_JUDGMENT OF SATAN AND OF THE WICKED._
REV. xx.
In now approaching chap. xx., with its yet unsolved difficulties of
interpretation, it is of essential importance to observe, in the first
place, the relation of the chapter to what immediately precedes. The
Seer is not entering upon an entirely new subject. He distinctly
continues, on the contrary, the prosecution of a theme he had before
begun. In the previous portion of his book three great enemies of the
saints of God had been introduced to us,--the dragon or the devil, the
beast, and the false prophet. These were the main opponents of the
Lamb, in one way or another stirring up all the efforts that had been
made against Him by the kings of the earth, their armies, and their
followers. For a time they had appeared to succeed. They had
persecuted the saints, had compelled them to flee, had overcome them,
and killed them. This, however, could not continue; and it was to be
shown that the final triumph remains with those who have suffered for
the sake of righteousness. In chap. xix. we have the beginning, but
not the close, of this triumph. Of the three great enemies only
two--the beast and the false prophet--perish in that chapter. The
destruction of the third is reserved for chap. xx., and is effected
at the tenth verse of the chapter. The verses following then describe
the judgment of those who had listened to these enemies, but who,
though defeated, or even killed,[526] or devoured by fire out of
heaven when in their service,[527] had not yet been consigned to their
doom. Thereafter nothing remains, in order to complete the triumph of
Christ and His saints, but that death and Hades shall also be removed
from the scene and cast into the lake of fire.
These considerations are of themselves sufficient to show that _the
overthrow of Satan_, and not the reign of a thousand years, is the
main theme of the first ten verses of the chapter. So far is the
latter from being the culminating point of the whole book, that it is
not even introduced at the beginning of any new and important section.
It starts no new series of visions. It comes in in the midst of a
section devoted to an entirely different matter:--
And I 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. And I saw thrones, and they sat
upon them, and judgment was given unto 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 upon their forehead and upon
their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand
years. The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years
should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these
the second death hath no authority, but they shall be priests of
God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And
when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of
his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are
in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
And they went up over the breadth of the earth, 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 into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the
beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and
night for ever and ever (xx. 1-10).
It is impossible within the limits of a commentary such as the present
to discuss the different interpretations that have been given to a
passage so difficult and so much controverted as the above. Nothing
more can be attempted than to state briefly what seems to be the true
meaning of the sacred writer, together with the grounds upon which the
interpretation to be suggested rests.
The fundamental principle of that interpretation, to be kept clearly
and resolutely in view, is this: that _the thousand years_ mentioned
in the passage express no period of time. They are not a figure for
the whole Christian era, now extending to nearly nineteen hundred
years. Nor do they denote a certain space of time, longer or shorter,
it may be, than the definite number of years spoken of, at the close
of the present dispensation, and to be in the view of some preceded,
in the view of others followed, by the second Advent of our Lord. They
embody an idea; and that idea, whether applied to the subjugation of
Satan or to the triumph of the saints, is the idea of completeness or
perfection. Satan is bound for a thousand years; that is, he is
completely bound. The saints reign for a thousand years; that is, they
are introduced into a state of perfect and glorious victory. Before
endeavouring to bring out this thought more fully, several
preliminary considerations may be noticed.
1. Years may be understood in this sense. In Ezek. xxxix. 9 it is said
that the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall prevail against the
enemies described, and "shall go forth, and shall make fires of the
weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and
the arrows, and the hand-staves, and the spears, and they shall make
fires of them seven years." No one can suppose that the "seven years"
here spoken of are to be literally understood, or even that the length
of time which would be needed to burn the weapons is the thought upon
which the prophet dwells. His meaning, in correspondence with the use of
the number seven, can only be that these weapons shall be destroyed with
a great and complete destruction. Again, in the same chapter, at ver.
12, after the defeat of "Gog and all his multitude," it is said, "And
seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may
cleanse the land." A literal interpretation is here not less impossible
than in the case of the burning of the weapons; nor can the meaning be
exhausted by the thought that a long time would be necessary for the
burying. The number "seven" must have its due force assigned to it, and
the prophet can only mean that the land should be thoroughly cleansed
from heathen impurity. The use of the term "years" in the vision before
us seems to be exactly similar; and the probability that it is so rises
almost to certainty when we observe that, as proved by the vision of Gog
and Magog in the subsequent part of the chapter, the prophecy of Ezekiel
is before the Seer's eye, and that it constitutes the foundation upon
which his whole delineation rests.
