to be the only passage in the Apocalypse which asserts the perpetuity
of _personal_ experience of torment, as distinct from the perpetuity of
its effect; also that the personal subject of the verb
_basanisthêsontia_, according to grammatical rules, would be the devil,
the beast, and the {102} false prophet, each of which is represented as
personal, and endowed with volition and power. But these, as I have
maintained in p. 61, are the powers which, according to the law of
opposites, are antagonist to God the Father, the Holy Ghost, and the
Son of God; and the assertion that they are tormented for ever and ever
may be taken to mean, according to the principle of interpretation
explained in p. 97, that they exist _necessarily_, but only as they
exist, when subdued, in the contempt and hatred in which they are held
by those who have felt their power and have overcome it, this spiritual
effect being a condition of immortality. (See end of p. 61.)
It remains to speak of one other subject connected with the revelations
made in the Apocalypse, which, understood as it respects our argument,
is of very great moment, inasmuch as it has relation to the means by
which the spirit of man is endowed with immortality. The Son of God is
named in the Apocalypse "The Word of God" (xix. 18), "King of kings and
Lord of lords" (xvii. 14, and xix. 16), "the root and the offspring of
David, the bright and morning star" (xxii. 16), and by other titles
expressive of honour and dignity; but no name occurs so frequently, and
in such various applications, as "the Lamb." What, it may be asked, is
the reason for this? In order to answer this question let us take into
consideration some instances, specially {103} significant, in which
this name occurs. From what is recorded in chap. v. 6-13 as having
been seen in vision by the apostle, we are instructed as follows
respecting the character and office of the Lamb: "In the midst of the
throne [the seat of the Lord God Almighty] and of the four living
beings, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been
slain, having seven horns [emblematic of perfect power] and seven eyes
[perfection of wisdom], which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth
into all the earth." And he came and took out of the right hand of Him
who sat upon the throne a book "sealed with seven seals." "And when he
had taken the book, the four living beings and four and twenty elders
fell down before the Lamb.... And they sung a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou
wast slain." Then "an innumerable company of angels" (Heb. xii. 22)
was heard to say with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and
glory, and blessing. And every created thing which is in heaven, and
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all
things in them, were heard to say, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and
power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for
ever and ever."
Then follows in chap. vi. the opening of the seven {104} seals, which,
from the descriptions given at the successive openings, appear to
symbolize the various kinds of human experience, both good and evil,
which mark the course of events in the present world, all centering in
the work of redemption by the sacrifice of the Son of God; on which
account the Lamb _slain_ can alone open the seven seals and disclose
their meaning. At the end of what is said relative to the sixth seal
mention is made of "the great day of the wrath of the Lamb," which,
because by reason of the sins of men he was so unjustly slain, is
ordained to be seen and felt by the whole world after the termination
of the present age (see Rev. i. 7). The expectation of that wrath,
although none can escape it, all but very few in the present day are
unwilling, through terror or unbelief, to entertain. The state of
terror of all classes at the signs of the approach of that day appears
to be described at the end of the chapter. (See vi. _vv._ 15-17.)
Next, in chap. vii., comes the sealing of all the elect, represented
symbolically by the sealing of twelve thousand of each of the twelve
tribes of Israel, the number twelve specially signifying election.
Then in _vv._ 9-17 is recorded a most wonderful vision. The seer says,
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, whom no man could
number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white {105} robes,
and palms in their hands: and they cry with a loud voice, saying,
Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb."
This multitude whom no man can number, the number of whom is elsewhere
said to be as "the sand of the sea," must embrace all that are not of
the number of the elected and sealed one hundred and forty-four
thousand, and their ascription here of praise to God for salvation
accords with the teaching of St. Paul, that "God is the Saviour of all
men, especially of those that believe." This is made still plainer by
what is said respecting this multitude clothed in white robes in _vv._
14-17. The seer is told by one of the elders that "These are they who
come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. And they shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor
any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will feed
them, and will lead them to fountains of waters of life; and God will
wipe away all tears from their eyes." It is evident that the
revelation here made is _proleptical_, describing a state of things
identical with that which in Rev. xxi. 3, 4 (before quoted in p. 93),
is said to pertain to the new heavens and the {106} new earth. The
explanation that may be given of this anticipation of the subsequent
revelation is referable to a principle which governs much that is
contained in Scripture, although it has been generally overlooked--the
principle, namely, of following sometimes an order determined by
_relativity_, although it sets aside order as to time. This, however,
is not done except for some purpose. In the present instance, the
effect of declaring the salvation of all men in immediate sequence to
the sealing of the elect for salvation, is to indicate that the general
scheme whereby all eventually partake of salvation consists of related
and progressive parts to be unfolded by course of time.
