Table of Contents

THE PAROUSIA

by James Stuart Russell

THE FALL OF BABYLON.

The Parousia

The next scene of the vision represents the fate of the harlot city, which occupies the whole of Rev 17. First, a mighty angel, whose glory lightens the earth, proclaims with a loud voice, in nearly the same words as in Rev. 14:8, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.’ Her doom is the consequence of her sin, and at this supreme moment her moral degradation and debasement are most emphatically declared: ‘She is become the habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hated bird,’ etc. How true this description of Jerusalem in her decadence is the pages of Josephus testify:—

‘That period,’ he tells us, ‘had somehow become so prolific in iniquity of every description among the Jews, that no work of evil was left unperpetrated, ... so universal was the contagion both in public and private, and such the emulation to surpass each other in acts of impiety towards God and of injustice towards their neighbours.’1

‘No generation ever existed more prolific in crime.’2

‘I am of opinion that had the Romans deferred the punishment of these wretches, either the earth would have opened and swallowed up the city, or it would have been swept away by a deluge, or have shared the thunderbolts of the land of Sodom.’3

Next, a voice is heard from heaven calling upon the people of God to come out of the doomed city, —‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.’ We observe here how the final catastrophe is kept suspended, —again and again it seems as if the end had actually come, and then we find new circumstances interposed, and the blow apparently arrested when in the very act of falling. This feature of the Apocalypse greatly heightens the dramatic effect and powerfully stimulates the interest in the action. It might have been supposed that all the faithful had long before this abandoned the doomed city; but we are not to look for the same strict consistency and sequence in a poetical and figurative description as in a historical narrative. Besides, the imagery is partly derived from the prophetic description of the fall of ancient Babylon as set forth by Jeremiah, (Jer. 51) where we find this very call to ‘come out of her’. (Jer. 51:45)

After this follows a solemn and pathetic dirge, if it may be so called, over the fallen city, whose last hour is now come. The kings or rulers of the land, the merchant-traders and the seamen who knew her in the plentitude of her power and glory, now lament over her fall. The royal city, the mart of trade and wealth, is wrapped in flames, and the mariners and merchants who were enriched by her traffic stand afar off, beholding the smoke of her burning, and crying, ‘What city is like unto this great city?’ The description given in this chapter of the wealth and luxury of the mystic Babylon might seem scarcely appropriate to Jerusalem were it not that we have in Josephus ample evidence that there is no exaggeration even in this highly-wrought representation. More than once the Jewish historian speaks of the magnificence and vast wealth of Jerusalem. It is very remarkable that the inventory of the spoils taken from the treasury of the temple contains almost every one of the articles enumerated in this lamentation over the fallen city, —‘Gold, silver, precious stones, purple, scarlet, cinnamon, odours, ointments, and frankincense.’4

No less striking is the description given by Josephus of the spoils of the captured city, which were carried in procession through the streets of Rome in the triumph of Vespasian and Titus, and which fully justify the picture of profusion and magnificence drawn in the Apocalypse.5

The last scene in the tragedy of the harlot city follows. A mighty angel takes up a stone, like a great millstone, and casts it into the sea, saying, ‘Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all’. (Jer. 51:21) Her desolation is now complete: her glory is departed; she is left to silence and solitude, for ‘in one hour her judgment is come,’ ‘in one hour she is made desolate.’

This it may be said is poetry, and no doubt it is; but it is also history. So total was the destruction of Jerusalem that Josephus says ‘there was no longer anything to lead those who visited the spot to believe that it had ever been inhabited.’6

We have already commented on the concluding words of the chapter, which furnish decisive evidence of the identity of the harlot city: ‘In her was found the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain in the land’. (Rev. 18:24) To no other city than Jerusalem will these words apply, and they conclusively demonstrate that she is the subject of the whole visionary representation. She was pre-eminently the ‘murderer of the prophets,’ and of her their blood was to be required, according to the prediction of our Lord, —‘That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed in the land’. (Matt. 23:35)

We might suppose that we had now reached the catastrophe of the vision, since the judgment of the great harlot is complete, and she disappears from the scene; but the theme is still continued through the next two chapters, which are mainly occupied with acts of judgment on the other enemies of Christ and of His church.

