stressed that the Bible is not to be treated as an ordinary book might be, but is to be respected as being God's message to us: and nothing but good can come from that. But the case is not the same with the converse substitution, as we have in effect already seen. The name of Jesus (Revelation 19.13) is called the Word of God, but no-one could suggest the Bible would be relevant here.

In this passage, and in John 1.14, and in 1 John 1.1-4, Jesus our Lord is the Word, the Word become flesh. The expression the word of God, therefore is more comprehensive, and can mean other things, than 'the Scriptures'. The thought is pursued further in such passages as: "By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God" (Hebrews 11.3), or, "By the word of God

the heavens were of old, and the earth" (2 Peter 3), though only the second of these uses the word logos, with which we are here concerned. Here we are not talking about the inspired record in the Scriptures which tells us that this was so, though of course that record does exist, but with the edict of God which brought creation about. These two passages sum up what is conveyed in the repeated words "God said, Let there be light", etc. of Genesis 1, and do so in terms of a quotation from Psalm 33.6-9: "By the word of God were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the word of His mouth . . . for He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast". This is as much as to say that, with God, to determine a thing is to ensure its accomplishment, and so His word becomes synonymous with His purpose and intention.

Those Hebrews who have received Christ might "fall after the same example of disobedience" (4.11), together with the fact that any such falling away must be infallibly known to God. The message is that the disciple must not think to escape detection if he forsakes the faith, followed by the invitation to take full advantage of his position, and "draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help in time of need" (4.16). The Word which is powerful to discern is also powerful to help, when the suppliant goes in prayer before the throne of grace to seek the mediation of the Word which became flesh.

Indeed this Letter practically approaches the topic of the living and active Word of God in its opening verse, where it contrasts the way in which God formerly "spoke to the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners" with that in which He has since "spoken to us in His Son" (1.1). For it does not discuss what the Son actually said in God's name, but rather what He did. God made the world with Him in mind (just as in John 1.1-3); God appointed Him Heir of all that He had made; and then the Son set about the task of "making purification of sins" by His spotless life and death, leading to His "sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (1.3). All this is action, rather than words as we understand them. It is the living and personal Word which spoke to us by what God did through prophets and through His Son, and it is the same Word which discerns our hearts and can provide help in time of need.

The same thought is developed in two passages where the saint is

said to have come to his new birth by the agency of the Word. James

1.18 tells us that "God of His own will brought us forth by the Word

of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruit of His creatures";

and 1 Peter 1.23 speaks of saints as "having been begotten again,

not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of

God which liveth and abideth". It is true that the message which

proffers this is contained in the preaching of the gospel in words,

and is now recorded in Holy Scripture, the source from which the

opportunity of regeneration is learned. But it is also the true that

"The word in Hebrews 11.3 is rKema, which, more often than Logos,

means a saying or speech, but in fact on many occasions is used just about

synonymously.

both James and Peter speak of God as playing a living and active part in the matter. In comparing the spiritual begettal of the believer with his natural birth Peter, like the Lord Jesus in John 3.1-6, effectually compares the natural birth, which resulted from the initiative of our natural parents, with the corresponding initiative taken by God to bring us to the spiritual birth.

There is nothing inevitable about this. The potential child of God can refuse the rebirth offered to him. The one who has gone through the motions of receiving it by accepting the burial of baptism may neglect to go on learning from the Scriptures, and his opportunities of access to God in prayer, and may be false in the event to the birth he professes. This is why John emphasizes the importance of seeking victory over sin by striving to ensure that "His seed may abide in us", and by allowing "Him that was begotten of God" to keep us (1 John 3.9; 5.18). He is not saying that the children of God are perfect and beyond the reach of sinful acts, for he denies this in 1 John 1.8-10, but that when we do yield to sin we are to be blamed fpr it; h3d we been truer to our rebirth we would have sinned the less readily. It is the acceptance of the living and abiding Word which underlies the progress in righteousness of the saint of God.

The precious Holy Scriptures, which alone are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3.15), and alone are profitable for teaching, for reproof, for instruction which is in righteousness (3.16), themselves bear this witness to the

living and abiding Word Who came and died, and now ever liveth, .'and "Who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8.34).

19.11: In righteousness He doth judge and make war. The writer was once asked by a member of 'The Church of Christ' in public debate whether he dare advocate the view that the Lord Jesus would conquer the world by 'military force', rather than by the gentle persuasion of the gospel. The unwelcome fact has to be stated here, as it had to be stated then, that though the Lord "is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3.9), ultimately He must reach an end of the longsuffering of which Peter writes, and overcome by force those who will not yield to His persuasion. It is the world itself which refuses God's salvation. Those who can bring themselves to "kiss the Son, lest He be angry" (Psalm 2.12), will not arouse His anger and may secure His smile of blessing. But if, as it will, the world resolves to "make war against the Lamb" (17.14), then the only choice is that the Lamb should react by accepting their challenge and overcoming them. If "the kings of the earth rise up against the LORD and against His Anointed" (Psalm 2.2),

'John does not say that the believer "keeps himself, as A.V. suggests, but that the Redeemer, He that was begotten of God, keeps the believer, as R.V. correctly brings out.

then unavoidably, if sadly and reluctantly, the Anointed will "break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (2.9).

19.13: Arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood.

The blood with which the garment is to be sprinkled is yet to be shed, as is appropriate in a vision, for this will occur when the Rider of the horse gains His victory over the Beast. The picture is drawn from Isaiah 63.2:

Who is This that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? — This that is glorious in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garment like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with Me. . . Their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, and I have stained all My raiment (Isaiah 63.1-6).

The Lord confronts the world alone in that the worldly power (as we would expect from our own intimate knowledge of the heart of man) is wholly arrayed against Him. Yet, alone though He may be with regard to the nations of the world, He is plainly not totally alone, because:

19.14: The armies which are in heaven followed Him.

These words could perfectly reasonably be understood as referring to angelic hosts, now placed under the control of the Son of God; for we know that there is a time foretold when, "at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power" He will be found "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God" (2 Thessalonians 1.8). This passage can hardly lose sight of this. But all the same, since in this very Book the Lord has promised to His faithful saints that they shall "rule them (the nations) with a rod of iron... as the vessels of a potter are broken in shivers", it would be foolish to allow subjective attitudes to blind us to the strong Scriptural possibilities that immortalized saints will participate in the subjugation of the Beast when the Lord returns. But neither should we overlook the other factor of angelic participation; apart from the powerful evidence of the passage quoted from 2 Thessalonians l.Sff, the angels are also concerned with the Lord's coming in such passages as Matthew 13.39, 41, 49; 24.31; Mark 8.38. It is true that these are concerned with gathering the saints for judgement, but expressions like, "the angels shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend" seem to imply a wider duty also.

19.15: Out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron;

and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.

