The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 449

brings before us, and the whole teaching of God's Word; is ntterly subversive of this popular and plausible but pernicious belie£. It teaches that there is a "prize" of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus; a being, if faithful, first in the kingdom of heaven, or, if unfaithful, last; a being greatest or least; a crown of life; a recompense'of ten cities M well as of five ; and much also of the aame kind. Especially is this doctrjne of special reward to the faithful confirmed by thia truth of the first resurrection. µ,t UB inquire- . L WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Surely that whioh it aeems to say:--that the faithful 11ervants of Christ, of whom th011e who had been beheaded for his 111tke· are named· as representing all the rest, shall rise from the dead, and live and reign with Christ for a vast period, here called a thousand years, whilst all the rest of the dead shall have nu resurrection until this period be past. Therefore there is a first resurrection for the Mints of_ God, and another, inferior and later one, for all the rest of the dead.· So this Scripture seems to teach. But many have affinned that, however much it may seem to teach this~ in reality it does not. For, it is affirmed: 1. That there ii n.othi'ltg ~ li1" it in all t/&e rest of Script11r1. It stands all alone. But if it be really taught here, our failing to find it elsewhere will not excuse us from aqcepting it. We accept other doctrines even if declared but once. Take 1 Cor. xv. Where but there shall wtt find not a few of the truths it. teaches? And there are other instanC011 beside. But we do not admit that it'stands alone, not by any means (of. infra). 2. ~t it w all mda- plwr, like the rest of the book. B11t all is not metaphor, and what is and what ia not oon .be readily distinguished. The resurrection ii! not a metaphor. 3. That ii m«ms bapli,m. We read that Christ~s have " risen with Christ in· baptism" (Rom. vi. 4 ; CoJ..:ii. 12.). Here, then, it is said, is the first resurrection.- But St. John, in our text and its cootext, is speaking of men who have died, have been beheaded for Christ; the death is a literal one, so therefore must the resurrection be. If it were a spiritual death that were told of, then the resurrection might be spiritual also. And the living with -Christ. comes after death. How, then, can it be baptism? 4. Others, many, say that it tells of the thousand years or more which stretch from the fourth century lo the "-rteenth. ' At· the beginning of the fourth; persecution by heathen Rome ceased, Rome herself adoptingtbe Christian faith. For a thousand years after, her ministers and (',hurehes, it might be said, Hved and reigned. But then came the capture of Con- 11tantitiople; and the establishment of the Turkish empire, and the dominance over so large·a.portion of the once 0hristian world of the Mohammedan imposture. Well, if Satan was "bound" during all that perioo whenever-so one would ask-was there a time when he seemed more free? If that thousand years were the millennium, or like it, then may w:e be delivered from such another one I 5; The entire present dispensation. Reference is made to our Lord's word as to the "fall" of Satan "from heaven;" as to his being "judged" and" cast out;" and it ii:i said that this is Satan's condition now~ fallen, judged, east out, bound, shut up in the abyss, reserved for condemnation-and has been so ever since our Lord was here on· earth;· and that_ d1iring all this period tbe faithful have lived and reigned with Christ. Ag~in/'We' say, such interpretation makes a inockery of the millt!nniuin, and empties St. John's words of well-nigh all their mean- ing. 'l'herefore, on the sound principle of interpretation that, when a literal meaniu~ will stand in any Scripture, the meaning furthest from that is generally the wol'llt, we aooept that literal meaning, and the more ao that the qu~tion- . II. WHERE IS THE PROOll' OIi' IT? is one that can be satisfactorily answered. 1. In the Old Tesih11Wnt there were many Scriptures which had led the Jews to the belief tlmt for faithful Israel there was to be a special resurrection. Such texts were Isa. xxv. 81 xxvi. 1; Ezek. xxxvii.; Dan. xii And this belief of their resurrectio~ when · Messiah came was what St. Paul called " the hope of IsraeL" And this general belief our Lorµ never contradicted, which he who said, "Jf it were not so I would have told yOTI," would assuredly have done. But : 2. The New Testament must, of course, furnish the larger proof. Our Lord perpetually speaks of the resurrection of the good and of the evil a:; of separate things. He tells (John T._ 29) of "the resurrection of life" MLd of" the resurrection of j11dgment;" and in ver. 24 he has said that believel'II "shall uot come into jndgment. ~ Here, then, is a resnrreetion with which belie1·ers can have nothing to do, and nnother which is specially theirs. Thon cf. John. vi. 39, 40, "I will raise him up at tb.a hist day." This is several times repeated. But why; ··'4l6 TUE REVJi:Iu\.TJQN. QI' S'J!i JOUN TRE DIVINE. [cm. xx.1-.:15