First, however, we have a song of triumph in heaven over the fallen and condemned criminal whose fearful judgment has been consummated. (Rev. 19:1-5) It is a Hallelujah chorus of a great multitude, whose voice is like the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, ascribing glory to God for the justice executed on the harlot city, and the avenging of the blood of His servants at her hand. Now is fulfilled the promise of God that He would speedily avenge His elect, who cried to Him day and night. Now, also, the kingdom of God is come: the long-predicted, long-expected consummation for which the prayers of the saints have ceaselessly ascended to heaven—‘Thy kingdom come.’ Messiah’s great victory is won; His kingdom has reached its full development; He surrenders His delegated authority to His Father; and a burst of acclamation resounds through all heaven, ‘Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’

But the coming of the kingdom is associated with other events, one of the chief of which is ‘the marriage of the Lamb,’ for which the note of preparation is now given, though the details of the event are reserved for the seventh and last vision. The nuptials of the Lamb are evidently announced proleptically, in accordance with the frequent usage of the Apocalypse. This public and solemn union of Christ and His church is what is shadowed forth in the parables of the marriage feast (Matt. 22) and of the ten virgins. (Matt. 25) It is the marriage supper of the great King, to which the first invited guests refused to come, and shamefully treated and slew the king’s messengers. Now judgment has overtaken them: ‘The king sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city’. (Matt. 22:7)

But before this happy consummation takes place, acts of judgment have to be executed. Mystical Babylon has been judged, but the other enemies of the King—the beast, his legate the false prophet, and the dragon—have yet to receive condign punishment.

JUDGMENT OF THE BEAST AND HIS CONFEDERATE POWERS.

Rev. 19:11-21—‘And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knoweth, but he himself. And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth 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 wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath upon his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great 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 on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, 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 miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.’

This magnificent passage is descriptive of the great event which occupies so prominent a place in the New Testament prophecy, the Parousia, or coming in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes from heaven; He comes in His kingdom; ‘on his head are many crowns;’ he comes with His holy angels; ‘the armies of heaven follow him;’ He comes to execute judgment on His enemies; He comes in glory. It may be said, Why is the Parousia placed after the judgment of the harlot city, and not before? It must be remembered that it is a poem rather than a history that we are now reading; a drama, rather than a journal of transactions, and that there is no book in which poetical and dramatic effect is more studied than in the Apocalypse. These episodical visions are often taken out of their strict chronological order that they may be displayed in fuller detail and make an adequate impression on the mind of the reader. At the same time we do not admit that there is an anachronism in the place which the Parousia occupies. If we examine the prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives we shall find the same order of events. It is immediately after the great tribulation that the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, and they ‘see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’. (Matt. 24:29, 30) The scene represented in this vision is that very event. The Lord Jesus is ‘revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’.(2 Thess. 1:7, 8)

The sequel of the chapter relates the victory of the Lamb over the enemies of His cause. An angel standing in the sun summons all the fowls of heaven to prey upon the carcasses of the slain in the coming conflict. The armies of the beast and his confederate powers are marshalled to make war upon the Messiah. The two hosts engage, and the enemies of Christ are routed. The beast is taken prisoner, and with him his false prophet that ruled in his name. ‘These two were cast alive into the lake of fire which burneth with brimstone,’ while their followers perish, ‘slain with the sword of him that sitteth on the horse, whose sword goeth out of his mouth.

