After The Resurrection of the Just and Wicked
BY H. L. HASTINGS,
Author of "Thessalonians; The Model Church;”
"Reasons for My Hope;"
"The Great Controversy between God and Man;"
“Pauline Theology;"
"The Old Paths," etc.
“VENGEANCE IS MINE; I WILL REPAY SAITH THE LORD."
SECOND EDITION.
Boston, Massachusetts.
PUBLISHED BY H. L. HASTINGS, 167 HANOVER STREET.
1862.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861,
by H. L. HASTINGS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the State of Rhode Island.
THESE pages are given to the world from a settled conviction of duty. The object contemplated is not controversy, but earnest, practical admonition, that those who read them may be led to prepare for the solemn scenes of judgment and retribution that await the world.
If I have written earnestly, it is because I am in earnest; if confidently, it is because I am confident. I have not, I confess, that charity which is entirely indifferent to how men think or act; but rather the charity that "rejoiced not in iniquity, but rejoiced in the TRUTH.''
I know it may be said, that "Others think themselves right as well as we;" but the point in dispute is not who thinks he is right, but who is right? In settling such questions we are not to rest upon assertions, but upon facts, and the question is not who says he is right, but who proves it.
I have quoted largely from the Sacred Oracles. To these I appeal. They will judge us at the last day. May we be saved then through Divine mercy, is the fervent prayer of THE AUTHOR.
Rode Island, August 10th, 1861.
IT was my intention to send forth the second edition of this work with large additions to some portions of the argument. The pressure of other engagements has not allowed me to fulfil this purpose; but if it please God, I hope soon to be able to lay before my readers another work, now in course of preparation, on "The Resurrection of the Dead," in which I shall endeavor more fully to discuss certain subjects which have been somewhat cursorily treated in these pages, especially those scriptures which treat of the different classes of the dead who are to rise, "every man in his own ORDER." Those who are inquiring upon these momentous themes will, I trust, find something to interest, instruct, and profit them in the pages of that work.
As it regards those critics who have endeavored to compensate for the softness of their arguments by the hardness of their words, and for their lack of knowledge by their intensity of zeal, I beg to be excused from entering into controversy with them, as I do not wish to dispute with men whose arguments are interspersed with charges of hypocrisy and falsehood. I think it well for men to retain the manners of gentlemen, even if they should discard some portions of the faith of Christians.
May God guide his people in peace and truth; and as we draw near the grand and terrible scenes of future retribution and the glories of eternal reward, may we be enabled by divine grace to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear, knowing the price with which we were redeemed, and the doom from which we are delivered. That God may count us worthy to escape the things that are coming on the earth, and stand before the Son of Man in peace, is the prayer of THE AUTHOR.
Boston, Massachusetts, August 19th, 1862.
WHAT shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? What the ultimate destiny of those who reject the offers of salvation, and fail to accept the blessings of the gracious Redeemer, who extends to man the invitations of his mercy and his love?
No question can be more solemn and important than this. Its solution involves the most momentous interests and results. Possibly our own personal destiny, and also the doom of friends, neighbors, kindred, yea, of all the ungodly world, is suspended on the truthful answer to this question. Hence every man has a vital interest in its decision. It is no theme for idle disputation. It is no subject for careless speculation. It is no question admitting of vague and evasive answers. It is too awful for trifling; too terribly important to allow us to be mistaken about it with impunity.
It is related, that some years since the commander of a vessel in the British navy was instructed by the Lords of the Admiralty, to proceed to the Mediterranean Sea, and there, in a certain locality, to make careful soundings and ascertain the position of a rock which was not laid down in any of the charts, but which was, nevertheless, supposed by some to exist, causing great danger to vessels sailing in that region. The voyage was accordingly made, but the captain was careless and idle, he had no faith in the existence of such a rock, he did not make the investigation carefully, and at length he returned home and reported that no such rock existed. A subordinate officer on, board the vessel being much dissatisfied with the captain's negligence, reported the same to the Lords of the Admiralty, and succeeded in obtaining command of a vessel himself, for the purpose of completing the search. He made the voyage, surveyed the locality carefully and thoroughly, detected the presence of a very dangerous rock, returned to England, reported his success, and the newly-discovered rock was laid down in the charts published by authority, that all voyagers in those waters might see the danger and avoid it.
The commander of the first expedition was greatly enraged at this exposure of his own unfaithfulness. He knew there was no rock there; and he swore that the next time his vessel was in those waters he would drive her keel directly over the place where the pre-tended rock was said to be. The time came. One night when the wind was strong and the waves were tossed by its power, this captain was cruising in those waters. Taking his chart and laying it on the cabin table, he said to those around him, "Do you see that rock laid down on that chart?" "Yes." "Well there is no rock there. We are now close by that place, and to prove there is no rock there, I am about to sail directly over the spot." The passengers remonstrated with him, but it was of no use. His wounded vanity had made him insensible to all reason and argument.
So they sat in awful suspense, while he gave his orders with fool-hardy confidence. The wind freshened; the darkness thickened; they crowded sail, and the vessel bounded over the billows like a bird of night, until CRASH went her keel upon the rocks, and the water came pouring in through the breaches made by the shock. All now was terror and confusion on board the vessel. The boats were launched, the passengers and crew got on board of them, and pulled away from the sinking ship. Looking back they saw in the distance the captain standing alone on the deck of the vessel, while the foam of the billows was bursting about her bows. The wind freshened and the tempest raged, and when the morning broke, no trace of the ill-fated ship or its presumptuous commander could be seen. The waves still rolled above the hidden rock and the captain and his vessel had gone down into their silent depths.
The conduct of this rash man may fitly illustrate the course of many at the present day. Before them there is the terrible fact of danger, of punishment for sin, of retribution. They look carelessly forward, and then deny its existence. But the rock is there. They may dispute it, doubt it, scoff at it, and deride it, but it is there; and so surely as they attempt to brave the danger and defy the power of the Almighty, they will find that he who is a great foundation for his people to build upon, is also "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to those that stumble at his word being disobedient." "On whomsoever this stone shall fall it shall grind him to powder."
Let us then dismiss our prejudices, lay aside our false security, and come to look at the real danger in the present case. Let us inspect the Scriptures of truth, the chart that God has given us, and thus learn our peril and then endeavor to escape it.
Let us address ourselves to the consideration of those principles of justice which require, and those words of inspiration which declare, the great fact of a future retribution that awaits the ungodly. Let us do this "with reverence and with godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire."
1. At the foundation of the whole Christian system of religion lies this great fact, there is a just God, the Creator and governor of man and all things else. It is not needful to undertake to prove this proposition to one who believes the Holy Scriptures. It is the first fundamental element of a Christian faith, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb. 11.6. Those who deny this fact are not the persons to whom this argument is addressed. They may go and scan the heavens which declare the glory of God, and the firmament which "showed his handiwork," and learn there the existence of the creating Deity. But those who believe in the Bible as a Divine revelation, and profess to entertain a Christian faith, admit that there is a just God, the great and eternal Creator of mankind.
2. Man, created by God, is subject to his will, to his taw. Man is a creature of law. He can discern good and evil. He has some knowledge of right and wrong, and he in his waywardness is hemmed in on every hand by laws. There are laws that govern his physical nature; laws that control his mental constitution, and revealed laws that have respect unto his moral and religious character, and which come to him as the unfolding of his Creator's will, to which he, the created creature is bound to yield respect and adherence. And this is especially true since God has not only created man, but he is the "Preserver of men," and has given his Son to die for them, to be their Redeemer, thus laying them under renewed obligations to him, and binding them by ties of gratitude and affection to render honor, love, and obedience to him, their Maker. If then God is just and good, and man is under his government, we have a right to suppose that God will deal justly and rightly with all men; that he will punish sin and reward obedience; that he will mete out to all according to their deserts, whatever he has promised in the way of reward, or revealed and threatened in the direction of punishment, reserving to himself, of course, the power of pardon and remission of sins, to be exercised as his wisdom and mercy may see good.
3. Strict and even handed justice, according to the laws of God, or man, is not meted out to all mankind in this life, or in this world. No fact can be plainer than this. Oftentimes the good are oppressed, and the bad triumph over them. The vile are exalted and the righteous are trodden down. The innocent are punished and the guilty escape. The pure are slandered and the infamous are praised. The godly are persecuted, and the ungodly are honored. All these facts lie like terrible mysteries on the face of earthly affairs, and sometimes even lead the devout to query if there be in heaven a supreme God of righteousness; while the wicked take courage and are made bold in their iniquities. The Psalmist's feet had well nigh slipped 'while he contemplated the fact of "the prosperity of the wicked;" and only a vision of "their end," as seen in "the sanctuary of God," preserved him from a fatal fall. These facts, the certainty and justice of the divine government, and the present unequal distribution of rewards and punishments, lead us irresistibly to the following conclusion.
4. There must be a future state of rewards and punishments beyond this world, where present inequalities may be adjusted, virtues rewarded, sins punished, mysteries of evil solved, the divine character vindicated, and all mankind made to know that the Almighty is in reality the ruler of the world.
This was the conclusion arrived at by Solomon the wisest of men, when he saw the unpunished iniquity of this world: "I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that WICKEDNESS was THERE; and the place of righteousness, that INIQUITY was THERE. I said in mine heart, God shall JUDGE the RIGHTEOUS and the WICKED: for there is a time there for every purpose, and for every work." Eccl. 3.16, 17. No conclusion can be more reasonable than this. If in this world the very "places of judgment" and righteousness are usurped by wickedness and iniquity, and so earthly justice and retribution becomes vitiated at the fountainhead by man's ungodliness, surely then there must be a great and supreme court of final appeal, where God shall judge both the righteous and the wicked, bringing into the account every purpose and every work, reversing the false judgments of the wicked men of earth and enthroning righteousness in everlasting honor and triumph in the universe. And having settled this fact that "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked," Solomon grounds his exhortations to virtue and his dissuasions from vice upon this great and established principle, saying to the young: "Rejoice, O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: BUT KNOW THOU, that for all these things GOD will bring THEE into JUDGMENT." Reel. 11.9. And his closing words of admonition; his last message of wisdom to the world, thus embody the same grand fact:-"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man; for God shall bring EVERY WORK into judgment, with every SECRET THING, whether it be GOOD, or whether it be EVIL." Eccl. 12.13, 14. These passages prove beyond all reasonable controversy, that the Scriptures reveal a future judgment and retribution.
5. This judgment is not at DEATH nor IN death, nor immediately following after death. It would appear that the Almighty holds men responsible, not only for their immediate acts, but for the consequences resulting from them. So the prophet Jeremiah speaks of him as "The Great, the mighty God, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon ALL the WAYS of the sons of men: to give EVERY ONE according to his WAYS, and according to the FRUIT of his DOINGS." Jer. 32.18, 19. And again, it is written, "I Jehovah search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his WAYS, and according to the FRUIT of his DOINGS." Jer. 17.10.
Now, though a man's ways may be in some degree manifest at death, "the FRUIT of his doings" is not then developed in its fullness. And if the fruit of a man's doings cannot be determined till it reaches its mature results, we see a reason why a man should not be judged immediately at death. The blasphemy of an infidel may send a stream of poison through all time; the faithful zeal of a true Christian may prove to the world a fountain of perpetual blessing, that shall run through all the ages of human probation. Hence, it seems but reasonable that the reckoning and reward be deferred until the close of the dispensation, until the grand and mighty results of mortal action for good or evil can be surveyed at a glance and brought into that final estimate of human conduct which shall precede the eternal award. Nor will it answer to evade this argument by the assertion that, as God foreknows all things, there is no need of such delay beyond a man's decease; for if this be admitted, then it may be answered, God foreknew all this before the man had committed a sin, and so he might as well have judged, condemned, and punished him before he was guilty, since he foreknew it all.
The day of judgment and the investigations of that day, are not to inform the Almighty of man's deserts, but rather to publicly exhibit to the world that which was already written in God's book, so that justice may not only be actual but also visible and apparent to all mankind. Hence the Scriptures defer the judgment till AFTER death. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT." Heb. 9.27. Nor is this judgment accomplished while men are in hales, sheol, (or the state of the dead, which the Greeks and Hebrews designated by those titles,) for Solomon declares that there is "no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in sheol, whither thou goest." Eccl. 9.10. And Job says, "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master." Job 3.17-19.
The patriarch of Uz clearly saw the necessity of a future judgment as required by the inequalities of human rewards in this world; and his faith definitely fixes that judgment beyond the domain of death. It was outside of that "land of darkness and the shadow of death, without any order, where the light itself is as darkness," that the race were to receive their rewards and their retributions. Thus he speaks: "Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judged those that are high. One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk and his bones are moistened with marrow. And another dies in the bitterness of his soul, and never eats with pleasure. They shall LIE DOWN ALIKE in the DUST, and the worms shall cover them. Behold I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say where is the house of the prince? And where are the dwelling-places of the wicked? Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked IS RESERVED to the DAY of DESTRUCTION? they SHALL BE BROUGHT FORTH to the DAY of WRATH." Job 21.22-30:
This was the faith of this ancient servant of the Lord. Though in death all classes lay down alike in the dust; though the one died in his strength and prosperity, and the other after a life of misery and pain, and so all tokens of a superintending providence were obliterated in the common ruin of the grave; yet still there is retribution, and while on the behalf of the righteous the Redeemer "shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," and shall call for them, and they shall answer to his voice, and in their flesh shall see their God; on the other hand, the wicked, unpunished as yet, are reserved unto the day of destruction, and shall be brought forth to "the day of wrath."
This faith, so ancient and so definitely unfolded, is reiterated in very similar language by the Apostle Peter as follows: "For if God SPARED NOT the angels that sinned, but cast them to TARTARUS, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be RESERVED unto JUDGMENT; and SPARED NOT the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in THE FLOOD upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an OVERTHROW, making THEM an ENSAMPLE unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) THE LORD KNOWETH HOW to DELIVER the GODLY out of temptations, and to RESERVE the UNJUST unto the DAY OF JUDGMENT to be PUNISHED." 2 Pet. 2.4-9.
The apostle's argument is from analogy. If God has wrought such deliverances and such judgments in times past, he is a judge of man; and these past visitations but foreshadow more terrible future inflictions. For God still knows how to deliver his people, and "to reserve the UNJUST to the day of judgment to be punished." This day of judgment is not at death, but men are reserved in death's prison to "be brought forth to the day of wrath." "The day of destruction" is also spoken of by Peter as "the day of judgment, and perdition, (or destruction) of ungodly men." 2 Pet. 3.7.
Another prediction of judgment which seems to be more ancient than any we have quoted, fixes the period of retribution with great definiteness at the coming of the Lord. Of a scoffing and ungodly throng it is .aid: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord COMETH with ten thousands of his saints, to execute JUDGMENT upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly. deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Jude 15.
The persons of whom Jude speaks who were then spots in their feasts of love, who were clouds without water, raging waves of the sea, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever
and ever, and of whom he says that "Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied, of THESE," are long ere this dead, and the judgment of temporal death has been executed on them. But the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his holy ones, "to execute judgment upon all," and he is to punish them for all their hard speeches which they have spoken against Him, and hence, of course, those sinful persons of whom Jude spoke, though long since dead are included in the prophetic denunciation of wrath. This judgment, therefore, is not when men die, but it is "after death," when the Lord shall come with ten thousand of his saints, to execute it upon all the ungodly. Terrible will be that day when God shall judge men for all their ungodly deeds, and all their 'hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Let the blasphemer beware; let the sinner repent and prepare to meet his God.
6. There are numerous allusions and general declarations in the Hebrew Scriptures which embody or imply the same idea of future retribution. As an example may be adduced, the punishment called KARATH, i.e. cutting off, or excision, so often denounced against those Israelites who were guilty of certain sins specified in the Old Testament, as expressed in our translation, "they shall be cut off." Now many of the acts there forbidden were secret, and could not well be punished in this world; and there was ordinarily no specification of any earthly punishment to be inflicted on the guilty. They died as others died, but many of the Jews, and among them Maimonides, the most learned of all the modern Jews, declared that this punishment of KARATH, or cutting off, was the utter destruction of the soul in the world to come.* The Psalmist also plainly alludes to the fact of future retribution, when he says, "The meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.... The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.... For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth: and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. . . . The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever.... Wait on the Lord, and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it. But the transgressors shall be destroyed TOGETHER: the end of the wicked shall be cut off." Ps. 37.11, 20-38.
* "Maimonides declares the punishment of excision mentioned in the law, to be restricted to the future life only, and to consist in the total annihilation of the intellectual soul. (See his Comm. on the Mishna, tr. Sanhedrim, Chap. 9.and 11, and Yad Hachazaka, Vol. 1, Hilchoth Teshubah, Chap. 8, § 1, 5." The sacred Scriptures in Hebrew and English; a New Translation with Notes, etc. By D. A. De Sola, J. L. Lindenthal, and M. J. Raphall, Vol. 1. p. 84.
No fact can be more evident than that the meek do not yet inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of peace; nor are the wicked cut off before their eyes; much less are the transgressors destroyed TOGETHER, and the end of the wicked CUT OFF. This then, clearly implies a future retribution that awaits the ungodly, and which shall overwhelm them in a common and irrevocable ruin. And to this agree the word of Isaiah who makes similar mention of the overthrow of the ungodly when he says, "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the DESTRUCTION of the TRANSGRESSORS and the SINNERS shall be TOGETHER, and they that FORSAKE the Lord shall be CONSUMED." Is. 1.27, 28.
The idea of final and terrible retribution is most clearly and powerfully unfolded in the seventy-third Psalm. The Psalmist there declares "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compassed them about as a chain; violence covered them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart can wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth."
This was the picture which hung like a fearful shadow between the mind of the Psalmist and the face of his God. He saw the terrible problem of existing evil, and he almost lost his faith in a Deity who allowed such iniquity in his dominions. But thin was not all. While the wicked were triumphing, God's people were depressed, and made to drink the cup of sorrow. So he continues: " Therefore his people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them." Then there was, besides, the boasting of the impious of which he thus speaks: "And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches." Then came the terrible doubts; the suggestions of Satan; the murmurings of an unbelieving heart; "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." But yet he trembles on the verge of the abyss of unbelief, and fears to make the fatal plunge into Atheism and ungodliness. He remembers the afflicted people of God whose heavy hearts he might grieve yet more by the utterance of his doubts, and he says, "If I say I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy people." To spare their hearts he suppresses his murmurings, and yet still broods sadly over the great and solemn mystery. He saw no solution here on earth. He followed wicked men through life in prosperity and even "in their death" there were "no bands," and their strength was firm; and so from the cradle to the grave there was not one gleam of light upon the dark and painful subject.
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; UNTIL I went into the SANCTUARY OF GOD; then understood I their END. What was this end? It was not mere natural death. He had no need to go into the sanctuaries of God, into the secrets of the divine counsels, to understand that; he understood it already. He had already followed them down to the grave; he must look beyond the tomb, for he clearly saw that their punishment was not there. "There are no bands in their DEATH;" no troubles haunted them even in a dying hour, but their strength was firm even to the end of earthly life. Sight could pursue them no farther. Faith must come in to solve the mystery. So his heart was for a time troubled and pained as he says, "Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their END. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou cast them down to DESTRUCTION. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment 1 they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes; so, O Lord, when thou awakes, thou shalt despise their image." Ps. 73.1-20. This is the conclusion. In the sanctuary of God, the Psalmist sees "their end," far beyond this mortal life; beyond the gates of death. There they receive their doom. There they stand on slippery places, and are cast down into destruction by an Almighty hand. There God shall despise their image when he shall awake from his seeming carelessness, and arise "to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth."
Within the sanctuary of God, and with this exhibition of the final retribution that awaits the ungodly in view, unbelief hides its face, envy is dumb, and the soul comes again to trust in God's protection, and draw nigh to him in confiding love. Such was the Psalmist's experience as indicated by the remainder of this ancient song of Asaph the seer, which thus concludes: "It is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works."
The prophet Isaiah also foretells a time of retribution which is most clearly in the future. It is at a time when "The windows from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel too and froe like a drunkard, aid shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in THAT DAY, that the Lord shall PUNISH the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Is. 24.18-23. All this, the earthly commotions, the punishment, the pit, the visitation, point to a future retribution at the day of judgment, when the Lord shall reign in glory upon Mount Zion and in Jerusalem renewed.
In the second chapter of Daniel we also find intimations that coincide with the statements already adduced. In that chapter is an account of a Dream or Vision which the Babylonian king had one night, in which the course of earthly rule was represented by a great image of a man, whose head was gold, his breasts silver, his belly brass, his legs iron, and his feet iron and clay. And while the monarch looked, he saw 'a stone, hurled from the mountain's brow by unseen power, strike the image on the feet, and THEN all the various materials, gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay, were broken in pieces together, ground to powder, and dispersed by the winds, while the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
The interpretation, as given by the prophet in the same chapter, is, that the head of gold represents Babylon; the breast of silver, a succeeding kingdom, the Median and Persian; the brass another third kingdom, that of Grecia; the iron a fourth kingdom, namely, the Roman; and the iron and clay, the divided and broken condition of the old Roman empire; while the stone represents the kingdom of God, which he shall establish in the earth, and which shall destroy all these other kingdoms, and stand forever.
Now this destruction has not yet occurred. The Roman feet of "iron and clay" on which the stone was to fall or first strike, are yet existing. But the Grecian, Persian, and Babylonian kingdoms, have long since disappeared. The kingdoms are fallen, and the men that composed them are dead. But the prophecy tells us that when once the work of destruction begins by the stone smiting the feet of the image, then brass, iron, clay, silver and gold, are to be broken in pieces TOGETHER, and they are to become as the chaff on the summer's threshing-floor, and the wind carries them away and no place is found for them. But the gold, and silver, and brass of that image, are in the dust of death, and hence they must be raised from the dead, for this retribution, in order that the prediction may be fulfilled, and the whole broken in pieces TOGETHER, and driven to eternal destruction, as a punishment for their great ungodliness in days long gone by.
