Revelation of Jesus Christ. Heaven Opened.
When the Lord Jesus stood before the high-priest, the latter, standing up, said to Him, “I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us if Thou art the Christ the Son of God. Jesus says to him, Thou hast said. Moreover, I say unto you, from henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” On the right hand of power He has been sitting while He has gathered His beloved Church to Himself. Now the second part of His statement is fulfilled. It is the time of Matt. 24:30: “They shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”; of Mark 13:26: “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” Heaven had opened for Stephen to see Him; now it opens for Him to come forth, in righteous power, as the faithful and true One. The true and faithful Witness, in judgment, coming forth in power, to quell every adversary. His eyes as a flame of fire penetrate with divine judgment, searching everything. He has many royal diadems for His sway is universal. “All power is committed to Me.” He had a name written, but none, save Himself, could fathom its immense import, for, though displayed as Man, He is nevertheless Son of God. And “who knoweth the Son but the Father”? His vesture, dipped in blood, signaled Him as the avenger of blood. His name is the Word of God, that which He always is, and was, from, and in, the beginning; but now, making all good in judgment. The armies in heaven are the triumphant trophies of His grace, and their garments, the righteousness which is the product of divine righteousness; good works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. These followers of His—these called and chosen and faithful of Rev. 17:1414These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. (Revelation 17:14)—follow on white horses; that is, they are carried on the same power that carries Him. Clad in robes of His providing, He, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 49, presents Himself in power. “The Lord hath called Me from the womb; from the bowels of My mother hath He made mention of My name: and He hath made My mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid Me; and He hath made Me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He kept Me close; and He said unto Me, Thou art My servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for naught and vanity: yet surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My recompense with My God. And now, saith the Lord that formed Me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, and that Israel be gathered unto Him: (for I am honorable in the eyes of God the Lord, and My God is become My strength:) yea, He saith, It is too light a thing that Thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth.”
This is the blessed One who now reaps the fruit of His toil, but shares it with His people; for they, with Him, rule the nations with a rod of iron. The other characteristics are peculiar to Himself personally.
Of His three names, the first, no man knows but Himself. The second was the name known to faith, the same that judges at the last day; the third, open, manifest to the sight of all, King of kings (Jew), Lord of lords (Gentile).
Day of glory that all creation waits for! Consummation of all that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now for! Token of deliverance from the bondage of corruption, and entrance into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God! It has begun. The night is over. The Sun of righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings.
The Great Slaughter. Beast and False Prophet Cast Into the Lake of Fire.
The opposition of Satan, and of man, through Satan, which has been going on since the world began, against the Lord of hosts, finds its culmination here; for every available power on the earth has been gathered together for one last and supreme effort. To suppose there could be any result but one, is absurd; but blindness is ever the accompaniment of sin. The Devil, who has thus set all his agents at work, does not appear on the scene. He seems to be reserving himself for further effort; and, indeed, it is intended that it should be so, as we shall presently see. An angel, in the place of supreme power, with loud voice, invites the ministers of judgment to come to a feast of God’s providing, that they may consume the myriads that have come that they may be broken with a rod of iron, and dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel. Kings in abundance are there; commanders of a thousand men; brigades, and lesser divisions; cavalry and infantry; line and volunteer; pressed and mercenary service; for it must be remembered that East and West are joined in this final attack, the greatest that has ever been made. The whole power of Satan committed to the beast is in exercise, according to Rev. 13:44And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:4). They did homage to the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast, and they did homage to the beast, saying, Who is like to the beast? and who can make war with it?
So the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, are gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army! The result is one of the most appalling character. Enoch and Elijah had been taken to heaven without dying; they had been active for God in testimony against evil. Here are two beings active for evil in testimony against God, thrust alive into hell-fire without the preliminary of death! Their awful punishment, more severe even than Satan’s, who, at least, has a thousand years more respite. And thus we see the termination of secular (military) and religious (priestcraft) wickedness, the two elements of which the world is made up; for the sword was put into the hand of Noah, as far as earth was concerned; while God, by the medium of sacrifice and priesthood, of His own appointment, until Christ should come, secured the spiritual homage of His creatures. The Devil, getting hold of both, puts the sword into the hand of the beast, and spiritual manifestations into the hand of the false prophet. The latter plays into the hands of the former. Both play into the hands of the Devil, man being the victim of their ruin. The rest of the combatants are slain by a word from Him that sits on the horse (Isa. 11:44But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. (Isaiah 11:4)): “By the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.”