If it be asked, What do these symbols represent? the answer is, Assuredly no literal conflict with carnal weapons. It is not on any battle-field on earthly ground that the glorified Redeemer and His heavenly legions confront the banded hosts of earth and hell. We cannot go to the pages of Josephus or Tacitus, or any other historian, for the events which correspond with these symbols. We read in them two great truths: Christ must conquer; His enemies must perish. Nevertheless, there is a kernel of historical fact in this symbolism. Jus as in the symbolic representation of the great harlot we find the historical fact of the destruction of Jerusalem, so in this capture and execution of the wild beast and his congener we find the historical fact of the destruction of Nero and his lieutenant, or deputy, in Judea. This is the core of historic fact at the centre of the vision. Jerusalem, the harlot city, perished in fire and blood. Nero, the beast king, the sanguinary persecutor of the Christians; and Gessius Florus, the tyrant who goaded the unhappy Jews into revolt, both perished by a violent death.7 These events were really divine judgments, foreseen and predicted long before their occurrence, and written in lurid characters on the page of history, visible and legible for ever. These are the historical facts set forth in all the pomp and splendour of symbolical imagery in the Apocalypse. The symbols were worthy of the facts, and the facts are worthy of the symbols. No doubt there is here something of an anachronism. The death of Nero is placed in the vision subsequent to the judgment of Jerusalem, whereas it actually preceded that event by two years or more. As we have before remarked, something must be conceded to poetic license. In an epic, a drama, or a vision, it is unreasonable to require strict chronological sequence. Now the Apocalypse is composed with consummate art. As Henry More long ago remarked, ‘There never was any book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse, as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down.’ The dramatic effect is certainly greatly heightened by the capture and punishment of the beast being placed where they are. The first and most prominent place is naturally given to the harlot city, and the Seer having begun with her judgment carries it on to its final consummation. He then returns to the beast, and depicts his fate; and, lastly, in the twentieth chapter, proceeds to describe the punishment inflicted on the third hostile power, the dragon.

There is, however, another answer to the charge of anachronism. It deserves consideration whether this whole scene of the great battle and victory of Christ the King, and the punishment of the beast and his armies, may not be properly conceived as taking place in the spirit, not in the flesh? That is, whether it may not be the representation of transactions in the unseen state; the judgment of the dead, and not of the living. An earthly transaction it certainly is not; and if we regard it as the symbolic representation of the judgment and condemnation of the enemies of the Lamb in the spirit-world—a glimpse of that great judicial scene which is depicted in Matt. 25., ‘when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations,’—this would relieve the vision of any anachronism and abundantly satisfy all the requirements of the case. The probability of this view is strongly confirmed by the fact that this punishment of the beast and his armies follows the allusion to the marriage supper of the Lamb, an event which is certainly supposed to take place in the spiritual and eternal state.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE DRAGON.

Rev. 20:1-3—‘And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he might deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.’

We now approach a portion of the Apocalypse which is involved in much obscurity, and which, from the very nature of the case, passes beyond the limits which, by the express declarations of the writer, again and again repeated, circumscribe the rest of the prophecy of this book.

The fact that such a protracted period as a thousand years is embraced in the visions of the Apocalypse is considered by many an incontrovertible proof that the fulfilment of the predictions which it contains is not to be restricted to a brief period. Dean Alford, for example, says:—

‘The en tacei [shortly] confessedly contains, among other periods, a period of a thousand years. On what principle are we to affirm that it does not embrace a period vastly greater than this in its whole contents?’8

That which appears so insurmountable an objection in the eyes of Dean Alford is regarded as none at all by Moses Stuart, who says,—

‘The portion of the book which contains this [reference to a distant period] is so small, and that part of the book which was speedily fulfilled is so large, that no reasonable difficulty can be made concerning the declaration before us. ‘En tacei, i.e. speedily, did the things, on account of which the book was principally written, in fact take place.’9

Some interpreters indeed attempt to get over the difficulty by supposing that the thousand years, being a symbolic number, may represent a period of very short duration, and so bring the whole within the prescribed apocalyptic limits; but this method of interpretation appears to us so violent and unnatural that we cannot hesitate to reject it. The act of binding and shutting up the dragon does indeed come within the ‘shortly’ of the apocalyptic statement, for it is coincident, or nearly so, with the judgment of the harlot and the beast; but the term of the dragon’s imprisonment is distinctly stated to be for a thousand years, and thus must necessarily pass entirely beyond the field of vision so strictly and constantly limited by the book itself. We believe, however, that this is the solitary example which the whole book contains of this excursion beyond the limits of ‘shortly;’ and we agree with Stuart that no reasonable difficulty can be made on account of this single exception to the rule. We shall also find as we proceed that the events referred to as taking place after the termination of the thousand years are predicted as in a prophecy, and not represented as in a vision. Indeed the passage, Rev. 20:5-10, seems evidently introduced parenthetically, interrupting the continuity of the narrative, which is again resumed, as we shall see, at Rev. 20:11.