The only difficulty connected with this view is that in the third verse
of the chapter Satan is said to have been shut into the abyss _until the
thousand years should be finished_, and that in the seventh verse we
read, _And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed_.
But the difficulty is more specious than real. Let us familiarise
ourselves with the thought that the thousand years may simply express
completeness, thoroughness, either of defeat or victory; let us remember
that the Seer had represented the defeat of Satan by the figure of being
bound for a thousand years; finally, let us notice, as we have yet to
see more fully, that Satan, although deprived of power over the
righteous, is still to be the deceiver and ruler of the wicked: and it
immediately follows that this latter thought could find no more
appropriate form than in the statement that the deception took place,
not "until," or "after," the thousand years should be finished. This is
simply the carrying out of the symbolism already employed. To revert for
a moment to the symbolism of Ezekiel, let us suppose that, after the
prophet had described the burning of the weapons for "seven years," he
had wished to mention also some other step by which the burning was to
be followed. What more suitable words could he have used than that it
took place either "after this," or "after the seven years were
finished"? In point of fact, this is exactly what the prophet does. He
has occasion to refer to further efforts made to secure the purity of
the land; and the words employed by him are, "_After the end of seven
months_ shall they search."[528] The one expression is no more than the
natural consequence of the other.
2. What is the meaning of the last words of the third verse of the
chapter,--_He_ (_i.e._, Satan) _must be loosed for a little time_?
What is this "little time"? The words take us directly to that
conception of the _Christian age_ which is so intimately interwoven
with the structure of the Apocalypse, and even of the whole New
Testament,--that it is all "a little time." This is particularly
apparent in the application of the very same words to the souls under
the altar in chap. vi. 11: "And it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow-servants also
and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should
be fulfilled." The "little time" there is undeniably that extending
from the moment of the vision to the close of the present
dispensation. But, if it be so there, we are entitled to suppose that
the very same expression, when used in the passage before us, will be
used in the same sense; and that, when it is said Satan shall be
loosed "for a little time," the meaning is that he shall be loosed for
the whole Christian age. Again, in chap. xii. 12 we read, "The devil
is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a
short time." The "short time" here referred to begins with the casting
down of the devil out of heaven into the earth spoken of in the ninth
verse of the same chapter. It must therefore include the whole period
of his action in this world; and the manner in which that period is
designated corresponds closely with the description of the time during
which he is said, in chap. xx., to be loosed. Again, in chap. x. 6 the
angel swears that there shall be "time" no longer, using the same word
for time that we meet with in the verse now under consideration; so
that it would appear as if to the author of the Apocalypse the word
"time" were a kind of technical term by which he was accustomed to
denote the period of the Church's probation in this world. Lastly,
this conclusion is powerfully confirmed by the many passages of the
Apocalypse in which it is clear that the Christian dispensation, from
its beginning to its end, is looked upon as a "very little while," as
hastening to its final issue, and as about to be closed by One who
cometh quickly.[529] The "little time" therefore, of the present
chapter during which Satan is loosed, and which, when more fully dwelt
upon, is the time of the war spoken of in vers. 7-9, is the historical
period of the Christian dispensation, during which Satan is permitted
to deceive the nations and to lead them against the camp of the saints
and the beloved city. It is, in short, the time between the first and
second coming of our Lord. The period so often sought in the thousand
years of ver. 2 is really to be found in the "little time" of ver. 3.
3. Attention ought to be particularly directed to the condition of the
saints during the thousand years spoken of. It is described in general
terms as a _first resurrection_. Certain words of our Lord in the
Gospel of St. John throw important light upon the meaning of this
expression: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they
that have heard shall live,"[530] and, again, a little later in the
same discourse, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all
that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come
forth."[531] Let us compare these two verses with one another, and
the presence of the clause "and now is" in the first, taken along with
its omission in the second, leaves no doubt as to the principle on
which they are to be interpreted. The first refers to a spiritual, the
second to a bodily, resurrection. Here then in the words of our Lord
Himself we have the source whence the idea of the "first resurrection"
of the Apocalypse is derived. It is not an actual resurrection from
the grave, although that resurrection is potentially involved in it.