The name of "the Lamb" is also given to our Lord in various other
passages, which, with the view of contributing to the general argument,
I proceed now to cite and make some remarks upon. The accuser of the
brethren (Satan) is overcome by those who loved not their lives unto
death, "on account of the _blood_ of the Lamb" (xii. 10, 11). The
beast will be worshipped by all dwellers upon earth "whose names are
not written in the book of life of the Lamb _slain_ from the foundation
of the world" (xiii. 8). "A Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him
an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written on
their foreheads.... These are they who follow the Lamb wheresoever he
goeth. {107} These were purchased from among men, the firstfruits to
God and to the Lamb" (xiv. 1, 4). The worshippers of the beast "shall
be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the Lamb" (xiv. 10). Those who have gotten the
victory over the beast "sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord
God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of the nations.
Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only
art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee, because
thy judgments are made manifest" (xv. 2-4). The law given by Moses,
and the gospel of Jesus Christ, constitute together a great and
wonderful [oe]conomy, redounding to the praise and glory of God, and to
the salvation of man. Kings of the earth "shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because he is Lord of lords and
King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and elect, and
faithful" (xvii. 14).
The marriage of the Lamb and his bride--that is, the union of Christ
with the whole assembly of the redeemed--does not take place till "the
wife has made herself ready," till she has arrayed herself in the fine
linen, clean and white, which it was given her to put on, the fine
linen being "the righteousness of saints" (xix. 7, 8). This doctrine
accords well {108} with the view taken throughout this Essay, namely,
that righteousness (the "unspeakable gift," 2 Cor. ix. 15) is necessary
as an antecedent condition of salvation, and therefore of immortality.
It is further to be noticed that this union between the Lamb and the
bride is not perfected while time lasts, requiring the condition of a
new creation. For it was not till the first heaven and the first earth
passed away that John "saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband"
(xxi. 2), and that "the Lamb's wife" was shown to him by "one of the
seven angels that had the seven vials full of the last seven plagues"
(xxi. 9). The performance of this office by an angel who in the
antecedent judgment had been a minister of wrath and punishment, may be
taken to be significant of the _means_ by which the glorious
consummation is brought about.
Finally, we have in the following concluding portions of apocalyptic
prophecy a description of what may be said to constitute the joy of the
marriage supper, namely, the perfection through righteousness, not only
of the union between Christ and the elect Church, but also of that
between God and all peoples. Speaking of "the holy city Jerusalem,"
John says, "I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are the temple of it. And the city hath no need of the sun,
neither of the {109} moon, to shine on it; for the glory of God gave
light to it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof. And the nations shall
walk by the light of it, and the kings of the earth bring their glory
into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut by day, for there will
not be night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the
nations into it. And there shall not enter into it anything unclean,
and that worketh abomination and lying, but only they that are written
in the Lamb's book of life" (xxi. 22-27). The seer goes on to say,
"And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, coming
forth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the
street of it and of the river, on the one side and the other [the river
being in the middle of the street, and the tree spreading from one side
to the other], was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, and
yielding its fruit according to each month; and the leaves of the tree
are for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse;
and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants
shall serve Him: and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on
their foreheads. And night shall be no more: and they shall have no
need of light of a lamp, and light of the sun; because the Lord God
will give them light, and they shall reign to the ages of ages" (xxii.
1-5).
The foregoing citations, and indeed the whole tenor of the contents of
the Apocalypse, clearly point to the {110} conclusion that what is
symbolized by "the Lamb" and "the Lamb slain" runs through all it
teaches respecting the course of experience and future destination of
the race of man--is "the lamp" that enlightens the whole. Now, I think
I may assert that the reason this is so is given by the arguments
adduced in this Essay. It has been maintained that on the day that
Adam fell into disobedience by the wiles of Satan, his Creator made a
promise by covenant that he and his offspring should in the end be
freed from the power of Satan and evil, and partake of immortality.
