SECTION EIGHTEENTH

Third or General End-Judgment. Judgment upon Satan and all his Associates. The Second Death. a. The Heavenly Prognosis. (Rev 20:6–8)

General.—As we must distinguish between the elect, who have part in the first resurrection, and the general throng of the blessed, we have also to distinguish between the blossom of the earth and of the nations, constituting the Millennial Kingdom, the eschatological οἰκουμένη, and the terrestrial orb in general and its masses of peoples. It is a prophecy corresponding with the most profound anthropology that the rudest constituents of humanity shall at last, at the instigation of Satan, instinctively band themselves together for an assault upon the City of God. The lineaments of this anticipation are distinctly expressed in the passages quoted from Ezekiel. From an ethical point of view, it is the fundamental idea of this anticipation that evil shall, after the annihilation of all its idealistic illusions, make one last attack upon the Kingdom of God, with the convulsive movement of pure brutality, savageness, hostility to, and rebellion against, the holy. From an ethnographical point of view, the remoter heathen Orient appears, in antithesis to the nearer theocratic Orient, as the natural lodgment of the elements for such a final struggle. Already the East has frequently threatened the civilized world of anterior Asia and Europe with its terrors, by its great military incursions. There fanaticism slumbers in millions,—in the diverse forms of Græco-Catholicism, Mohammedanism, and Paganism, the latter of which is further sub-divided into the opposite ground-forms of Brahmanism and Buddhism. Imagine a gigantic Oriental coalition, equipped with the most modern military instruments of the European world, its leaders inspired with the magic song of the three Apocalyptio frogs. In such a case, the ethically monstrous assault against the Church of God must have the aspect of a Titanic cosmical power;—the Divine cosmos, however, must also, infallibly, take upon itself an annihilating counter-agency.

Special.—[Rev 20:6.] Glory of the first resurrection. The summit of life is the first resurrection; the summit of death is the second death.—The true priestly domination in the Millennial Kingdom: 1. A domination of all the elect; 2. A domination with Christ.—[Rev 20:7.] Sublimity of God’s power in the final loosing of Satan.—Last form of evil on earth.

Rev 20:8. 1. The absolute majority in conflict against Christ; 2. Rude violence [might] in conflict against the consummate right of His Church; 3. The brutalized power of earth in an assault upon the spirit-kingdom of God from Heaven. Consummate irrationality in its hatred of the consummate Kingdom of light, love and life.—The serpent nature of evil in its last struggle.—The last struggle itself, the foretoken of its destruction.

STARKE (Rev 20:8): Satan is the greatest rover; he goes to and fro, in order to seduce men and to do harm. (Job 1:7. In other words: Demonic evil ever and anon issues forth from its dark nothingness, without rule or system, but yet sympathetically, or rather in sympathetic antipathies, and consistently. Oneness in the Kingdom of God is based upon harmony in the Spirit; oneness in the kingdom of darkness is based upon a conspiracy for Antichristian purposes.)

GRAEBER (p. 357). [Rev 20:9.] And fire came down from Heaven. This figurative expression indicates that their ruin is brought about by a special event, sent by God, the saints themselves having no hand in the matter. This is described with more particularity, Ezek. 38:21–23.

[From M. HENRY: Rev 20:6. None can be blessed but they that, are holy; and all that are holy shall be blessed.—From BONAR: Rev 20:6. The First Resurrection. 1. When is it to be? When the Lord comes the second time. (See 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 2:1). 2. Whom it is to consist of. This passage speaks only of the martyrs and the non-worshippers of the Beast; but other passages show that all His saints are to be partakers of this reward. Oneness with Christ now secures for us the glory of that day. 3. What it does for those who share it. It brings them (1) Blessedness. God only knows how much that word implies, as spoken by Him who cannot lie, who exaggerates nothing, and whose simplest words are His greatest. (2) Holiness. They are consecrated to God and purified, both outwardly and inwardly. (3) Preservation from, the second death. Their connection with death, in every sense, is done forever. (4) The possession of a heavenly priesthood. They are made priests unto God and Christ—both to the Father and the Son. Priestly nearness and access; priestly power and honor and service; priestly glory and dignity;—this is their recompense. (5) The possession of the kingdom.—Sinner, what is resurrection to bring to you?]