The prophet Zechariah, who gives us exceedingly vivid and interesting accounts of these closing scenes, thus describes the effect on the combatants gathered before Jerusalem, and the way in which the word from the lips of the Lord will affect them: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day that a great discomfiture from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor” (Zech. 14:12, 1312And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. 13And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. (Zechariah 14:12‑13)). Blind, speechless, the flesh dropping from their bones, what a spectacle of man who dares to lift up his puny hand against the Lord! And the horse, the mule, the camel, and the ass—every beast in their camps must suffer as their masters! Man on the same level as his beast!
Satan Imprisoned in the Bottomless Pit for a Thousand Years.
It is not Christ, but an angel, who now descends from heaven, armed with power. It recalls to our minds the authority committed to Peter by the Lord: “I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens; and whatsoever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be bound in the heavens; and whatsoever thou mayest loose on the earth shall be loosed in the heavens.” We know how the above divine commission was wrested from Peter, and turned by the harlot church to her own purposes. But Babylon is fallen, and retribution has come on the deceiver of the nations, the one whose kingdom Babylon was. The dragon—that old serpent, the Devil, Satan—is laid hold of, bound with a chain, thrust into the abyss, and the key turned upon him, and a seal set upon his prison, that he should not any more deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After this he must be loosed a little season. The earth shall enjoy her Sabbath of rest, and blessed will it be; but, alas! man’s heart has once more to be tested. Was Satan’s power annulled? or was man still amenable to his temptations? This we shall see further on. In the meantime let us take a review of the past. If we were considering God’s ways in Israel, we should find that He worked in periods or cycles of seventy weeks of years. But in respect to the world as a whole, there can be no question that He has been working on the principle of a week of seven thousand years, of which it was His intention that the seventh thousand should be a Sabbath. At any rate, the last period is a Sabbath, and it is a thousand years. We recall Peter’s words, 2 Pet. 3:8: “But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” And he is clearly looking to the dissolution of a state of things, and the ushering in of a new era, going beyond the thousand years we are considering into the vast eternity beyond it, which is designated “the day of God.” This in question is the day of the righteous reign of the Lord. But what of the six previous days? They may be divided into three distinctive periods: (1) Creation, to God’s promise and oath to Abraham; (2) Abraham to death of Christ; (3) Death of Christ to return of Christ in glory. Put it another way. First two thousand, the Gentiles; second two thousand, Jews; third two thousand, Church of God. In the first epoch, individuals were subjects of His grace; in the second, principally one nation; in the third, a company gathered from the first and second to form a NEW class altogether—a bride for His Son.
This forms what is called the fullness, or the full complement of the Christ. Hence it is called His body. It is necessary to Him for the display of what He is. It will ever have this subordinate character, viz., the display of His glory. His glory is to have the display. Its glory is to be the display. Hence the beauty of the symbol, “The Bride, the Lamb’s wife”; because under these closest of all relationships we never lose the place of subjection to Him whose glory we display. The thought of equality is utterly foreign and unknown to these divine orderings. Equality exists only, and could exist only, in Godhead—Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The Son may set forth the Father’s glory, the Holy Ghost the Son’s; but these divine manifestations are but to show us the infinite glories of the divine equalities, and by these we learn how to show subjection. It is only by these displays of the divine persons, and especially by the Son (we beheld His glory, a glory as of an only begotten with a Father), that we have learned the divine, and yet subject position. Man could have taught us nothing of this, for man is himself in insubjection. Woman, in a day of incipient apostasy, is claiming to be the equal of the man! God’s order never can be disturbed without serious consequences ensuing. The head of the woman is the man, the head of man is Christ, the head of Christ is God. Oh, glorious position! to be forever subject to Christ! Oh, glorious position, to have, forever, such an Object!