The reference to Isaiah 11.4 is unmistakeable: "He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked". It is not acceptable to argue that, because the sword is in His mouth rather than His hand, no use of real force is intended. Rather the case is that it is only necessary for the Lord to give the word of command, and what He wills must come about. For the One to Whom all power is given, it will be needful only to speak, and it shall be done. Ruling with a rod of iron, in its turn, points positively to Psalm 2.9, as we have already seen in connection with Revelation 2.27 and 12.5 as to the winepress we have considered this in connection with 14.19,20, but the Old Testament connection is quite plainly with Isaiah 63 as cited above.

19.17:7 saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come, and be gathered together to the great supper of God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great (-19.18).

This is the fate which God called down through Ezekiel on the hosts of Egypt, fulfilled at the hands of Babylon and Persia (Ezekiel 29.5). Jeremiah uses the same terrible figure of the desolation of unfaithful Israel (Jeremiah 7.33), following the prophecy to this effect already given by Moses (Deuteronomy 28.26). The same metaphor is employed in 1 Kings 4.11; 16.4; 21.24 (of the houses of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab); Psalm 79.2 (of Jerusalem); Jeremiah 15.3; 16.4; 19.7; 34.2 (of Judah); and Ezekiel 32.4 (again of Egypt). But by far the most relevant is Ezekiel 39.4,17-19, of the destruction of the hosts of'Gog' when they invade God's land, which is quoted nearly verbatim. Here are the two passages side by side:

Ezekiel 39

Revelation 19

17

Son of man, speak to the birds of every sort, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come; gather yourselves on every side to My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you.

17

An angel said to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven: Come, and be gathered together to the great supper of God.

18

That ye may eat flesh and drink blood; ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth.

18

that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty

20

Ye shall be filled at m\ table with horses and with chariots, with mighty men and with all men of war.

men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great.

The resemblances are close and detailed. Such differences as there are are the ones we might have expected: Ezekiel is primarily concerned with the physical land of Israel and the deliverance of its people, and then (from chapter 40) with the restoration of the true worship of God among the restored people. Revelation is broader in its compass. The Beast is in control of all the kings of the earth (19.19), and the overcoming of the Beast introduces the reign of Christ over the same broad territory (20.8). But the close parallels seem to show that the rebellion of Gog and the rebellion of the Beast are the same rebellion, and the victory over both the same victory. The carnage with which it will unavoidably be associated would seem to be the fulfilment of the sign which the Lord Jesus gave in the Olivet Prophecy: "Wheresoever the carcase is, thither will the vultures be gathered together" (Matthew 24.48; also Luke 17.37).

19.19:7 saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image: they twain were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone; and the rest were killed with the sword of Him that sat on the horse, even the sword which came forth out of His mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh (-19.21).

The "gathering together" corresponds to 16.16, and shows again that we are in the period of the Sixth and Seventh Vials. That the Beast and its associates are the ones which commit the aggression is again made clear (see on 17.14). This is the decisive battle, which marks the end of human control of the earth (save for that brief interval in the far future to be disclosed in 20.7ff). The political authority which has master-minded the insurrection against God and His anointed King, together with the religious puppet which established its hold over the peoples of the earth, is now at last to be "slain by the breath of the Lord Jesus' mouth, and brought to nothing by the manifestation of His coming — even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivable-ness of unrighteousness for them that are perishing" (2 Thessalo-nians 2.8-10), just as it is written here: "he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his image".

A distinction is drawn between the Beast and the False Prophet, on the one hand, who are "cast alive into the Lake of Fire" (19.20), and their followers, who are slain by the sword and devoured by the scavengers. This is the first reference to the Lake-of Fire (the others being in 20.10, 14, 15; 21.8). It is exactly equivalent to the Eternal Fire of Matthew 25.41, and to the Gehenna of Fire of Matthew 5.22, 29, 30; 18.9; Mark 9.43, 45, 47; Luke 12.5. All these represent the permanent destruction of people and things offensive to God, and no doubt the thought of being "cast alive" into such a fate is that those wilfully sinful leaders of rebellion against the Lord, who will be destroyed when the Lord has overcome them, will go to their end bitterly conscious of what they have lost as they are condemned before His face.

But the ringleaders and the company they lead are handled differently. The one are punished with ignominy and shame, not unlike that "weeping and gnashing of teeth" with which, the Lord Jesus warned, rebellious members of natural Israel would go into their outer darkness as they saw "many from the east and from the west" come to join Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God (Matthew 8.12; 13.42, 50; 22.13; 24.51; 25.30; Luke 13.28). The others suffer a violent end to their lives, but that is all. And of the fact that such a slaughter must occur, little pleasing as it is, there is no double (Isaiah 66.15-24; Joel 3.1-16; Zechariah 14.1-4, 13-14).

CHAPTER XXVI

Chapter 20: THE BINDING OF THE DRAGON, THE JUDGEMENTS, THE THOUSAND YEARS

20.1: / saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time (-20.3).

The dragon has already been recognized as the supreme opponent of God, the embodiment of organized sin. It has been described already as "the old serpent, called the devil and Satan" (12.9), the power which gave the authority to the Beast, having failed to destroy the Son of God. Its titles, and the fact that this power takes no part in the war against the Lamb, together with the fact that it is not destroyed when the Beast and False prophet are, all combine to establish the view that here we are dealing with sin itself, which will not finally be abolished until no single mortal sinner survives as such on the earth. Sinners of our fallen race can only be removed either by conversion to righteousness and the ultimate transformation of their nature, or by removal from the scene when this reform is not effected. From the many Old Testament passages which speak of the Lord in His kingdom ruling over peoples which need to be taught His ways (such as Isaiah 2.1-4; Zechariah 14.16ff.) it is plain that the world will continue for some time to be peopled by mortal survivors of the war of the great day of God Almighty, over whom the Lord will rule with blessing.

The power of sin to organize nations of the world against the Lord will be restrained during this period, but since these sur-viers will still have unredeemed mortal natures, the disposition to sin which they then, as we now, inherit from the same first parents, will continue to afflict them, and require both instruction and discipline, and where appropriate punishment. Their Satan, that is to say, can be held in check and denied the freedom to engage in corporate rebellion, but it will continue to exist until the last enemy is destroyed. It is so firmly locked and sealed into the abyss of nations that it will at this time have no opportunity of emerging, as the Beast did, and waging war against the Lamb (11.7; 13.1). But it will be there, and the time will arise when the problems it presents must be faced and solved.

The remainder of this chapter involves problems of quite a different kind from those which have occupied us in the earlier part of the Book. We are no longer asking whether there is, or is not, a more-or-less continuous picture of future events which we must try to trace, as we have repeatedly been compelled to do in chapters 1 to 19. Indeed, the acute cleavage of views based on 'idealogical' differences in interpretation give place, now, to problems about whether there are, or are not, to be two judgements, what is the length of the 'thousand years,' and whether there will be a rebellion among the nations at the end of it, in which some, at least, of those who differed from each other in the earlier phases are now drawn together.