III. THIRD OR GENERAL END-JUDGMENT. JUDGMENT UPON SATAN AND ALL HIS COMPANY. THE SECOND DEATH

CHAPTER 20:6–10

A.—HEAVENLY PROGNOSIS OF THE LAST GENERAL JUDGMENT

REV 20:6–8

6Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on [over] such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and [ins. they] shall reign with him a [the]8 thousand years. 7And when the thousand years are expired [finished], Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8and shall go out to deceive [seduce or mislead (πλανῆσαι)] the nations which are in the four quarters [corners] of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to [the]9 battle [war]: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

SYNOPTICAL VIEW

The prophecies relative to the three judgments here taper, so to speak, to a point. The most detailed of these prophecies was that which concerned the Harlot; the prophecy concerning the Beast was couched in less ample terms; and this last prophecy of judgment is concentrated in a very little sketch, so that we can scarce perceive the articulations which separate one cycle from another, and divide the heavenly prognosis from the earth-picture. Nevertheless, the breaks in question are still to be found. The words of Rev 20:6 do indeed glance back to the thousand years; but this is, manifestly, in order to the introduction of the last Judgment, which brings with it the second death. Even within this diminutive judgment-picture, the antithesis is unmistakable. Rev 20:7 and 8 speak of the loosing of Satan and the seduction of Gog and Magog in the future tense. But with Rev 20:9 the Seer makes a historic presentation, in the prophetic preterite, of the fact which he has before predicted. The plan of the whole Book is, therefore, retained in this case also. The perspective brevity of this section testifies unmistakably to the canonical truth and chasteness of the description. For an apocalyptic fiction, the elaboration of this sombre picture of the last revolt of the heathen, the fiery judgment upon Satan, and the second death in the lake of fire, would have possessed the greatest charms. Our Prophet, however, gives only the few features that he has seen—gives them as he has seen them, darkly, in well-nigh figureless language. It cannot be said, however, that he is wearied, for soon after follows the picture of the perfected City of God, magnificently developed and vividly distinct.

With a beatitude relative to the sharers in the first resurrection, the perspective of the last judgment is opened. The participants in this resurrection are called blessed, as those whose lot is absolutely decided, who have passed their judgment and come forth from it as holy ones, forever consecrate to God. This retrospect is occasioned by the prospect of the second death as the doom of the third and last judgment. Over such the second death hath no authority. The second death (δεύτερος θάνατος) is damnation in the pool of fire, according to Rev 20:14 and Rev 21:8; not gradual dissolution and annihilation (Rothe). The term eternal death [Düsterdieck] is less explanatory of this mysterious judgment than the figurative expression, the pool of fire. It is a fellowship with all those who are in that condition of absolute irritation which is at the same time absolute stagnation, in endless ethical self-consumption and annihilation as a punishment for the persevering negation of God and the personal Kingdom of love. The opposite of this death-peril consists in the fact that the sharers in the first resurrection will be priests of God and of Christ. This priesthood, as absolute submission to God in blessedness in Him, stands contrasted with the unblest madness of the pool of fire; and, furthermore, it is perfect submission in reference to the economy of the Father as well as to the economy of redemption. They offer the whole creation, they offer the whole Church, with all the good things of them both, evermore to God and to Christ; and this is the condition whereby an eternal and ever-better possession of these good things is secured—a participation in the dominion of the Lord. Even in the Millennial Kingdom they shall reign with Christ.