More definite still is another prediction in the same prophecy, which has reference to the close of the same grand series of events. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Dan. 12.1-3.
In this passage we have a plain prediction of the coming forth of "many," or literally, "MULTITUDES" that sleep in the dust of the earth. And two classes are clearly distinguished as coming forth. One class come forth to everlasting life, to shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever; while the other class come forth to shame, to conscious confusion, and to eternal contempt and abhorrence. So clearly is the fact of future retribution here declared that it is only by a different version and an un-warranted paraphrase of the passage, that persons undertake to evade the force of this most positive declaration of the word of the Lord which foretells a future retribution.
7. If we examine the words of the Great Teacher who spoke as never man spoke, we find still more frequent allusions to, and recognitions of, the solemn fact of future retribution, standing forth with great distinctness in all his discourses. From the groveling fear of men, and from the dread of the slanders and misconceptions of au ungodly world, he points his disciples away to a more solemn tribunal, and to a mightier judge, saying, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him which AFTER HE RATH KILLED hath power to cast into Gehenna, (hell); yea, I say unto you fear him." Luke 12.4, 5. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to DESTROY both SOUL and BODY in HELL, (Gehenna.)" Matt. 10.28. This is the fear which should be before the Christian’s eyes, the fear of a DEATH after death; a death more terrible than any which man can inflict, even the destruction "after he hath KILLED" of "both soul and body;" not in the valley called Gehenna, near Jerusalem, but in that more terrible Gehenna, "the Gehenna of fire," that awaits the ungodly at the day of judgment.
To those who shrank from the reproach attendant on the belief of his gospel, and from the obedience which he required, he said, "I say unto you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God: but he that DENIETH me before men SHALL be DENIED before the angels of God." Luke 12.8, 9. "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall COME in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall REWARD EVERY MAN according to his WORKS." Matt. 16.26, 27. To show his disciples beyond all mistake the form and manner of his coming, he told them that some standing there should not taste death till they had beheld an exhibition of it, and about eight days after he took Peter, and James, and John up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them; thus being temporarily glorified in their presence, and so exhibiting to them beforehand, in miniature, the splendor of that coming when he should reward EVERY MAN according to his works; and by this act making them to be "eye-witnesses of his majesty," when they - "were with him in the holy mount." 2 Pet. 1.16.
This declaration of Jesus points most plainly to a future retribution. When the Lord shall come in his glory, he shall reward EVERY MAN. Righteous and wicked, living and dead, are all comprehended in the expression " every man." And so this passage plainly unfolds to us the fact of future rewards and punishments for all mankind, at the second appearing of the Lord.
8. To cut off all uncertainty concerning the period of this retribution, and to inform us of the rule by which rewards and punishments are to be bestowed and inflicted, our Lord declares, "He that rejected me, and received not my words, hath one that judged HIM: the WORD that I have spoken, the same shall judge HIM IN THE LAST DAY." John 12.48. Here we see that not only those that receive but also those that reject Christ's words, are to be called to meet him; and the judgment on the rejecters of his words is not in this life, nor in DEATH, but it is "IN THE LAST DAY."
To the same solemn event he alluded, when, in giving his instructions to his twelve disciples who went forth to preach the word of God, he said: "And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be MORE TOLERABLE for Sodom. and. Gomorrah IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT than for that city. And they went out and preached that men should repent." Mark 6.11, 12.
Here is a clear intimation of retribution, or punishment for the rejecters of the gospel of Christ, who heard the apostles preach. The time of their punishment is plainly said to be "IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT." This cannot refer to any mere temporal judgment, nor to the ordinary death of individuals, for no city or people has yet been punished with a more terrible infliction than that which was poured in storms of sulphureous flame upon the guilty cities of the plain. But the language clearly refers to a time when others, having had greater light than the inhabitants of those cities, should stand with them "in the day of judgment," and receive a punishment more terrible, as their guilt had. been more aggravated than that of those ancient sinners. For where light is bestowed, improvement is demanded; and where much is given, much is required. When the Lord of the servants cometh in an unexpected hour to reward the faithful and to render chastisements to those who deserve them, then "That servant which knew ,his Lord's will, and prepared not himself neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with MANY STRIPES. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with FEW STRIPES. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and he whom men have committed much, of him will they ask the more." Luke 12.47, 48. Again, while speaking of the more educated, and privileged, and consequently more responsible classes who listened to his words, he said, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the GREATER DAMNATION." Matt. 23.14. For them a more strict and rigid scrutiny, a more vehement condemnation, a more terrible retribution, was justly and properly reserved.
9. The same doctrine of a graduated responsibility, proportioned to the light received and the guilt incurred, is similarly intimated by our Lord on 'other occasions. When some, after hearing his gospel, had added to its rejection the most infamous abuse, by calling him a glutton, a wine-bibber, and a man of evil character, "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: woe unto thee Choarazin! woe unto thee Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It SHALL BE more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon IN THE DAY OF JITDGMENT, than for YOU. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell (hades,) for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be MORE TOLERABLE for the land of Sodom in the DAY OF JUDGMENT than for THEE." Matt. 11.20-23.
The same important principle is again developed by our Lord upon another occasion. "When the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation, they seek a sign; and there shall be no sign given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. The queen of the South SHALL RISE UP IN THE JUDGMENT WITH THE MEN OF THIS GENERATION, and condemn them; for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall RISE UP in the JUDGMENT with this GENERATION and shall CONDEMN IT: for they REPENTED at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here." Luke 11.29-32.
Such are some of the principles that shall regulate the administration of justice in that day. And, in the light of these principles, every act shall be subjected to the strictest scrutiny. The men of Nineveh who repented at the preaching of Jonah, shall rise up in the judgment with that generation who did not repent at the preaching of Christ, and shall condemn it. The queen of Sheba, who came from far to hear the wisdom of Solomon, shall RISE UP in the judgment and condemn those who refused to hear the wisdom of God when it was brought to their very doors by one who was greater than Solomon. And-in that great judgment every act, every purpose, every thought, and every word, must pass before the judge. Hence we are told from his lips, "I say unto you, that for every idle word* that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matt. 12.36, 37. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," and if our hearts be full of falsehood, deceit, and pollution, our words will in some way indicate the fact; while if our hearts are pure and holy, our conversation will he with grace, our words will be like "apples of gold," and by our words we shall, through divine mercy, be justified in that day.
* Rheema argon, "pernicious word;" Campbell's Version. "Unprofitable, useless, by implication injurious." Greenfield's Lexicon. As idle men are generally bad men, (so "idle bellies," Titus 1.12. See 1 Tim. 5. 13,) there may be here included all evil, wicked, false, unholy, and unprofitable words. To limit this simply to words spoken in carelessness or pleasantry would seem to be an unwarranted restriction, since we know that slander, falsehood, blasphemy, and all other sins of the tongue, are to be accounted for to God. Hence it is probable that "Rheema argon" includes the varied iniquities of the tongue, all the "evil things" that the "evil man" "bringeth forth out of the evil treasure of the heart." Matt. 12.35.
How careful then ought to live,
With what religious fear,
Who such a strict account must give,
For my behavior here.
10. Our Savior presented this future day of investigation and retribution as the motive by which he urged his hearers to put forth every effort for the securing of their own personal salvation. On one occasion as he was teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem, "Then said one unto him, Lord are there few that be saved?" This was a most appropriate opportunity for one who believed in it, to inculcate and expound the theory of "universal salvation;" but for some reason, Jesus Christ, who knew all about the matter, and who has been claimed as the founder of that system, failed to tell the inquirer that all would surely be saved. What answer did he give to such a question? "And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for MANY I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be ABLE, WHEN once the master of the house is RISEN UP, and hath shut to the DOOR, and YE begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto YOU, I know you not whence YE are. THEN shall YE begin to say, We have EATEN and DRUNK in THY PRESENCE, and THOU hast TAUGHT in OUR STREETS. But he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when YE shall SEE Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and ALL the PROPHETS in the kingdom of God, and YOU YOURSELVES THRUST OUT. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last." Luke 13.23-30.
This scene is evidently at the last day. It is when once the Master of the house, according to the oriental custom, after waiting long to receive his guests, has "risen up and shut to the door." It is when Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are seen by those wicked men whom he addressed "in the kingdom of God." Hence this plainly teaches the doctrine of retribution at the day of judgment. The persons here specified are clearly such as saw Jesus, when, in the days of his flesh, he dwelt among men. This most clearly appears from various reasons. First, Jesus urges them to repent and strive now to enter the difficult gate, because that day which he describes is coming. Second: he says to them YE shall begin to stand without and knock.
Third:
They shall say "WE have EATEN and DRUNK in THY PRESENCE." This, no persons but those who lived when Jesus was on earth can ever truthfully say. It was not to a religious act, it was not to the Lord's Supper that he referred, for that had not then been instituted, but it was to the fact that many of them who were workers of iniquity, but who yet followed him to the wilderness, were present when he fed the thousands, or where he sat at meat, in houses to which he was invited, should at last be driven from his presence for their sins. Fourth: they shall say, "Thou hast TAUGHT in OUT STREETS." No person now living in this world can truly say that. None living at the day of judgment can say it. Christ has never taught in any of "our streets," for the last eighteen centuries; but at the day of judgment men will come who are branded by Christ as " workers of iniquity," and will declare to him, " Thou halt taught in our streets."
Fifth:
They are to "see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God," (which cannot be till they come to inherit the kingdom prepared for theta at the day of judgment.," Matt. 25.34,) and they themselves are then to be thrust out.
Sixth:
As the angels "shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity." Matt. 13.41. It follows that wicked men who heard the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth in the days of his flesh, will come to stand before him and desire admittance to his presence at the day of judgment; and further, that they, so far from being punished at death, will not even know their doom until the day of judgment. They will there recognize Jesus as the Galilean prophet who fed the multitudes, and whose preaching they rejected; and, though desiring now to be recognized by him, they will be bidden to depart from his presence as sinners. The long delusion will be ended and the terrible disappointment will break upon them. Prophets and patriarchs shall be glorified in the kingdom of God, and they themselves "THRUST OUT." Then there shall be sorrow and anguish, when they remember this warning that Jesus gave them, and find it so terribly fulfilled. The saints shall enter into their rest, and "the wicked shall see it and be grieved, he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked shall perish." Ps. 112.10.
Somewhat similar is our Savior’s illustration in the parable of the nobleman who goes to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. To his servants he commits his wealth that they may use it for his profit. His enemies hate him and send after him their protest, "We will not have this man 'to reign over us." He returns, at length, having received the kingdom. Then he calls his servants and rewards the faithful ones. The wicked and slothful servant is cast into outer darkness, and then his enemies, who would not that he should reign over them, are brought and slain before his eyes.
The import of the parable is clear. Christ is the nobleman, heaven is the far country, his servants are his followers, and his enemies are those who hated him, and cried "Away with him, away with him," "Crucify him, crucify him." He will return at last, having received the kingdom, the empire of this world, and then will he not reckon with the very servants that he left behind him, as well as all others? And when his enemies are called for, will not those who rejected him and said, "We have no king but Cesar," be included in the number? Shall not they that pierced him wail because of him? This seems to be the import of the parable.
Let us then be admonished by these considerations. The day is coming, ere long, when the master of the house, having risen up, shall shut to the door. And not only shall those who heard Jesus preach find their destinies decided then, but we who have read and heard his word, shall also find our own destiny then determined. To us the admonition is profitable, Strive, agonize, to enter in.at the strait, the difficult gate. Let us labor now to secure the great salvation, while "every one that seeks finds, and to him that knocked it shall be opened," lest we at last are found seeking to enter when it is too late, and are bidden to depart from the presence of Christ with the "workers of iniquity."
11. The solemn scenes of the day of judgment are most impressively described by our Savior in words like these. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. 25.31-46.
Around the tremendous scenes of this solemn crisis what awful interest gathers. It is this judgment that gives to a transient act an untold importance. The feeding of an hungry pilgrim, the ministering to the sick and the distressed; the bestowment of clothing upon the naked and the needy; and the giving of a cup of cold water in a disciple's name; the trembling confession of Jesus as the Lord, before a scoffing and deriding world; all these acts, done for the love of Christ, trivial as they may seem in the estimation of men, are fraught with most momentous consequences. The chord we strike here vibrates in eternity. The discord or the music passes beyond the vail; the discord of sin ends in weeping, and wailing, and woe, while the heart-melody of the humble Christian, though unheard amid earthly dissonance and turmoil shall there break out in
The joyful song of Moses and the Lamb.
From the scenes of that judgment there is no escape. You must be there, I must be there. We must behold the Judge. We must abide the high award of heaven. Nothing can hide us; nothing can shelter us. Gold cannot bribe the Judge, money cannot buy an acquittal. No skillful pleader can conceal our sin; no appeal can delay our sentence; no exceptions can stay the issue; no injunction can prevent our doom; no excuse can blind our Judge; no refuge
of lies can avail; no hiding-place can secrete us. "The hail shall sweep away the refuges of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-places." Is. 28.17. No spot on earth is beyond the jurisdiction of him who hath "all power in heaven and in earth" given into his hands. We may go to the ends of the earth or to the islands of the sea; we may dig down to the cavernous depths of SHEOL itself, yet there shall the hand of God find us. We may die, escaping from all mortal jurisdiction; we may take refuge in the silent realm of the king of terrors, but that shall be no hiding-place in the great and solemn day of God. He who died, and rose, and revived again, is Lord both of the dead and of the living; and he has the keys of hell and of death. He shall open those massy gates, and standing at those gloomy portals, shall summon the dead to appear before his face, and they who have lain undisturbed by the roar of battle, the swell of the trumpet, the rush of warriors, the booming of thunder, the gleaming of lightning, yea, and even those on whose ears the voices of affection and the pleading cries of orphans and bereft ones have fallen in vain, they shall hear the voice of the judge of quick and dead.*
* I am reminded of an incident which occurred a few years ago. A preacher of the gospel of God returned from a field of missionary labor, worn out and discouraged, took his bed and died in a few days. His wife hung over him and watched by his side until he fell asleep, and then she also sickened with the same disease, and in two weeks both were dead, and their little ones were left alone. The youngest child was in a town a few miles distant, and did not see his mother until they brought her there in a coffin for burial. When he looked upon the pallid face of his sleeping parent, he began to call, with a pathos that moved all hearts, "Mother, mother! wake up mother; open your eyes, mother, love little George." Alas! the call was vain; the mother had forgotten her little child. But blessed be that God who cared for those helpless orphans, there is a voice that can rouse that sleeping mother. How long shall we wait to hear its sound? How long shall we expect "The voice of the archangel and the trump of God?"
Though corruption and death have ground us to powder in the grave, yet we shall not be beyond the echo of Jesus' voice. He himself bath declared it. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which ALL that are in THE GRAVES* shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done GOOD, unto the resurrection of LIFE; and. they that have done EVIL, unto the RESURRECTION of DAMNATION." John 5.24-29. The teaching of this passage is explicit. Christ has become the great repository of life for mankind. He was to exhibit his power in the bestowal of life even then. A few of the dead, like the rulers daughter, the young man of Nain, and Lazarus of Bethany, were then to hear his voice, and hearing it they should live. And those who beheld it were not to wonder at this, for the time was coming when innumerable Lazaruses, and ten thousands of sons and daughters, yea, all that were in their graves, should hear that same voice, and should come forth. Some shall come forth to eternal life, to bloom forever beneath the sunny glories of the paradise of God, while others, having sown to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, and come forth unto the resurrection of condemnation, judgment, shame, and everlasting contempt.
* Graves," MNEMEION. This word occurs forty-two times in the New Testament. It is rendered graves eight times, tombs five times, and sepulcher twenty-nine times. It is used of the place where Jesus was laid, where Lazarus slept, and from whence many bodies of the saints arose." Matt. 27.52, 53. As these tombs were sometimes cavernous, and as two men possessed with a legion of demons are spoken of as dwelling among them, some have undertaken to prove that there is no resurrection spoken of in this passage, but merely a restoration of Israel, or, as some would have it, a creeping of living Jews out of holes in sepulchers, where they hid when the Romans passed by. Comment is unnecessary!!
The same evangelist who has recorded these words of Christ, was privileged afterwards to receive the final revelation of Jesus to his Church, and in this we find, as might be expected, the same grand facts looming up at the end of the prophetic statements which relate the history of the Church of God from the times in which John lived till the period when her warfare should be accomplished, and her deliverance achieved.
In the opening of his vision, at the first mention of Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the head of the kings of the earth, he says, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and EVERY EYE shall SEE HIM, and THEY also WHICH PIERCED Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." Rev. 1.7. Those who pierced him were either the Romans who inflicted the wounds in his hands, and feet, and side, or the Jews, the Scribes, and Pharisees, and priests, who instigated and demanded his crucifixion. In either case those that pierced him " shall see him" in the period of his manifestation, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail at the vision of his face.
This statement is in strict agreement with the words of Christ, in the presence of the Jewish High Priest and the Sanhedrim. While Jesus sat silently in the presence of the council, "The high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall YE SEE the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and COMING- in the clouds of HEAVEN. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?" Matt. 26.63-68. Those Jews are dead. Of them Jesus said, " Ye shall die in your sins, and where I am, there ye cannot come," but those very men who arraigned him, and buffeted him, and spit upon him, and derided him, shall yet SEE HIM, sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Some do not believe this fact now; they did not believe it then. They accused him of blasphemy; they condemned him to die. But neither unbelief, blasphemy, scoffing, or insult can prevent his coming, or their seeing him when he does come. Secure as they may think they are, they must then come forth from the grave.
Those eyes so long in darkness vaned. Must wake the Judge to see.
In another passage we again find retribution associated with the day of God's wrath, rather than with the event of man's death. At that time it is said: "I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casted her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places: and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH is COME; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6.12-17. This representation, which defers the WRATH of God until the time when the heavens depart, is contrary to the prevalent notion that God's wrath against sinners is constant and continual; but it represents the divine indignation as really "The wrath to come," according to the testimony of the sacred word.
The apostle Paul declares that the Thessalonian Christians had turned from idols "to serve the living God, and wait for his Son from heaven, even Jesus, which delivered us from the WRATH to COME." 1 Thess. 1.10. What wrath was this from which they were delivered? It was not the wrath that came upon Jerusalem at its overthrow, for the Gentile Thessalonians were never in danger of this wrath. It was not mere literal death, for they never had been delivered from that, and it was appointed unto them once to die, and die they did. Yet they were "delivered from the wrath to come;" the wrath that shall burn like fire, that shall be poured upon the ungodly, the "wrath of the Lamb," which shall be experienced not at death, nor in death, but when "the great day of his WRATH is come."
The same idea is conveyed in another place, where it is said: "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and vast, and art to come; because thou has taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, AND THY WRATH is COME, and the time of the DEAD, that they should be JUDGED, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the PROPHETS, and to the SAINTS, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest DESTROY them which DESTROY the earth." Rev. 11.15-18. At this point in the history of the world, God's wrath, long delayed through divine mercy has "coif" at last. And then the dead are to be judged, not merely the righteous, but "the dead;" and while the prophets and those that fear God are rewarded, those that corrupt or destroy the earth are to be destroyed.
In another place we have the following representation of the judgment of the great day: "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 hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged EVERY MAN according to their works. And death and hell 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." Rev. 20.11-15. This is the final judgment scene. It is beyond the events of mortal probation. It is the winding up, the readjustment of all the wrongs, and sins, and ills of earth. " The dead" are there; not a class of the dead, but "the dead," as a whole; " the dead, small and great," stand before God. We are not to suppose that they are dead then, any more than we are to conclude when we read that "the blind saw," "the dumb spoke," etc., that they were still blind or dumb. These were such as had been dead, for it is said that DEATH as well as HADES had delivered up the dead that were in them; so that they are persons whom death had "delivered up," at the call of God, and so they can be dead no longer. Hence we cannot explain this by a reference to any dramatic representations in Isaiah or Ezekiel, which represent the dead as being moved, or rising up in SHEOL or the state of death, for these persons are " delivered up" by SHEOL, while those are expressly stated to be still under its dominion.
Speculate as we may about this matter, in the end we shall have to meet the dread reality. We must meet the Judge. Living we shall not be exempt, and neither death nor hell can hide or hold their hosts. Judgment is not inflicted at death, it is not visited on those who are dead; but when the sea, and death, and hades, deliver up the dead, then they are judged out of the things written in the books. Then death is destroyed, and hades with him; and all whose names are not written in the book of life, are cast into the lake of fire which is the SECOND DEATH. Upon the blessed and holy who have part in the first resurrection, "the SECOND DEATH hath no power." The first death had power over all, but "he that over-cometh shall not be hurt of the SECOND DEATH." "But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burned with fire and brimstone: which is the SECOND DEATH." Rev. 2.11; 20.6; 21.8.
This oft-repeated expression "THE SECOND DEATH," is worthy of especial notice. There cannot be a SECOND death without a first death preceding it, any more than Christ could come a "second time unless he had come once before. This second death is spoken of constantly as the doom of unrepentant sinners, who are now dead; and the second death is never spoken of, except in this light. When death and hades deliver up the dead, then those who are found guilty are cast into the lake of fire, there meeting their doom "the second death." As the two deaths are spoken of together, one as preceding, and the second following, as the doom of the guilty, there surely can be no good ground to doubt that this is what the Apostle Paul had in view, when he wrote " The wages of sin is DEATH, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6.23. The two, both "the wages" and the gift, are received together at the great pay-day, the day of judgment; and Jesus says, in closing up the words of revelation, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give EVERY MAN according as his work shall be." Rev. 22.12.