The terms of the covenant were that man must pass through toil, and
pain, and death, that thereby his spirit might be formed for receiving
the gift of an immortal life. Evidence of an intelligent belief of the
efficacy of these conditions was given by the faithful of old by their
sacrificing clean animals, and surety for the fulfilment of the
covenant was given on God's part by a favourable acceptance, either
directly or mediately, of this expression of their faith. In process
of time the only begotten Son of God, out of sympathy with suffering
humanity, and from knowledge of his Father's purpose towards us,
satisfied in his own person the very same conditions, and thus at once
exemplified and justified the means by which that purpose is
accomplished. At the same time he made sure the grounds for belief of
the fulfilment of the covenanted promise, first by marvellous {111}
works before he suffered, which showed that he had command over all the
ills of humanity, and after his death, by resurrection from the grave
the third day, which gave proof of the reality of a power that could
overcome death. The miracles of Christ are an essential part of the
work of his ministry, inasmuch as they were needed to prove that he
possessed power greater than that of his adversaries, and consequently
that he submitted _voluntarily_ to be "led as a _lamb_ to the
slaughter," and to endure all the pain and indignities of the cross.
Out of love towards those whom he vouchsafes to call his brethren, he
showed how they must undergo physical suffering and the pains of death
in order that their spirits might be formed for an endless life. It
was with understanding and belief that the way to life was made sure by
fellowship with Christ in suffering, that some of the most favoured of
his faithful followers, apostles and apostolic men, willingly suffered
after his example.
But pain and death are not in this way efficacious for salvation,
unless they be accompanied by a faith which lays hold of the covenant
and promise of life made and ratified from the beginning by God, and
which looks for the fulfilment in the world to come. Those who, having
this faith, do good works are God's elect, who live again at the first
resurrection, to die no more. The rest of mankind, although they go
through suffering and death, and although their {112} sufferings are
not without effect in forming their spirits for immortality (such is
the virtue of the sacrifice of the Son of God "for the sins of the
whole world"), rise to be judged for their unbelief and
unrighteousness, and to be condemned to undergo a second death. The
Lamb slain is appointed to execute the judgment and take vengeance on
the unrighteous. What better title could there be for his undertaking
this "strange work" (Isa. xxviii. 21), than his having so cruelly and
unjustly suffered at the hands of sinful men? Yet the portions of
Scripture we have had under consideration necessitate the conclusion
that the consecration of the way to life through death by the death of
the Son of God, which applies to the death of believers, applies also
to the second death of unbelievers; so that this death also is followed
by life. But here a difficulty presents itself which needs
explanation. Although Scripture speaks of a first resurrection and a
second death, it makes no mention of a _second resurrection_. This, I
think, may be accounted for as follows.
By considering the context, both preceding and following, of the
clause, "This is the first resurrection," in Rev. xx. 5, it will be
apparent that "resurrection" does not here mean simply returning to
life after death, but may be taken to embrace the whole period of the
thousand years, together with all that concerns "the happy and the
holy" who {113} have part therein. This interpretation is in
accordance with the sense in which our Lord speaks of resurrection
where he says, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels, of God in heaven" (Matt. xxii. 30).
That "the resurrection" (_hê anastasis_) designates a state or
condition of life into which the elect of God are _introduced_ by
returning to life after death, is still more explicitly signified by
the following corresponding passage of St. Luke (xx. 34-36): "The
children of this world marry, and are given in marriage; but they who
are accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from
the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: neither can they die
any more; for they are equal to the angels, and are children of God,
being children of the resurrection." Now, it may certainly be inferred
from what is said in Rev. xx. 5, that the rest of the dead, who have no
part in this first resurrection, return to life at the end of the
thousand years. But they return to life to be judged, condemned, and
suffer death again. This, therefore, is in no sense a resurrection
answering to the description above given of the first resurrection, and
accordingly is not called in Scripture the second resurrection. What
really corresponds to the holiness and happiness of the first
resurrection state is the finally perfected and all-comprehending state
called "the new heaven and the new earth," life in which, according to
our {114} argument, comes out of the second and last death, and is
unconditioned by time. This is the heavenly state which is described
in Rev. vii. 11-17, xxi. 2-4, and 10-27. Thus, although this may be
regarded as that subsequent resurrection to which "the first
resurrection" by its very designation points, it is not called "the
second resurrection," because it is not, like the first, limited or
conditioned by _time_.