The First Resurrection and Millennium
This is the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just, and it is most important to see why it is introduced here. It is for the express purpose of showing us the three classes of persons who have their part in it. First, thrones, and sitters thereon. We have, in the early part of this Book, seen them as twenty-four in number; that is, two twelves, for administrative purposes. It is not necessary here. “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” It is enough, therefore, to say there were thrones seen, and sitters on them. In Daniel 7:9,9I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9) thrones are seen in position, but no reference is made to sitters thereon. And we now quite know why, for the rapture was not revealed. As to this scene before us, the rapture has taken place somewhere between Rev. 3 and 4 but it is not the object of this Book to reveal it. The rapture is pure grace, but the day of the Lord is pure righteousness; as distinct as the first and the second coming of the Lord. In fact, the rapture is the Lord’s method of rewarding those of whom He spoke when He said, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Of course, those who suffer in the tribulation cannot partake of a thing that has already taken place; but He makes such partakers of the first resurrection. If there are any who have lost their bodies for the witness of Jesus and the Word of God, or if there were any that had refused to worship the beast or his image, or to receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands, they also, if they had been put to death, should be partakers of the first resurrection, and live and reign with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead (the unjust) lived not again until the thousand years were ended.
And what is the divine estimate of these partakers of the first resurrection? Just what the Lord had declared. “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed”; and holy, too; for it is this separateness that is holiness. On such the second death hath no power. And now, when Christ takes His throne, they on thrones are priests of God and of Christ; and kings, too, for they shall reign with Him a thousand years. By the Holy Ghost they were priests to God on earth, and by the same anointing were to be kings when the time for reigning came. Alas, that so many, seduced by Satan’s wiles, should grasp at the shadow of it in this world, and forget the substance revealed in this scripture! The souls of those that cried from the altar in Revelation 6 get their full answer here. So do those for whom they were told to wait, viz., those who should be slain as they were, and, under the desolator (that is, the beast, who wishes them to worship him or the image, the desolation), be put to death.
Momentous as everything in this section is, the first sentence in it surpasses all the rest. The mention of thrones in Revelation 4 as adequate witnesses of the righteous decrees of THE throne, necessitated the mention of the number of them. Here the prominent thought is, not only that there are thrones, and that there are occupants of them, but judgment is given to those occupants. They are judges, not, as before, witnesses of judgment. The object, of course, is to show the extraordinary position of honor and dignity that association with the Head of all authority and power confers upon man. Christ is exalted by this astonishing power put into man’s hands. He has been pleased (wonderful thought!)—He in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily—to identify Himself with the nature of man (Heb. 16), thereby exalting it that He might exalt Himself in it. And let it be well understood, that when He exalts the creature for His own exaltation, no place can be too high for it, provided only it be subordinate to Him. The principle of the whole matter is enunciated in Genesis 41 in respect of Joseph’s exaltation. The question there propounded (v. 38) is, “Can we find... a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” The answer is in v.40.
Satan Loosed Out of His Prison for a Little Season. His Doom.
The fact of reigning with Christ during the thousand years is here made known, but not the details. It is no part of the object of this Book. Ample allusion, sufficient for comfort and encouragement, is made in the Prophets. But, as always throughout the Word of God, there is nothing to stimulate curiosity. All that is practically necessary is amply disclosed. All the rest is for the host, not for the guest to be occupied with. We pass, therefore, at once, to, “When the thousand years were finished, Satan shall be loosed from his prison”; but, as we have been informed, only for a little time. In that short space allotted to him, “he will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth” [or, as we should say, east, west, north, and south]. “Gog and Magog.” These are symbolical names, taken from the previous reference to the northern powers, Russia, etc., which were gathered together before the Millennium, or at its commencement; (for Gog comes up when Israel is dwelling safely in unwalled villages, and thinks to make them an easy prey, but is destroyed by God with a very great destruction). This is at the beginning of the Millennium. But in the scripture under notice, these powers are spoken of symbolically, to denote a similar kind of gathering after it; only now gathered at the direct instigation of Satan, which was not the case before. It shows that in spite of all that has been done for man, by the personal reign of the Lord, and the restraint of Satan’s power, man has no real fear of God, nor love to Him; while, on the contrary, he is ready to place himself in Satan’s hands, for evil against God’s people; for, under Satan’s leadership, they go up over the breadth of the earth, and compass the camp of the saints, and the beloved city Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, and His beloved people under Him. But this is the LAST act of opposition, and God marks it with signal and final judgment. Fire comes down out of heaven from God, and devours them. As to the Devil, who deceived them, he here meets his final doom. He is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet already are. And thus the deceiver and his accomplices, as a trinity of evil, are swallowed up in a common doom. And not only so, but they shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
Having come, at last, to an end of the source and spring of all evil and misery to man, we have only one more sorrowful thing to behold, and that is solemn beyond compare. The dire effect of 7,000 years deceit has produced a harvest too big for the mind to contemplate. At such a moment, how suitable for a renewed heart to pause, and give thanks to God, who sent His Son, “That through death He might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage.” The power of death was never possessed by the Devil over man, till man put himself under it. It is not, as the wicked say, that God created man only to destroy him; this is kindred to another wicked statement, that God created a hell to put men into. Both statements are utterly false. God created man upright, for His own glory—for His creature’s unalloyed blessing. Hell was not prepared for man, but for the Devil and his angels. It was entirely man’s fault that he delivered himself into Satan’s power, and ruined himself and his posterity. So far from God willing it, He had a Deliverer all ready, that the weakness and default of His creature might not be hopeless. But “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: Hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19, 2019God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 20Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. (Numbers 23:19‑20)). God had said: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:1717But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17)). The Devil said: “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:44And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Genesis 3:4)). The choice was made, the penalty incurred. Dispute the righteousness of this, who dare?