That this idea of the second death is a new doctrine of doubtful reliability being only found in the book of Revelation, cannot possibly be proved or well admitted. We may go back among the Hebrews to the writings of the prophet Ezekiel, and find the same fact presented in no indefinite terms. Thus he says, "When a righteous man turned away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity, and DIETH IN THEM; FOR his iniquity that he hath done SHALL HE DIE." Ezek. 18.26. No fact need be more plainly stated than that there are TWO deaths here alluded to, a first and a second. First: the righteous man turned away from his righteousness and committed iniquities and DIETH IN THEM. Here is the first death beyond all dispute. Second: then comes the threatening. "For his iniquity that he hath done SHALL he DIE." This must surely be a "second death." It cannot be a moral death, for he would die this when he turned away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity. It cannot be the natural death, or first death, because he has already died in his sins, and is spoken of as under the dominion of that death. Hence the first death must deliver him up at the day of judgment, and then, and then only, can a man who has already died in his iniquities, die again for the iniquities which he committed. This passage teaches a retribution after death, and clearly implies a resurrection to condemnation, and to "the second death." No inference can be more clear, and it will require more ingenuity than most candid persons are possessed of, to turn aside the force of this passage, and so deny a resurrection of those who have died in their iniquities.
And then, as we reach the closing portions of revelation, this same fact is reiterated not less than four different times. The overcomers are promised exemption from the hurt of "the second death;" the blessed and holy who have part in the first resurrection are declared to be beyond its power. By the very gate of the first death, whence the imprisoned hosts are pouring forth at the call of Christ to judgment, there the sure word of prophecy stands and points the ungodly to their doom, "the second death;" while amid the closing splendors of the book of God, as the full-orbed glory of the eternal kingdom breaks in upon our view, still for the last remnant of the fearful, the faithless, and the vile, the voice of inspiration points out their dreadful part in the lake that burned with fire and brimstone, "which is the second death." "These are the true sayings of God," the sayings of the Holy Spirit, the sayings of Christ. Let no one misunderstand them, and go on in sin. "The prudent man for sees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." Let us beware how we trifle with, or turn aside the solemn warnings which God's mercy has bestowed upon us, and to which we do welt that we take heed. Let us see to it that we take nothing from the words of the prophecy of this book lest our part be taken from the book of life, and we perish in our sins.
The awful scenes of future judgment which have so long overhung the world, will soon be realities instead of prophecies, and facts instead of forebodings. We must meet him whose throne is as the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. We must see the Son of man in the glory of his Father.
Throned on a cloud our God shall some,
Bright flames prepare his way,
Thunder and darkness, fire and storm,
Lead on the dreadful day.
No more shall bold blasphemers say
Judgment shall ne'er begin,
No more abuse his long delay
To impudence and sin.
The numerous passages which have been quoted, exhibit sufficiently the teachings of the great Prophet concerning the grand facts of future resurrection, judgment, and retribution. And no one can fail to observe the intimate and inseparable connection between the day of judgment and the personal appearance of Jesus Christ as Judge. The works of love and mercy here, the kindness done to the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, are to be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14.14, and the punishment of the wicked is also deferred until the resurrection of condemnation." Those scenes are before us; let us anticipate them; let us prepare for them; let us be admonished by the words of Jesus now, for they will most surely judge us at the last day. But who shall abide the day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appeared? Let us abide in him, that we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming, when he shall judge the world in righteousness, and "give to every man according as his work shall be."
12. The teachings and writings of the Apostle Paul keep prominently before us the great facts of future retribution. When he stood among the unbelievers upon Mars' Hill, the high court of the Athenians, he proclaimed to them the glory of the unknown God whom they had ignorantly worshipped; he referred them to the darkness of the past ages, and said: "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commanded ALL MEN everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a DAY in the which he will judge the WORLD in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained.; whereof he hath given assurance unto ALL MEN in that he hath raised him from the dead." Acts 17.30, 31.
Several things are plainly taught here. The world is to be judged; God hath appointed the day; Christ is to be judge, for God hath raised him from the dead; and as all men, or the world, are to be judged, they are all commanded to repent that they may be prepared to meet that day in peace.
On another occasion the Apostle after describing the dreadful wickedness of the heathen world, turns to rebuke the Jew, who knowing the judgment of God and the principles of rectitude was yet guilty of the same things. On such he denounces the divine indignation in words like these: "And thinks thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and does the same, that thou shalt escape THE JUDGMENT OF GOD? Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart TREA-SUREST UP unto thyself WRATH against THE DAY OF WRATH and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to EVERY MAN according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon EVERY SOUL of MAN that doeth EVIL, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God." Rom. 2.3-11. In this passage the Apostle carries us forward to " the judgment of God" which he intimates the transgressors cannot escape. He warns them of the sin of despising the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, and forgetting that by that wealth of mercy God would lead them unto repentance. He accuses them of hardness and impenitence of heart, and teaches them that by it they are treasuring up unto themselves wrath, and this wrath thus stored up, is not manifested in this life, nor even at, or in, death; it is treasured up against "the day of wrath" and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. That "great day of his wrath" which shall come, and that day of "righteous judgment" which is appointed, in which God shall "judge the world in righteousness;" and that this can be no temporal judgment, is evident from the fact that he shall then render to every MAN according to his works. For this day of judgment is not merely the destruction of a city, or the overthrow of a nation, it is a judgment of reward as well as punishment; of blessing as well as curse. The rewards bestowed are no temporal blessings, but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honor and immortality, there is given eternal life; and this life and this immortality are received at the judgment-seat of Christ, at the resurrection of the dead. Matt. 25.46. On the other hand, to those that are contentious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be rendered indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. No language can be more comprehensive than this. It is not an infliction upon the Jew alone, it is also on the Gentile. It is not upon a single generation, or those living at the end of the age, but it is "upon EVERY SOUL OF MAN that doeth EVIL;" every evil doer, every sinful and impenitent human being, shall receive indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish, in "the day of WRATH and revelation of the RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT of God."
Those Jews that Paul addressed were to share in it, for. if ungodly, they treasured up wrath against that day, and while the terms "indignation and wrath" express the fearfulness of the divine vengeance inflicted, the "tribulation and anguish," the affliction, and dire distress, tell of the positive SUFFERINGS endured by those who " have their part in the lake of fire, which is the second death." But for those that do good, both Jew and Gentile, there abides the eternal heritage of "glory, and honor, and peace, distributed to them, whatever their nationality, by an impartial God, who is "no respecter of persons."
The Apostle, continuing his instruction, informs us of the principles upon which the judgment will be conducted, and also instructs us what is to be the destiny of the heathen world who have never enjoyed the light of divine revelation, as follows: " For as many as have sinned WITHOUT LAW SHALL also PERISH WITHOUT LAW: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: .which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) IN THE DAY when God shall JUDGE the SECRETS of MEN by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Rom. 2.12-16.
This passage, which, like some of the words of Jesus, indicates a graduated penalty, proportioned to different degrees of guilt, informs us that they who have sinned without law SHALL also perish without law. It does not say they have perished when they died, but they shall perish as they have sinned, "without law;" while others, who have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. And this PERISHING without law, as well as being judged by the law, is declared to be (if we omit the parenthetical clause,) " IN THE DAY when God shall JUDGE the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." The whole scene is at the judgment-seat of Christ, in the coming day of wrath, the " revelation of the righteous judgment of God."
The Apostle goes on to show, also, that the Gentiles as "without the law" are not excluded from salvation; that the light of conscience, though feeble, is, extinct, and by that, if they would strictly follow it, they might yet be led into the grasp of divine mercy and if they do obey that instruction, their consciences will bear witness, and their thoughts will either accuse or else excuse them "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." Hence they "are a law unto themselves," and may be saved if obedient to that; but if not, they shall perish, shall die, "shall be as though they had not been," and this without the infliction of those "many stripes" which are the portion of the willfully disobedient. In another portion of the same letter the apostle brings to view the fact of future judgment with much distinctness, but perhaps with more especial reference to the people of God. "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to md, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then EVERY ONE OF US shall give ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF to God." Rom. 14.8-12. In this passage we have an allusion to the fact, that Christ, who is exalted to be Lord of all, God over all, blessed forevermore, has died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord or ruler of the DEAD as well as of the living. And so every knee shall bow, anti every tongue confess to God; and, as in that universal judgment, Christians must appear as well as sinners, and all must give an account to God, it becomes them to lay aside judging, and condemning, seeing they are all of them but guilty culprits before God, and none of them are beyond the need of divine forbearance, mercy, and forgiveness.
In a like confidence did the Apostle appeal from the prejudice and misrepresentation of his enemies to that throne of final judgment, where all mankind must stand, saying, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge NOTHING before the TIME, until THE LORD COME, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God." 1 Cor. 4.3-5.
How faintly do we realize the littleness of man's decisions! What matters it how men esteem us, when the judgment of God is before us all 1 A man expecting that day, may well hesitate to judge even his own. self. - So we are to "judge nothing before the time," the proper day. And here we see when that "time" is; it is not now, and not at death; we are to wait " until the Lord come." He alone can furnish the data for a proper judgment. Now many facts are hidden in the dark, and motives, those purposes of heart which give quality to moral action, are concealed from our gaze. But "when the Lord comes," he shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the counsels of the heart, the secret purposes of the soul, and then shall every man have his proper need of praise or of blame at the hand of God. Then all undue reproach will be removed, and all proper commendations will be bestowed, and bestowed in such a manner that the faithful shall receive "the honor that cometh from God only," as their abiding and eternal heritage.
"Epanos' praise, is, like the Latin fama, a word of middle signification, denoting what is thought or said of any one, either for praise or blame; and sometimes, as here, it has an adjunct notion of reward or punishment, as resulting therefrom." Dr. S. T. BLOOM-FIELD'S comment on the passage. Other writers refer this passage to the righteous alone as receiving honor of God.
The reader who would like to examine the peculiarities of the Thessalonian Christians, is referred to my recent volume, "Thessalonica; or, The Model Church: a Sketch of Primitive Christianity." We will find the subject one of great interest.
In writing to the noble church of Christians at Thessalonica the Apostle informs them that he gloried in their patience in all their persecutions, and tribulations which they endured. "Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to RECOMPENSE TRIBULATION to them that trouble you: and to you who are troubled REST with us, WHEN the Lord Jesus shall be 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: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; WHEN HE SHALL COME to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." 2 Thess. 1.5-10.
The burden of this passage is "recompense, or retribution," and this is for two specified classes, as in the passage quoted from Romans 2. First: there is "TRIBULATION or affliction to them that trouble YOU." This "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," which Paul before declared should be on every soul of man that doeth evil, is here specially declared to be the doom of those who troubled the Thessalonian Church, and who are dead and buried many centuries ago. Second: to those who were persecuted, "to you who are troubled," God would recompense REST; the rest that remains for the people of God; the "glory, honor, and peace," which is the portion of them that do well, both Jews and Gentiles. Third: all this recompense to the persecuted Thessalonians, and their ungodly persecutors, who are both long since dead, was to be, not in this life, nor at death, nor while dead, but "when the Lord Jesus shall be REVEALED from HEAVEN with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." This denunciation is general on all the disobedient, and special in its application to the Thessalonian persecutors. No construction is admissible which rejects this fact. Just as surely as those persecuted saints receive rest with the apostles, their tormenters will receive, not merely death, but tribulation or affliction, "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." Fourth: the wicked shall then be punished. Their punishment is OLETHRON, ruin, destruction, death, the loss of life; and this destruction is AOINION, everlasting or eternal, like the "eternal judgment," Hob. 6.2, which admits of no appeal or reversal; so this destruction is terrible, utter, and irreversible. It is worthy of remark that this is the only instance where Paul in his fourteen Epistles makes use of the word "aoinion," everlasting or eternal, in describing the doom of the ungodly. And here it is applied to the eternal destruction which God shall inflict on the Thessalonian persecutors, with others "who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Thus does Paul predict future retribution as the portion of the ungodly. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle enforces his exhortation to give heed to the word of the Lord by such considerations as these: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we ESCAPE, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him: God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" Heb. 2.1-4.
The reader who desires to examine the subject of future punishment, is referred to the author's previous treatise, "Pauline Theology; or, The Christian Doctrine of Future Punishment, as taught in the Epistles of Paul." In this little work, the teachings of Paul, upon this subject, in his fourteen Epistles, are presented in a brief and comprehensive manner.
The word spoken by angels was the Mosaic covenant, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. It was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator, Acts 7.53; Gal. 3.19. It pertained partly to rites, forms, and civil regulations, and partly, also, to moral behavior. Every transgression and disobedience, when detected, if the law was properly executed, received a just recompense of reward. This, however, does not imply that they that have sinned in the law shall not be judged by the law in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, for it is only true of the temporal inflictions, which were the punishment of the violation of that civil law of the Jewish commonwealth, that they received a just recompense of reward. And if this law spoken by angels was so steadfast and inflexible, allowing of no remission or pardon, except by obedience to its provisions, how shall we escape, if we neglect a salvation so much greater, spoken by the Son of God himself; confirmed to us by them which heard him, and attested, and confirmed
to us by the mighty wonders which were wrought through the power of God?
Again, while exhorting the Hebrews to beware of apostasy, he uses these solemn words: "For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remained no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and FIERY INDIGNATION, which shall DEVOUR the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much SORER PUNISHMENT, suppose ye, shall he be thought WORTHY, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belonged unto me, I WILL RECOMPENSE, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a FEARFUL THING to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. 10.26-31.
The danger here described was that of final and eternal perdition. And to those that sin willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth, thus rejecting Christ, the great atoning sacrifice, there remained no more sacrifice or remission of sins, but instead thereof, an awful anticipation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries of God. But many who have willfully sinned after having known the truth, have died at ease, they have had no judgment nor "FIERY indignation" as yet; hence, they must rise from the dead to receive that judgment, when God shall render "indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish," to every soul of man that doeth evil, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ."
The Apostle then shows how the condemners of Moses' law died without mercy when their guilt was proved. They suffered DEATH, and not only death, but a violent death, inflicted in a most painful manner; and he asks, "of how much SORER punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, counted the sanctifying blood of the new covenant unholy, and done despite unto the spirit of grace." Multitudes, no doubt, who have done this, are now dead. That death is no sorer punishment than the despisers of Moses' law endured; nay, they have died, perhaps, in their full strength, in old age, in quiet in their beds, while those who despised Moses' law were publicly and violently executed by stoning. So long as the apostates remain dead they suffer no "sorer punishment" whatever. But when raised "to shame and everlasting contempt," to the resurrection to condemnation, then they shall endure that "sorer punishment," that "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord," which is due to their aggravated guiltiness. For he who cannot lie, hath said, "Vengeance belonged unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." The death of the sinful in their beds, or in the quiet of their homes, is a light thing compared with dying without mercy under Moses' law. How much sorer still will be the awful retribution that shall come upon the godless in the day of the Lord Jesus. Against this, Paul warned those who were living when he wrote. Was his warning misdirected? They are dead; have they therefore eluded the sorer punishment which is their due? By no means; and terrible facts will no doubt demonstrate what sophistry and unbelief would now fain seek to conceal or deny.
The fact of a resurrection of mankind to everlasting life, or for the purposes of condemnation and retribution, is drawn from the principle that Christ by his righteous obedience as the second Adam, repairs the ruin wrought by the sin of the first Adam. Hence, the Apostle says: " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.... Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon ALL MEN unto JUSTIFICATION of LIFE." Rom. 5.12, 18.
By sin came death, and one sin was sufficient to insure the death of a race. Adam having become mortal, could only bestow on his posterity a mortal and perishing existence. So they were all accounted to have sinned in Adam, and all, righteous and wicked, were in consequence treated as sinners, (as Christ was made to be sin for us who knew no sin,) and hence they died. But, that man might have no injustice of which to complain, God sent his Son into the world, and his obedience procures to all who died, redemption and rescue from that death, even the free gift of "justification of life." This " justification of life" is not the pardon of personal guilt, nor is the life "eternal life;" but it is simply the remission of the death penalty of the Adamic law, thus putting man back again upon the old footing, and giving him an opportunity to live forever, as really as if Adam had never sinned.
But the eternal salvation of the saints is based upon other grounds, and it is to those who receive ABUNDANCE of GRACE, and the gift of righteousness, and who shall reign in life by Jesus Christ, that grace reigns THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS, unto ETERNAL LIFE. Rom. 5. This grace, fully revealing itself " in the ages to come," in those who are the " vessels of mercy," shall be to them a well-spring of life, a fountain of eternal blessing. But the others, who will not allow grace to reign in them through righteousness, will receive only the "justification of life," or a restoration to a temporal existence. Having sown to the flesh, they will of the flesh reap corruption, in the great harvest-day; and their resurrection, like all other abused and rejected blessings, will be to them an occasion of an unsupportable curse and woe. They are redeemed from the curse of the original law, but Christ, having given his life a ransom for all, though he has delivered them from that condemnatory law, now himself holds the claim against them, and the right to control them. He is Lord both of the dead and the living; and being in his hands, they are amenable to his requisitions, and must yield to his behests. He gives pardon to the penitent, and mercy to those who seek it; but wrath, and indignation to the rebellious, destruction and death to the finally impenitent. The same idea of a universal resurrection, seems to be taught in another place by this Apostle. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive, but every man in his own company, or ‘TAGMA,' Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that ARE Christ's at his coming. Then the end, TO TELOS,' when lie shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father." 1 Cor. 15.21-24.
Adam caused death, the second Adam cures it. Men die by Adam's sin; saints, sinners, .infants, and all, without regard to their personal conduct. As BY Adam ALL die, even so BY Christ shall ALL be made alive, without regard to personal guilt or righteousness. The expression "in Christ," signifies, properly BY Christ. * By Adam all die, by Christ all are to be made ALIVE. And. this includes "EVERY MAN." They are however to be raised each in his own "TAGMA," band, regiment, or division, like soldiers, each under their standards. The word "Tagma," is used in the Old Testament, by the LXX., to designate the standards of the different tribes of Israel, Numb. ii 2, 3, 10, 17, 18, 25, 31, 34, etc. The vast multitude of the dead are here distributed into different "TAGMATA," or bands. Christ the aparche, or the first-fruits. He led the host, and came forth first at his resurrection, Then "Ho' CHRISTOU;" "they that are Christ's;" these are to appear as a separate band, "at his coming." Then, or afterward "TO TELOS," the END, the last portion of the army. "To TELOS" does not here, I think, refer to "end of the age," or world, as many suppose, "SUNTELEIA TOIT AIONOS," an entirely different phrase, being usually employed to express that fact. For numerous translations which so render it, consult, " The Resurrection of the dead, " by H. L. Hastings, in which a lengthy and careful discussion of this whole subject may be found.
But "To TELOS" seems here like tagma, to have a military application which is very apposite in this passage, as Paul had just been using a military phrase which he uses nowhere else in the New Testament. The word "telos" is defined by the learned Dr. Wahl. " Collective: ultima pars, ultimi, 1 Cor. 15:24; EITA. TO TELOS, ultima mortuorum pars." The last part, the last, in 1 Cor. 15.24, (the passage under notice,) "The last part of the dead."* The learned Dr. Bretschneider, in his Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, defines the word as meaning in this passage, " Ultimi, reliqui homines, the last or rest of mankind."
Mr. D. N. Lord remarks, "This is undoubtedly the meaning of 'TO TELOS.’ It was customarily used by the Greeks to denote a division, and the last division of an army. Thus Homer says:-
'And soon advancing, to the extreme BAND,
The men of Thrace they came.' 10.470.
They are described in a previous line as ESCHATOI A'LLON, the remotest from the center of the Trojan encampment, the outside, or last body of troops passed by Dolon as he proceeded toward the Grecian lines.
'The Thracians, by themselves, new-come, of all The host the last.' -ILIAD 10.434.
It is used by Herodotus to denote bodies of troops, Lib. 9.c. 20, . .. and this is shown to be its meaning by the distribution of the dead into their several bands. As he affirms the resurrection of all who die, and declares that every one shall rise in his own band, one of the bands must of necessity consist of those who are not Christ's," etc.*
Further remark is needless, to show that Paul here taught the fact of future resurrection of both righteous and wicked; and that this will occur before the destruction of the last enemy, which is death, is not only taught here, but in Revelation where the sea, and death, and hades, deliver up their dead; and then death is destroyed in the lake of fire, and is henceforth no more. So all these things are connected with, or follow after, the coming of "our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall JUDGE the quick and the dead at his APPEARING and his KINGDOM." 2 Tim. 4.1.
We need not go farther in our exhibition of the doctrine of future retribution, as illustrated in the writings of the great Apostle. A single quotation from one or two of his discourses, as recorded by Luke in the Acts, will abundantly confirm all that has been said. When Paul Was brought into the presence of Felix, and accused by Tertullus, the spokesman for the chief priest and the elders, as a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition among the Jews, a ringleader of the sect bf the Nazarenes, and a profaner of the temple, he replied to their accusations with a denial, saying, that they could not prove the things with which they charged him. He then proceeded to make his confession as follows: "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, BELIEVING all things that are written in the law and in the prophets; and have HOPE toward God, which they themselves also ALLOW (or expect,) that there shall be a resurrection of the DEAD, BOTH of the JUST AND UNJUST. And herein do I exercise myself; to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and man." Acts 24.14-16.