The portion of the Apocalypse which is strictly symbolical and
prophetical begins at _v._ 1 of chap. iv. and ends with _v._ 5 of chap.
xxii. The first three chapters, including the epistles to the seven
Churches, and the verses from chap. xxii. 5 to the end of the book, may
be taken to be respectively introduction and conclusion, the contents
of which, although strictly related to those of the intermediate
symbolical part, are not of a character so exclusively figurative.
This circumstance has to be taken into account in proposing
interpretations of passages contained in them. Now, there are certain
passages in the concluding part which appear to be contradictory to the
doctrine of salvation maintained in this Essay, and accordingly, before
bringing the argument to a close, I shall endeavour to ascertain the
true interpretations of these passages.
The angel who showed John "these things" (xxii. 8) says of himself, "I
am the fellow-servant of thee, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of
those who {115} keep the words of this book;" and yet this speaker is
not distinguished from him who afterwards says (_vv._ 12, 13), "Lo, I
come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each according as
his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the
beginning and the end," who, without doubt, is the Lord himself. This
may be accounted for by the following considerations. This angel, of
whom it is twice asserted that he refused to receive worship proffered
to him by the seer (xix. 10, and xxii. 9), is the same that is spoken
of in Rev. i. 1, with reference to "the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave to him, to shew to his servants things which must
shortly come to pass," in these terms: "He [Jesus Christ] by sending
signified it [the revelation] through his angel to his servant John."
In certain passages in the introductory part of the Apocalypse, as Rev.
i. 8, 17-20, and throughout the epistles to the seven Churches, the
Lord speaks in his own person; and this again he does expressly in some
passages in the concluding part, as xxii. 7, 12, 13, 16, 20; and
although the speaker in _vv._ 10 and 11 appears to be the same as the
speaker in _v._ 9, who certainly is the angel, such words as those two
verses contain could hardly have been uttered by any one but the Lord,
and, at least, they may be attributed to him on the principle that what
the Lord does through his ministering angel may be said to be done by
himself. It is as {116} ministering to Jesus Christ that the angel
calls himself a "fellow-servant" of prophets and apostles, and,
generally, of those who keep the words of this revelation. For these
reasons in the following remarks I take _vv._ 10 and 11 as spoken by
Jesus Christ.
The words addressed by the speaker to John are (_vv._ 10, 11): "Seal
not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand.
He who is unrighteous, let him commit injustice still; and he who is
filthy, let him be filthy still; and he who is righteous, let him do
righteousness still; and he who is holy, let him be holy still. Lo, I
come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each as his work
is." This passage has been interpreted as meaning that in the world to
come the conditions of the righteous and the wicked are irrevocably
fixed.
I would rather say, having regard to the precise opposition of the
clauses of which it is composed, that the passage declares that in the
end unrighteousness and filthiness are irrevocably separate from their
opposites righteousness and holiness; and to account for the terms in
which this statement is made, it may suffice to refer to the principle
that according to the concrete, or objective, teaching of the
Apocalypse, holiness and filthiness would not be spoken of
abstractedly, that is, apart from holy and _filthy_ persons, and in
like manner righteousness and unrighteousness would not be mentioned
apart from their necessary {117} antecedents, _personal_ righteous and
unrighteous _deeds_. The expressions "commit injustice" and "do
righteousness," which do not occur in the English version, are exact
renderings of the Greek.
Another passage which, as bearing on our argument, requires to be taken
into account, is _v._ 15 of the same chapter, which asserts that
"without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and
idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie." This is
expressing in concrete language, such as is constantly employed in
Scripture, that there is no unrighteousness in the city of God. Such
language, being concerned only with _objective_ realities, cannot
express a _negation_, and, consequently, cannot assert that
unrighteousness is _not_ within the city. Hence it is not possible,
except by means of such terms as those actually employed, to express
concretely that the city of God is free from all unrighteousness. By
comparing Rev. xxi. 8 with the interpretation here given of Rev. xxii.
15, it will be seen that the exclusion from the city of God of all
things sinful and abominable is declared to be effected by "the second
death."