It is a spiritual resurrection in an hour "that now is;" and the fact
that this is St. John's meaning is brought out still more clearly by
the intimation that what he saw was _souls_, whose resurrection bodies
had not yet been given them.[532]
The condition of the saints thought of in this vision is described,
however, not only generally, but in various particulars, all of which,
it will be seen, correspond with the apocalyptic idea of it even in a
present world. _And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them._ But we
have been already told that "they reign over the earth."[533]
_Judgment was given unto them_, words which seem best understood in
the sense, so peculiar to St. John, that for believers there is in the
ordinary sense of the term no judgment. As they have passed through
death, so also they have passed through judgment.[534] _They lived
with Christ._ But Christ Himself had said in the Gospel, "Because I
live, and ye shall live."[535] _They reigned with Christ._ But that is
only another method of saying that they sat on thrones, with the
added conception, so often associated with the word in the
Apocalypse, that their enemies were bruised beneath their feet. _Over
these the second death hath no authority._ But we have before been
told of "him that overcometh" that "he shall not be hurt of the second
death."[536] Finally, _they shall be priests of God and of Christ_.
But it is needless to dwell upon the fact that from the opening of
this book such has always been spoken of as the position of believers.
Nothing, in short, is said of the saints of God in this picture of
millennial bliss that does not find a parallel in what the Seer has
elsewhere written of their present life. On not a few different
occasions their ideal condition in this world is set forth in as
glowing terms as is their thousand years' glory and joy.
One expression may indeed startle us. What the Seer beheld is said to
have been _the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony
of Jesus, and for the word of God_. Is the word "beheaded" to be
literally understood? Then a very small number of martyrs can be
thought of. The great majority of those who have died for the faith of
Jesus have been martyred in other and more dreadful ways. The word is
the counterpart of "slaughtered" in the vision of the souls under the
altar.[537] These were the saints of the Old Testament, whose death is
described by a term characteristic to the Jewish mind of the mode in
which offerings were presented to God. When the Seer passes to the
thought of the great Gentile Church, he uses a term more appropriate
to the Gentile method of terminating human life. "Beheaded" therefore
expresses the same thing as "slaughtered." Both words refer to
martyrdom; and both include all faithful ones in the dispensations to
which they respectively belong, for in the eyes of St. John all the
disciples of a martyred Lord are martyrs.[538]
4. The meaning of the doom inflicted upon Satan demands our notice.
And the angel _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_. It is hardly
possible to read these words, at the same time remembering St. John's
love of contrast or even travesty, and not to see in them a mocking
counterpart of the death and burial of Jesus, when the stone was
rolled to the door of the sepulchre and sealed. If so, it is not
enough to say that by the infliction of this doom the power of Satan
was restrained, and his influence lessened. Much more must be implied;
and the language can only mean that, in one sense or another, Satan
was rendered powerless and harmless, as unable to act his part as
though he had been laid in the grave.
5. The use of numbers in the Apocalypse ought to be remembered. These
numbers are invariably symbolical; and, if the number a thousand is to
be here interpreted literally, it seems in that respect to stand
alone. Nor is it a reply to this to say that, though not in the strict
sense literal, it may signify a period of _indefinite_ length. Such an
interpretation would be not less opposed than the former to the genius
and spirit of this book. The numbers of the Apocalypse have always a
_definite_ meaning. They express ideas, but the ideas are distinct.
They may belong to a region of thought different from that with which
arithmetical numbers are concerned, but within that region we cannot
change their value without at the same time changing the thought. We
are not to imagine that numbers, in the allegorical or spiritual use
made of them by the Jews, might be tossed about at their pleasure or
shuffled like a pack of cards. They were a language; and the bond
between them and the ideas that they involved was quite as close as it
is between the words of ordinary speech and the speaker's thoughts. A
thousand years cannot mean two, or ten, or twenty, or three hundred
and sixty-five thousand years according as we please. If they are a
measure of time, the measure must be fixed; and we ought to be able to
explain the principle leading us to attach to the number one thousand
a value different from that which it naturally possesses.