Not in the vision form, but in prophetic discourse the Seer now announces the loosing of Satan after the thousand years. He shall be loosed out of his prison—not break out of it. In accordance with the determination of God, Satan, and with him all evil, must be thoroughly and completely judged. Hitherto judgment has been predominantly accomplished through instrumentalities. The historic judgment upon the Harlot was executed by the Beast, i. e., the preliminary hypocritical instance of evil has been judged by the perfect consistency of evil, in accordance with a very general historic law;—half-way-ness succumbs to consistency. Antichristian evil, as a spiritual power, has been judged by the spiritual effect of the personal appearance of Christ, by the terror of His σόξα and by the sword out of His mouth. In the end, however, Satan employs the means of resistance still afforded him by his creaturely strength, reviving in a convulsive struggle, in rebellion against God; and with the brutal opposition of consummate Satanity, corresponds the savage sense of strength of the heathen [nations] in the corners of the earth, who have withdrawn themselves from the sanctifying process of the eschatological economy (the new οἰκουμένη), aye, have hardened themselves under it, and have become, especially in their resentment against that heavenly order of things which oversways them, kindred in mind to Satan. It has been asked: whence come these countless heathen, since, according to Rev 19:21, Christ has slain the Antichristian host? But apart from the fact that He slew them with the breath of His mouth, i. e., morally annihilated them, which might not prevent a continuance of physical vegetation on their part, the terms employed, the heathen [nations] in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, afford sufficient explanation. Ezekiel prophesied that the people of God should, long after the more familiar anti-theocratic assaults, have to sustain an attack from the circle of the remotest barbaric Orient (Ezek. 38 and 39). This eagle-glance at the future, whose significance trains of Huns, Mongols, Tartars and Turks have already confirmed, could not be missing from our Apocalypse. The present prophecy is heralded in Rev 16:12. But whilst Ezekiel, in prophesying of Gog in the land of Magog, referred to distinct Asiatic peoples (see Düst., p. 552), John employs the terms as a universal symbol, in designation of all the barbarous peoples in the corners of the earth—so, however, that the distant Orient plays the principal part. The idea of these last heathen is precisely analogous to the churchly idea. In the earlier days of Christianity, the inhabitants of the villages (pagani) or of the heaths, far remote from the great centres of civilization, formed the remnants of the old world—remnants which were both unconverted and difficult of conversion. Thus the entire old world will leave its remnants in a moral, symbolical heathenism, which will surround the Kingdom of Christ not merely as a terrestrial, but also as a spiritual boundary. But the idea that Evil shall at last break out and incur judgment in such a final heathenish mutiny, in a brutal revolt, the stupidity of which is veiled by the innumerable force of the hosts therein concerned, is characteristic of the great Prophet, who sees far above and beyond the learning of the schools.

EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL

Rev 20:6. Blessed and holy is he, etc.—As in the process of the formation of Christian character, the beatitudes of the righteousness of faith condition sanctification or the becoming holy, so in the condition of consummation, blessedness is still more decidedly the eternal source of the renewal of holiness. It is a remarkable fact that even Spinoza had a dim idea of this, that blessedness is itself a virtue and a condition of virtue. Even civic contentment has, in a limited degree, an ennobling influence. By holiness, eternal and complete consecratedness to God is here expressed.—Over such the second death, etc—They are beyond temptation, and cannot relapse into sin, and hence cannot fall under the fearful dominion of the second death.—The second death is, Rev 20:14, declared to be the judgment in the pool of fire: eternal agitation amidst the eternal frustration of plots and attempts: the specific demonic and Satanic suffering. “A dying and an inability to die,” ancient expositors were wont to say. The fact is here expressed that the Millennial Kingdom forms only a heavenly circle of culture of the new world within the old earth—in other words, that the heathen [nations], from whom the last rebellion proceeds, form an antithesis to God’s people of the first resurrection. The remains of the old humanity will occupy very much the same relation to the new humanity which the remains of the pre-Adamite creation occupy to the human world; although a general recognition of Christ, and, to this extent, the beginning of Christianity amongst all these peoples, is induced by Christ’s victory over Antichrist (Rev 14). The general conversion of the heathen even precedes the Parousia of Christ. They shall be priests of God and of Christ.—Because they shall be priests, they shall also be co-regents with Christ, and being both throughout the thousand years, they appear unconditionally elevated above the perils of the last Satanic assault.