We should, of course, have been able to discuss even the previous differences in a calm and friendly spirit, which desires only that truth shall prevail, and pays no regard to either vested interpretations or the urge for novelty. But this is doubly appropriate now, for since those who will be interested in the events of this and the two remaining chapters will be those only who stand approved before the judgement seat of Christ, and who will witness with their own eyes whether what they said was true or false, modesty before they are put to the test is specially becoming.

20.2: He laid hold on the dragon. . . and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into the abyss. . . that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be finsihed: after this he should be loosed for a little time.

20.4: / saw thrones, and they sat on them, andjudgement was given to them, and I saw the souls. . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

20.5: The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished.

20.6: 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 Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

20.7: When the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations.

The first question is, How long is 'a thousand years'? If no question of symbolic time had arisen, we might have said quite naively that it is just what it says, 1000x365.23 days, a thousand normal, literal years, ten centuries. But even those who are convinced that in some parts of the Book one day stands for a year (so that, to name the most obvious example, SVa times = 42 months

= 1260 days = 1260 years), find that the application of the same 'principle' here would give an unacceptably long period if it were to be regarded as 365,230 years. To imagine that sin, having had its way on the earth for only a few thousand years up to the return of the Lord, should then remain without being extinguished for 60 or so times that length, is to forsake all sense of proportion. So it is. But if the supposed principle is to be repealed for this occasion (having already been treated with some liberty on at least three previous occasions), this weakens the standing of the 'principle' still further, besides raising the question, What is to take its place, and on what grounds?

In favour of a literal reading of the number, it is often said that a 1000-year reign of Jesus would neatly finish off the antitypical creation-week, so that six thousand years of human history would be terminated by a thousand-day sabbath of millennial rest. But there are important reasons why this view should be treated with reserve:

1 We do not know for sure whether there will have been 6000 years precisely, or even approximately, of human history between the Fall and the Second Advent:

11 It is not certain that Usher's chronology, giving -4004 as the date of creation, can be regarded as valid. Many hold the view that the Scriptures leave out unessential generations in the genealogies.

12. The Septuagint gives considerably longer times between the Creation and the Flood and from the Flood to Abraham than does the Hebrew (Genesis 5 and 10). This is usually because the age at the birth of the firstborn in LXX is 100 years later than in Hebrew, and in view of the great ages to which the patriarchs lived there is nothing inherently improbable in this. It has the effect of adding about 1466 years on to the antiquity of Creation, and would completely dislocate the 6000 year-picture were it shown to be correct. It is, incidentally, LXX which gives the additional generation of Cainan quoted in Luke 3.36, but absent from the Hebrew of Genesis 10.24.

2 The assumption that the "sabbath rest that remaineth" for the people of God in Hebrews 4.9 is the Millennium is highly questionable. It is the rest which belongs to the saints, and if it applies to the future it must go on to infinity beyond the "thousand years", and it seems in any case to have application to the present state of the true believer as well as to the future.

3 There is nothing in Scripture which invites us to compare the seven days of the creation narrative with seven thousand years

of history. Peter's words that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3.8) certainly do not do so. For Peter is quoting Psalm 90.4, "a thousand ages in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night", and is certainly not enunciating a 'day-for-a-thousand-year' principle.

4 It may be in fact that Peter's quotation provides us with our answer in another way: may Jesus not have been saying through John to us that He will reign for a period called 1000 years, which is all the same with God as one day, and therefore it is not defined and is not intended to be? Jesus will reign for as long as is deemed appropriate until the intended goal is achieved? After all, this is all we need to know, is it not?, and any more minute definition of the length of the time would leave us effectively no wiser. So, certainly let us continue to speak of "the thousand years" and "the Millennium", for these are Scriptural expressions: but let us not be too demanding as to the actual length of time involved.

How many "Thousand years" are there?

In an attempt to eliminate the idea that the nations, after 1000 years of Jesus' righteous reign, could really entertain the thought of rebelling against Him, it has been suggested that more than one 1000-year period is before us in these verses: one of them before the return of the Lord Jesus, and the other subsequently. In answer to this it must be said that, unless it was the intention of the Spirit deliberately to confuse us (which we reject) this simply cannot be so. All the 'thousand year' periods in these passages must, quite without argument, be the same. The saints reign over the world for the same period as that in which 'Satan' is bound, however long or short that period may prove to be. In the list of the thousand-year passages on page 321 the term occurs twice without the article (20.2,4), and four times with: "the thousand years". This leads naturally to the understanding that the dragon is bound for a thousand years, and is allowed to deceive the nations no more until that thousand years is over. The saints reign for a thousand years, but no others join them until that thousand years are over. During their reign for that thousand years evil will be restrained, but when that thousand years are over, 'Satan' shall be released. Beyond all reasonable doubt, the 1000 years of the saints' reign with Christ is identical with the 1000 years of the dragon's confinement.

"Finished" or "accomplished"?

Another suggestion, also concerned with the elimination of a rebellion at the end of the 1000 years is that the word "finished"

in 20.3,5,7 would be better rendered "accomplished" or "fulfilled", in the sense of being brought about in its full completeness. The passage on this understanding would then say that the Dragon will be released and defeated at the time when the Kingdom of Christ is set up in its fulness. The victory of the Lord over the nations which rebel against Him would then be the last phase in establishing His authority over all the earth, and no further uprising would occur.

The following examples are given of occasions when the verb here translated "finished", teleo, is rendered in the ways preferred: (a) Luke 22.37 (what is written must be accomplished; (b) Galatians 5.16 (walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh); (c) James 2.8 (if ye fulfil the royal law ye shall do well); (d) Romans 2.27 (shall not uncircumcision, if it fulfil the law judge thee?); (e) Ruth 3.18 LXX (Boaz will not rest until he have finished = fulfilled the thing this day); (f) Isaiah 55.11 LXX (My word shall accomplish that to which I have sent it); (g) Daniel 4.30 LXX (Is not this great Babylon which I have built?) . These are seven examples, and even of these (a) and (e) do not support the thesis. The former refers to the bringing to an end of certain prophetic events, and the latter to bringing certain marriage-negotiations to a termination.

But there are more serious objections. The word occurs 24 times in N.T., arid about 17 times in O.T., and on nearly every relevant occasion in N.T. where the matter can be put to the test, the sense of the verb is simply "finish", bringing the thing referred to to an end, so that it continues no longer. Here is the evidence:

1 When Jesus had made an end of commanding His disciples (Matthew 11.1).

2 When Jesus had finished these parables (13.53). 3. When Jesus had finished these sayings (19.1).

4 When Jesus had finished all these sayings (26.1).

5 When they had performed all things (Luke 2.39)

6 How am I straitened till it be accomplished (12.50, meaning until His sufferings will be at an end, and their purposes achieved. The same is true in 18.3; John 19.28,30; Acts 13.29; 2 Timothy 4.7, these are numbered 7-11 in our list).

H.A.W., pages 228-233. What follows is based on the case there presented.

I cannot find the verb in (g) either in the text or in Bagster's Concordance under Daniel 4.30 (4.27 LXX). Both give the verb as oikodomeo.