6. The teaching of Scripture elsewhere upon this subject has to be
considered. Upon this point it is unnecessary to say much, for the
difference between that teaching and any view commonly taken of the
thousand years' reign is acknowledged. It ought to be observed, however,
that this difference is not merely negative, as if the rest of the New
Testament simply failed to fill in certain details of events more
largely described in the Apocalypse, but upon the whole substantially
the same. The difference is also positive, and in some respects
irreconcilable with what we are taught by the other sacred writers. The
New Testament, unless this passage be an exception, always brings the
_Parousia_ and the general judgment into the closest possible connexion.
It nowhere interposes a lengthened period between the resurrection of
believers and that of unbelievers. It knows only of one, and that a
general, resurrection; and the passages, such as 1 Cor. xv. 23, 24, and
1 Thess. iv. 16, 17, usually quoted to support another conclusion, fail
when correctly interpreted to do so. When our Lord comes again, He at
once perfects the happiness of His saints and makes all His enemies His
footstool.[539] One text alone may be quoted upon this point. While the
"first resurrection" is assigned to a date a thousand or even thousands
of years before the end, it is several times repeated in the discourse
of Jesus in the sixth chapter of St. John that the resurrection of
believers takes place at the "last day."[540]
7. One other consideration may be kept in view. It would appear that
about the time of the Advent of our Lord there was a widely extended
opinion among the Jews, traces of which are also to be found among the
Gentiles, that a golden age of a thousand years' duration might be
anticipated in the future as a happy close to all the sins and miseries
of the world.[541] Here, it is sometimes urged, is the source of the
apocalyptic figure of this chapter, which thus becomes only one of the
wild chiliastic expectations of the time. But, even if it be allowed
that St. John drew the particular figure employed by him from a general
belief of his age, it by no means follows that he accepted the literal
interpretation of that belief as the reality and substance of prophetic
hope. In many a passage of his book he has undeniably spiritualised
hopes of Israel founded on the language of the Old Testament in its
outward form. He might easily do the same with what he recognised as a
belief not less widely spread and not less deeply seated in both the
Jewish and Gentile portions of the Church. To use the language of the
late Archdeacon Lee, "a world-wide belief such as this naturally
supplied St. John with symbols and with language wherein to clothe his
revelation of the fortunes of the Church, just as he has employed for
the same purpose the details of the theocracy, or the imagery of war, or
the phenomena and the convulsions of nature."[542] In all such cases the
determination of the point at issue really rests upon our view of the
_general_ tone of the writing in which the difficulty occurs, and on our
perception of what will give the unity and harmony to his words for
which every intelligent writer is entitled to expect credit at his
reader's hands. This conclusion is in the present instance strengthened
by the fact that St. John did not confine himself to the traditional
belief he is said to have adopted. So far from doing so, he occupies
himself chiefly with a picture of that overthrow of Satan which seems to
have been no part of the belief, and the mould of which is taken from
entirely different sources.
Putting together the different considerations now adduced, we can have
but little difficulty in understanding either the binding of Satan or
the reign of the saints for a thousand years. The vision describes no
period of blessedness to be enjoyed by the Church at the close of the
present dispensation. Alike negatively and positively we have simply an
ideal picture of results effected by the Redeemer for His people, when
for them He lived, and suffered, and died, and rose again. Thus He bound
Satan for them; He cast him into the abyss; He shut him in; He sealed
the abyss over him,--so that against _them_ he can effect nothing. He is
a bruised and conquered foe. He may war against them, afflict them,
persecute them, kill them, but their true life is beyond his reach.
Already they live a resurrection and ascended life, for it is a life hid
with Christ in God, a life in that "heaven" from which the devil has
been finally and for ever expelled. They rest upon, they live in, a
risen and glorified Redeemer; and, whatever be the age, or country, or
circumstances in which their lot is cast, they sit with their Lord in
the heavenly places and share His victory. He has been always
triumphant, and in His triumph His people even now have part. The glory
which the Father gave the Son the Son has given them.[543] They cannot
sin, because they are begotten of God.[544] He that was begotten of God
keepeth them, and the evil one toucheth them not.[545] This is the reign
of a thousand years, and it is the portion of every believer who in any
age of the Church shares the life of his risen and exalted Lord.
Thus also we may comprehend what is meant by the loosing of Satan.