The overthrow and punishment of the enemies of Christ would evidently be incomplete without a similar act of judgment on the chief instigator and head of the confederacy, the dragon, or Satan. Accordingly his time has now come: he is seized, chained, and cast into the abyss, which is sealed over him, and he is sentenced to be imprisoned there for a period called ‘a thousand years.’

This act of seizing, chaining, and casting into the abyss is represented as taking place under the eye of the Seer, being introduced by the usual formula, ‘And I saw.’ It is an act contemporaneous, or nearly so, with the judgments executed on the other criminals, the harlot and the beast. This part of the vision, then, falls within the proper limits of apocalyptic vision, and is an integral part of the series of great events connected with the Parousia.

Are we, then, to suppose that anything equivalent to this symbol, the binding and imprisoning of Satan, has actually taken place, and took place at the time indicated, viz. the close of the Jewish dispensation? We have no hesitation in answering in the affirmative, and we think there is the clearest warrant both in Scripture and in history for this conclusion.

1. No one will contend that the symbols in the vision require a literal or physical chaining of the dragon. Common sense will teach that all that is meant is the repression and restriction of satanic power during the period indicated. Now there seems no reason to doubt that before and during our Saviour’s incarnation there was an energy and activity of moral evil existing in the earth far exceeding anything that is now known among men. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the period of our Lord’s earthly life was a season of intense and unparalleled activity among the powers of darkness. If they knew that the champion of God, the Redeemer of mankind, was come in order ‘that he might destroy the works of the devil,’ there was cause for their alarm; and our Lord’s temptations in the wilderness, and the malignant opposition to Christ and His cause, everywhere ascribed in the New Testament to Satan, reveal both the knowledge of the adversary respecting the Saviour’s mission and his unceasing efforts to counteract it. In addition to this, the remarkable prevalence of the mysterious phenomenon of demoniacal possession in the time of Christ is a decisive proof of the presence and activity of a malefic spiritual influence, in a form and degree which to us is unknown, and to many even incredible. Unless, then, we are prepared to give up the reality of that mysterious influence, and resolve it into mere popular ignorance or delusion, we must admit that there has been a marked and decisive check to the power of Satan over men since the time of Christ. The same may be said respecting the prevalence of moral evil in that age of the world. Let any one consider what Rome was in the days of Nero, and what Jerusalem was in the closing period of the Jewish commonwealth, and he will at once concede the undeniable fact of an abnormal and portentous development of wickedness such as to us appears incredible. Juvenal and Tacitus will bear witness of Rome, and Josephus of Jerusalem; and it is not contrary to reason, while wholly agreeable to Revelation, to infer that such enormous and colossal vice betrays the operation of a satanic influence.

2. It deserves, further, to be considered that the sin of idolatry, with all its mimicry of supernatural and divine power, —a system which the Scriptures recognise as pre-eminently the work of the devil, —was in our Saviour’s time in full and undisturbed possession of nearly the entire world. When we remember what Greece was, and what Rome was, in respect of their national religion, in the apostolic age; the authority, antiquity, and popularity of their gods, and the way in which their worship had entwined itself around every act of public and private life, it seems astonishing that a system so time-honoured and inveterate should have withered away so as to wholly disappeared from the face of the earth. No one can be at a loss to account for this remarkable change: it is entirely due to the influence of Christianity; and but for this new element in civilisation there is no reason to think that the ancient superstitions of Heathenism would have died out or given place to something better.

3. It is no less certain that this marvellous revolution must be dated from the time when the Gospel began to be preached in the apostolic age. We have the most convincing proofs that the change is not to be explained by the advancement of knowledge, or science, or philosophy, nor by the natural progress of human society, but that it was predicted and expected from the very birth of Christianity as the effect of the redemptive work of Christ. Nothing can be more explicit than our Lord’s declarations on this subject. When the seventy disciples returned with joy to report how even the devils were subject to them through their Master’s name, Jesus said to them, ‘I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven’. (Luke 10:18) It is absurd to explain this as an allusion to Satan’s original expulsion from heaven, before the creation of the world; it is evidently a figurative declaration that in the success of His messengers our Lord recognised and foresaw the coming overthrow of the power of Satan:—

‘Before the intuitive glance of His spirit lay open the results which were to flow from His redemptive work after His ascension into heaven. He saw, in spirit, the kingdom of God advancing in triumph over the kingdom of Satan.’10

To the same effect is our Lord’s saying, —‘Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out’. (John 12:31) What meaning can be attached to these significant words if they do not imply that a powerful check was about to be given to the influence of Satan over the minds of men; a check arising wholly from the death of Christ upon the cross?