Rev 20:7. And when the thousand years are finished.—When the destination of the thousand years is fulfilled (ὅταν τελεσθῇ). Satan shall be loosed.—The obedience of the heathen [nations], their Christianity, their faithfulness, must finally undergo a fiery test, after they have long enough been spectators of the Heaven on earth, and enjoyed, in nature and grace, the blessings of the Parousia of Christ. For a similar purpose Satan was permitted to exercise his arts in the first Paradise, to tempt Job, Christ Himself, and His Apostles. Such is the Divine method for the testing and perfecting of the elect, the purification and sifting of the churches, the unveiling of the wicked in order to their judgment, and the inducement of the self-judgment of Satan, resulting in his dynamical destruction. Under this Divine economy, evil in abstracto is permitted fully to develop, as is also evil in concreto, in wicked individuals, in the fellowship of the wicked, in the father of liars.

Rev 20:8. And shall go out to seduce [or mislead] the nations [Lange: heathen].—“The difficulty occasioned by the statement that heathen peoples are here once more represented as going up to battle against the saints, after the destruction (Rev 19:21) of all peoples and kings that worshipped the Beast” (Düsterd.), is very simply solved by a distinction between the Antichristian host and the remaining world of peoples, particularly those under the Eastern kings—irrespective of the fact that it is doubtful whether the killing of the rest (Rev 19:21) should be taken literally. Vitringa calls attention to the fact “that the ἔθνη, Gog and Magog, dwell in the uttermost ends of the earth (Ezek. 38:15 and Rev 20:9).”10 Another difficulty, according to Düsterdieck, consists in the fact that foes belonging to this earthly life fight against the faithful who have part in the first resurrection. This will undoubtedly be a very foolish proceeding, but it will not on that account be improbable, as those who have passed through the resurrection dwell upon earth in bodily form. Dogs attack lions, beasts attack men, barbarians and savages attack civilized nations, the foes of Christ attack the Church of God;—all these are wars from motives of, sheer instinct, the rationality of which we have not to take upon ourselves to prove. In the antithesis of Cain and Abel, it was, in reality, the mortal who assaulted the immortal. Consider further “that these heathen peoples are seduced to battle against the saints by Satan himself directly.” Rev 16:13, it is affirmed, militates against this idea. That passage, however, rather gives an explanation of the manner in which we should conceive of the agitation of Satan. At first, as the red Dragon (Rev 12), he had no such definite organs as at a later period (Rev 13), and yet even then he could work by spiritual influences. And even though the Beast and the False Prophet are destroyed, the frogs which went forth from their mouths as well as from, the mouth of the Dragon, reminiscences of rancor, resentment and rage [Groll. Gram und Grimm], can be made effectual for the seduction of the heathen, primarily through their leaders. In the four corners of the earth.—Hengstenberg, in the interest of his exegesis, has very ingeniously taken the edge off of the four corners of the earth by striving to prove that the corners comprehend that which lies within them, and that hence the four corners of the earth denote the same ground as τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς (see his citations, vol. ii., 368 sq. [Eng. Trans.]). But allowing that the four corners might denote, by synecdoche, the complete totality of the land or the people, such a use of the term is entirely different from the present statement, that Satan shall go out to seduce the heathen in the four corners; and from the further statement that they went up upon the breadth of the earth. Gog and Magog.—The following questions arise here: 1. What ethnographical sense did the theocratic world attach to Gog and Magog? 