There is no point in the future at which he is to be loosed. He has
been already loosed. Hardly was he completely conquered for the saints
before he was loosed for the world. He was loosed as a great adversary
who, however he may persecute the children of God, cannot touch their
inner life, and who can only "deceive the nations,"--the nations that
have despised and rejected Christ. He has never been really absent
from the earth. He has gone about continually, "knowing that he hath
but a short time."[546] But he is unable to hurt those who are kept in
the hollow of the Lord's hand. No doubt he tries it. That is the
meaning of the description extending from the seventh to the ninth
verse of this chapter,--the meaning of the war which Satan carries on
against the camp of the saints and the beloved city when the thousand
years are finished. In other words, no sooner was Satan, as regards
the saints, completely bound than, as regards the world, he was
loosed; and from that hour, through all the past history of
Christianity, he has been stirring up the world against the Church. He
has been summoning the nations that are in the four corners of the
earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war. They war,
but they do not conquer, until at last fire comes down out of heaven
and devours them. _The devil that deceived them is cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet;
and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever._
The whole picture of the thousand years is in its main features--in
the binding of Satan, in the security and blessedness of the
righteous, and in the loosing of Satan for the war--a striking
parallel to the scenes in chap. xii. of this book. There Michael and
his angels contended with the devil and his angels; and the latter
"prevailed not,"[547] but were cast out of heaven into the earth, so
that the inhabitants of heaven are for ever safe from them. There the
man-child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and from
the thought of whom it is impossible to separate the thought of those
who are one with Him, is caught up unto God and unto His throne.
Finally, there also the dragon, though unable really to hurt the
saints, "the rest of the woman's seed," makes war upon them, but
without result. Of this scene the picture which we have been
considering is at once a repetition and a fuller development; and,
when we call to mind the peculiarities marking the structure of the
Apocalypse, we seem in this fact alone to have no slight evidence of
the correctness of the interpretation now proposed.[548]
The three great enemies of the Church have not only been overcome,
but judged, and for ever removed from all possibility of troubling
the righteous more. But the great mass of the wicked have not yet
been overtaken by a similar fate. The time has now come to show us in
vision what awaits them also:--
And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another
book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were
judged out of the 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, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in
the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire (xx. 11-15).
Upon various particulars mentioned in this passage it is unnecessary to
say much. The _throne_ beheld by the Seer is _great_, at once in
contrast with the "thrones" of the millennial reign, and as befitting
the majesty of Him who sits upon it. It is also _white_, as emblematic
of His purity and holiness. The Judge is God, the Father in the Son, the
Son in the Father; and thus the judgment is searching and complete, and
is answered by the consciences of those upon whom it is executed. They
see that the Judge's eye penetrates into the most secret recesses of
their hearts, and that He is One who has been in the same position, has
fought the same battle, and has endured the same trials as themselves.
Thus His sentence finds an echo in their hearts, and they are
speechless.[549] Thus also judgment becomes really judgment, and not
merely the infliction of punishment by resistless power.
The effect of the Judge's taking His seat upon His throne was that
_from His face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found
no place for them_. Yet we are not to understand that after their
flight there was neither an earth nor a heaven to be found. It is only
the old earth and the old heaven that are spoken of; and almost
immediately afterwards the Seer exclaims, "I saw a new heaven and a
new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed
away."[550] The change is part of that "restoration of all things" of
which St. Peter spoke to the multitude gathered together in Solomon's
porch,[551] of which he then added, "Whereof God spake by the mouth of
His holy prophets which have been since the world began," and upon
which he dwelt more fully in his second Epistle when he said, "But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."[552] In the Epistle to the
Romans, too, "creation" longs, not for destruction, but for something
akin to that "liberty of the glory of the children of God" which they
shall obtain along with their "adoption, to wit, the redemption of
their _body_."[553] In all these passages it is not the translation of
God's saints to an immaterial sphere that lies at the bottom of the
thought. It is rather the idea of change, of the transfiguration, of
the glorification, of this present scene into a state corresponding
with that of its redeemed inhabitants, when they shall "not be
unclothed, but clothed upon,"[554] and shall dwell in "spiritual
_bodies_."[555] To St. John "heaven" is not an abode of bliss in a
scene of which we can form no clear conception, but the spiritual
atmosphere in which, alike on this side the grave and on the other,
the saints live and move. The "dwellers upon earth" are not those who
simply tread its firm soil and breathe its atmosphere, but those who
are worldly in their spirit and whose views are bounded by the things
of time. The kingdom which Christ establishes is the "kingdom of this
world" in its cleansed and purified condition rather than one to which
we travel by long and unknown paths. As the Seer looks forward to the
future there is nothing to show that he thinks of any other residence
for man than that which the Son consecrated by His tomb in Joseph's
garden and by the glory of the resurrection morning; and even the new
Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to be established upon earth.