This passage presents the faith of Paul in a future resurrection. He believed the Holy Scriptures, and this was his "heresy." He had hope or expectation toward God, that there should be "a resurrection of the dead;" not merely of the holy dead, not of one-sixth, tenth, or twentieth of the dead, but of "the dead." And there were two classes into which they were divided; the just, the blessed, the holy, they that have done good to the resurrection of life; and the unjust, the sinful, they that have done evil to the " resurrection of condemnation." And this resurrection of the dead, "just and unjust," which Paul expected, the Jews also looked for. He was not merely stating their faith which he accepted, but his expectation which they also anticipated, (for this is the import of the original,) and that faith embodied and involved the doctrine of "the resurrection of the dead, just and unjust." None of the Jewish sects so far as we know, held the doctrine of the resurrection of the unjust. The Sadducees denied it altogether. The Pharisees confined the resurrection to the righteous, who, they taught, shall have power to revive and live again; and the other minor sects are not represented as having held it. But the great mass of the Jewish nation, the common people, who believed the Scriptures, they received the hope which Paul confessed, that there should be "a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust."
And this resurrection was no idle form; it was no mockery, no mere ceremony. It involved the solemn facts of future retribution. They were to rise to reward and punishment; and knowing this fear or terror of the Lord, Paul did not cease to persuade his hearers, and warn them of that coming day of wrath, when they must be brought before Christ to render an account, and receive their righteous doom.
We need not go far for proof of this assertion We need not even go to Mars' Hill, where Paul exhorted the Athenians to repent because God bad appointed a day in which he would judge the world in righteousness. No; we can find in this very chapter a most striking illustration of this fact.
When Felix, before whom he was brought, had heard Paul's defense, and the statement that he had been called in question "touching the resurrection of the dead," he deferred his decision until he might hear him farther. " And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and JUDGMENT to COME, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." Acts 24.24, 25.
It needs no great discernment to perceive the connection between the fact of a "resurrection of the dead just and unjust," and that reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and JUDGMENT to COME, which raised an earthquake of terror in the soul of the ungodly Felix, and caused him, in his agitation, to send away a messenger who poured upon his ears tidings so unwelcome to a guilty man as those. Sure indeed I am, that no preaching that death was to every sinner but " an eternal sleep" or a door to blessing and salvation, ever did or ever would have so alarmed a man, who doubt. less had, like other Romans, believed that doctrine all his days. Nor would the fact that a few despised Nazarenes, (who were almost beneath his contempt,) expected to rise in glory from the dead, when a certain Jew, whom Pilate had crucified, should return, in the clouds of heaven, to reward his followers, leaving Felix and all other sinners, in the deep slumbers of death forever, have caused the sinful Roman such terrible alarm.
No! It was a different message from that. It was the clear, cogent reasoning of a fearless man, who, though chains were on his body, walked in his spirit, in the light, and liberty, and peace of God. It was his array of reasonings, which, springing from the simplest and plainest principles of righteousness and temperance, led the minds of his awe-stricken hearers up to the height of his great argument, and rolled in before their astonished gaze the grand solution of the problem of earthly wrong, the great white throne, the glorious Christ, the gathering multitudes, the awakening dead, the congregated princes and kings of the earth, with Felix amid the throng, and all the mighty grandeur of "the judgment to come."
Then it was that the stout heart quailed, the brazen face relaxed, the steady nerve trembled, and the heart, with all its wiles and wickedness, quaked in prospect of standing at that dread tribunal. And Paul had no soothing opiate for his troubled conscience, no tidings that HE should not be there. No word that his slumber in the grave should be so deep that even the clarion notes of the trump of God should fail to wake him. No tidings that he and all others should be eternally saved. No; none of this. His reasoning was of righteousness, and Felix had trampled it under foot; of temperance, and he had lived in riot and debauchery; of judgment to come, and this he must surely meet. Every secret thing, every open act, every thought, and word, and deed; every crime desired, meditated, undertaken or performed, all these must come in review before the judge at last. "Felix trembled." But he loved sin. He did not cry like the jailor, who sprang in trembling, saying, " What must I do to be saved?" No; he had power, and wealth, and station, and he bowed at the shrine of lust and iniquity. He said, " Go thy way for this time, and when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." That season never came, so far as we can learn. Paul went his way, wearing his chains for the hope of Israel, and Felix's doom was sealed, by his rejection of the gospel message. Ah, how many, like him, are saying, " Go thy way for this time." Reader! Beware of this delay.
That judgment to come, which even in prospect harrowed his soul to agony, shall be more terrible to him in its reality by and by. Felix must meet with Christ. He must stand before God. He must behold the fiery terrors of the day of wrath. How he will meet them, we can only judge, as we remember how he trembled at their mention, and said to Paul "Go thy way." But, though he could dismiss the preacher, and perhaps banish, or drown in wine and riot the thoughts of coming doom, the reality must at last be met. It cannot be dismissed; it cannot be banished. Paul will meet that day with transport and with peace; but, alas for Felix 1-him whom the world
called "happy," then.
My reader, you and I must meet that day. We may doubt it, dispute it, deny it now; but we must meet it then. Can we meet it with composure? Do we tremble when we think or hear of it? Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not, like Felix, drive the subject from us. Let us beware how we hide it from our eyes. We must behold that scene at last. Our eyes must see the Judge; our ears must hear his words of welcome, or his sentence, " depart."
Are we ready for that day? Are we in Christ? Are we safe? Through the rich mercy of God in Christ I trust I am. How then are you? Have you obeyed the word of God? Have you repented of all sin? Have you to Christ, all weak, and weary, and heavy-laden? Have you cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord, and received his pardon and his peace? Have you believed to the saving of your soul? Have you died to earth and sin? Have you been "buried with Christ by baptism into death?" Have you been "planted in the likeness of his death," and raised again to newness of life? If not, let me intreat you to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. "God Now commanded all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead."
But perhaps you are a Christian; if so, may God give you good speed in your heavenly journey. Remember that Christ's love to you is very great; and let your zeal for his glory be proportioned thereto. Soon the master cometh with rewards. Be diligent that you may be found of him in peace. Remember your work. Christ will say to some, I was hungry, and ye fed me: thirsty, and ye gave me drink: naked, and ye clothed me: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me. Will he say it to you? He will say to some " Well done." Will he say it to you? Strive also to save those around you from the wrath which is to come. Pull them out of the fire. If you have wandered "be zealous and repent." Your time is too short for delay; a more convenient season may be too late! too late!
And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have BOLDNESS IN THE DAY of JUDGMENT: because as he is, so are we in this world." 1 John 2.28; 4.17.'
PART H.
CLEARLY as the great facts of "a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust," and a judgment upon all mankind, both living and dead, are revealed in the Holy Scriptures, there are still those who question these truths, while they at the same time profess great reverence for the Word of God. There are those that deny that there will be any resurrection whatever of the dead that are in their graves. There are those who deny that there will be any punishment whatever for sin after this life. There are those who believe that all the dead shall be raised up to glory, and honor, and immortality; and there are yet others who deny that the wicked dead shall ever be made alive at all. So an endless round of changeful theories, each professedly sanctioned by inspiration, gratify those who are anxious to learn some new thing, and who are "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
And all these various opinions are said to be based upon Scripture, and Scripture is often quoted to sustain them. But how is it quoted? An examination of the quotations in the light of careful and candid criticism, gives an answer to this question. There is probably no theory or opinion known, so false or absurd, but that some passage of Scripture could be found that might be so distorted as to sustain it; some good and intelligent man so mistaken as to promulgate it; and some honest, well-meaning people so misguided as to follow him in embracing it, in their eagerness to learn all revealed truth, and escape all vestiges of error. And there is no more dangerous manifestation of false teaching than that which presents itself, when friends, and those we honor and respect, offer it for the acceptance of our faith. The error that might be spurned if offered by a stranger or a foe, is often embraced when brought by a friend. Happy is that man whose fidelity to CHRIST is more potent than all the frowns or flatteries of men, whether good or evil, hostile or pacific.
It is neither my duty, my desire, or my purpose, to undertake the refutation of all the errors which mistaken or perverted men have introduced among the humble seekers after divine truth. Nor need I, in doubt of future retribution, seek to judge or to condemn the erring or the designing authors of false doctrines "before the time." The Lord cometh, and he shall reveal all error, and punish all sin. May we then be blest with the confidence that we have done what it was our duty to do!
As it regards the theory of universal and eternal salvation for all men, I shall not now devote time to its discussion, but shall refer the reader to a recent tract entitled, "Will all Men be Saved?" in which I have endeavored to expose some of the fallacies and mistakes upon which that theory is based.
Another view to which I think proper to devote these pages is, that of those who hold that the only punishment for sin is merely the ordinary natural death of man. That to the righteous dead, there is a future resurrection, but to the wicked, (the larger portion of the race,) "death is an eternal sleep;" that their judgment is but a figure of speech, that they are never to revive from the grave; and that when the tomb closes over them, they fall into eternal annihilation; that thenceforth they have no consciousness whatever of guilt, pain, demerit, judgment, punishment, loss, or privation; that they who pierced Him shall not see him, and wail because of him; that the Jewish high-priest shall not see him sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven; that all that are in the graves shall not come forth again alive; that they that have done evil shall not have a resurrection from death to condemnation; that of those who sleep in the dust of the earth none shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt, but that to the impenitent dead there is no future, either of weal or woe; and, so far as they have consciousness, there shall be for them neither good nor evil, reward or doom; that no trump shall call them from their slumbers to the great white throne; that no solemnities of judgment shall appall their hearts; that no public manifestation of every work and every secret thing in the light of that day shall "assert eternal providence, and justify the ways of God to men;" that they shall never gaze despairingly upon the glory that they have lost, and see the preciousness of the life that they have thrown away: that they shall never know that after death there is the judgment, and shall never feel the untold sorrows of " the second death."
This opinion may, with propriety, be briefly ex amined as it regards the grounds upon which it rests, the arguments by which it is sustained, and the objections which its advocates present against the Scripture doctrine of a future retribution.
Upon such a theory as this the bearing of the numerous passages in Scripture which speak of a resurrection and a judgment is sufficiently obvious. The realities of recognition, investigation, condemnation, and retribution, so clearly declared in Holy Writ most unmistakably indicate the fact of the "resurrection of the dead, just and unjust." And these passages still stand after all the attempts to evade them, to convert them into mere figures of speech, or to retranslate them in a manner that they shall flatly contradict their originals! All endeavors to dispose of them leave them as they were, definite and positive statements of a solemn, important, and inevitable fact.
No doubt someone would say, "I can explain all those away." But who gave man authority to "explain away" the Word of the living God? Perhaps a man might explain away the Rocky Mountains, or the everlasting hills; but let him remember, that till heaven and earth pass, "not one jot or one title" of God's word shall pass till all be fulfilled. The Scriptures were not given to be explained away, but to be believed. They stand and have stood for ages, like immutable things. They warn the wicked of approaching retribution; they predict a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust; a judgment of small and great; a second death for the sinner, and an eternal life for the saint.
A critical examination of each declaration could only illustrate that which is already most plainly asserted. The natural sense of the passages is obvious, and we are content to abide by it, leaving the Scriptural predictions of a resurrection and retribution for the ungodly, to make their own legitimate impression upon the mind of the thoughtful, unbiased, uncommitted reader. The evidence seems hardly to require much comment with the candid, and argument is almost wasted, when expended upon prejudice, dogmatism, and will.
There are, however, certain objections sometimes presented in reply to the Scriptures referred to, which may be properly examined, in order not only that persons may know the truth, but may also be forewarned of, and delivered from the theories of men that seem to conflict therewith.
The leading objections made to the Scriptural assertions of the "resurrection of the dead, just and unjust," are substantially such as follow in order. I shall endeavor to state them fairly and briefly, and usually in my own terms.
1. The wages of sin is death; not pain, suffering, or dying, but simply and solely death. Therefore, when wicked men have died and are dead, they have received the wages of sin, and there is the end of them forever, hence they will not be raised again.
This argument is based upon the mistaken idea that death signifies simply the state of being dead. Death signifies the act of dying, as well as the condition following that act. " Let me die the death of the righteous," said one. Adam's sentence for sin was death, but he was told "thou shalt surely die." When the death penalty is affixed to any human law the statute does not prescribe that after the man dies naturally he shall remain dead, but the death which is the reward of crime, is a death which kills a living man, and not one which only keeps a dead man dead. The power of death is to kill the living; not merely to retain the dead. A man condemned to death for murder escapes the penalty. by taking his own life. He is then dead, but he has not died by the halter, and hence he has cheated the gallows of its victim. The sentence of death regulates the period or manner of its own execution in all laws human and divine.
Now God's law does not say if a man committed iniquities and dies in them, "for his iniquities that he hath committed he shall remain dead;" but " When a righteous man turned away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he hath done, shall he DIE." Ezek. 18.26. This clearly implies a resurrection after the first death and before the second, that he may then die FOR his iniquities, as he had previously died in them.
But further: no Scripture declares that the wages of sin is death or being dead alone; and no one has a right to draw such an inference. "The wages of sin is death," but does not pain attend the act of dying? And will not God render " indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to every soul of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek?" Rom. 2.9. These things may not characterize the state of death, but they do attend the act of dying which is also death. If death signified merely the being dead, then, since death has passed upon all men, all must remain dead, and so neither righteous or wicked could be raised. But the death denounced against Adam began "in the day" he sinned; hence, toil, pain, decay, sweat, labor, thorns, and. thistles, and all the ills which beset him were a part and parcel of the doom which the law expressed in the simple words "dying thou shalt die." It took some six hundred and thirty years to execute the " death penalty" pronounced on Adam; how long it may require to execute the penalty of "the second death" upon individual sinners, I do not pretend to say. But all the processes which result in being dead are as surely death as the perfected condition of death, and they are so understood according to all the laws of language and sound criticism. The active process is as fully included in the term death as is the passive result; hence, there is in this argument no proof that to the wicked natural " death is an eternal sleep." Paul said, "I die daily; the process was constantly going on; he was " in deaths oft;" but all this was included. in the one death of which he writes, " We had sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that raised the dead." So also we read, not merely "The soul that sinned, it shall remain dead," but " The soul that sinned, it shall DIE."
2. They that are accounted worthy to obtain that world even the resurrection of the dead, are undying in their nature; "neither can they die any more, for they are the children of God being the children of the resurrection;" and therefore all who rise will be saved, and all who are not saved will not rise from the dead.
In answer to this objection, it is first proper to quote the passage in question correctly, as follows: "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, (or age, Aionos,) AND the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: neither can they die anymore; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke 20.35, 36. Jesus does not speak of "that world EVEN the resurrection," as if the two were identical, but of that world or age AND the resurrection, showing that the two are not the same, nor do they necessarily go together. The passage does not declare that all who are raised are the children of God, but rather all who are counted worthy to obtain both THAT AGE AND the RESURRECTION from the. dead. Many persons suppose that there will be mortals yet in the flesh in " that age;" a remnant of the nations surviving the destruction of the ungodly; such would have had no resurrection even if they were in "that age." Besides, many saints who live till Jesus' coming will gain "that age" without a resurrection. Many have been raised from the dead already; and have not attained "that age," which is yet future.
The mere resurrection from the grave, even in "that age," to die "the second death," could not be the state of one "accounted worthy to obtain that age and the resurrection of the dead;" any more than the entering of a criminal into a city, to be hung for murder, could be called obtaining that city. "WE shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," so, as men have sometimes attained a resurrection in this age, others shall also enter "that age" without a resurrection.
In this age the righteous and wicked are like wheat and tares that grow together in a field. "The harvest is the completion of the age, and the reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the completion of THIS AGE. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun. in the kingdom of their Father." Matt. 13.38-43. In the end of "this age," the wicked are doomed to the flames, and then, beyond this, the righteous shine forth as the sun, in their Father's kingdom, and receive in that age, "in the age to come, life eternal." And as in the harvest of the wheat, the righteous of all ages are included, so in the gathering of the tares may be reckoned by parity of reasoning, those who have been in all ages "the children of the wicked one," and whose presence has ever been an evil in that field which is the world, even unto the harvest, "which is the completion of the age."
Hence the objection loses its force. It fails to prove universal salvation, or to disprove a universal resurrection. For as some of the saints will be saved without being raised, so some of the sinners will be raised without being saved. As saints may enter "that age" without a resurrection, so sinners may have a resurrection and never enjoy "that age."
3. "If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. 8.11. Hence it is 'inferred that a wicked man cannot be raised from the dead, because the Spirit of God does not dwell in him.
This inference, however, is not at all necessary. It may just as well be inferred that the wicked will be raised by some other means, as that they will not be raised at all. If it be asked how a wicked man can be raised without the Spirit of God, an infidel might also ask how a righteous man could be raised with it, or by its indwelling? The answer to both these questions would be, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." God can make dead men live without Christ's Spirit, as easy as he can make them live now without it, or as easy as he can make corn grow without it, for aught I know. Indeed, if we must question Scripture statements and predictions of facts, we might as well question the resurrection of any one, or inquire, How does man live at all? and if we failed to comprehend the process we might then proceed to deny the fact.
The only inference that need be drawn from the passage in question is, that, while it declares that Christians shall, through the quickening energy of the Holy Spirit, be raised to an immortal and glorious life, those who have not that spirit must be dependent on some other power for even a temporary existence; and when brought to life again it must be by a mere act of physical Omnipotence, and hence they cannot hope to receive that immortal existence which results from the indwelling of this Divine Spirit.
It might also be asked by what means were the Shunamite's son, and the sons of the widow's at Sarepta and at Nain raised up? How was the resurrection effected in the case of the man who revived at the touch of Elisha's bones, or in the case of the Ruler of the Synagogue's daughter? It can hardly be proved that in these cases the persons were all raised by the indwelling of the Divine Spirit. And these thus raised, were not so immortalized that they could not "die anymore," though they were the "children of the resurrection," nor did they gain the deathless "age to come," for that is still in the future.
The passage is sometimes quoted, "He that is dead is freed from sin." But were these persons freed from sin when dead? Did the temporary death cancel all previous responsibilities? By no means. Nor does the temporary death of the ungodly now free them from any sin, save that of Adam. But when finally dead, and dead forever, then they will have satisfied the claims of the law, and perished beneath its exactions, and so they will be freed from sin.
It may also be noted that some critics deny that there is any reference to the resurrection of the dead in the passage in question. A writer of no less ability than the noted JOHN LOCKE, Esq., denies that the word quicken here signifies to raise, and referring to someone who had advanced the idea, he says: "He might therefore have spared the word quicken, which he produces out of John 5.21, as of no force to his purpose, till he had proved that St. Paul here in Rom. 8.11, was speaking of the resurrection of men's bodies out of the grave, which he will never do till he can prove that THNETA, mortal, here signifies the same with NEKRA, dead. And I demand of him to show THNETON, mortal, anywhere in the New Testament attributed to anything void of life. THNETON, mortal, always signifies the thing it is joined too to be living; so that the words 'shall quicken even your mortal bodies,' in that learned author's interpretation of these words of St. Paul, here signify, God shall raise to life your living dead bodies, which no one can think a very proper way of speaking; though it be very good sense, and very emphatical to say, God shall by his Spirit put into even your mortal bodies a principle of Immortality, or spiritual life,' which is the sense of the Apostle here. See Gal. 6.8; 3.21."
Besides the connection of this to the former chapter, (7) contained in the word therefore', the very antithesis of the expressions in one and the other, show that St. Paul, in writing this very verse, had an eye to the foregoing chapter. There it was sin that dwelleth in me;' that was the active and overruling principle. Here it is the Spirit of God that dwelleth in you;' that is the principle of your spiritual life. Then it was 'who shall deliver me from this body of DEATH?' Here it is God by his Spirit shall QUICKEN your mortal bodies,' i.e. bodies which, as the seat and harbor of sinful lusts that possess them, are indisposed and dead to the actions of a spiritual life, and have a natural tendency to death. In the same sense, and upon the same account, he calls the bodies of the Gentiles their `mortal bodies,' Rom. 6.12, 13, where his subject is, as here, freedom from the reign of sin, upon which account they are there styled 'alive from the DEAD. NOTES ON LOCKE'S PARAPHRASE OF ROMANS.
I do not presume to indorse or dispute the position that this quickening is the present work of the Spirit of God, upon those who, by its power are joined to the Lord, and made partakers of the divine nature. I will only remind the reader of those passages which mention a quickening of the saints as now accomplished. "And you hath he quickened who were dead ... hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together," etc. Eph. 2.1, 5.
Leaving this, however, there is, we may remark, an expression in the immediate connection, which so clearly shows the fact of future retribution, that it may well be cited here. " Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye SHALL DIE: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye SHALL LIVE." Rom. 8.12, 13.
This doom cannot refer to a mere natural, or Adamic death. For men " DIE" that death, even when they live after the Spirit. This death is the special punishment for living "after the flesh." The life here mentioned cannot be mortal life, for the righteous lose that and die; hence the sense must be if you "live after the flesh" you shall die the second death, while if you, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body you shall live eternally at last.
The original Greek shows this idea much more strongly than the English version. The words rendered " Ye shall die," are "MELLETE APOTHNESKEIN." The word MELLETE "serves to express in general a settled futurity." It is used of "the wrath to come," "the age to come," "the judgment to come," "there shall be a resurrection," "things to come," "that which is to come," "the time to come," "the glory which shall be revealed in us," "them which should hereafter believe," etc. Matt. 3.7; 12.32: Luke 3.7: Acts 24.15, 25: Rom. 5.14; 8.13, 38: 1 Tim. 1.16; 6.19: Heb. 2.5; 6.5; 11.20, etc.