13 When they shall have finished their testimony (11.7).

14 Till the seven plagues were fulfilled (that is, had come to an end) (15.8).

15 Until the words of God shall be fulfilled (17.17).

The evidence from the Septuagint is less unfavourable, but more complex. The word is used in Ruth 2.21, as we have said, for finishing the reaping; in Ezra 1.1 for the fulfilment of a prophecy; in 10.17 for making an end of the divorcing of foreign wives; in Daniel 11.16 for the consuming of his enemies by the 'king of the north'.

However, it is used of finishing buildings in Ezra 5.16; 6.15; Nehemiah6.16; and in a similar sense in Ezra 7.12; 9.1. There is a very special use , though, in Numbers 25.3,5; Deuteronomy 23.17; Psalm 106.28; Hosea4.14, in all of which the idea appears to be that of being "consecrated", even "abandoned" to idolatry.Certainly this would mean "having entered into an idolatrous condition", and could be taken to support the idea of "accomplished", but it is not of sufficient weight to overthrow the New Testament evidence.

Again, even when the word is used of something being completed, the sense is normally that the work required to reach this point has now come to an end.

Again, the 1000 years, whatever its actual length, is a period of time. We may speak of the Millennium as an institution, but in Revelation 20 it is a period, and language would cease to have any meaning if a word which on all comparable occasions means the end of a period or event, here should suddenly prove, six times in a row in a Book which has already used it in its natural sense four times, to refer to the beginning of a period or event. We have only to a 'k whether any reader of this chapter, save under the conviction on other grounds that the word must not be allowed to mean "finish", would ever have come to the conclusion that it meant something like "establish and begin to come into operation", to know that the answer must be No.

Lastly, if we suppose that the word might refer to the establishing of the Millennium, which thereupon proceeds on its way, are we not then deprived of any reference in this Book to its ending, and would not that be very surprising? A problem which is faced and met in 1 Corinthians 15.24-25 needs even more pressingly to be met here. There Paul tells us that the reign of the Lord Jesus will come to a point when all enemies, the last of them death, will have been overcome. At this point He will "deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father". This passage, in other words, tells us to what perfect conclusion the reign of Jesus will come. Now there is no doubt that death is destroyed in the events predicted in Revelation 20 also, for "death and hades are cast into the lake of fire" (20.14). This cannot be at the beginning of the 1000 years, and so must be at its'end. Yet unless teleo does mean "finish" here in its normal sense, Revelation fails to tell us so.

Whatever the pressures may be leading to the wish to deny the rebellion at the end of the Millennium, it has to be regarded as a desperate expedient to seek to get rid of it in this way. We might well feel that, expositionally at least, the remedy is worse than the disease.

Can a post-Millennial revolt be contemplated?

First let us face the objections raised against it:

1 The kingdom of Christ is to produce lasting peace and godliness. If there is a rebellion it will have failed to do so. It is true that without this passage we might have thought that the reign of the Lord would progressively promote these things, and it may be an unwelcome thought to be told otherwise. But the objection is in no way decisive. If the Lord is to "reign until He has put all enemies under His feet" (1 Corinthians 15.25), then enemies do exist which have to dealt with during this period, and "putting under feet" is not the language of peaceful attainment. Zechariah 14.16-18, however unhappy the reading of it may be, does speak of men with rebellious hearts who will need to be coerced into rendering to God the worship He demands. The point may not be easy, but in essence it is one which appeals to emotion rather than to evidence.

2 Rebellion against immortal powers is silly. Of course it is. But then rebellion against the immortal Creator by Adam and Eve was silly, and yet the Fall occurred. To make a golden calf after the manifestations at Sinai was silly, but it was done. It is hard to see anything sensible about crucifying the Lord Jesus, after He had brought miraculous benefits which could only be interpreted as due to the power of God. We sinners are silly people, and if sinners survive into the Kingdom of God, then silliness will survive too. And if God could withdraw from evident presence to leave Eve to face her tempter as though He were out of earshot, may He not — by whatever means He chooses — leave the silly sinners at the end of the Millennium to face the serpent's counterpart, and find themselves willingly beguiled by its subtlety?

3 Where will the rebels get their weapons from? This is a puzzling point, but nothing more. War can be waged with fists, and sticks and stones. Even pruning hooks could be used as

weapons of offence. And what other great powers might be disclosed to the peoples of the world during that wondrous reign which might seem to grasping minds, if the opportunity were apparently offered, to be available for use against the righteous potentates whose righteousness and whose power might both alike be resented?

4 A massive rebellion would stamp the reign of Christ as a failure. This is not self-evident. The Fall in Eden would have stamped Creation a failure on the same standards. Is it any more wonderful that sinners with the consequences of the Fall bred into them should sin, however stupidly, than that the innocent people of Eden should sin for the first time? Eve was taught in righteousness; the manifestation of God kept her company, and there was abundance of everything. Yet she ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and gave to her equally unspoiled husband, and he ate also. If there are sinners left at the end of the Millennium, and if it please God to give them liberty to follow their own whims, there is every reason to believe that they would conspire together in their sinning. Sinners can only be converted to righteousness with their own consent, and even the history of the most righteous reigns in Scripture — those of David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah — shows that their godliness only succeeded in imposing a veneer of righteousness on the nation as a whole, through which the native wickedness would erupt as soon as the accession of a bad king provided the opportunity.

5 Such a rebellion would require lengthy planning, of which the Lord would not be ignorant. The first statement may be true, and the second is certainly so. But who supposed it to be otherwise? When has God ever been ignorant of the designs of evil men and nations? If the alternative of "pretending to ignore" what is going on is then forced on us, what is there immoral about that? If such rebels are to exist, and to pursue their evil designs despite plain warnings (of which Revelation 20 would be one), they will already have been told that God knows their plans and their outcome. That in spite of this they should then choose to fall into a trap of their own making would be no reflexion on the One Who would judge them.

6 Does Scripture teach that divine rule will be withdrawn?

It is certainly implicit in the view that there will be a post-Millennial revolt that authority will be relaxed, but it is well-nigh explicit in Revelation 20 itself: "Satan loosed out of his prison" (20.7) is a deliberate and programmed release of the force of evil by the divine powers themselves which confined it (20.3), carrying with it liberty to "deceive the nations' again. How can this be other than a relaxation of authority, to whatever time it refers?

7 The coincidence of the names God and Magog with Eze-kiel 38-39 The coincidence is unquestionable, and not without its embarrassment. But the point has been made several times in this work that the national prophecies of Ezekiel are given a second and wider significance in the Apocalypse. This could well be such another occasion. "What Gog and Magog do in Israel when the Lord comes back, worldwide forces will seek to do again at the end of His Millennial reign".