2. How did Gog and Magog become, in the Old Testament, the symbol of the last foes of the theocratic Church of God? 3. How has the Apocalypse taken up this symbol and applied it in manifold forms? 4. How is the same idea reflected in Jewish tradition? [1.] In respect to Biblical ethnography, the name of Magog appears, by the side of Gomer, amongst the sons of Japhet, Gen. 10:2; see Comm. on Genesis, p. 348 [Am. Ed.]. Josephus explains Magog as indicative of the Scythians. “Magog seems to be a collective name, denoting the sum of the peoples situate In Media and the Caucasian Mountains, concerning whom a vague report had reached the Hebrews, etc.” See Winer, Title MAGOG; Düsterdieck, Note on p. 552. Gog, according to Uhlemann, as there quoted, and others, means mountain; Magog the dwelling-place, or land of Gog. According to Ezekiel, Rev 38:2, the prince or the nation is called Gog, the land of the same being denominated Magog, which embraces Rosch,11 Meshech and Tubal (see the table of nations). [2.] In the Apocalypse of Ezekiel, the spirit of prophecy has, in accordance with a distinct ethical pre-supposition, arrived at the idea that the people of God shall, after all its conflicts with familiar anti-theocratic enemies, after its complete restoration, re-instatement and renewal, have to undergo one more last assault from the rude and brutal enmity of Eastern barbarian nations. These enemies are introduced by Ezekiel under the names of Gog and Magog. Hitzig [Commentar. zu Ezech., p. 288) thinks that the Prophet chose the name Gog, the Scythian, on account of its being the name of the most remote peoples; and adds that the Scythians had appeared in Palestine not so very long prior to the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy—two explanations which invalidate each other. On the question as to whether the Scythians had been in Palestine previous to the prophecy, comp. Winer, Title SCYTHIANS. We behold in the name the symbolic term for the rudest and most savage heathenism as contrasted with the perfected Theocracy. Jehovah will curb, subdue and destroy Gog like a wild beast. [3.] In harmony with the same eschatological idea, the Apocalypse took up the symbolical announcement, and to its representation of Gog and Magog as two collateral powers the inducement was given by Ezekiel, in his designation of Magog as a complex of different peoples. In the general judgment picture (Rev. 16) these enemies appear as the kings of the east, who come from the region of barbarism beyond the Euphrates. [4.] “In Jewish Theology, also, the two names, of which the first denotes in Ezekiel l. c., the king of the land and people of Magog, are found in conjunction as the names of nations: In fine extremitatis dierum Gog et Magog et exercitus eorum adscendent Hierosolyma et per manus regis Messiæ ipsi cadent, et VII. annos dierum ardebunt filii Israelis ex armis eorum (Targ. Hieros. in Num. xi. 27, etc.).” DUESTERDIECK. Comp. De Wette, p. 191. Ibid., singular interpretations of the names by Augustine, Jerome et al.; application to the Goths, Saracens, Turks, all enemies of the Church, Antichrist. “The sorriest interpretation is that of Bar Cochab (Wetst.).” Hengstenb. (2. p. 369 [Eng. Tr.]) seems to find a significancy in Brentano’s initial juxtaposition of Gog, Magog and Demagog. A witty reply to the perhaps only seeming desire to discover Gog and Magog in the demagogues of the 19th century, see in Ebrard, Note, p. 517. To the war.—That last great war, foretold for ages by Prophecy. The number of whom is as the sand of the sea.—According to Ezekiel even, Gog leads with him a mixture of eastern nations (as did, in reality, Attila, Genghis Khan and Timur). At the same time, the figure employed is expressive, on the one hand, of the multitude of sordid human natures, and on the other hand, of a blind trust in this multitude. The salvability of the Scythians, however, is expressly declared by the Apostle Paul, Col. 3:11.