Hence, I think Dr. JOHN TAYLOR, of Norwich, in his notes and paraphrase upon the passage very properly renders " MELLETE APOTHNESKEIN, Ye shall die hereafter; namely, the second death at the last day. The wicked Christian is NIGH unto the curse, whose end is to be burned. If ye do continue to live under the government of fleshly appetite ye shall die the second death; ye shall perish eternally, at the day of judgment."
ARCHBISHOP NEWCOME and the authors of the "IMPROVED VERSION," render the expression "If ye live according to the flesh, ye must die HEREAFTER."
MICHAEL DODSON in the notes to his translation of Isaiah 66.24, quotes the passage and approves of TAYLOR'S version and explanation.
E. HARWOOD translates it, "For if you live in carnal pursuits you will finally be doomed to eternal death."
These authorities, and the plain sense of the inspired original, show clearly that if men live after the flesh, they "shall die hereafter." They die here, no matter how they live; then, when raised from the dead they shall die again, if they now "live after the flesh," and follow the broad road. Let us be wise and seek eternal life.
4. It is said in Ps. 9.17, "The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God." Now hell in this passage is in the Hebrew SHEOL, which signifies merely the place or state of the dead; hence, if the wicked are to be turned into SHEOL, they are simply doomed to die, and hence it is inferred that there is no other future retribution awaiting the ungodly.
In reply to this, it may be urged that all men, righteous and wicked, Job, Jacob, the kings of Israel, and those of Babylon, at death entered SHEOL. But the punishment here denounced is the special doom of "the wicked," and of "all the nations that forget God;" and so it cannot be any common fate in which righteous and wicked are both alike involved.
The whole of the obscurity existing upon this much debated passage, arises, I have long been persuaded, from a most palpable and positive mistranslation of the Hebrew word shoov here rendered " turned." The current and universal meaning of this term, according to Gesenius and other lexicographers is, to cause " to return, to turn back, to repulse." This is its constant
c56 Retribution:
and ordinary meaning in hundreds of places where it is used in the Old Testament. "Unto dust thou shalt return." Gen. 3.19. "The redeemed of the Lord shall return." Is. 55.7. "The waters returned." Gen. 8.3. "And the messengers returned." Gen. 32.6. Hundreds of passages could be cited to show the import of the word to be invariably the same, and it is rendered "turned back" in the third verse of this very Psalm.
Now no man can RETURN to any place or state where he has never been before Man is formed of dust, and the dust can return to dust. The spirit is from God who breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and that can return to God who gave it. But no man, righteous or wicked, when he dies the first death, can return, or be returned, or driven back into SHEOL, from the fact that he has never been there, and he cannot return where he has never been. We say a man who dies returns to dust, but we do not say he returns to the grave or to sheol, the state of the dead. Unless he had been there before like Lazarus or Dorcas, the language would be manifestly improper. It clearly follows then, that no man can be driven back into sheol, save those who have once been there, and have been brought forth or delivered up by sheol. Then they can be driven back into its darkness again. But "the wicked" and " all the nations that forget God" are to be driven back to sheol; then they must first die and enter SH.EOL, then be raised or delivered up by it, and afterwards they shall be driven back to SHEOL again.
When the ninth Psalm is fulfilled, when God performs all the wondrous things which are there predicted, the force of David's words will be more clearly seen. While filled with the spirit of prophecy by the inspiration of God, thus does he sing,
Psalm 9
I will praise thee, O LORD! with my whole heart:
I will show forth all thy marvelous works:
I will be glad and rejoice in thee.
I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High!
When mine enemies are TURNED BACK
They shall fall and perish at thy PRESENCE.
For thou hast maintained my right and my cause;
Thou sat in the throne judging right.
Thou has rebuked the heathen,
Thou has destroyed the wicked,
Thou has blotted out their name forever and ever.
As for my enemies their ruins are completed forever:
And the cities thou has uprooted
Perished is their remembrance!
But the Loup shall rule for ever:
He hath prepared his throne for judgment.
And he shall judge the world in righteousness,
He shall minister judgment to the people in equity.
The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble.
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee:
For thou, Loup, has not forsaken them that seek thee.
Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: Declare among the people his doings.
For He the avenger of blood remembered them: He forgets not the cry of the humble.
Have mercy upon me, O Lone!
Consider my trouble which I suffer from them that hate me,
Lift me up from the gates of death:
That I may show forth all thy praise
That in the gates of the daughter of Zion,
I may rejoice in thy salvation
The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made:
In the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
The LORD is known by the judgment which ho executed:
The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.
The wicked shall be TURNED BACK into SHEOL
And all the nations that forget God.
For the needy shall not always be forgotten:
The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.
Arise O LORD I let not man prevail:
Let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
Put them in fear, O LORD
That the nations may know themselves to be but men.
The scope and subject of this noble song is most obvious. The Psalmist will sing praise to the Most High. When his enemies are TURNED BACK, then they shall PERISH at God's "PRESENCE." When Jehovah shall personally appear before them, then the cause of the poor shall be maintained by a righteous Judge, who sits upon the throne; the heathen are then rebuked, the wicked destroyed, their names blotted out, their cities overthrown, and their memory lost in infamous oblivion. Then the Lord shall endure, and judge the world in righteousness, and in equity; his people shall trust in him and dwell in eternal confidence. The people of God are at that time lifted up "from the gates of death," that they may show forth all his praise in the gates of Jerusalem, and rejoice in his salvation.
Then it is said, the wicked are sunk in the pit which they dug for others, while JEHOVAH, long forgotten by an atheistic race, is now known by the judgment which he EXECUTETH.
It is the day of their execution that is here described, and their doom is here declared. In the third verse he has said, "When mine enemies are TURNED BACK, (shoov,) they shall fall and perish at thy PRESENCE;" and here he uses the same word, and tells us where they shall be TURNED or DRIVEN BACK to, when they PERISH" at the "presence" of the Lord.
The wicked shall be TURNED BACK (SHOOV,) into SHEOL, And all the nations that forget God.
When God shall judge the world in righteousness, then shall the dead, small and great, stand before Him. The sea shall give up her dead, and death and HADES or SHEOL, shall deliver up the dead that are therein, and they shall be judged out of the things written in the books; thus the righteous are "lifted up from the gates of death" to sing the praises of the Lord. But the wicked are not thus redeemed, and delivered from all their woes. Death delivers them up, for Christ died for all. Hades opens its gates and they go forth, for Jesus has the keys of hades. But their names are not found in the book of life. By persisting in sin they have squandered the last chance of salvation; by rejecting Christ they have destroyed their last hope of life; and now, though death has delivered them up at God's command, another death still more terrible, waits to ensnare them; and though for a little moment they have escaped the grim dungeons of SHEOL, yet the wicked must be "driven back into SHEOL, with all the nations that forget God." And so they, with death and Sheol, are cast into the lake of fire, and there receive their part and portion, which is "the second death." Death does his last work upon them; for their iniquities they die a second time, as in their iniquities they had died before. And so, henceforth, there shall be no more dying. Death is drowned in his own river, destroyed in his own pit. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," for God hath put all things under the feet of Christ, and God shall be all and in all.
Thus does this Psalm unfold the solemnities of future retribution;-a retribution which includes the resurrection to condemnation, the judgment of quick and dead, and the doom of the lost, the second death in the lake of fire and brimstone. These things are as important as they are true. To doubt, experiment, and cavil, may be fatal. May God spare us from a personal experience which shall silence every cavil, while it destroys us forever.
5. Job says, "Drought and heat consume the Snow waters; so doth the grave (sheol,) those which have sinned. The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him: he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree." Job 24.19. Hence, it is said sinners are as totally consumed in SHEOL as snow waters are by drought and heat, and we might as soon expect a broken tree to be restored, as a dead sinner to be made alive in his wickedness.
But if it be claimed that SHEOL consumes eternally, those who have sinned the Apostle says, "all have sinned," and this interpretation of the passage would cut off all hope for anyone. And Job says, almost in the next breath "no man is sure of life;" and again, "As the cloud is consumed and vanished away; so he that goes down to the grave (sheol,) shall come up NO MORE." Job 7.9. And Jacob said, "I will go down into the grave, (sheol,) unto my son mourning." Gen. 37.35. So that by a little combining and twisting, by misapplying a lbw passages, by making that which was indefinite, absolute, unlimited, and universal, we might prove that no person ever would have a resurrection from the dead; but that all were consigned to indiscriminate annihilation and eternal sleep. And then, with sufficient skill, we might no doubt pervert every passage that teaches these facts, as some men prove that there is no Holy Spirit, but the word; or no baptism, but that of the Holy Ghost; or no devil, but an evil principle; or no coming of Christ, but a figurative coming; thus subverting faith and hope, and making shipwreck and havoc among those who are ready to believe anything which their particular leaders teach. From such perverse and ignorant criticism as this, may the Lord in mercy save honest men and true Christians.
If SHEOL consumes men as drought does waters, it may be worthy of note that all the waters consumed by "drought" come back again in rain. And besides, the time when wicked men are thus consumed may be the time when the wicked are turned back or return into SHEOL. And notwithstanding all this array of Scripture about SHEOL, Jacob will come forth from thence, HADES will deliver up the dead that are therein, and though SHEOL may consume all because death hath "passed upon all men for that all have sinned," yet there shall be a resurrection of the dead just and unjust. And though saints and sinners now lie commingled in the grave, yet at the last day not only shall "they that have done good," come forth to "the resurrection of life," but also they "that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation."
6. The Psalmist says of those that trust in their wealth: "Man being in honor abided not: he is like the beasts that perish.... Like sheep are they laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; . . . the grave being an habitation to every one of them, . . . but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. . . . He shall go to the generation of his fathers, they shall never see light." Ps. 49. This language, it is claimed affirms that the unjust who are dead shall not rise to suffer any future retribution.
But it may be replied, if the expression "they shall never see light," implies that the wicked shall have no resurrection from death, then the saying of Job, "The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more," Job 7.8, teaches that Job will never be raised. But are passages to be taken in such an absolute and unlimited sense, without reference to their subject? By no means. The expression rather implies that he was to be seen no more for the present life, or until the heavens be no more, at which time he should awake and be raised out of his sleep.
The Hebrew word, rendered never, in the expression, " They shall never see light," is MEHTZAGH; which, though it frequently signifies forever, in an absolute sense, is sometimes used simply to indicate a long period, or the end of the thing mentioned. Hence Elihu uses the word thus, when he says, "My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end, or forever." Job 34.36. But I am quite sure Elihu was not such an exceedingly "miserable comforter" as to desire that Job's sore boils should continue .to all eternity The words of the Psalmist are rendered by JOHN JEBB, in his Literal Translation of the Psalms, "They shall not for a long time see the light."
Prof. W. W. Turner renders the passage thus:-
Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever,
And their dwelling-places to all generations;
(That) their names are renowned over (many) lands
But a poor man abided not in honor
He is like the beasts that perish.
Such is their way, such folly is theirs
Yet their posterity approve their sayings.
Like sheep are they thrust into the grave;
Death shall rule over them;
And the upright shall trample upon them right speedily
And their form shall consume in the grave, for this is now their dwelling.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,
For he shall receive me."
This version mainly agrees with that of Prof. Noyes, and, harmonizing with the eleventh verse, rebukes the thought that their "dwelling-places should endure forever," by assigning to them dwellings in the sepulcher.
The word "BAH-DAH," rendered dominion, is the same used in Gen. 2.28, to signify Adam's supremacy over the creation, and it is used in Ps. 110.2, where to Christ in his exaltation it is said "Rule Thou in the midst of thine enemies." If the word here implies authority and rule, it may refer to the " morning" of the church's glory, when "the saints shall judge the world," and triumph over the enemies of the Most High. The word, however, has another signification, namely " to trample, or tread. down;" and if this be its import here, the passage may refer to the fact that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and that even in this world, under the Jewish dispensation, the righteous often triumphed over their enemies, as in the cases of the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, Sennacherib and his army, Haman, and others.
But if "the morning" here spoken of refer to the morning of eternal redemption, the passage will then harmonize most beautifully with another in the prophecy of Malachi. After the coming of that day that shall "burn as an oven," wherein "all the proud, and they that do wickedly, shall be as stubble," and be burned up root and branch; after " the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men;" then, to the upright, those that fear God's name, shall the morning come, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings; and they "shall go forth and bound as young calves let loose from bonds, and ye shall trample the wicked; for they shall be ashes underneath your feet in the day which I appoint says the Lord Almighty." [Septuagint Version. Brenton's Translation, Malachi 4.1-8.] So, when the wicked are driven back into SHEOL, with "all the nations that forget God," the righteous, redeemed forever from the power of the grave, shall tread down their ashes, or, as GESENIUS renders it, "the upright shall tread upon (over) them, i.e. walk upon their graves;" in the day of their final triumph. From all this it seems evident that this passage is no positive proof that the wicked will not arise from the dead, be judged, condemned, and punished, according to the numerous Scriptures which assert and imply this fact.
7. Isaiah says, "Thus saith the Lord which makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise, they are extinct, they are quenched as tow." Is. 43.16, 17. This language is said to be positive proof against the revival unto life of these wicked dead.
It may, however, be fairly questioned whether the passage has any reference whatever to the resurrection of the "wicked dead," or "unjust," at the last day. Is it probable that the prophet wished to teach that "the CHARIOT and HORSE, the ARMY and the POWER," would not have a resurrection from the grave at the last day? Or if the reference be to the destruction of an army, the fact that "they shall not RISE," need not be referred to their ultimate and eternal condition at all.
The prophet seems to make evident allusion to the utter overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, when, for the deliverance of his people, God made "a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters."
He has said to Israel (verse third,) that he gave Egypt for their ransom, and also, that on their account he will destroy Babylon. He then exhorts them to remember what wonders he had already done. I quote the version of Bishop ROBERT LOWTH, which also agrees in substance with that of MICHAEL DODSON, Esq.
Thus saith Jehovah;
Who made a way in the sea,
And a path in the mighty waters;
Who brought forth the rider and the horse,
The army and the warrior;
Together they LAY DOWN, they ROSE NO MORE;
They were extinguished, they were quenched like tow.
Prof. G. R. NOYES renders it:
That caused the chariot and the horse, the army and the forces to march forth;
There they LAY DOWN TOGETHER; they ROSE NO MORE;
They were extinguished; they were quenched like a torch.
Rev. John JONES, M.A., renders the passage in accordance with the version of BISHOP LOWTH.
Rev. ALFRED JENOUR in his version of Isaiah gives substantially the same translation, making the whole passage historical, and simply declarative of the fact that the fallen Egyptians did not rise, instead of a prophecy that they never will arise; and in his notes he remarks: " Here is an evident allusion to the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptians on that occasion."
The scope of the passage is most obvious to a careful reader. When God led forth Israel, he led them through the deep. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned." The hosts of Pharaoh, following in hot pursuit of them, were overwhelmed by the returning waters, and sank like lead in the deep: there horse, and chariot, and noble, leader and army, lay down together, they rose no more, being quenched by the flood, as a lamp is extinguished by a tempest. So much for this "positive" proof; that the Babylonian sinners will never rise, which has no bearing whatever upon the case in hand, and is only made to refer to the future at all by means of a translation which later critics almost uniformly reject. It requires a different class of Scriptures from this to prove that there will not be "a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust."
8. The Lord, speaking by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, concerning the men of Babylon, says "In their heat will I make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord." Jer. 51.39. And this, it is said, positively proves that some of the wicked dead will never be raised from the grave.
But it is by no means evident that the prophet here makes the slightest reference to the subject in hand. He speaks, not of the resurrection at the last day at all, not of the wages of sin, not of the doom of wicked men in general, but simply of the overthrow of Babylon the Great by the Medes and Persians. The expression "a perpetual sleep," or "an everlasting sleep," as it is properly rendered by Dr. BLANEY, in his version, and also by BRENTON in his translation of the Septuagint, does not necessarily imply that they never would be raised from the dead. The Hebrew word "oulom," here rendered perpetual, is the usual word rendered forever, everlasting, and eternal. I think it is used more than a hundred times in the Old Testament, and it is applied to those Jewish laws, and ordinances, and ceremonies, which have ended ages ago. It has not only the sense of endurance without end, but also that of constant or perpetual and uninterrupted existence, during its period, whether long or short. It is Tendered long, Is. 42.14; Ps. 143.3: old, Lam. 3.3; Amos 9.11: Jer. 6.16: Ezek. 25.15; 26.20, etc. It occurs in Jonah 2.6, intimating that the prophet was in the belly of the fish perpetually or forever, that is, I apprehend, without any interval, during the time that he was there; and yet Jonah escaped from his prison and came forth upon dry land after three days and three nights; and the nobles of Babylon may yet awake at the call of God, and come forth to the resurrection of condemnation, unless held by something longer and stronger than a "perpetual sleep."
The passage simply predicts that during that last impious feast of Belshazzar, God would pour his vengeance upon the city of Babylon, and its ungodly inhabitants; that instead of the cup of which they were accustomed to drink he would pour out for them a cup of wrath and indignation, and after they had drank the wine-cup of his fury, they would no more arouse themselves when morning came to engage in fresh indulgences, but would sleep the sleep of death, a perpetual slumber, and not awake again to renew their reveling. They should, as Dr. Jot GILL, in his notes, aptly expresses it, "Not only fall asleep (as drunken men do, and awake again;) but sleep and never awake more? or die and not live again until the resurrection morn; no doubt many of the Chaldeans, being in a literal sense drunk and asleep when the city was taken, were slain asleep, and never waked more."
The Babylonians have slept a long sleep, or a "perpetual sleep," but yet they may rise at the resurrection of the unjust, for all that this passage says to the contrary. It does not seem to refer to the matter of future retribution, nor bear at all upon the question of the destiny of the impenitent.
9. It is said of certain wicked men by the prophet Isaiah, "They are dead, THEY SHALL NOT LIVE; they are deceased, THEY SHALL NOT RISE; therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish," Is. 26.14; and this, it is said, would seem to be positive testimony that there is no future resurrection or retribution to these wicked persons.
Before this construction be admitted as correct, it may be well to consider the connection of the passage quoted, and see whether the verse is properly understood and applied. It may be noted in the outset that it only refers to a special class of oppressors, and so need not be universal in its application. It is thought by some that the whole passage refers to the deliverance and return of Israel from Babylon, and to the lords which had dominion over them there. Dr. LOWTH thus interprets it of a figurative resurrection, as he does the passage in Ezekiel 37.He says, "This deliverance is expressed with a manifest opposition to what is here said above, ver. 14, of the great lords and tyrants under whom they had groaned, They are dead, they shall not live; They are deceased tyrants they shall not rise: that they should be destroyed utterly, and should never be restored to their former power and glory."
If this be the correct view of the passage, then it would merely imply, like the passage in Jeremiah li., that the Babylonians would die, and no more oppress the people of God, or rise up to afflict them. In my opinion, however, the passage is more properly regarded as having reference to future events, as an examination of it will, I think, clearly indicate.
When then does this saying "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise," apply? Was it when the prophet wrote it? By no means, if its fulfillment is future; and even Babylon was not destroyed till long after this was written. Where is the prophecy to be applied? In all the world? There is no proof that this is the case.
The passage is a part of a prophecy, and prophecy, from its very nature, refers to future events. Let us look, then, carefully at this prediction and learn its true connection and application. These words are not the personal voice of the prophet, nor are they appropriate to all ages and lands. They are a part of a song to be sung at a period, and in a locality, expressly named by the prophet in the connection, as we shall see by an examination of the passage. If we turn to the twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah we find in its closing words a prophecy of the overthrow of this world and the existing condition of things, in words like these:-
The terror, the pit, and the snare
Are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land!
Whoso flees from the terror shall fall into the pit,
And whoso escaped from the pit,
Shall be taken in the snare;
For the floodgates of heaven are opened,
And the foundations of the earth tremble.
The earth is utterly broken down;
The earth is shattered in pieces;
The earth is violently moved from her place.
The earth reeled like a drunkard,
It moved to and froe like a hammock;
For her iniquity lieth heavy upon her,
And she shall fall and rise no more.
In that day will Jehovah punish the host of the high ones that are on high,
And the kings of the earth upon the earth.
They shall be thrown together bound into the pit,
And shall be shut up in the prison,
And after many days shall their punishment be inflicted.
The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed,
When Jehovah of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and Jerusalem,
And his glory shall be before his ancients.
The images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts, which were anciently in use. The terror was a line strung with feathers of all colors, which, fluttering in the air, scared and frightened the beasts into the toils, or into the pit which 'was prepared for them. The pit or pitfall, dig deep in the ground, and covered over with green boughs, turf, etc., in order to deceive them, that they might fall into it unawares. The snare, or toils, a series of nets, inclosing at first a great space of ground, in which the wild beasts were known to be; and then drawn by degrees into a narrower compass, till they were at last closely shut up, and entangled in them."-Bp. Lowth's Notes on Is. 24.17: London, 1707.
There seems to be an allusion to creatures that are hunted, who flee through fear, and fleeing, fall into pits, or are entangled in snares and taken. Before the last day, or second coming of Christ to judge the world, there will be great perplexity in men's minds, great dread and fear upon their hearts, and much distress of nations; and the coming of the Son of man will be as a snare upon the earth. Luke 21.25, 26, 35. Dr. JOHN GILL'S note. Are not the world today fleeing from the terror and doing wrong to escape fancied ills? Is not the snare and the judgment just before us Let us be watching and let us trust in God.