8 "The wrath of God is finished" in the Vials (15.1), and there should therefore be no further outpouring of His wrath. It is most strange to find the word "finish" used here in its natural sense when it has previously been suggested that it really should mean "fully established". But the point is of no real substance in any case. If Revelation is primarily concerned with events leading up to the return of the Lord Jesus, then this end has been achieved by the time we reach chapter 20. Subsequent events would not come under that heading.

9 Is it right to base a major belief on one passage only? It is

right to be restrained about the use to which such a single passage is put, and one has sympathy with the view that the belief in a revolt at the end of the Millennium should be held with moderation, and without bitterness towards those who see the matter otherwise. Perhaps it were better not to speak of such a view as a 'doctrine' at all, but rather to see it as a reasoned conclusion from the evidence available. It is certainly in this way that it is considered here. But this is not the only teaching which rests on a single verse. The teaching that Jesus will give up the kingdom to the Father at some point rests only on 1 Corinthians 15.25-25. Th t there was a resurrection of saints shortly after that of Jesus rests only on Matthew 27.51-53. That a certain form of headdress is appropriate to female worshippers at the assemblies of the congregations of God rests only on 1 Corinthians 11.1-16. The commonly employed baptismal formula is found only in Matthew 28.20.

20.4:1 saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgement was given to them; and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark on their foreheads and upon their hand. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Who were they who sat on the thrones, and to whom was judgement given? Since we are about to hear of the saints who will live and reign with Christ 1000 years, we might think that it is they who sit on the thrones. But this is not the import here, for the

saints are described in a different way: they are the souls slain for the witness of Jesus, for the word of God, and for refusing to bow the knee to the Beast. The occupants of the thrones are the judges themselves, the Lord Jesus Christ with His angelic tribunal (Matthew 25.31; Mark 8.38; Luke 9.26; 12.8,9; 1 Timothy 5.21).

The two principal words rendered 'judgement' in N.T. are krima, and knsis, both derived from the verb krino. The nouns occur as follows:

Krima: Matthew 7.2; 23.14; Mark 12.40; Luke 20.47; 23.40; 24.20; John 9.39; Acts 24.25; Romans 2.2,3; 3.8; 5.16; 11.33; 13.2; 1 Corinthians 6.7; 11.29,34; Galatians 5.10; 1 Timothy 3.6; 5.12; Hebrews 6.2; James 3.1; 1 Peter 4.17; 2 Peter 2.3; Jude 4; Revelation 17.1; 18.20; 20.4.

Krisis: Matthew 5.21,22; 10.15; 11.22,24; 12.18,20,36,41,42; 23.23,33; Mark 3.29; 6.11;J uke 1.0.14; 11.31,32,42; John 3.19; 5.22,24,27,29,30; 7.24; 8.16; 12.31; 16.8,11; Acts 8.33;2 Thes-salonians 1.5; 1 Timothy 5.24; Hebrews 9.27; 10.27; James 2.13,13; 2 Peter 2.4,9,11; 3.7; 1 John 4.17; Jude 6, 9, 15; Revelation 14.7; 16.7; 18.10; 19.2.

The distinction in meaning between the two words is not always sharp, but in- general terms krisis refers to the act of passing judgement, krima to the verdict. As Vine writes:

KRISIS primarily denotes a separating, then a decision, judgement, most frequently in a forensic sense, and especially of divine judgement. KRIMA denotes the result of the action signified by the verb krino, to judge.

In the present passage this would mean that those sitting on the thrones are empowered to give a verdict on the lives and deaths of those standing before them, and do so in their favour. The saints are told in effect that they may "enter into the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25.34).

The plurality of the judgement thrones is the result of a quotation from Daniel 7.9, where "the thrones were placed, and One that was Ancient of Days did sit; His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before Him: thousand thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgement (kriterion, LXX) was set and the books were opened". The scene is the same; only the chief Judge is mentioned, yet it seems plain that others are occupying the other thrones. The task of those sitting on the thrones, is to exercise

'Kriterion occurs in N.T. in 1 Corinthians 6.2,4; James 2.6, none of these greatly illuminating our present passage.

judgement, not to experience it, confirming the view we have formed of Revelation 14.4; and one of the tasks of this tribunal is to pass sentence on the Beast (Daniel 7.11), again confirming that the occupants of the thrones are the judges and not the judged. The Occupant of the chief throne in Daniel 7 has characteristics of the One like the Son of man in Revelation 1, including eyes as flames, yet the overall picture is in the spirit of Revelation 4, where the Father sits on the throne awaiting His crucified and risen Son. It seems plain, too, that when there "came in the clouds of heaven one like unto a Son of man", to receive from Him everlasting dominion and the allegiance of all nations (Daniel 7.13-14), this must refer to the conferment of the actual kingship over the world on the Lord Jesus Himself, since He describes His own return to the earth in just such terms (Matthew 24.30; 26.64 ). Yet even here the saints are not left out of the picture, for Daniel is told that they, too, shall "take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever" (7.18).

In fact Daniel 7.22 is also effectively quoted in Revelation 20.6, for "the Ancient of Days came, and judgement (krima, as in Revelation) was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom". This again shows convincingly that the judgement is a verdict in favour of the saints, so that they are judged worthy to reign in the kingdom of God established by their Lord. It is, however, possible to understand the personnel in Daniel somewhat differently, and in view of the fact that the Lord Jesus has already been given all power in heaven and in earth, see Him as the Ancient of Days seated on the central judgement throne, and then the One like a son of man as the embodiment of His saints. This would be in harmony with the fact that, since the eternal purposes of God find their focus in Jesus Christ, He is called the One "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5.2). But it makes little difference. Even though all power has in principle been given to Jesus already, He will not exercise it in fact until His return, and since God says to Him in prophecy, "Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thy foes Thy footstool" (Psalm 110.1 ), it will in fact be at His return that God will have given Him the kingdom, and even though He is the one Who will sit on the judgement throne (2 Timothy 4.1), it will be His Father's judgements which He dispenses, and His Father's rewards that He bestows: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25.34).

EXCURSUS X: THE ULTIMATE SUBJECTION OF THE SON TO THE FATHER

Just as Revelation 20 presents us, inter alia, with problems about the behaviour at the end of the Millennium of the mortal nations,

so does 1 Corinthians 15, which is in an important sense a parallel record, offer difficulties about the position of the Son of God Himself at that time. The passage in issue is:

Then cometh the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule, and all authority and power. For He must reign until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For "He put all things under His feet." But when He saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is excepted Who did subject all things under Him. And when all things have been subjected under Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all things to Him, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15.24-28).

A naive understanding of these verses could seem to suggest that Jesus will reign over the earth only for a limited period, sufficient to get the enemies of God out of the way, that He will achieve the final triumph over death itself, and will then abdicate, ceasing to be King at all.

But it is hard to find the idea of abdication in Daniel 7: "There was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (7.14), words which precisely parallel those used of God Himself in 4.34. The same applies to the words, "His name shall endure for ever; His name shall continue as long as the sun" (Psalm 72.17), and, "They shall fear Thee while the sun endureth, and so long as the moon, throughout all generations" (72.5). One can, indeed, trace the nervousness to which the words of 1 Corinthians 15 have given rise, when the original words of a well-known hymn, -

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore

Till moons shall wax and wane no more

which are thoroughly in harmony with the Psalm - were amended to read,

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore Till sin shall curse the earth no more.