But it is in this apocalyptic vision that we see the actual representation of this curbing of Satan’s power. It is here evidently defined as to the time of its commencement, and associated with the downfall of Jerusalem, and the consequent abrogation of the Jewish dispensation. Nor is there any absurdity in accepting this date. The abolition of Judaism was the removal of the most formidable obstacle to the progress of Christianity; but, besides this, we have the most express assurance in the New Testament that this was the period of the consummation of the Messianic kingdom, and of Christ’s putting down all hostile rule, and authority, and power. (1 Cor. 15:24)

We conclude, therefore, that at ‘the end of the age’ a marked and decisive check was given to the power of Satan; which check is symbolically represented in the Apocalypse by the chaining and imprisoning of the dragon in the abyss. It does not follow from this that error and evil were banished from the earth. It is enough to show that this was, as Schlegel says, —

‘the decisive crisis between ancient and modern times; and that the introduction of Christianity ‘has changed and regenerated not only government and science, but the whole system of human life.’11

There was an hour when the tide of human wickedness began to turn: it was at the very period when that tide was in flood; ever since that time it has been ebbing, and we have no difficulty in recognising the first abatement of the power of evil as corresponding in time with the event here designated the binding of Satan and his imprisonment in the abyss.

Respecting the duration of this restriction of satanic power it is not easy to determine; but it seems, on the whole, most in consonance with the symbolic character of the Apocalypse to understand the thousand years as significant of a long but indefinite period. When we have high numbers stated in the Apocalypse they are usually, if not invariably, to be understood indefinitely. For example, it is not to be supposed that the hundred and forty and four thousand of the sealed signify that number, and no more and no less. It would be absurd to say that there were exactly twelve thousand, to a man, saved out of each of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The conception is appropriate in a vision, but incredible in a historical statement. In like manner the army of the horsemen in Rev. 9:16 is set down as two hundred millions; but no sane commentator ever ventured to assign to this a precise and literal signification. Following these analogies we are disposed to regard the thousand years as a definite for an indefinite period, covering doubtless more than that space of time, but how much more none can tell.12

THE REIGN OF THE SAINTS AND MARTYRS.

Rev. 20:4-6—‘And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and whosoever had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.]’

We approach with the greatest diffidence this mysterious passage, carefully avoiding guesses and conjectural explanations, as well as any attempt to force in any way the natural signification of the words.

The first thing which we note is, that the vision now described falls within the apocalyptic period. It is introduced by the formula ‘And I saw,’ which marks that which comes under the personal observation of the Seer.

Next, it is to be remarked that there is an evident antithesis between this scene and the act of judgment executed on the beast and his followers. It is the usual method of the Apocalypse thus to place in striking contrast the reward of the righteous and the retribution of the wicked.

We further observe that there is a manifest allusion in this passage to the promise of our Lord to His disciples, ‘Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’. (Matt. 19:28) That period has now arrived. The paliggenesia, or regeneration, when the kingdom of the Messiah was to come, is now regarded as present, and the disciples are glorified with their glorified Master: ‘judgment is given unto them;’ they ‘sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’ We are to conceive of the multitude of the redeemed from the land—the hundred and forty and four thousand out of all the tribes of the children of Israel—as forming the kingdom, or subjects, placed under the spiritual government of the apostolic brotherhood.