“Cottage," in the common version. Prof. W. W. Trauma renders "It shall shake like a booth." JONES, "Hammock." LOW= and JENOUR "like a lodge for a night." The word (meloonah) occurs only here and in Is. 1.8, "a lodge in a garden," etc. The masculine MALOHN is found in Gen. 42.27; 43.21: Ex. 4.24, where it is rendered "inn," Josh. 4.3, 8; 2 Kings 19.23; Is. 10.29; Jer. 9.2, "lodging plane." Gesenius defines MALOHN "a place where travelers lodge, either in the open air or under a roof." "MALOONAH, a lodge, or hut, of the keeper of a garden or vineyard, Is. 1.18. Also a hanging-bed, hammock, suspended from trees, in which travelers, and also the keepers of gardens, sleep for fear of wild beasts." I think a "lodging place," or temporary hut, conveys the true idea. The earth is to be moved out of its place as this is removed. Compare Paul 2 Cor. 5.1. If our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God."
If we pass to the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, we find the prophet pours out a song of thanksgiving for the wonders God had wrought in the overthrow of his enemies and the deliverance of his people; and he then continues his prophecy as follows
"And in this mountain shall Jehovah of Hosts prepare for all nations
A feast of delicacies, and of old wines:
Of rich delicacies, of refined old wines.
He will destroy in. this mountain the covering, that was upon the face of all people,
And the veil that was spread over all nations.
He will destroy death forever;
The Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces,
And the reproach of his people will he take away throughout the earth;
For Jehovah hath said it.
In that day shall men say, 'Behold, it is our God,
In whom we have trusted, and he hath saved us;
It is Jehovah in whom we have trusted;
Let us rejoice and exult in his salvation."
He then recites the story of the overthrow of the enemies of God, and in the next chapter says:-
In that day shall this SONG be said in the LAND OF JUDAH, We have a strong city,
The protection of God is our walls and bulwarks.
Open ye the gates,
That the righteous nation may enter in,
The nation that keeps the truth."
The song then portrays the perfect peace of those who trust in God in that day, and exhorts to eternal confidence in him because he is an everlasting rock of strength. It recounts the overthrow of the fortresses and cities of the foe, and the peace which permits the poor and the needy to tread them down. It refers to the longings they have felt for the salvation of God, saying:-
With my soul have I desired Thee in the night;
Yea with my inmost spirit in the morn have I sought thee.
For when thy judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Though mercy be shown to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness:
In the land of rectitude he will deal perversely;
And will not regard the majesty of Jehovah.
JEHOVAH, thy hand is lifted up, yet will they not see:
Bat they shall see, with confusion, thy zeal for thy people;
Yea the FIRE SHALL BURN UP THINE ADVERSARIES.
JEHOVAH, thou wilt ordain for us peace
For even all our mighty works thou hast performed for us.
O JEHOVAH, our God!
Other lords, exclusive of thee, have had dominion over us:
Thee only, and thy name, henceforth will we celebrate.
THEY ARE DEAD, they shall not LIVE;
They are deceased tyrants, they SHALL NOT rise
Therefore hast thou VISITED and DESTROYED THEM;
And all memorial of them thou hast ABOLISHED.
Thou has added to the nation, O Jehovah;
Thou has added to the nation; thou art glorified:
Thou has extended far all the borders of the land."*
They then proceed in their song to rehearse their constant longings for his deliverance as distinguished from the feeling of their enemies, saying:-
O Jehovah in affliction have they sought thee;
They have poured out their prayer when thy chastisement was upon them.
As a woman with child when her delivery is near,
Is in anguish and cried aloud in her pangs,
Thus have we been before thee, O Jehovah I
We have been with child; we have been in anguish,
Yet have, as it were, brought forth wind.
The land is not delivered,
Her inhabitants are not born.
Thus does the song portray that groaning for redemption of which Paul speaks, when he says: “The whole creation groaned and travailed in pain together until now. And not only they, but OURSELVES also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our BODY." Rom. 8.22, 23. But their longings had been in vain. The dead, whose birth to immortality they had coveted, yet slumbered in the dust. The earth was not delivered of its sleeping hosts, The inhabitants, the dwellers there, had not been born.t The received version says, "Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen;" which is one of the meanings of the Hebrew word "NAH-PHAL"; but it is also said by Gesenius to signify "to drop; or cast, as a BIRTH; to bear, bring forth," Is. 26.19. "The earth shall bring forth the dead." "To be born, Is. 26.18. In Chaldee specially of abortion." Prof. TURNER renders it dropped, or born; JONES, "increased." The same word is used in the next verse, and rendered "cast out." "The earth shall cast out her dead;" and the word in this passage is interpreted by GESENIUS in this sense.
The song continues to speak of the resurrection of the holy thus, as translated by BISHOP LOWTH.
Thy dead shall live; thy DECEASED, they shall rise:
Awake and am, ye that dwell* in the dust
For thy dew is as the dew of the dawn;
But the earth shall east forth as an abortion, THE deceased tyrants.
Mr. JONES translates it:
Let thy dead revive, and the dead bodies of THY PEOPLE rise again:
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust
For the dew of plants is thy dew,
And the earth shall bring forth the DEAD.
Prof. TURNER has it:
Thy dead men shall live, (their) dead bodies shall arise," etc. Prof. NOYES renders it:
Thy dead shall live again;
The dead bodies of my people shall arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust!
For thy dew is like the dew upon plants,
And the earth shall be delivered of her dead.
The word shak-kan, dwell, signifies rest as well as abiding. It Occurs Ps. 16.9. "My flesh also shall REST in hope." Ps. 4.6. "Then would I fly away and be at rest." Hence this sentence might be rendered, Awake and sing ye that rest in the duet.
At this point, according to Prof. NOYES, the song closes, and the strain of direct prediction is resumed.
The passage above quoted clearly speaks of the resurrection of the dead of God's people, who "awake and sing" as if refreshed, like flowers by the dew of morning; but after these dead live, and the dead bodies of God's people revive, there is yet another part of the resurrection foretold in the words "the earth shall cast out the DEAD," or as Lowth renders it, The earth shall cast forth, as an abortion, the DEAD TYRANTS.
I shall now proceed to show the grounds upon which this version rests, and without claiming for it entire verbal accuracy, I think it can be shown to indicate an important fact not contained in the other versions, and yet clearly existing in the original Hebrew.
The Hebrew word rendered dead in the common version, or "dead tyrants," by LOWTH, is REPHAIM. It is defined by GESENIUS "the quiet, the silent, i.e. the shades, manes, dwelling in hades, whom the Hebrews supposed to be destitute of blood and animal life, (NE-PHESH,) but not wholly without some faculties of mind. As a proper name the founder of a race of tall men," etc. Prof. PICK, in his Hebrew Concordance, defines the word "feeble ones, helpless." The word is one about which there is much obscurity, and I shall not attempt to define it accurately, but I shall nevertheless endeavor to illustrate its use. One form of the word occurs twenty-one times. Eight times it is transferred as a proper name without translation. Gen. 14.5; 15.20; 2 Sam. 5.8, 23.13; 1 Chron. 11.15; 14.9: Is. 27.5.
Thirteen times it is rendered "giants." The word is used in the form and sense which we have it in the passage under consideration eight times. I shall proceed to quote them all. Job 26.5, 6, " Dead (things) are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. SHEOL is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering."
Dr. John MASON Goon renders it:-
Yea the mighty DEAD are laid open from below; The floods and their inhabitants.
Dr. SAMUEL LEE renders it: " Can the REPHAIM or their neighbors wound from beneath the waters."
Dr. J. R. BEARD remarks on this passage, "Rephaim is rendered, in the common version, dead things, to the entire loss of the force of the original. The Douay Bible gives the passage with truth as well as spirit, making it obviously refer to the old myth of the subjugation of the earth-born by divine power: Behold, the giants groan under the waters, and they that dwell with them. Hell is naked before them, and there is no covert to perdition." Deut. 2.11, 20, twice; 3.11, 13: Josh. 12.4; 13.12; 15.8; 17.15; 18.16: 1 Chron. 20.6, 8.
THOMAS WEMYSS, in his new translation of Job renders the passage "The souls of the dead tremble from beneath; The waters and their inhabitants."
Ps. 88.10: "Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the REPHAIM arise and praise thee?" Prof. TURNER renders it: "shall the shades arise?" etc.
Proverbs 2.18: " For her house inclined unto death, and her paths unto the REPHAIM, dead."
Proverbs 9.18: "For he knows not that the REPHAIM, dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of Sheol, hell."
Proverbs 21.16: " The man that wandered out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the REPHAIM, dead."
Is. 14.9: "Hell from beneath is moved for to meet thee at thy coming: it stirred up the REPHAIM, dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations."
JONES translates the passage:-
Hades from beneath is moved because of thee,
To meet thy coming:
It stirred up for thee the SHADES of all the chiefs of the earth.
Bishop Lowth and also Mr. DODSON, render it:-
He rouses for thee THE mighty DEAD, all the great chiefs of the earth.
Prof. NOYES translates it:-
Hades beneath is in commotion on account of thee,
To meet thee at thy coming;
He stirred up before thee the SHADES, all the mighty of the earth.
Is. 26.14: "They are REPHAIM, deceased, they shall not rise." NOYES: "They are shades, they shall not rise." Lowth: "They are DECEASED TYRANTS, they shall not rise."
Is. 26.19. "The earth shall CAST OUT the RE-PHAIM, dead."
I have now laid before the reader every passage where this term occurs; and without undertaking to solve the mystery that has puzzled wiser heads: without deciding whether the "REPHAIM" were the antediluvian giants, as many have held; whether the race was perpetuated this side of the deluge by the wives of Noah's sons, as Dr. S. R. MAITLAND seems to suppose; or whether they were the Sodomites and their neighbors of the cities of the plain, as Dr. LEE argues. I shall proceed to make some supplication of the most evident facts in the case, in The following line of thought.
1. The REPHAIM are sometimes spoken of as a gigantic race of men who oppressed or vexed the people of God; but this is only among the early Hebrew writers, viz., Moses, Joshua, and Samuel. Once Isaiah speaks (xvii. 5,) of "the valley of REPHAIM," but never of such a race as living in his day.
2. In all the other and later writings, viz., of Job, David, Solomon, and Isaiah, the REPHAIM are spoken of as dead, as extinct, as removed from all the activities of earth.
3. They are described as tenants of SHEOL, the grave, or the underworld. They are not expected to arise and praise God, nor behold his wonders. Those who are enticed by the wiles of the harlot go down to join their sepulchral host. The man who wanders from the way of understanding descends to remain in their congregation; and when some great monarch like the king of Babylon goes down to sheol, they, in language either real or dramatic, meet him at, his coming with a storm of taunting insult at his having become as weak as they are.
4. The "other lords" that had dominion over the people of God, dying, had become REPHAIM, they were thus consigned to that company and congregation. " They are REPHAIM, they shall not rise."
4. In the same connection in which the prophet declares that their oppressors had become REPHAIM, he, while describing the joyful resurrection of the righteous as herbs revive beneath the dew, declares that the earth shall also cast out, or give birth to the REPHAIM, as to a wretched abortion.
5. The REPHAIM are always represented as unrighteous, and these REPHAIM, or dead, are not saints, nor were saints ever called by that name in the word of God, in the whole Bible. The term REPHAIM, is never applied to the people of God, dead or alive.
6. Hence arises the conclusion that this class of whom it is said, they are DECEASED, or REPHAIM, they shall not rise, it is expressly said, "the earth shall cast them out," and as the word refers to the wicked, and to them ALONE, there is here positive proof of the resurrection of the wicked dead to judgment and retribution, when the dead saints shall live, and their dead bodies shall arise, in all the radiance of immortality, revived as by the dew-drops of the eternal morning. And the resurrection of the REPHAIM is not a coming forth to universal glory and salvation, it is a vile abortion, with no promise of immortal life, a resurrection to shame, and agony, and death.
Then the Lord calls his people away from the judgments that are to be poured upon the ungodly, saying:
Come my people l enter thou into thy chambers,
And shut thy doors about thee:
Hide thyself as it were for a little moment,
Until the indignation be overpast.
For behold I the LORD cometh out of his place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:
The earth also shall disclose her blood,
And shall no more cover her slain.
Earth has hidden her slain, lo! these ages that are past. Blood has defiled the laud, and the pollution of dead carcasses has made it unclean from end to end. But now all this shall be over. God calls his people, who live, and those who then awake from death and sing, to come to a place of refuge. In the time of trouble he hides them in his pavilion. They shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. They shall be hidden in his tabernacle until the storm of wrath has spent its fury on the godless and the vile. He comes out of his place to punish the ungodly for their wickedness; no sinners shall escape, and no witnesses of their guilt shall be lacking. The earth shall vomit out the REPHAIM, "the mighty dead," the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Every carcass must come forth. Death and hell shall deliver up the dead: the sea shall deliver up the dead that are in it, and they shall be judged; and so God shall punish the world for their iniquity, while His people are hidden till all this indignation shall be overpast.
We have been thus particular in remarking upon this interesting passage, from the fact of its essential importance, and the sad misapplication of it made by the deniers of the great facts of future judgment and retribution. Enough has been said, I think, to show how great is the mistake of those who select as a statement of a present fact a sentence from a prophetic song which is yet to be sung in the land of Judah when its proper period arrives.
When the Lord makes the earth desolate, and shakes it with its last convulsions; when he gathers the high ones of earth to their prison, and punishes them after many days; when he reigns in such glory that the sun becomes ashamed before his dazzling throne; when he brings all his foes to desolation; when he swallows up death in victory and wipes away tears from all faces, removing the rebuke of his people from off all the earth; when his people who have waited for him behold him in gladness and rejoice in his salvation; when the enemies of God are trodden down, as straw is trodden in the dung-pool; then in that day, shall this song be sung in the land of Judah, and if I am there I may join to sing it too.
And if I stand within the walls and bulwarks of salvation, and behold the majesty of the Lord, when fire shall DEVOUR God's ADVERSARIES, while he ordains peace for his once oppressed and afflicted people, and gives to them eternal quietude, I might feel inclined to sing with the others:-
O LORD our God! Other lords beside thee have had dominion over us,
Only through thee do we rehearse thy name,
They are dead, they shall not live,
They are REPRAIM, they shall not rise;
Therefore halt thou visited and destroyed them,
And made all their memory to perish.
But now, while other lords do have dominion over the people of God; while they are not dead but alive, and cruel and tyrannical, and strong and mighty, unlike the powerless REPHAIM -I beg to be excused from joining in a song so premature and inappropriate as that. As well might Israel have sung the song of deliverance while yet amid the brickyards of Egyptian bondage. "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" But let earth's beastly empires be destroyed and given to the burning flame; let the scepter of oppression be broken, and the throne of iniquity cast down; let the last enemy be destroyed by the power of One who is stronger than he; let death be swallowed up in full and endless victory; let the ransomed of the Lord return and come to Zion with songs of joy upon their heads; let the departed glory of God throw the mantle of its all-hallowing splendor over the hills and vales of paradise restored; let the fire of God purge out the last memorial of his puny foes; and then shall the music of thanksgiving leap lightly from the harps of the redeemed; as exulting over every fallen foe and proud oppressor they exclaim:-
They are dead, they shall not live, They are deceased they shall, NOT rise, Therefore hast thou visited and DESTROYED them, And made all their memory to perish.
It may be questioned why their resurrection, or being " cast forth" by the earth is mentioned, after it is said "they shall not rise." In explanation, it may be said in a prophetic song, or in prophecy in general, it is not always to be expected that the exact order of events will be followed; and many examples might, I think, be found, where events far distant from each other are mentioned together, and also, where the writers go back to mention things that were omitted after they have passed the precise point of their chronological succession.
On the other hand it may be possible that these fallen oppressors are those who have been destroyed in the first great act of judgment when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, and having thus received their merited doom they may not rise up when the earth shall "cast out her REPHAIM," they having already been exterminated by "the fire of God." The case of the last generation of men is anomalous. The common appointment of men is to die, and the common appointment to sinners is to die a "second death," after being raised from the first. But there is an exception to the first rule, in the case of saints who live to the coming of the Lord, they shall not die at all. And may there not be a like exception in the case of those sinners who shall be found alive when the Lord appears; they receiving their doom, a death coming " as a destruction from the Almighty," without ever dying the death that has "passed upon all men." I think there is no passage which plainly declares that all wicked men shall die "the second death," but this doom seems rather to be affirmed only of those whom death and sheol had delivered up to be judged; and who have no part in the first resurrection.
If this distinction be well founded it may be possible that the redeemed of the Lord, having witnessed the judgment on their living foes and oppressors, may say with absolute exactness, "They are dead, they shall not live," there being no positive promise that I know of, of a resurrection from that death inflicted by the Lord upon his enemies at his coming; while of those who had already died and were destined to a resurrection to condemnation, it could also be said, "The earth shall cast out the REPHAIM," "the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her SLAIN."
The. case of the Sodomites is essentially different from this, they having been destroyed long ago, and it being expressly said that they shall "rise up in the judgment" with the generation that lived when Christ was on the earth.
To the antediluvians the former remark will also apply, though some may question whether there is any express prediction of their resurrection. The view presented by GRANVILLE PENN, Esq., in his "Annotations to his Translation of the Book of the New Covenant," is worthy of notice. He remarks upon Rev. 20.12, "The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and the grave gave up the dead which were in them." " There is something so remarkable in the parallel, distinction, and distribution, here presented, and in the priority assigned to 'the dead which are in the sea,' that these can hardly be supposed to relate to the casualties, however numerous, which occasionally befall navigators on the existing ocean; and which bear no proportion or analogy to the accumulated mass of mankind, which the established progress of human life is daily and hourly bringing, by entire generations, to their termination in the grave.
To find a parallel in the former, which shall bear both priority and analogy to the latter, we must look to St. Peter's record, 2 Pet. 3.6, 7. The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved for fire, etc. It is therefore, the accumulated generations of the earth which then was,' (from the creation of man to the catastrophe of the deluge) now submerged in its bed, which the sea' will give up,' while the grave' will give up all those consigned to the present earth, from the renovation of the human race until its absolute termination. Here we find the proportion. ate analogy, and the true priority of the former in the order of succession.
Without deciding dogmatically, I would present this suggestion as well worthy of notice, and thus conclude this lengthy discussion of the passage before us, leaving the reader to form his own judgment concerning the Scriptural fact that "the earth shall disclose her blood, and no more cover her slain "
10. David declared, speaking on behalf of Christ, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, (sheol,) neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Ps. 16.10; Acts 2.27. Hence it is claimed that deliverance from sheol is a peculiarity, and that to suppose that all men are to be raised is to destroy the force of the expression "thou wilt not leave my soul in SHEOL."
But this conclusion is by no means obvious or necessary. If the argument were carried out legitimately it would run thus: This passage teaches a resurrection to be a peculiar privilege of Christ, and therefore no one else will ever be raised from the dead at all. This passage simply promises a speedy resurrection to Christ. The character of Hebrew poetry is such that in its parallelisms the same, or a similar idea is often stated in two consecutive lines. Thus the leaving of the soul in SHEOL, harmonizes with the body's seeing corruption; neither of these events were in this case to occur. The body of Christ was raised before the work of decomposition commenced. David, and the saints in general, were left " in sheol" as really as the sinners were. Thither Jacob said he should "go down mourning." There Job desired to be hidden and kept secret until God's wrath was past; and the peculiarity here was simply the fact that Christ's tarry there was brief, so brief that his flesh was uncorrupted, and so his soul was not left in SHEOL. Others, righteous and wicked, are there until the day when SHEOL "shall deliver up the dead that are therein," and I see no proof that the expression " THE DEAD THAT ARE IN THEM" means only a third, fourth, fifth, tenth, or twentieth part of the dead, namely, "the righteous;" nor does this passage seem to deny or disprove the resurrection of all mankind.
11. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him;" John 3.36, and hence it is claimed the unbelievers cannot be raised from the dead, nor have a moments conscious existence after death; because they " shall not see life."
But it must be remembered that he who said the wicked should not see life, said also, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have No life in you. Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6.53, 54.
If the first passage proves that the wicked will not rise from the dead, the second as clearly proves that they are all dead now. If the first proves that they cannot have a temporary resurrection, and come forth to condemnation, because they "shall not see life," then the other proves, by parity of reasoning, that they have no temporal life now, and cannot be subject to death. If they which " shall not see life" cannot rise, then they which "have no life in them" cannot die. The simple and obvious meaning of both passages is, that the "life" in one place, and the "eternal life" in the other are the same. Both passages mention "eternal life" as the privilege of the believer, and "no life" as the doom of the unbeliever, but there is not a word in either passage implying, either that wicked living men cannot die, or that wicked dead men cannot be raised, judged, and condemned to die the second death.
12. The Revelator says, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens 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 delivered 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." Rev. 20.11-15.
This passage seems to have endured a vast amount of wrenching and twisting at the hands of all who deny a future retribution. Universalists, Restorationists, and those who deny any future existence whatever to the ungodly, have had considerable to say about it. It endures the treatment, however, and though they may hide its force by shutting their own eyes, or by spinning webs of sophistry, and raising clouds of dust about it, yet it stands as a solemn and awful warning to the ungodly to beware of the terrible retributions of that eventful day.
The following are some of the suggestions by which it is sought to invalidate its portentous testimony:-
1. It is in Revelation, and Revelation is an obscure and symbolical book, therefore the wicked will escape all conscious punishment at the day of judgment.
2. The whole is a dramatic representation, as when it says "sheol from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming," and therefore these dead that stand before God will know nothing of the whole matter, and will suffer no infliction of punishment whatever.
3. It is said the dead stood before God, and were judged, and so they were dead when they were judged, and hence they will always be dead, and will never know anything about the matter, nor undergo any further conscious punishment, but will simply be left alone in the grave where they are.