The change was evidently based on the view that, since Jesus will hand over the kingdom to the Father when He has destroyed the last enemy, which is death, and since that will only happen when the last of sin has been eliminated (Revelation 20.14-15), then the reign of Jesus will be terminated when sin has been conquered.

But the passages quoted are merely samples of the abundant scriptural evidence that the kingdom of Christ will have no end, thus we have, "He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1.33), with the passage from which this is tantamount to a quotation, "I will establish the throne of His kingdom for ever. . . thine house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Samuel 7.16). Then we have, "Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David and on his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with judgement and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever" (Isaiah 9.7). There has been much playing about, to dubious profit, with the Hebrew word 'owlam, and the Greek word, awn, to suggest that they refer to long but finite periods rather than to eternity. But though in particular cases this is probably the case, it is not possible to make this limitation when the word is also coupled with "no end", or "as long as the sun". The simple problem has therefore to be faced: whereas 1 Corinthians 15 appears to speak of an abdication at the time when death is abolished, and Revelation puts this point as the end of the Millennium, the rest of Scripture appears to know of no termination to Messiah's reign, but regards it as continuing indefinitely.

The solution to the problem is to be found in a few very simple propositions, all of which are well-nigh indisputable:

1 It is unthinkable that the Lord Jesus Christ in His millennial glory, to Whom "all power is given in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28.19), should ever be relegated to the rank of an ordinary citizen in the kingdom of God.

2 It is no less unthinkable that the Uncreate, Almighty God should ever surrender His power permanently to any other, however exalted and worthy that Other might be.

3 The Lord Jesus Christ, throughout His ministry, made it His goal to fulfil His Father's will: "I do always those things which are pleasing to My Father" (John 8.29). During His present heavenly sojourn the same is true, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, to the glory of God the Father" (Philip-pians 2.11). It must continue to be so when He returns. His whole mission and desire was, is, and will be, to cause men to live to the glory of God.

4 For this reason, the Lord Jesus' supreme happiness will be attained when, having returned to the earth and subdued the nations, reigned righteously during the 1000 years, and abolished sin and death. He is able to offer a perfected kingdom to His Father, with all its saved and immortal inhabitants, as the sublime accomplishment of His labours.

5 In short, He who said, "I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day" (John 9.4), and, on the verge of His crucifixion, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (17.14), and on the cross as He was about to draw His last mortal breath, "It is finished" (19.30), will at the end of the Millennium take the last step in fulfilling that work, and hand over the completed result to the Father Who sent Him.

But this is not abdication. The Lord Jesus, in presenting the kingdom to His Father, is not going into retirement. The kingdom is no less His after He has made the offering than it was before. He simply announces that His task has been brought to completion,

but the Book of Revelation continues to the last to regard Him as being in a position of the highest exaltation. In the New Jerusalem He is the Husband of the Bride (21.2). When it descends in symbol to the earth, its perpetual day is owed to the fact that "the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb" (22.1); there is no curse any more "because the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein" (22.3).

Then it will be the fact, what has all along been the objective, that "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord," and then as always it will be "to the glory of God, the Father"; and the Lord's completion of this task will be His greatest triumph and culminating glory (Phillip-pians 2.9-10).

20.4:7 saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgement was given to them; and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast neither his image, and received not the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 20.5.: The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrecition. 20.6: 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 Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The first thing to be looked at in these verses is the confirmation they give to the view expressed about the Fifth Seal (6.9-11; pages 122-126. The parallels drawn out on page 126 show clearly that the same two classes are referred to in both passages: those who had suffered for their faith in the period prior to the Fifth Seal - or thoughout all the ages until the persecution which was to come in the last days - and those who were to suffer in that last persecution itself. Those who had been faithful during what proved to be the long-drawn-out period of the four horsemen have now been joined by those who have resisted the Beast of the last days, and the two groups of fellow-servants have come together to receive their reward.

The next thing is that there is no reference to the presence of any unworthy persons among those raised and blessed at this time. All those who are said to "have part in" the First Resurrection are, as far as this passage is concerned, treated as entitled to the blessings of living and reigning in the kingdom of Christ. From this fact it has been concluded that the unworthy ones do not emerge for judgement until the end of the Millennium, and since this is a view with major doctrinal implications it must now be examined in some detail.

Note: Pursuing his view of two fulfilments of the Apocalypse, the first in the period around 70 and the second at the return of Jesus, H.A.W. (pages 233-236) considers that this passage concentrates on the "outstanding martyrs" for Christ, because of its reference to their being "beheaded". In view of the rarity of beheading as a capital punishment for early Christians, he sees in this a special reference to Paul, who as a Roman citizen must have suffered martyrdom in this way. He sees in this scene a special and prior bestowal of rewards on such outstanding servants, and then considers that the resurrection of the remainder of the responsible dead is referred to under the "great white throne" of 20.11-15. The latter point will be examined further below, but the former can be briefly mentioned now. It is true that we must not object to this idea of a prior resurrection of those particularly worthy, if Scripture teaches this, and certainly true that we must not do so on the ground that it would be "undemocratic" to proceed in this way. But the fact that the word "holy" is used additionally to "blessed" in 20.6 is not a sufficient reason for reading this to mean, "holy in relation to other saints raised a little later". Nor is there any good reason to single this class out as those on whom "the second death hath no power", which must surely be true of all accepted at judgement, whoever they may be. No Scriptures from elsewhere are cited to support this view of two categories of saints at the return of the Lord, and the conclusion must be judged unlikely. It seems to represent a spin-off from the view that there will be no revolt at the end of the Millennium, for if that revolt had been accepted, the great white throne would have been regarded as post-millennial.

EXCURSUS XI: 'IMMORTAL EMERGENCE', or, WHEN WILL THE UNWORTHY BE JUDGED?

A widely accepted view among conservative expositors takes the following form:

1 When the Lord Jesus returns, only the truly faithful will be raised from the grave.

2 They will emerge immediately in a deathless condition, joined to their living fellow-faithful, and caused to inherit their reward without undergoing any judgement.

3 The unworthy will not be brought from the grave until the end of the '1000 years', when they will be raised, together with the worthy dead who have died during this period, and all the unworthy will be judged and rejected, while the worthy who died during that period will be received into eternal blessedness.