Many may doubtless think that such a hope is too earthly, too
material, to be suited to the spiritual nature of the Christian
dispensation. They fear that it has a tendency to withdraw us from Him
who is "spirit," and who must be worshipped, if He is to be worshipped
acceptably, "in spirit and truth."[556] But any such apprehension is
at variance with the fundamental fact of our Christian faith, the
incarnation of our Lord, and is little less than the revival of the
old Manichean heresy that matter is essentially evil. Two errors have
existed, and may exist, in the Church upon this point. We may strip
the Gospel of its spiritual element, and may reduce it to a system of
outward and material forms, or we may strip it of its material
element, and may resolve it into a vague and shadowy mysticism. Both
are the errors of extremes, and it would be difficult to say which has
wrought most havoc in the Church. If the one was disastrous in the
days of the supremacy of Romanism, the other is hardly less disastrous
now. To the false and spurious spiritualism which it engenders we owe
not a few of the most serious misconceptions of the present time with
regard to the person of Christ, the Church, the Sacraments, and the
purpose of redemption as a whole.[557]
To return to the main question in connexion with the passage before
us. Does it present us with the picture of a general judgment or of a
judgment of the wicked alone? There is much in the passage that leads
distinctly to the latter conclusion.
1. The whole vision is obviously an enlargement of what we have
already met under the seventh Trumpet, when it was said that "the time
of the dead to be judged came."[558] In both visions the persons
spoken of as "the dead" must be the same; and they are clearly
distinguished in the earlier vision from those called "Thy servants
the prophets," the season of whose "reward" was come. With this
corresponds the fact that in the writings of St. John the words "to
judge" and "judgment" are always used, not in a neutral sense, but in
one tending to condemnation. Without some qualifying term the Apostle
could hardly have applied them to the acquittal of the righteous.
2. The sources whence the "dead" are gathered confirm this conclusion.
These are three in number: _the sea_, _death_, and _Hades_. Looking
first at the two last of these, it is plain that "death" cannot in this
connexion be the neutral grave, for it is "cast into the lake of fire,"
where the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are. Similar remarks
apply to "Hades," which in chap. vi. 8 is the coadjutor of death, and
which in the New Testament always appears as a region of gloom, and
punishment, and opposition to the truth: "And thou, Capernaum, shalt
thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades;" "And I also
say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."[559] If
such be the sense in which we are to understand death and Hades, light
is thrown upon the manner in which we are to interpret the first of the
three sources,--"the sea." This cannot be the ocean, because the number
of those to be given up from its depths at the last day is comparatively
small; because, as the literal sea, it is in no way suitably associated
with death and Hades; and because, when we read in chap. xxi. 1, "And
the sea is no more," it is impossible to think that the word is used in
any other than a figurative sense. No reason can be imagined why, when
the earth is renewed, there should be no more that sea which is one
grand instrument of its present greatness and glory. Besides all this,
we have hitherto found that in the Apocalypse the "sea" is the emblem of
the unruly and troubled nations of the earth, and the source from which
the first beast of chap. xiii. had his origin. In the same sense
therefore we must understand it here. Like "death" and "Hades," "the
sea" spoken of can give up none but ungodly dead to the judgment of the
great day.
3. The "books" mentioned in the passage are clearly books containing
the record of evil deeds alone. When it is said that "books" were
opened, and that "another book was opened, which is the book of life,"
the "books" are distinguished from the "book." It harmonizes with this
that the book of life is not opened in order to secure deliverance for
those whose names are inscribed in it, but only to justify the
sentence passed on any who are cast into the lake of fire.