4. Those found written in the book of life, are made alive, but those who are not written there do not live, nor know, nor suffer; but if they are raised at all they are simply so many lumps of clay, images or carcasses, not raised "to life," but raised "without any life;" and so, instead of men, God brings dead corpses and carcasses to judgment, and solemnly pronounces sentence upon lifeless lumps and images of clay.
5. It is finally said that wicked men cannot die a second time, and hence that the " second death" is a mere figure, which means, no one knows what; because it is said that death and hell died the second death too, and there is no account of their ever having died a first death before.
To all these propositions the text still presents itself; solemn and truthful, a warning which none may despise with impunity, or disregard with safety. But not to appear neglectful of any real or seeming difficulty which might perplex an honest mind, let us examine these various pleas in their order.
1. That Revelation is a book of symbols is very true; but they are symbols that reveal rather than conceal. These symbols mean something, and it is of no use for men to take as literal everything that seems to favor their opinions, and call everything else "figurative," lest it should overthrow their whole theory.
The reason and object of symbols seems to be by many very imperfectly apprehended. Their use I conceive to be two-fold. First: That personal responsibility and moral agency may be insured, or at least not interfered with. Hence, almost all predictions, and especially those that foretell crimes, and acts worthy of punishment, are couched in symbolic or figurative terms, lest the actors doing what they know to be wrong, should excuse themselves in it, saying "God has said we should do this, therefore we must, and are not to be blamed for our action since it is our unchangeable fate." Second: If prophecy had always been in express and literal terms, the very existence of the prophecies might have been endangered. For would Rome have permitted the preservation of a book which proclaimed the downfall of the empire? Would the Papacy have allowed the Bible to have come down unmutilated, had she read her own condemnation there? And did not Paul himself speak darkly and obscurely to the Thessalonians of "he that withhold," not naming the Roman government, as early fathers thought, lest it should provoke their persecution?
In such mysterious ways did God accomplish his purposes, keeping these things from the wise and prudent, and revealing them unto babes, as Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables, while to those who chose to come to him privately with their questions, he gave more full and explicit information, that the honest might see, and that the froward and self-sufficient might be left to pursue their own course.
If these principles be sound and truthful, it then follows, that in cases where moral agents perform voluntary actions during probationary time, these acts, if prophetically described, are more likely to be found veiled from the understandings of the ungodly in symbolical or figurative language. So kingdoms are described as beasts, national commotions as storms, peoples as waters; an apostate city as an harlot woman, soldiers as locusts; kings and governors as horns, upon a beast. of prey; the Church as a woman in affliction; and all other important actors by significant and appropriate emblems.
On the other hand, where inanimate things are described, or where the acts of irresponsible agents are represented; where events which are to occur beyond the period of mortal probation are the subject of prophecy; or where the acts are those of Christ, or are the result of his immediate power or will, there is no such occasion for figures or symbols, as no literal description would affect the action of any one, or would endanger the preservation of the revelation to the Church. Hence, in the Apocalypse, Christ appears usually in his own personal character. The acts of the glorified saints, and their condition in the world to come, are described without these disguises; the future abode of the redeemed, the Holy City, new Jerusalem; the new earth and all the blessings of that tearless and sorrowless state are portrayed in language which finds its correspondence in the literal statements and promises of the Old Testament and the New; while the resurrection of the dead, the dismay and punishment of the lost, and all the terrible descriptions of their doom arc but the counterparts, not merely of Christ's parables, but of the simple explanations of those parables; and the various other ethical teachings of Jesus, which, by every rule of historical criticism, must be regarded as substantially and literally accurate, in their simplest and most obvious sense.
In the instance before us, the resurrection of the dead, just and unjust; the judgment of all, and the doom of the ungodly, there is no fact intimated but what had been before stated in the plainest and simplest language, and hence, though occurring in a book of many symbols, there is not the least occasion to suppose this passage to be figurative, unless for the purpose of avoiding an unwelcome conclusion.
2. The idea that the dead here are said to stand before God in a dramatic sense, because Isaiah tells us that the host of SHEOL were moved from beneath to meet the king of Babylon at his coming, and taunt him with his downfall; while Solomon tells us that there is no work, device, nor knowledge in SHEOL, is a most serious confounding of things, which differ very essentially.
Let us note the points of dissimilarity in the two cases. First: Isaiah spoke of a king descending into sheol; and in going there he became subject to the conditions of existence there. John speaks of men coming out of SHEOL, (or HADES) and of course no longer subject to those conditions, but subject rather to the conditions of visible life. Second: Isaiah wrote in poetic style, of events now long past, when there could have been no resurrection of the dead; and hence his language may perhaps be figuratively understood as a dramatic representation; but John wrote in prose, and of events yet in the future, and to occur at a time when the resurrection of the dead will actually transpire; and hence his words are to be understood in their plain and obvious sense. Third: No other writer besides Isaiah uses the expressions that he does, while the facts that John saw in vision are literally declared in various other Scriptures. Fourth: The events spoken of by Isaiah are expressly said to occur IN SHEOL, or the state or place of the dead; while those mentioned by John are as expressly said to be not in sheol, but after death and sheol have " delivered up their dead;" and the whole scene is laid outside of the precincts of the grave, as clearly as the other scene is laid within them. Fifth: No acts are attributed to the " shades" or " RE-PHAIM," in sheol, by Isaiah, and no suffering, or punishment, or judgment is said to be inflicted on them. They may be regarded as speaking as the trees and hills are said to speak, and to rejoice, and clap their hands: but John speaks not only of the dead standing before God, but of investigation, of judgment, and of punishment; of the second death in the lake of fire, a matter which men may rejoice now to believe it figurative, but which I fear that many will at last lament to find a stern reality.
By "literal sense," I do not intend to advocate the species of criticism that denies all figures, tropes, similes, and symbols which occur in every language, but rather to guard against the reckless license of those who dispose of every passage which refutes their notions, by calling it "figurative language," and hence rendering it entirely meaningless. The true principle of exposition is to ascertain the historical sense of the inspired words; the sense in which their writers used them, and in which their intelligent readers understood them, so far as they could be understood when they were written.
Hence it plainly appears, that all the circumstances being so different, it is idle to attempt. to disprove the fact of retribution to the ungodly, by a reference to a dramatic passage in the prophetic poetry of Isaiah.
3. It is alleged that as it is said that the dead stood before God, and were judged, it follows that they were dead while they stood before God, and were judged, and will never rise at all from death.
But this is not to be taken for granted without some examination. These dead persons are not necessarily understood to be dead at that moment. They stood before God. But dead persons do not stand till after the resurrection, the re-standing up, or as Wycliff renders it, the "agenrising," the ANASTASIS of the dead. We constantly read of "the resurrection of the DEAD." Does this imply that they are dead when they are raised, or that they were dead just before? Further: of these dead persons it is plainly said, that death and hades, delivered them up. Now how dead is a man when death has delivered him up." How dead is a man when hades has delivered him up? How dead is a man when the sea has delivered him up? When death, and hades, and the sea have delivered up the dead man he must be alive. While death holds him he is dead; when death delivers him up he is alive. Besides, the same expression is used both of righteous and wicked, both stood before God; both were judged, and both received their doom. If the wicked were dead when they were punished then the righteous might be rewarded in the same way. If the death of the wicked required no dying, then the life of the righteous might require no rising. Spiritualize one, and Shakers, Swedenborgians, and Spiritualists will deny the other, till at length Hymeneus and Philetus will fill up the picture; say the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Finally:
If, when it is said " the dead" stood before God, it signifies that they were dead at that time, then when it was said that "the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see," Mark 15.31, the passage teaches that blind, deaf, dumb, and lame men, saw, heard, spoke, and walked, while they were blind, deaf, dumb, and maimed. Surely nothing more is needed to expose such absurdities. Did the dumb speak while they were dumb, or after they were cured? Did the blind see while they were blind, or when they were healed? If then persons are called blind after receiving their sight, and deaf and dumb, after they are healed, they may also be Called dead after they are alive, simply because they are the same persons who were so lately dead.
4. As to the theory that they stand before God as simple lumps of clay, that they "come forth," but do not come forth alive, it will do to go with the vagaries of Ann Lee. If there is a lower depth of exegetical nonsense than this, I hope not to explore it; and yet I have heard this gravely propounded as the only possible evasion which could be brought to turn aside the avalanche of testimony that God will bring every wicked man forth from his grave. "They may come forth, but they will not come forth alive!"
Such persons fail to comprehend the difference between the dead coming forth alive, and their coming forth to life. It is true the wicked dead do not come forth to life, they come forth to death but they are yet alive. Two men "come forth" out of a prison, one is set at liberty, the other is doomed to expire upon the gallows. One comes forth "to life" the other "to death," one to live the other to die; and yet one comes forth alive just as much as the other. So in the resurrection. All will come forth alive, but some will come forth "to life everlasting," and others to condemnation, and to " the second death." When Jesus came to the sepulcher of Lazarus did he say "Lazarus come forth alive," as if there was a possibility that a dead carcass might come forth in its lifeless condition? Jesus said "Lazarus come forth," and he was obeyed. Does John say he came forth to life? Does he say he came forth alive? Not a word of it. Shall we then infer that Lazarus was dead after Christ raised him, because it does not say that he " came forth to life?" When that same voice which said "Lazarus come forth," shall call for "all that are in the graves," they "shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." Though the wicked will not come forth immortal, they will come forth alive as truly as did Lazarus when Jesus said to him" Lazarus come forth."
To talk of men coming forth without being alive would imply that they still existed when they were dead. But have those dead persons any existence whatever, in the view of these theorists? Not the least. They died as the brutes die. They turned to dust. They are dust now, and nothing else but dust. They never will he anything else. They have not been-men since they decayed. They never will be men again. All there was, is, or ever will be of them, is a heap of elementary dust. They have, as men, been annihilated, and have absolutely no organic existence whatever And to talk of dust heaps being judged and condemned to die "the second death," is too foolish for even the madness of a maniac. If a dead man does not come up alive, he cannot come up at all; unless the Egyptian mummies be excepted. What foolishness to judge a mummy to condemn a clod to punish a lump of clay! and yet this is one of the arguments by which men profess to "explain away" the solemn tidings of a "judgment to come," that God has sent in mercy to the world and Church, that they might prepare to meet him in peace when He shall appear. Alas, that men should slight God's warnings and perish through unbelief, when he has done so much for them to secure their salvation!
5. A s to the objection that death and hell die the second death, and therefore the wicked will not die a second time, because death and hell never have died before; it may be answered that it is not said in the passage that death and hell did die the second death, or any other death at all. The passage says that death and hacks are cast into the lake of fire. " This is the second death." The death that kills the first death, or that succeeds it, would of course be called "the second death." The first death was before personified as the gaunt rider upon the pale horse. Hades followed him. Death hunted, and hades bagged the game. Death may be regarded as jailor, and hades perhaps as his dungeon. Now both are useless. The dead are all liberated from custody for judgment, and when the sinners die, death that came by sin goes with them, and hades follows after, and there is a clean sweep made of the whole, as they sink in the lake of fire. "This is the second death." So "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burned with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Rev. 21.8.
Scholz in his critical Greek Testament reads the passage Rev. 20.13, " And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." TISCHENDORF gives us the same reading. Dr. MURDOCK'S version of the Syriac Testament, D. N. LORD, and M. STUART in their commentaries on Revelation, and also A. L. SAWYER in his recent translation, render the passage according to this Greek text. " This is the second death, the lake of fire."
Upon this place Mr. LORD remarks: "Death is exhibited, not as an agent, but as the place of the unburied dead; obviously from the representation that the dead were in it. It gave up the dead that were in it, as the sea and the grave gave up the dead that were in them; and as they contain all the buried dead, those who were not in their domains, but the realms of death, must be the unburied dead. If death were exhibited, not as a realm, but as an agent, no reason could exist for representing the dead in the sea, and the grave as not under its dominion, as much as the unburied. All would indisputably be equally its captives. . . . And finally, this construction is confirmed by the symbolization of the second death by a place, not by an agent. This is the second death, the lake of fire.'" Exposition of the Apocalypse, p. 525.
It is probable that this is the correct reading and perhaps the correct interpretation of the passage. I submit it to the readers judgment.
The phrase, the second death, occurs in two other places. "He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the SECOND DEATH." Rev. 2.11. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the SECOND DEATH hath no power." Rev. 20.6. Those who do not overcome are therefore to be injured or hurt by the SECOND DEATH, which is not possible if they are to have no judgment or retribution; for to talk of hurting a heap of dust is an absurdity. They that do not have part in the first resurrection are to come under the power of "the SECOND DEATH." But those who have died are under the power of the first death, and unless that death "delivers them up," or ceases to have power over them, how can the second death ever have power over that which has no life, and no organic or conscious existence whatever?
We can easily conceive that into that lake of fire that "second death," things may be hurled which never had any life, and so cannot die at all. But if nothing dies the second time, then how comes the lake by its name, " the second death?" And here we may see clearly the fallacy of the argument that the term "the second death" does not imply that men die a second time because "death and hell" do not die a second time. The fact is, death and hell do not die at an, not even a first time; because they had no life. And it is not said that they die, but simply that they are cast into the lake of fire. But does this prove that no one dies at all? Does it prove that no one dies the second time? Then is not the second death a sad misnomer? Surely "the second death" must kill something, and kill it a second time, as really as the first death kills it the first time.
Another favorite turn with these theorists is, "It is appointed unto men ONCE to die, not twice; and therefore none will die but once." I would inquire if Lazarus, the Ruler's daughter, the widow's son, Dorcas, and others, who were raised from death did not die more than once? It is appointed unto men, to the race as a general rule, once to die, but after that there is a JUDGMENT. It is not appointed to men, to the race, to die twice, but yet if men "seek death," if they turn not when God says, "Why will ye die?" then, though it was only appointed to them to die once, they shall surely die "the second death." Since it is appointed unto men once to die, and this death is inevitable, what is the meaning of the question "Why will ye DIE?" if men have to die one death and cannot die another one if they will? One death is "appointed to men," the second is earned, sought, gained, it is "the wages of sin," and the doom of sinners. If we escape its power it must be by holy living rather than sophistical arguing; and we shall consult the safety of others by warning them to overcome that they may "not be hurt of the second death," rather than by persuading them that it is a mere figure of speech.
In closing the discussion of this Scripture, it may, I think, be safely asserted that there are several most solemn and positive proofs of a future retribution for the ungodly, after death, contained in this passage.
First: The great white throne is established for judgment, not for form, ceremony, or idle show. And if for judgment, then for retribution.
Second: There seems to be no intimation that those who lived until the second advent of Christ are there. They may have been judged before. They may have died and be raised again, or not; or they may be present, but no special mention is made of them here, But these before the throne are "the dead." Christ is to judge the living and the dead, at his appearing and kingdom; but his appearing is no transient scene, which shall pass in an hour, and his kingdom never shall end.
Third: The class judged here are the dead. Not half, or a tenth of the dead, but the dead, small and great." They are to stand before God. They "sleep in the dust of the earth" now. They must rise before they can stand, and stand before they are judged; and so they are the risen dead; and as both bad and good are there, so one stands just as the other does, and one is raised to life and glory, while the other is raised to shame and condemnation.
Fourth: The books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those books according to their works. One book doubtless is called "the book of remembrance," written for those that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. One book might record the acts of the ungodly, while another preserved the deeds of the just. And then there is "the Book of Life," in which the names of the chosen are inscribed. The judgment shall be not according to whims, theories, and creeds; but they shall be judged "every man according to his works."
Fifth: The, sea gave up the dead, and death and the grave delivered up their dead; and after they were de livered up, "they were judged according to their deeds."
Sixth: All not written in the book of life, were doomed to the second death and cast into the lake of fire.
These facts all tell of retribution, and retribution to which we are all destined, if ungodly.
It is related of a certain martyr, that, being called before a papal council, he- at first answered the questions that were put him carelessly, until he heard the scratching of a pen behind the screen, when the thought occurred to him that they were noting all his answers down to exhibit them as evidence against him at his trial. Then he chose his words, and answered carefully, as for his life.
Reader, behind the curtain there is a pen that writes in the book of God's remembrance all our words, and acts, and thoughts. Are we aware of the fact? Does the thought ever flash in upon our pleasure, our worldliness, or our sin, For all these things God shall bring thee into judgment! Let us think of these things; and as we value salvation and dread the lake of fire, let us "fear God and keep his commandments; for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."
Great God, what do I see and hear,
The end of things created,
The judge of man I see appear,
On clouds of glory seated.
The trumpet sounds, the graves restore
The dead, that they contained before;
Prepare my soul to meet Him.
It is also thought by many, that while in the beginning of the chapter (Rev. 20) "the first resurrection," that of the "blessed and holy," alone, is described; in this account, at the close of the chapter, of the delivering up of the dead by the sea, death, and hades, no explicit mention is made of any who are righteous; nor is there any distinction made as to the character or destiny of those who are judged. It is not said that the sea, death, and hades, delivered up all who ever had been in them, but simply the dead that at that time "were in them,"-these, small and great, stood before God-some of them were punished; were any saved?
The phrase "the dead” unless limited in some way, would naturally include all who were then dead. The distributive terms "small and great" are peculiar and expressive. When Christ foretold in general terms, without defining the order, time or manner, the coming forth of all that were in the graves, he spoke of two general classes, comprehending nearly all the dead, namely they that had done good which should "come forth," and they that had done evil which should "come forth" also. Paul in expressing his anticipations of a resurrection includes, in it, "the just and the unjust." In this passage, waiving all distinctions of character "the dead small and great" are said to stand before God.
And if, at the point of time described in this chapter, all of the just had already been delivered from the captivity of death, they that were Christ's being raised at his coming and thus attaining "eis ton exanastasin teen ek nekron, UNTO THE OUT-RISING AGAIN FROM AMONG THE DEAD." Phil. 3.11. “being counted worthy of "that AGE and the RESURRECTION ek nekron OUT FROM THE DEAD" Luke 20.35. Mark 12.25. the only appropriate distributive phrase to indicate the remainder would seem to be "small and great," as "just and unjust," or "good and evil" could be no longer applied to them. With this idea agrees the current usage of the phrase "small and great" in other portions of the Apocalypse. Rev. 11.18; 13.16; 19.5.
13. To the positive statement of Jesus Christ that "every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment," it is objected that, if this passage is to be literally understood, or in other words, if Christ means what he says, then the, day of judgment will be a period of great length, if we only allow a very few minutes to each individual who is judged. A more obvious inference is that if Jesus Christ told the exact truth while speaking not in parables or figures, but in plain language; if he meant what he said, and said what he meant, without exaggeration or misrepresentation; then this whole theory which denies the resurrection of the wicked is an awful mistake, a contradiction of the words of Christ and his apostles, a saying of Peace to the wicked when there is no peace.
But this conclusion presupposes what no intelligent person would admit for a moment, that in the judgment of God each person must be examined and judged successively; 'in other words, that God is so like finite man that He could only judge one person at a time; and hence it is inferred that He -would call each individual before Him, one by one, and try all their, cases as though He were holding a petty court in some modern commonwealth. An idea so absurd as this, having nothing to support it, needs nothing to refute it. As well might you say to a. man who should come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy and for help, "It will be in vain for you to pray, for multitudes of other people are praying every day, and if the. Almighty should devote ten minutes to the -hearing of each of the prayers that are offered, you will be dead and buried long before He will find time to listen to your petitions." When the prayers of God's people. sweep like clouds of incense up to His throne morning by morning, and evening by evening, there is no confusion in the mind of the Infinite: and He who watches the falling sparrow, who numbers the very hairs of our heads, who causes each plant and flower to spring forth and grow by His own divine energy; He whose kingdom ruled over all, and whose providence is universal, will find no difficulty in judging the world at the time appointed, by that man whom He hath ordained.
In the judgment of Him whose eyes behold, and whose eyelids try the sons of men, there will be neither concealments, hindrances, false pleadings, or denials. None of the guilty will dispute their guilt. And, not as men do patiently examine, and slowly and cautiously weigh the evidence brought before them, shall the Judge of quick and dead review the conduct of mankind. For no investigation shall be needed in that day to instruct Omniscience concerning human character or human deserts. He who declares the end from the beginning, and in whose book of remembrance the records of human action are enrolled, will require no long searching or tedious delay, ere He can pronounce and execute a righteous sentence.
It is stated by persons who have been in imminent danger of death, that the acts of their whole lives would flash upon their minds in a moment of time, so that every sin they had committed would instantly present itself before them. And if such a review could be taken by finite man, how much more by the infinite God. His ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts like our thoughts. All the ages of eternity would not suffice for man to raise the dead; but, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," the power of God shall do the work. So no imaginable time would be sufficient to allow men to accomplish this work of judgment, yet the Almighty God can do it at His pleasure. And it seems to me that such objections as this, limit the power of the Almighty, and strike at the root of all reverential faith in the word of God. And if; at last, it should be found that "God shall judge the righteous AND THE WICKED;" that the resurrection of the dead is not a mere figure of speech; that the judgment of the ungodly is not a piece of oriental imagery; that the damnation of hell, the second death in the lake of fire, are not simply figurative expressions; how sad would be the lament of those who had trusted in such refuges of lies, and sought to hide themselves beneath them from the. just retribution that awaits the ungodly in the great and terrible day of the Lord.