This view, which is here described as 'Immortal Emergence' is, it is claimed, supported by the following texts:

a Revelation 20.5: Since the worthy saints are rewarded at the beginning of the Millennium, they are raised immortal; the unworthy have no part in the 'First resurrection', and are not raised until the postmillennial era of the Great White Throne (20.11).

b 1 Corinthians 15.52: Here we learn that at the return of the

Lord "the dead shall be raised incorruptible". This is regarded as immortal emergence, and it is said to follow that the unworthy are not raised at that time.

c Luke 20.35: "They that are accounted worthy to attain to that world, and the ressurection of the dead . . . are equal to the angels, and are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection". Hence all who take part in that resurrection become immortal, from which it is said to follow that the unworthy cannot be among those who attain to this resurrection.

d 1 Thessalonians 4.14: "Them that are fallen asleep in Christ Jesus will God bring with Him . . . for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the cloud . . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Since it appears that those who are raised enjoy eternal fellowship with their Lord, does it not follow that they cannot include the unworthy?

e A number of passages which state that the believer will not come into judgement, such as John 3:18;5.4; Romans 8.1.

Now were this the only evidence available, and were we quite sure that all the passages had been cited with due regard to context, then it would be reasonable to conclude that the unworthy are not raised until the end of the Millennium (though only a would actually appear to say so specifically), and that the worthy do not have to pass through the experience of being judged, but are granted their reward immediately on emerging from their graves. It is not so much that the case in connection with the unworthy is actually stated, as that it is ignored: in other words, this is a classic case of arguing from silence. Should other evidence point the other way, the alternative case would be established immediately.

Now it is certainly the case that b, c, and d do not have judgement as their topic. They are concerned to offer hope and comfort in face of adversity to those seeking to please God, and it would be inappropriate in such a context to disgress into a consideration of the fate of the unworthy. If the remaining Scriptural evidence should point to the unworthy being truly involved in the events of the resurrection at the Lord's return, there would be little or nothing in these passages which could reasonably be adduced against that view.

Evidence that worthy and unworthy are raised together at the return of the Lord Jesus.

If there is such evidence, it would show that the major postulate of the 'immortal emergence' thesis is simply wrong. We consider first a catena of relevant passages:

f Daniel 12.2: "There shall be a time of trouble... At that time shall thy people be delivered, everyone 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.

g Matthew 12.36-37: Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shall be condemned.

h Matthew 8.10-12: Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness. (Compare Luke 13.28).

j Matthew 13.30,40-43: In the end of the world the Son of man

shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire . . . Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

k Matthew 13.47-50: The kingdom of heaven is like to a net... So shall it be in the end of the world: the angels shall come and sever the wicked from among the righteous, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.

m Matthew 25.1-30: After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh. He that received the five talents came. . . His Lord said to him, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord... He that received the one talent came. . . His Lord answered . . . Cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. (Compare Luke 19.11-27).

n Matthew 25.31-46: When the Son of man shall come in His glory. .. before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another. . . To them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world... To them on His left hand, Depart from Me ye cursed, into the everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. . . These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

p John 5.28-29: The hour cometh in the which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill to the resurrection of judgement.

q Acts 25,15,25: There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust... As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come, Felix was terrified.

r Romans 2.5-11: The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God, Who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour and incorruption, eternal life, but to them that are factious and obey not the truth. . . wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

s 2 Corinthians 5.10: We must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the

body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

t 2 Timothy 4.1: I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, Who shall judge the quick and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom. Preach the word. . .

u Hebrews 6.2: Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.

v Hebrews 9.27: Inasmuch as it is appointed to men once to die, and after this cometh judgement; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, to salvation.

w 1 Peter 4.4: "They shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For this cause was the gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. x Ijohn4.l7: Herein is our love made perfect, thatwemay have

boldness in the day of judgement.

y Revelation 11.18: The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great, and that Thou shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth. Now all these passages suggest that the resurrection of righteous and wicked will be simultaneous, and some of them say so categorically. It is at a certain time (f) that sleepers will awaken from death, either to life or to contempt; it is in the day of judgement (g) that men will either be justified or condemned by the words they have used; when faithful Gentiles are received into the kingdom (h), then will rejected unbelievers be cast out; it will be when Jesus sends out His angels (j) that offenders will be cast out, and the righteous shine forth as the sun; at that time (k) the angels will separate good from bad; when the men with the talents are evaluated (m) the rejected servant will see the accepted ones blessed; Jesus on His throne of judgement (n) will separate sheep from goats, for the kingdom or for rejection; it will be at a single resurrection (p) that life and adverse judgement will be given, a single resurrection will comprehend both just and unjust (q); it will be a single day of wrath and revelation of the righteousjudgements of God (r); it is a simultaneous appearance before the judgement seat (s) where good and bad deeds alike will be revealed. Even leaving out of account verses where alternatives are just possible, however unlikely, the case is overwhelming.

The most searching examination of these passages for possible loopholes is of no avail. To suggest, for example, that the judgement of Matthew 25.31-46 is of nations as a whole, rather than of individuals, leaves the body of evidence scarcely scratched. It is in any case unacceptable, for these are clearly people from the nations who have been given the opportunity of ministering to the Lord and His disciples, and whose rewards and punishments (the kingdom of God or the destroying fire) are appropriate to re-

sponsible perscfns and not to mass-communities, and they enter into that position as a result of the apostles and their followers having "gone and made disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28.19).

The passages in dispute

In general these fit easily into the picture. If, in d, dead and living alike are taken to meet their Lord "in the air", there is no problem in supposing that, between being caught away and being for ever with the Lord, there intervenes ajudgement which eliminates the unworthy. If, in c, those "attaining to the resurrection of the dead" are to be like the angels, it is because the phrase is used here as equivalent to "the resurrection of life" in p. It is not the mere coming out of the ground which is the attainment, but the state of those who, having come from their graves, are freed from the power of the grave for ever more. The remainder attain to nothing: there is no attainment in being raised to condemnation.

The same in essence is true of b, of those "raised incorruptible". Paul is not concerned with the manner in which incorruptibility is attained, nor yet at this point with those who will fail to attain it. All he means to affirm is that "saints will be raised to an incorruptible nature", and if he drops any hint at all as to how this will come about, it is in the words, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" (1 Corinthians 15.51-52). If sleeper and waker need alike to be changed, why should not this take place as they stand approved before the judgement? This, more than anything else, would harmonize with the words which follow: "for this mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruption" (15.53-54), which is just the same in spirit as Paul's later words, "In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven" (2 Corinthians 5.2), and especially with yet later words, "We look for the Lord Jesus, who shall change the body of our humiliation, and fashion it anew like to His own glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself' (Philippians 3.21).

The change to immortality

The immortal-emergence view would only be conceivable if there were to be no realjudgement. Only if the unworthy are out of the picture at the return of the Lord, while the worthy emerge in a state of immortality, could we dispense with a tribunal at which lives are reviewed and the verdict pronounced. As soon as the force of the passages actually produced here is realised, it becomes plain that men and women will emerge from the grave still with natures upon which either verdict could be made effective. If they are judged unworthy, they can be consigned to "eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25.41,46). If they are judged worthy, they can be admitted to the kingdom when their natures have been appropriately changed.

So the faithful, as in Philippians 3.21 above, look for the return of their Lord when, as they stand before Him to receive His approval, they await the change He will produce in their nature, to make it like that which He received from the Father when He rose

from the dead to become "the first fruit of them that sleep" (1 Corinthians 15.20,23).