4. The general teaching of St. John ought not to be lost sight of in
considering this question. That teaching is that the eternal condition
of the righteous is fully secured to them even in this life, and that
in their glorified Head they have already passed through all those
preparatory stages on their way to everlasting blessedness at the
thought of which they might otherwise have trembled. In Him they have
lived, and overcome, and died. In Him they have been raised from the
dead, and been seated in the heavenly places. All along they have
followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and everything that befell
Him has in principle befallen them. We cannot say, in the Johannine
sense of the word, that Christ has been "judged;" and therefore
"judgment" cannot be predicated of the members of His Body. To these
last "judgment," we have already seen, "was given" at the time when
they entered on their millennial reign; and, with the result of this
judgment (for that is the true meaning of the original) in their
hands, it is impossible to think of them as judged again.
The judgment of these verses is therefore a judgment of the wicked;
and, when it is closed, all Christ's enemies have not only been
vanquished, but have been banished from the scene where He is to reign
"before His ancients gloriously."[560] The first part of the final
triumph has been accomplished.
FOOTNOTES:
[526] Chap. xix. 21.
[527] Chap. xx. 9.
[528] Ezek. xxxix. 14.
[529] Chaps. i. 3, ii. 16, iii. 20, xxii. 20, etc.; 1 Cor. vii. 29;
Heb. x. 37.
[530] John v. 25.
[531] John v. 28.
[532] Comp. chap. vi. 9.
[533] Chap. v. 10.
[534] Comp. the teaching of our Lord in John xi. 25, 26, and v. 24.
[535] John xiv. 19 (margin of R.V.).
[536] Chap. ii. 11.
[537] Chap. vi. 9.
[538] Comp. p. 102.
[539] Matt. xxv. 31-46; Rom. ii. 5, 7; 1 Thess. iv. 17; 2 Thess. i. 7,
10.
[540] John vi. 39, 40, 44.
[541] See authorities in Lee (_Speaker's Commentary_) on Rev. xx. 2,
and his excursus on that chapter.
[542] _Speaker's Commentary_, _u.s._
[543] John xvii. 22.
[544] 1 John iii. 9.
[545] 1 John v. 18.
[546] Chap. xii. 12.
[547] Comp. the remarkable parallel in John i. 5: "and the darkness
overcame it not."
[548] It is not to be denied that difficulties attend the interpretation
of the thousand years suggested in the text. The writer would advert in
a note to the two which appear to him to be the most formidable.
1. In ver. 3 we read that Satan was cast into the abyss, etc., "that
he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should
be finished." Let it be granted that "the nations" here referred to
can hardly be understood in any other sense than that common in the
Apocalypse: the heathen, the ungodly, nations or the wicked in
general. We then seem to read that there must be a time during which
Satan does not "deceive the nations," while the explanation given
above has been that he was no sooner subjugated for the righteous than
he was let loose to deceive the unrighteous. In his _Lectures on the
Revelation of St. John_ (p. 224, note) the author was disposed to
plead that the words in question may not have been intended to
indicate that action on Satan's part was for a time to cease, but
rather to bring out and express that aspect of Satan by which he is
specially distinguished in the Apocalypse. In deference to the
criticism of the Rev. H. W. Reynolds (_Remarks on Dr. Milligan's
Interpretation of the Apocalypse_, pp. 9, 27), he would yield this
point. Notwithstanding the irregular constructions of the Apocalypse,
it is at least precarious; and it is better to leave a difficulty
unsolved, especially in a case where difficulties surround every
interpretation yet offered, than to propose solutions of the
sufficiency of which even the proposer is doubtful. It may be asked,
however, without resorting to the conjecture formerly thrown out,
whether the words "that he should deceive," even when taken in what is
said to be their only true sense, are irreconcilable with the view of
the thousand years advocated in this commentary. That view is that the
subjugation of Satan for a thousand years means his complete
subjugation. When, therefore, it is said that he has been so shut up
as "to deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be
finished," the meaning may simply be that in the _act of being
subjected_ he was deprived alike of authority and opportunity to
deceive the nations. It lay within the power of the Conqueror to grant
or not to grant him fresh liberty to do so. The "strong man" was then
bound, and "his goods were spoiled." He was completely subjected to
Christ. When, therefore, we are told of the thousand years during
which he was to deceive the nations no more, this language is only the
continuation of the figure used in the second verse of the chapter;
and what the Seer intends to express is, that during the process of
his subjection, and until he should be again loosed by Him who had
subjected him, he could do nothing. Satan, in short, must be
_permitted_ to come up out of the abyss either in his own person or by
his agents before he can disturb the earth (comp. chap. ix. 2); and it
is the purpose of God that he shall not have power to disturb it
until, having been really "brought to nought" by Christ (comp. Heb.
ii. 14), he shall go forth to his evil work among the nations as one
who, whatever may be the increase of his wrath (comp. chap. xii. 12),
has yet been overcome by another far mightier than himself.