If we are wise we shall seek deliverance from the judgment which is to overtake the wicked, not by means of misinterpretations and perversions of the Scriptures which announce that doom, but by humbly repenting of every sin, and passing the time of our sojourning here in fear; watching unto prayer, keeping ourselves in the love of Christ, and abiding in Him, that thus we may have boldness in the day of judgment and not be ashamed before Him at his coming. Failing to do this, when the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-places, we may find that our confidence has been misplaced, our house built upon the sand, and we be doomed to perish at last. May God save us from such presumption, and from such a doom through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
14. The prophecy of Daniel, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt;" is not, it is said. correctly translated. Many is not all. The phrases rendered "some to everlasting life, and some to shame," should be "these to life," and "those to shame." So Prof. WHITING renders: "And many from the sleepers of the dust of the ground shall awake, these to everlasting life, and those to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence." "Those" are such as do not awake. Prof. BUSH renders the expression "these," and "those," and says, "The awaking is evidently predicated of the many and not of the whole; consequently, the. these' in the one case must be understood of the class that awakes, and the 'those' in the other, of that class which remains asleep." Hence it is claimed, if such are the facts, no argument for a resurrection of the wicked to shame and everlasting contempt can be brought from this passage.
It is true that learned men have said all this, and it is quite possible also, that Hymeneus and Philetus said so too, when, with cankerous words they sought to overthrow the faith of some, and prove that the resurrection was past already. Prof. Bum, though an estimable and learned man, became a Swedenborgian, denied the resurrection of the body, tried to show that the apostles were mistaken when they preached it, tried to prove from this passage that the wicked have no resurrection, and finally did not believe that the righteous have any either! A hopeful leader. When it is proved the wicked will not rise, the work is more than half done, and the same ingenuity persevering will disprove the resurrection of anybody else. We must watch these translations very closely.
As to Prof. WHITING'S translation I do not specially object to it, but his comments which apply the "these" to the awakened, and "those" to the non awakened, and which have been used to prove that the wicked would not rise, I do not think so much of, as I did before I examined them. The same Hebrew expression is found in Joshua 8.22, " so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side." 1 Kings 20.29. "And they pitched one over against the other." 1 Chron. 24.6. "Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another." These instances I think are sufficient to vindicate our translation from any charge of serious incorrectness. And -besides, the comment which refers those to "the unawaken," seems to be entirely gratuitous, and directly opposite to the teaching of the passage, which says expressly .that many SHALL awake, and divides the awakened into the two classes by the words these and those, or "some ,m and says nothing whatever of any class who remain una-wakened.
It is however objected that the expression "many" is restrictive: many cannot be all. But Daniel did not write the word "many," he wrote the word. Now the word signifies many, or multitude. 2 Chron. 1.9. "Like the dust of the earth in multitude." 2 Chron, 20.2. "There cometh a great multitude against thee." The word in Dan. 12.2, is the plural form so it may be translated not multitude, or MULTITUDES. Hence THOMAS WINTLE, in his excellent version of Daniel, renders the passage: "Then MULTITUDES that sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake;" and he remarks upon it: "this is a just and exact translation of the Hebrew."
The ASSEMBLIE'S ANNOTATIONS upon this passage say: "The time shall come, even that time of the general resurrection of all men, when these, (the persecuted ones,) shall awake out of the sleep of death, to everlasting life; and their persecuting enemies, notwithstanding their flourishing and triumphing estate in the short time of this life, shall then awake to shame and everlasting contempt. See Heb 11.35; 2 Mac. 14.46. Many: all of the dead shall arise again: mealy sometimes signified all: Rom 5.19. Here many doth distribute them all into two sorts, two multitudes, two ranks, as our Savior doth, Matt, 25.33, etc. The Hebrew accent set upon the word many, so singles it out, as shows it equally to be referred to both members of the distribution following." John 5.28, 29. The learned Calmet says, "Nothing is more express than that these words prove the resurrection of the dead. This is the simple, literal, and natural sense of the place,"
THOMAS WINTLE remarks: "It has long ago been observed, that the word ‘multitudes,' ought to be understood as equivalent to all.' So Rom. 5.15, 19; John 5.28; all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth," etc. And Mr. PETERS, in his Dissertation on Job, has justly observed, that "the all of our Savior is, in the judgment of the learned, a good interpretation of the prophet's many, and must have been esteemed so by those who heard Him speak the one passage, and were well acquainted with the other."
But leaving the passage, and allowing the word to be correctly rendered many, let us inquire if the term does not, in Scripture language, sometimes signify all. The Septuagint version has for this term the Greek word "polloi." Now by turning to Rom. 5.17, 18, we read, "For if through the offence of the one, ‘hoi polloi,' the many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, hath abounded unto ‘toes pollous,' the many." How many were condemned through the offence of one? "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men" How many receive the abounding grace? "By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon ALL MEN, to justification of life." Not to salvation, in the kingdom of God, but to justification of life, or release from Adamic death, in the resurrection of all mankind.
Again: " For as by one man's disobedience ‘HOI POLLOI,' the many were made sinners, so by the righteousness of one shall the many "HOI POLLOI," be made righteous." Rom. 5.19. How many were made sinners "by the disobedience of one?" "So death passed upon all men, for that ALL have sinned." Rom. 5.12.
Here we may observe that the expression "THE MANY," is equivalent to "all," and farther, that the effects of Christ's righteousness are as wide as those of Adam's sin. As many as suffered death by the sin of the one, shall be raised to life by the obedience of the other. Or in other words, "As in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive."
Again: it is written, " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Mark 10.45. How "many" is the ransom for? Let Paul reply " There is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a RANSOM for ALL, to be testified in due time." 1 Tim. 2.5, 6.
So "MANY of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Dan. 12.2. But how many? Let the true and faithful witness answer. "ALL that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation." John 5.28, 29.
And upon this basis of solemn prophetic assertion, there was ample room to rest that hope of which Paul makes mention when he says: "After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the PROPHETS: and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the JUST and UNJUST." Acts 24.14, 15.
15. The assertion of Paul that he hoped for a resurrection of the dead just and unjust, is objected to as largely as any other passage we have noticed.
The point sought to be proved is, that Paul did not hope for "a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust," and as he expressly, positively, and unequivocally says he had such a hope, it is evident the task of disproving it involves some difficulty, and requires much ingenuity. The process is as follows:-
1. It is said Paul hoped for the resurrection of the dead. Hope is made up of desire and expectation. Could Paul desire to see the wicked all in one vast company weeping, wailing, crying for mercy, and mercy deaf to all their sorrows, anguish, and despair? Could he desire to listen to the curses and blasphemies, and witness the rolling sea of wickedness that would pour forth from all the resurrected wicked in that day? Certainly not. Therefore Paul did not have hope of "the resurrection of the dead, just and unjust," (even if he says he did.)
2. He therefore only hoped for a resurrection of the dead, and by the dead he meant a half, a fourth, a tenth, or twentieth part of the dead, namely, the righteous dead alone, (though he expressly included the unjust in the statement.)
3. The Pharisees allowed that there would be a resurrection of the just and the unjust, but Paul only believed that the just would rise.
4. The Pharisees only believed in a transmigration of the souls, and not in a resurrection of the dead at all, and so Paul did not " allow" what they believed, nor believe what they allowed.
Such are the precious arguments by which men labor to subvert the solemn doctrines of future resurrection and judgment, and make an apostle of Christ talk, not his faith, but their own; not what he believed, but what they think he ought to have believed, in order that their notions may be proved true. Let us turn from such sophistries to Scripture and to facts. It may be observed that Paul was not then addressing Pharisees or Sadducees as such. Persons are greatly mistaken when they suppose that these two little crafty, intriguing, contemptible sects, represented the whole Jewish nation. They no more represented the state of the nation than the Mormons, the Shakers, the Free Masons or Politicians represent the faith of the inhabitants of the United States. The census taken by the Jewish priests, at the Passover before Jerusalem was destroyed, estimated TWO MILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND persons present, and partaking; besides strangers, absent ones, and those defiled and hence ex-Chided. ELEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND PERISHED in the SIEGE, NINETY-SEVEN THOUSAND were taken captive when the city fell. The Pharisees were probably more numerous than the Sadducees or any other sect, but Josephus expressly informs us that the number of the Pharisees, when they refused to swear allegiance to Caesar, was "about six THOUSAND," a very small fraction of the people. Hence while the Pharisees denied the resurrection of the wicked, but held that their souls were eternally tormented in hades, and the Sadducees denied all future life whatever, Paul could speak to "the common people" who heard Christ gladly, the Jews, who held a middle ground between these two rival sects, and who expected, with the apostles, that there should be "a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust."
As it regards the intimation that Hope must necessarily include desire, though this may be true of the English word Hope it is not true of the Greek word ELPIS from which Hope is translated in this passage; and which is defined to mean " Hope, the object of hope, any thought in the future; expectation, hoping, also fear." Hope, trust, confidence, security, expectation." "Properly expectation, hope," Acts 24.15, etc. Paul uses the verb ELPIZO in 2 Cor. 8.6, where, speaking of the liberality of the Macedonian churches, he says, "And this they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." Paul did not, I think, wish to say that he hoped the brethren would not first give themselves to the Lord, and yet this seems to be the idea with the present version, if hope always include desire. WAKEFIELD renders the verse: "And not as we SUPPOSED; for they devoted themselves to the Lord first, and then to us through the will of God." Dr. JAMES MACKNIGHT, one of the ablest translators of the epistles, renders this passage: "And not as we feared; but first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God." And he remarks, SUIDAS informs us, that the Attics applied ELPIZEIN to things bad as well as good, consequently it signifies to fear as well as to hope. Here it signifies to fear, because the apostle cannot be supposed to say that he hoped the Macedonians would not make the collections. THOS. BELSHAM renders it: "And what was beyond our expectation," etc. APB. NEWCOMB: " And this they did not as we expected." JOHN LOCKE: "In this they out did my expectation." SUIDAS, referred to by Macknight, was a Greek writer and Lexicographer who flourished about A. D. 1100. He defines " elpis, looking for good: also a fearful anticipation of something not good."
These instances are sufficient to show that "hope" in Scripture, may mean simply expectation, without special desire. But waiving all this it may be said, that Paul could hope for the resurrection of the dead, even though the unjust were included among them.
Paul looked for "that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ," and yet when Christ appears, there shall be all this weeping and wailing and crying for mercy among the living sinners who shall wail because of him, in that day. Could Paul desire this? Shall we deny then, that he did look and hope for the day which should certainly bring all this sorrow? Paul had his sympathies more with Christ than with an ungodly and blasphemous world; and though the advent of Christ is to bring to the wicked this sorrow, deeper than any that earth has ever seen before, yet when he that testified these things says, surely I come quickly. I can pray with John the beloved disciple "even so, come Lord Jesus." So Paul could hope for "a resurrection of the dead," not the righteous dead merely, but "the dead, just and unjust," even though that which might have been a blessing to all should be through their own fault, a curse to those who reject the grace of God, and who may find themselves in a worse condition than if Christ had never died for them. He gave his life a ransom for all, and if some abuse the blessing, that shall not cause the child of God to quench the ardor of his longing for the day of glory which shall dawn " when Christ who is our life shall appear, and we also shall "appear with him in glory."
Concerning the Pharisees, we have already said that according to Josephus' account, they did not admit a resurrection of "the unjust;" nor do some of the Jews even to this day. But the Savior warned us against the doctrine of the Pharisees who denied the resurrection of some, and the Sadducees who rejected the resurrection of all mankind. "The common people" not only allowed, but they believed in and expected, a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust. The Greek word "prosdechomai" is very poorly rendered here by "Allow." GREVILLE EWING in his Lexicon defines it, "receive, accept, submit to, expect, whether with hope or fear." LIDDELL and SCOTT defines it: " To accept, receive favorably, to wait for, or expect a thing." BAGSTER'S Analytical Lexicon, "To receive, accept, to look or wait for, expect, await." The uniform usage in the New Testament is in the sense of expecting or receiving, Joseph of Arimathea "waited for the Kingdom of God." Mark 15.43; Luke 23.51. Simeon was "waiting for the consolation of Israel." Luke 2.25. Anna spoke to them that looked for redemption in Israel." Luke 2.38. "Looking for that blessed hope." Titus 2.13. "Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Jude 21. "Ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." Luke 12.36. The same word is used in the preceding chapter to express the expectations of the ruffians who sought to slay Paul, of whom it was said to the chief captain: "they are ready, looking for a promise from thee." Acts 23.21.
Now it is perfectly evident from these citations that the Jews did more than merely allow such a resurrection. They looked for, they expected just such a resurrection as Paul looked for or hoped for, "a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust." WM. TYNDALE, A.D. 1534, renders it: " And have hope towards God, that the same resurrection from death (which they themselves look for also), shall be both of just and unjust."
Abp. CRANMER 1539 and the GENEVA version 1557 render it: "And have hope towards God, that the same resurrection of the deed (which they themselves loke for also) shall be both of just and unjust and therefore study I to have always a clear conscience toward God, and toward men."
The RHEIMS version, 1582: "Having hope in God, the which these also themselves expect, that there shall be a resurrection of just and unjust." In the face of all these authorities, to which may be added the Old Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, the German and others, Sing James' translators rendered the word " allow." Happily however they have had few followers in this matter.
JOHN WILLIS, B. D., in his " Actions of the Apostles," renders it, " Having hope before God, as themselves likewise expect that there is to be a resurrection of the dead; both of the innocent and the wicked."
E. HAREWOOD: " Indulging that divine and transporting hope, which they themselves profess to cherish, that after death there will be a general resurrection both of the virtuous and of the wicked."
NATH. SCARLETT: " Having hope in God that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust; which themselves also expect."
GRANVILLE PENN: " And having hope toward God of that for which they themselves also look, that there will be a resurrection both of the just and unjust."
Dr. JAMES MURDOCK, renders it from the Syriac: "And I have a hope in God, which they also themselves expect, -that there is to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the righteous and the wicked."
A. L. SAWYER: " Having a hope in God which they also hold, that there will be a resurrection both of the righteous and the wicked."
GILBERT WAKEFIELD: "Having a hope in God, which they also entertain, that there will be a resurrection from death both of righteous and unrighteous men."
SAMUEL SHARPE in his version from Griesbach's text: " And having a hope toward God, that there will be what they themselves also look for, a resurrection of the dead, both of the righteous and of the unrighteous."
Bishop ZACHARY PEARCE renders in his commentary: " That there is to be, what these men themselves look for, a resurrection of the dead," etc.
Dr. GEORGE BENSON paraphrases it: "And I trust in God, that there will be a resurrection from the dead, both of the good and of the wicked; which is nothing but what the Jews, in general, profess to expect: but, as I have such a firm expectation of the resurrection of the just, and tremble at the thoughts of rising among the wicked; I make it the principal, care and study of my life to preserve my conscience void of offence, both towards God and man."
To quote more would be a work of supererogation. The whole passage shows, 1. That Paul expected the dead to rise. 2. That the Jews expected the same thing. 3. That he expected the righteous to be raised. 4. That he used the same words to express his expectation of the resurrection of the wicked as of the righteous. If one fails to express the idea, so does the other; if one can be explained away, so can the other; if one can be denied so can the other; and so can any other fact or truth whatever, contained in Scripture, no matter how clearly, expressly, and positively it is revealed.
The same perverse logic which proves no resurrection of the wicked proves no resurrection of any one, no preexistence of Christ before his birth, no Holy Spirit but the word, no Baptism but the Spirit, no Lord's Supper, no Devil, no future punishment, no second coming of Christ, no inspired revelation; and finally it is used by the Atheist to prove that there is no God! Christian men will do well to -pause before they set sail in such a bark, on such a voyage, with such a pilot. Truly has it been said: "The method of interpreting Scripture on which this theory depends unsettles all faith in the Bible, and saps the foundation of Christianity."
16. The Gospel is good news, glad tidings of great joy. But the resurrection of the wicked is not good news, and cannot therefore be Gospel.
This assertion is essentially one sided. It labors to bring God's thoughts down to man's standard, rather than man's thoughts up to the standard of God. Many things are contained in the Scripture, which are not at all "good news" to those who deny, disbelieve, or disobey them. "He that believeth not shall be damned." Is that good news? "The wages of sin is death." Is that good news? "The soul that sinned it shall die." Is that good news? "They shall be punished with everlasting destruction." Is that good news? "All kindred of the earth shall wail because of him." Is that good news?
I had thought that the Gospel told us what was true rather than what poor ignorant sinful mortals might think pleasant, amusing, and agreeable. Some persons will not believe that it is " good news" to say that all who desire salvation can have it if they will; they must have a gospel which gives you salvation whether you will or not. Some do not admit that to be good news which says that all who repent shall be saved; they want a gospel which says that all shall be saved whether they will repent or not. Others, it seems, will not allow anything to be gospel which involves a future retribution or judgment. What then is gospel? Who shall decide? "Let God be true and every man a liar."
When "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked," when he shall solve the great problems of mystery and evil that have perplexed the word, men will learn that "it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation" to the troublers of his people, and rest to his afflicted church. And though there may seem to be no good news in this to the wicked and to their sympathizers; to those who strengthen their hands that they should not return from their wickedness by saying peace, when there is no peace; yet when he who smote great kings, because his mercy endured forever, and overthrow Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea for his mercy endured forever; shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and slay the wicked with the breath of his lips, those who have the mind of Christ may well refrain from finding fault with his righteous repayment, and say with David of old: "Unto thee, O Lord, belonged mercy: for thou renders to every man according to his work." Ps. 62.12, 136.
17. But why should God make the wicked live again? They are dead, why not let them remain dead. We see no good reason why they should rise, and therefore we believe that their " death is an eternal sleep."
Let us carry the question farther back. Why did God- make the wicked to live at all? " Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?" Job 21.7, is a question as old as the time of Job; and who has ever answered it? But shall we deny what we know because we are too ignorant to explain it? " Shall any teach God knowledge?" If God has wisely allowed the wicked to exist for centuries in sin, blasphemy, and rebellion, certainly his wisdom will not further suffer serious impeachment even though he should perpetuate or restore their existence for another period sufficiently long for purposes of justice, judgment, and retribution.
The sum of the argument is, God will do as he pleases, purposes, and promises to do; nor can men who are " as grasshoppers before him," " stay his hand." Whether we can comprehend it or explain it, whether we believe or doubt it, he will fulfill his word. Christ has said " The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come FORTH; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done EVIL, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5.28, 29. Hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?
More might be said upon this important subject. The results of this. system of reckless and unrestrained critical license might be shown. When once the effort is made to bend Scripture to preconception and imagination, then, under the specious pretense of "freedom of thought," and "freedom of speech," every error may be presented, and every truth disputed. Investigation may be and is desirable, but let it be an investigation indeed; rather than an avalanche of quibbles, sophistries, and conceits. But when men under pretext of free investigation, " liberty of thought," and " searching for truth," aim to subvert the very "principles of the doctrine of Christ," and sap the foundations of a gospel faith; when " the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of RESURRECTION of the dead, and of eternal JUDGMENT," are disputed, perverted and denied; when " repentance from dead works," and even "faith toward God" are lost sight of in a maze of speculative, theorizing, and perverse send subtle disputation; then, it seems, that we need to beware lest our liberty become license, and lest by rejecting the truths we have learned, and grasping after errors because they are new, we find ourselves among those that are "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
The moral bearings of a doctrine which teaches that to every sinner "death is an eternal sleep;" that they shall not all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; that everyone shall not give account of himself to God; that God shall not bring every work into judgment; that there shall not be a resurrection of the dead just and unjust; that they that have done evil shall not come forth to the resurrection of condemnation; that no sinner need to meet his blasphemed and insulted God in judgment; that a pistol ball, a dagger, or a cup of poison can, in an hour, put the vilest transgressor where neither God or man can judge him for his iniquities, or punish him for his crimes; that he who has trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the redeeming blood an unholy thing, shall not be counted worthy of a "sorer punishment" than all both righteous and wicked receive in natural death, that there is no cause for "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," by those who "sin willfully, after" they "have received the knowledge of the truth;" that no guilty Felix need to tremble on account of a " judgment to come;" the moral bearings I say, of such a doctrine as this, are proper subjects of serious consideration. I do not now however purpose to investigate them further, but will merely remark that France once wrote over her graveyards Death is an eternal sleep." The results of that opinion are matter of history; and though the idea of a resurrection of the just to life and glory, changes essentially the fate of the believer, it makes little difference with the prospects of the ungodly. mother, after her youthful daughters had been associated with a preacher who taught this doctrine, told me how they drew inferences of impunity in sin, and security in impenitence which they could mention and act upon, even though he might not be affected by them. I myself have been met with the same objection when I have sought to warn unconverted men to repent and turn to God. "If we die and that is the last of us it is no great loss."
But I leave this subject. I have not written in haste Four years ago the substance of this work was prepared for the press. It has lain unpublished, notwithstanding the requests of friends and even the taunts of those who declared that I dare not publish it. I have no appetite for controversy. When I speak I am for peace, even if others are for war. I had hoped that no occasion would demand the issue of this treatise, but I am convinced that fidelity to God, and Christ, and truth, demand that I should now speak.
Already I am informed, that besides various publications sent forth to promulgate this notion, and assail the scriptural doctrine of future retribution, certain individuals are putting forth every effort to bring the matter to the notice of others, and make the acceptance of, or the silent assent to, this opinion, the basis of their Christian fellowship.
Hence, actual duty seems to demand that the facts and Scriptures bearing upon this important subject should be placed before the minds of the public. It is to me a solemn truth that there is a judgment, and that judgment is at hand 1 We must meet it soon. When I stand before my judge I desire to be "pure from the blood of all men."' Hence I warn the sinner and the saint to prepare to meet God. Let no vain sophistries hide this solemn thought from your mind.
I must close, and how more fitly than in the words of the wisest man?
LET US HEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER; FEAR GOD, AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS: FOR THIS IS THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN. FOR GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT, WITH EVERY SECRET THING, WHETHER IT BE GOOD,. OR WHETHER IT BE EVIL.