In addition to these the Seer beholds ‘the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,’ and also (for the word oitinev appears to indicate that this is another class who are specified) ‘whosoever had not worshipped the beast, nor his image;’ these also ‘live and reign with Christ,’ an expression which implies that they too had ‘thrones’ and ‘judgment’ given to them. It is impossible not to recognise in the ‘souls of them that were beheaded’ the same martyred saints whom the Seer beheld, in the vision of the sixth seal, lying under the altar and crying for vengeance on their murderers. They were comforted with the message that in a little while, when their fellow-servants who were about to suffer as they had done had joined them, their prayer should be answered. Now that time is come; their enemies have perished, and they live and reign with Christ.

This vision looks back also on the remarkable passage in 1 Pet. 4:6. These martyrs are the dead to whom the comforting message came [euhggelisyh]. They had been condemned by the judgment of men while in the flesh, but now they live in their spirit by the judgment of God, which has vindicated and crowned them. What a new light is thrown upon the words of St. Peter, vwsin de kata yeon pneumati, by the language of the Apocalypse, evhsan kai ebasileusan. This is one of those subtle coincidences which are often the surest tests of a true interpretation.

These witnessing and suffering souls are represented as enjoying a privilege and a distinction not accorded to others: ‘They lived and reign with Christ a thousand years: while the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished.’ This is the crux of the passage, and presents a very formidable difficulty. The only quarter in which we can discern any ray of light is in the direction of the inquiry, Who are ‘the rest of the dead’? Are they the rest of the pious dead, or the wicked dead, or both the righteous and the wicked alike? The judgment revolts from the idea that they are the pious dead. if they were to be excluded from participation in the blessedness of heaven for a vast period, how could it be said, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth’? We are compelled, therefore, to imagine the possibility of the other alternative, and that the passage speaks of the wicked dead, though such a supposition is not without its difficulties. in this case ‘the first resurrection’ includes only the dead in Christ; and this may be the true interpretation, for the next verse certainly intimates that all who have a part in ‘the first resurrection’ are blessed and holy, and enjoy the high privilege and honour of ‘reigning with Christ.’

One thing more to note, and that is, that the reign of the suffering and witnessing saints, and of all who have part in the first resurrection, is not said to be on earth. They live and reign ‘with Christ;’ they are ‘with him where he is, beholding his glory.’

Thus far we have endeavoured to feel our way in a region ‘dark with excessive bright,’ but we do not pretend to feel any confidence in the latter portion of our exegesis.

THE LOOSING OF SATAN AFTER THE THOUSAND YEARS.

Rev. 20:7-10—‘[ And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth [land], God and Magog, to gather them together to the battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth [land], and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast in to 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.]’

The mystery and obscurity which hang over a portion of the preceding context become still deeper, if possible, here. There are, however, certain points which seem determinable.

1. It is evident that this passage is direct prophecy, and not a visionary representation taking place before the eyes of the Seer. It is not introduced by the usual formula in such cases, ‘And I saw,’ but in the style of prophetic prediction.

2. It is evident that the prediction of what is to take place at the close of a thousand years does not come within what we have ventured to call ‘apocalyptic limits.’ These limits, as we are again and again warned in the book itself, are rigidly confined within a very narrow compass; the things shown are ‘shortly to come to pass.’ It would have been an abuse of language to say that the events at the distance of a thousand years were to come to pass shortly; we are therefore compelled to regard this prediction as lying outside the apocalyptic limits altogether.

3. We must consequently regard this prediction of the loosing of Satan, and the events that follow, as still future, and therefore unfulfilled. We know of nothing recorded in history which can be adduced as in any way a probable fulfilment of this prophecy. Westein has hazarded the hypothesis that possibly it may symbolise the Jewish revolt under Barcochebas, in the reign of Hadrian; but the suggestion is too extravagant to be entertained for a moment.

4. There is an evident connection between this prophecy and the vision in Ezekiel concerning Gog and Magog, (Ezek. 38 Ezek. 39) which is equally mysterious and obscure. In both the scene of conflict is laid in the same place, the land of Israel; and in both the enemies of God meet with a signal and disastrous overthrow.