2. The second difficulty demanding notice is presented by the words of
ver. 5, "The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years
should be finished." Who are these called "the rest of the dead," and
in what sense did they "live"? The term "the rest," applied to
persons, occurs in the following passages of the Apocalypse in
addition to that before us: chaps. ii. 24, ix. 20, xi. 13, xii. 17,
xix. 21. In every one of these cases it refers to the remaining
portion of a class mentioned, but not exhausted; and it cannot be
extended to any class beyond them. Here, however, no class has been
spoken of except _the righteous_, or rather the "souls" of the
righteous, described by various particulars both of their character
and their state. "The rest" of the dead must therefore belong to that
class, and to it alone. They cannot be the general body of mankind,
both good and bad, with the exception of those previously mentioned.
Again, what is meant when it is said that the rest of the dead
"lived"? The same word had occurred in the immediately preceding
verse, and it must now be understood in the same sense. "If," says
Dean Alford, who has been quoted with great confidence against the
present writer (Reynolds, _u.s._, p. 23), "in such a passage the first
resurrection may be understood to mean _spiritual_ rising with Christ,
while the second means _literal_ rising from the grave, then there is
an end of all significance in language; and Scripture is wiped out as
a definite testimony to anything. If the first resurrection is
spiritual, then so is the second, which I suppose none will be hardy
enough to maintain" (on Rev. xx. 4-6). Now that is exactly what is
here maintained. The "lived" of ver. 4 is spiritual; the "lived" of
ver. 5 is also spiritual. The "rest of the dead" then are the Old
Testament saints of chap. vi. 9, who, by the completion of the Lord's
redeeming work, were brought up to the level of the New Testament
Church (comp. p. 101). The meaning of chap. xx. 5 may thus be said to
be that, the New Testament Church having had _first_ bestowed upon it
a complete redemption, the same white robes were afterwards given to
the Old Testament Church, the succession being again one of thought
rather than time. In this way _all_ the members of Christ's body are
marked out as having been "dead" before they lived, thus identifying
them with their Lord in chap. i. 18; the position of the words at the
close of ver. 5, "this is the first resurrection," is rendered more
natural by their thus following what is wholly a description of the
condition of the blessed, instead of having a sentence interposed of
an entirely different character; and, finally, to say nothing of the
contextual considerations already referred to, the full Johannine
force of the word "lived" is preserved.
These answers to the two chief difficulties associated with the
interpretation here suggested of the thousand years may not be
satisfactory to all; but it is submitted that they go far at least to
meet them, and that in themselves they are neither unfair nor
strained. Against one thing only must the author of this commentary
enter his most decided protest,--the allegation that the
interpretation here offered is gained by dispensing with textual
criticism (?) and by sacrificing grammar to an idea. If there be one
ground more than another upon which it rests, it is upon the strictest
principles of historical interpretation. It ought only to be
remembered that the idiosyncrasies of an author are as much a part of
such interpretation as the literal meaning of his words; and that to
that interpretation, if honestly and thoroughly conducted, the most
deeply ingrained prejudices will in due time be compelled to submit.
[549] Comp. Matt. xxii. 12.
[550] Chap. xxi. 1.
[551] Acts iii. 21.
[552] 2 Pet. iii. 10, 13.
[553] Rom. viii. 21-23.
[554] 2 Cor. v. 4.
[555] Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 44.
[556] John iv. 24.
[557] In connexion with the point here spoken of, reference may be
made to an interesting and instructive paper by Canon Dale Stewart,
Rector of Coulsdon, in _The Churchman_ for December, 1887.
[558] Chap. xi. 18.
[559] Matt. xi. 23, xvi. 18.
[560] Isa. xxiv. 23.