The Great White Throne.
Of all the solemn scenes depicted in the Scriptures of eternal truth, without doubt this far exceeds them all. A throne is always a most impressive place. It is intended that it should be so. It is to strike the beholder with awe at the power, and dignity, and majesty of the one who sits upon it. In this case it is no other than God, great and terrible in judgment. One of the latest efforts of Satan is to lessen in men’s minds the sense of dignity. The laugh, the sneer, the free speech affected by man in these last days, is one of the divinely indicated signs of impending judgment. But this is a scene which will reach the most depraved. All illusions of Satan, or of man’s mind, have no place here. A great white throne is seen. Righteousness in judgment; no blood, no mercy. Just recompense. No appeal. So searching is it, that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to fall back upon. The earth and the heaven disappear, and, having done their work, are no longer required; there is found no place for them. And the dead—and we must give the word its full significance here—those who have forever forfeited, by their own act, all relation of any kind with God; these stand before God. They were born in sin, shapen in iniquity. The mercy of God, which offered pardon and deliverance while yet in the body, was despised, neglected, unheeded; and, now, their position before that throne declares their state dead. But, as dead, their deeds have been various. So the books are opened. The startling crime, the concealed villainy, the venial sin, the foolish word, all recorded with unerring detail. “And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works.” Not an item forgotten; not a mistake made; no witnesses needed. Every divinely convicted sinner stands speechless, now, or hereafter. Here, stopping every mouth, that God’s righteousness may take effect. There, it is but the justification of His just judgment. The positive record of their own deeds declares their doom. No appeal, no remedy. Absolute, complete, final. But there is not only the positive record, there is the negative also. The Book of Life is opened. Their names are not found therein. Perhaps they were once, for, as the Lord had said of the overcomer in Sardis, “I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life,” He must have meant something of which the converse had a meaning also. And so, after God’s usual method, by a double testimony, they are judged. Their works are found; their names are not; and, in virtue of the latter, they are cast into the lake of fire. Small and great. Whosoever. Solemn thoughts, indeed, are suggested by these things, knowing the character of our God for justice, kindness, mercy, love; what impression is left upon our minds but the overwhelming one, that these who are cast into the lake of fire (never prepared for man, but for the Devil and his angels), have deliberately, and of their own willingness, taken part with him against God.
The absolute conclusiveness and inclusiveness of this last scene of all is shown in the fact that the sea gives up its dead; death and hades deliver up their dead; and death and hades themselves, as instruments of Satan, share the fate of the victims of their terrors. All are cast into the lake of fire. After the first death, the judgment. After the judgment, the second death, and the second death is the lake of fire. Can any read this unmoved who are not yet come to the first death? Now, there exists for whosoever will, the greatest, freest fullest salvation that it is in the heart of God to devise. He has given His Christ, so that if a man receives Him even believes on His name, He is eternally saved. Do not confound this throne with that of Matt. 25:3131When 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: (Matthew 25:31). There are some twenty points of contrast which the reader would do well to take note of. Many have mistaken them.