5. The result of the whole is, that we must consider the passage which treats of the thousand years, from Rev. 20:5-10, as an intercalation or parenthesis. The Seer, having begun to relate the judgment of the dragon, passes in Rev. 20:7 out of the apocalyptic limits to conclude what he had to say respecting the final punishment of ‘the old serpent,’ and the fate that awaited him at the close of a lengthened period called ‘a thousand years.’ This we believe to be the sole instance in the whole book of an excursion into distant futurity; and we are disposed to regard the whole parenthesis as relating to matters still future and unfulfilled. The broken continuity of the narration is joined again at Rev. 20:11, where the Seer resumes the account of what he beheld in vision, introducing it by the familiar formula ‘And I saw.’

THE CATASTROPHE OF THE SIXTH VISION.

Rev. 20:11-15—‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged, every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.’

These verses bring us to the catastrophe of the sixth vision. Like the other catastrophes which have preceded it, it is a solemn act of judgment, or rather the same great judicial transaction presented in a new aspect. The Seer now resumes the narration which had been interrupted by the digression respecting the thousand years, taking up the thread which was dropped at the close of Rev. 20:4. We are therefore brought back to the same standpoint as in the first and fourth verses. This catastrophe naturally and necessarily belongs to the ‘same series of events as have been represented in the vision of the harlot city, and falls within the prescribed apocalyptic limits, being among the things ‘which must shortly come to pass.’

As to the catastrophe itself, there can be no question that it represents a solemn judicial investigation on the vastest scale. It is the great consummation, or one aspect of it, towards which all the action of the Apocalypse moves, and which is reached, in one form or another, at the close of each successive vision. There are, however, special features in every catastrophe which distinguish it from the others, notwithstanding that they refer to the same great event. A comparison with the preceding catastrophes will show how much the present has in common with them and what is peculiar to itself. In the catastrophe of the vision of the seven seals, for example, we have the very same imagery of the heaven departing, and the mountains and islands being moved out of their places. (Rev. 6:14) In the catastrophe of the vision of the seven vials the same image is repeated. (Rev. 16:20) In the catastrophe of the seventh trumpet it is declared that ‘the time of the dead, that they should be judged, is come,’ etc.; (Rev. 11:18) and in the catastrophe of the seven mystic figures we see ‘a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting, like unto the Son of man’, (Rev. 14:14) corresponding with ‘the great white throne, and him that sat on it,’ in the passage now before us. There are some features, however, peculiar to this catastrophe, —the books of judgment; the sea, death, and Hades, yielding up their dead; and the casting of death and Hades into the lake of fire.

There is no reason to doubt that the judgment scene depicted here is identical with that described by our Lord in Matt. 25:31-46. We have the same ‘throne of glory,’ the same gathering of all the nations, the same discrimination of the judged according to their works, and the same ‘everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’

But if the judgment scene described in this passage be identical with that in Matt. 25., it follows that it is not ‘the end of the world’ in the sense of its being the dissolution of the material fabric of the globe and the close of human history, but that which is so frequently predicted as accompanying the sunteleia tou aiwnov, —the end of the age, or termination of the Jewish dispensation. That great consummation is always represented as a judgment-epoch. It is the time of the Parousia, the coming of Christ in glory to vindicate and reward His faithful servants, and to judge and destroy His enemies. There is a remarkable unity and consistency in the teachings of Scripture on this subject; and whether it be in the gospels, or in the epistles, or in the visions of the Apocalypse, we find one harmonious and concurrent scheme of doctrine, all parts mutually confirming and sustaining one another, —a proof of their common origin in the same divine fountain of inspiration and truth.

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Footnotes

1.  Traill’s Josephus, Wars, bk. vii. ch. viii. sect. 1.

2.  Ibid. bk. v. chap. x. sect. 5.

3.  Ibid. bk. v. chap. xiii. sect. 1.

4.  Josephus, Wars, bk. vi. ch. viii. sect. 3.

5.  Ibid. bk. vii. chap. v. sect. 5.

6.  Jewish Wars, bk. vii. ch. i. sect. 1.

7.  See Huidekoper, Judism in Rome, p. 244.

8.  Greek Testament, Prolegomena to the Apocalypse, chap. viii, sect. iv 10.

9.  Stuart’s Commentary on the Apocalypse, chap. i. verse 1.

10.  Neander, Life of Christ, bk. v. chap. xii. sect. 205.

11.  Philosophy of History, p. 276.

12.  See Stuart’s Commentary on the Apocalypse, in loc.

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