An acted parable

Nowhere is the truth brought out above more effectively illustrated than in the comparison of the records in John's Gospel of the resurrections of Lazarus and of the Lord Jesus:

Lazarus: Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come forth! He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with gravedothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith to them, "Loose him, and let him go!" (John 11.43-44).

The Lord Jesus: Simon Peter therefore cometh, following John, and entered into the tomb; and he beholdeth the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, that was on His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but enwrapped in a place by itself (20.5-7).

The Lord Jesus left all the tokens of mortality behind Him in the tomb. At whatever point He enjoyed the transition to immortality, those graveclothes left behind in the tomb are there to show us that the process had already occurred before the first mortal eyes beheld their risen Lord. The napkin, "wrapped together" according to A.V., "rolled up" according to R. V., was really "enwrapped", entetuligmenon, a term more usually applied to the object inside the wrapping than to the wrapper itself, as though the napkin were in the shape it would have been had the head been still inside it (E. H. Philips, "The Outcast Christ" 1930, page 149). The resurrection of the Lord was not only miraculous in itself, but seems to have involved a miraculous emergence from the shackles of mortality, to leave those graveclothes in the condition in which they were found.

The resurrection of Lazarus was typical of that of all saints who will ultimately receive their blessing before the judgement seat of Christ, Lazarus came from his grave with the bands of his mortality strong upon him, "bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face bound about with a napkin". Not until the Lord gave the command, "Loose him, and let him go!" was Lazarus brought into fulness of life. So it will be at the resurrection of the dead. Saints will come forth as they died, weak and mortal. For those worthy to receive blessing, the Lord will look on them, still shackled as they will be in the shroud of mortality, and command that the bodies of their humiliation should be refashioned like His own: "Loose them, and let them go!"

20.5: The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. 20.6: 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 Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

It should now have become clear that once the resurrection at the return of the Lord has been accomplished, there will be no further resurrection until the end of the 1000 years. The Book has already told us of the judgement of the wicked at the same

time, in 11.18; it now tells us that the blessed will never lose their blessing. They have nothing left to fear. Those who, during the present dispensation have lived faithfully and have now realized their reward, are beyond the reach of death. But there are others, who survive or are born into the new epoch, who have still to make their choice of obedience or the opposite, in the knowledge that they, too, will one day have to stand before the Lord, and only then will, if they have lived faithfully, escape "the second death". We know that the second death does not apply exclusively to the end of the Millennium, for the Beast and the False Prophet have already been cast into the Lake of Fire, and we are told, "This is the second death, even the Lake of Fire" (20.14).

20.7: When the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 20.8: and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 20.9: and they went out over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came out of heaven and devoured them.

We review briefly what has already been discussed in detail. The power of evil will be allowed to have its brief independence again before being hustled to its ultimate quietus. As in Ezekiel 38-39, Gog of the land of Magog gathers together hosts from many nations (ten of whom are mentioned by their ancient names in Ezekiel 38.1-6). Numbers as the sand of the sea were the abundance promised to Israel and to Abraham's seed (Genesis 22.17; 32.12; 1 Kings 4.20,29; Isaiah 10.22; 48.19; Jeremiah 33.22; Hosea 1.10); but it is also used of the overwhelming numbers of their enemies (Joshua 11.4; Judges 7.12; 1 Samuel 13.5, so that we have here the familiar picture of the saints of God being besieged by numbers which, if they stood alone on an equal footing, would be irresistible. Compared with these the "camp of the saints and the beloved city" is tiny (20.9). As in many other places, the term rendered "earth" could also be rendered "land", like its parallel expression in Hebrew. But we have again the necessary expansion from the affairs of natural Israel and its land to those of spiritual Israel and its world. The "holy city" we are to meet in the next chapter is "the New Jerusalem" (21.2), and this is the true camp of the saints; and what better adjective could be used than "beloved" for a city which is "prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband"?

It has sometimes been supposed that, because we do not meet the New Jerusalem under that name until after the description of the millennial period in Revelation 20, it must represent a post-millennial state of affairs. But it is involved in the marriage of the

Lamb, which is certainly not post-millennial, and therefore this cannot be so. Rather, the New Jerusalem represents the condition of the immortal saints in association with their Lord, which, during the 1000 years, distinguishes them from the other inhabitants of the earth, and subsequently includes the whole of the surviving, now glorified and immortalized, creation.

This time the rebellion is not the subject of the complex events by which the nations were defeated at the time of the Lord's return to the earth. Judgement is sudden and swift, and direct from above. As it was in the days of the folly of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10.2), or in the punishment of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16.35), and as Elijah was able to withstand the companies of fifty sent against him (1 Kings 18.38); as the Two Witnesses were able to withstand the overwhelming forces of their enemies during the days of their prophecy (11.5), and surpassing utterly the counterfeit miracles of the former False Prophet (13.13): so will the power of God destroy the insurgents.

20.10: The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also the beast and the false prophet are; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Once the 'devil' has been destroyed there will be nothing to prevent perfection being achieved. The lesser, political and pseudo-religious powers of evil were dealt with at the beginning of the Millennium: the Beast and the False Prophet are already consigned to the place whence no-one and nothing returns (19.20). Now the old Serpent is to follow to the fate prepared for it. As truly as the kingdom of God was prepared before the foundation of the world for the happiness of God's servants, so truly was the endless destruction foreseen for the sin which stood in the way of the glory of God filling the earth: "the eternal fire" was "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25.41). There is an evident awareness of this verse in the present passage, for it has "the devil and his angels", just as we found them in 12.7,9; and it is perhaps the only other place in Scripture which foresees that the condemnation of the wicked at the time when the Lord returns will not immediately be followed by the abolition of sin in its entirety. The sinners are sent from the judgement seat to the Lake of Fire (where the Beast and the False Prophet are), but the devil, the dragon, sin in its last stronghold, is not to follow until later. The place is prepared for it, but as yet it has not arrived there at the time of which Matthew speaks. It is Revelation 20.10 which shows us when it does so.

We have already discussed the meaning of being "tormented day and night for ever and ever" in connection with 14.10-11

(page 263). That it cannot here be interpreted of actual physical torture of real human beings is quite plain from the fact that none of the entities involved are in fact real human beings: Beast, False Prophet, and above all Dragon, represent human behaviour, and the organizations which give substance to that behaviour, political and personal. That all these things are cast into the Lake of Fire means that such organisations and such behaviour will never arise again. They are gone for ever, and with them (20.14) go death and the grave. The memory of them may remain, so as to show from what evil men have been recovered, but the things themselves will never recur.

Back

---

Join Our Mailing List Carelinks Newsletters "Gospel News" Magazine Links About Us / Donations Search Carelinks Online Breaking of Bread Books and Articles Books by Duncan Heaster Living With Alcoholism Къкво е Евангелието? Audio Talks / MP3 Events (caption missing)