In the coalition of Satan with the mob of Gog and Magog, the combination of demon and beast, serpent and swine, formed by the dragon figure, is completely realized.

III. THIRD OR GENERAL END-JUDGMENT. JUDGMENT UPON SATAN AND ALL HIS COMPANY. THE SECOND DEATH

CHAPTER 20:6–10

A.—HEAVENLY PROGNOSIS OF THE LAST GENERAL JUDGMENT

REV 20:6–8

6Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on [over] such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and [ins. they] shall reign with him a [the]8 thousand years. 7And when the thousand years are expired [finished], Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8and shall go out to deceive [seduce or mislead (πλανῆσαι)] the nations which are in the four quarters [corners] of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to [the]9 battle [war]: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

SYNOPTICAL VIEW

The prophecies relative to the three judgments here taper, so to speak, to a point. The most detailed of these prophecies was that which concerned the Harlot; the prophecy concerning the Beast was couched in less ample terms; and this last prophecy of judgment is concentrated in a very little sketch, so that we can scarce perceive the articulations which separate one cycle from another, and divide the heavenly prognosis from the earth-picture. Nevertheless, the breaks in question are still to be found. The words of Rev 20:6 do indeed glance back to the thousand years; but this is, manifestly, in order to the introduction of the last Judgment, which brings with it the second death. Even within this diminutive judgment-picture, the antithesis is unmistakable. Rev 20:7 and 8 speak of the loosing of Satan and the seduction of Gog and Magog in the future tense. But with Rev 20:9 the Seer makes a historic presentation, in the prophetic preterite, of the fact which he has before predicted. The plan of the whole Book is, therefore, retained in this case also. The perspective brevity of this section testifies unmistakably to the canonical truth and chasteness of the description. For an apocalyptic fiction, the elaboration of this sombre picture of the last revolt of the heathen, the fiery judgment upon Satan, and the second death in the lake of fire, would have possessed the greatest charms. Our Prophet, however, gives only the few features that he has seen—gives them as he has seen them, darkly, in well-nigh figureless language. It cannot be said, however, that he is wearied, for soon after follows the picture of the perfected City of God, magnificently developed and vividly distinct.

With a beatitude relative to the sharers in the first resurrection, the perspective of the last judgment is opened. The participants in this resurrection are called blessed, as those whose lot is absolutely decided, who have passed their judgment and come forth from it as holy ones, forever consecrate to God. This retrospect is occasioned by the prospect of the second death as the doom of the third and last judgment. Over such the second death hath no authority. The second death (δεύτερος θάνατος) is damnation in the pool of fire, according to Rev 20:14 and Rev 21:8; not gradual dissolution and annihilation (Rothe). The term eternal death [Düsterdieck] is less explanatory of this mysterious judgment than the figurative expression, the pool of fire. It is a fellowship with all those who are in that condition of absolute irritation which is at the same time absolute stagnation, in endless ethical self-consumption and annihilation as a punishment for the persevering negation of God and the personal Kingdom of love. The opposite of this death-peril consists in the fact that the sharers in the first resurrection will be priests of God and of Christ. This priesthood, as absolute submission to God in blessedness in Him, stands contrasted with the unblest madness of the pool of fire; and, furthermore, it is perfect submission in reference to the economy of the Father as well as to the economy of redemption. They offer the whole creation, they offer the whole Church, with all the good things of them both, evermore to God and to Christ; and this is the condition whereby an eternal and ever-better possession of these good things is secured—a participation in the dominion of the Lord. Even in the Millennial Kingdom they shall reign with Christ.

Not in the vision form, but in prophetic discourse the Seer now announces the loosing of Satan after the thousand years. He shall be loosed out of his prison—not break out of it. In accordance with the determination of God, Satan, and with him all evil, must be thoroughly and completely judged. Hitherto judgment has been predominantly accomplished through instrumentalities. The historic judgment upon the Harlot was executed by the Beast, i. e., the preliminary hypocritical instance of evil has been judged by the perfect consistency of evil, in accordance with a very general historic law;—half-way-ness succumbs to consistency. Antichristian evil, as a spiritual power, has been judged by the spiritual effect of the personal appearance of Christ, by the terror of His σόξα and by the sword out of His mouth. In the end, however, Satan employs the means of resistance still afforded him by his creaturely strength, reviving in a convulsive struggle, in rebellion against God; and with the brutal opposition of consummate Satanity, corresponds the savage sense of strength of the heathen [nations] in the corners of the earth, who have withdrawn themselves from the sanctifying process of the eschatological economy (the new οἰκουμένη), aye, have hardened themselves under it, and have become, especially in their resentment against that heavenly order of things which oversways them, kindred in mind to Satan. It has been asked: whence come these countless heathen, since, according to Rev 19:21, Christ has slain the Antichristian host? But apart from the fact that He slew them with the breath of His mouth, i. e., morally annihilated them, which might not prevent a continuance of physical vegetation on their part, the terms employed, the heathen [nations] in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, afford sufficient explanation. Ezekiel prophesied that the people of God should, long after the more familiar anti-theocratic assaults, have to sustain an attack from the circle of the remotest barbaric Orient (Ezek. 38 and 39). This eagle-glance at the future, whose significance trains of Huns, Mongols, Tartars and Turks have already confirmed, could not be missing from our Apocalypse. The present prophecy is heralded in Rev 16:12. But whilst Ezekiel, in prophesying of Gog in the land of Magog, referred to distinct Asiatic peoples (see Düst., p. 552), John employs the terms as a universal symbol, in designation of all the barbarous peoples in the corners of the earth—so, however, that the distant Orient plays the principal part. The idea of these last heathen is precisely analogous to the churchly idea. In the earlier days of Christianity, the inhabitants of the villages (pagani) or of the heaths, far remote from the great centres of civilization, formed the remnants of the old world—remnants which were both unconverted and difficult of conversion. Thus the entire old world will leave its remnants in a moral, symbolical heathenism, which will surround the Kingdom of Christ not merely as a terrestrial, but also as a spiritual boundary. But the idea that Evil shall at last break out and incur judgment in such a final heathenish mutiny, in a brutal revolt, the stupidity of which is veiled by the innumerable force of the hosts therein concerned, is characteristic of the great Prophet, who sees far above and beyond the learning of the schools.

EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL

Rev 20:6. Blessed and holy is he, etc.—As in the process of the formation of Christian character, the beatitudes of the righteousness of faith condition sanctification or the becoming holy, so in the condition of consummation, blessedness is still more decidedly the eternal source of the renewal of holiness. It is a remarkable fact that even Spinoza had a dim idea of this, that blessedness is itself a virtue and a condition of virtue. Even civic contentment has, in a limited degree, an ennobling influence. By holiness, eternal and complete consecratedness to God is here expressed.—Over such the second death, etc—They are beyond temptation, and cannot relapse into sin, and hence cannot fall under the fearful dominion of the second death.—The second death is, Rev 20:14, declared to be the judgment in the pool of fire: eternal agitation amidst the eternal frustration of plots and attempts: the specific demonic and Satanic suffering. “A dying and an inability to die,” ancient expositors were wont to say. The fact is here expressed that the Millennial Kingdom forms only a heavenly circle of culture of the new world within the old earth—in other words, that the heathen [nations], from whom the last rebellion proceeds, form an antithesis to God’s people of the first resurrection. The remains of the old humanity will occupy very much the same relation to the new humanity which the remains of the pre-Adamite creation occupy to the human world; although a general recognition of Christ, and, to this extent, the beginning of Christianity amongst all these peoples, is induced by Christ’s victory over Antichrist (Rev 14). The general conversion of the heathen even precedes the Parousia of Christ. They shall be priests of God and of Christ.—Because they shall be priests, they shall also be co-regents with Christ, and being both throughout the thousand years, they appear unconditionally elevated above the perils of the last Satanic assault.

Rev 20:7. And when the thousand years are finished.—When the destination of the thousand years is fulfilled (ὅταν τελεσθῇ). Satan shall be loosed.—The obedience of the heathen [nations], their Christianity, their faithfulness, must finally undergo a fiery test, after they have long enough been spectators of the Heaven on earth, and enjoyed, in nature and grace, the blessings of the Parousia of Christ. For a similar purpose Satan was permitted to exercise his arts in the first Paradise, to tempt Job, Christ Himself, and His Apostles. Such is the Divine method for the testing and perfecting of the elect, the purification and sifting of the churches, the unveiling of the wicked in order to their judgment, and the inducement of the self-judgment of Satan, resulting in his dynamical destruction. Under this Divine economy, evil in abstracto is permitted fully to develop, as is also evil in concreto, in wicked individuals, in the fellowship of the wicked, in the father of liars.

Rev 20:8. And shall go out to seduce [or mislead] the nations [Lange: heathen].—“The difficulty occasioned by the statement that heathen peoples are here once more represented as going up to battle against the saints, after the destruction (Rev 19:21) of all peoples and kings that worshipped the Beast” (Düsterd.), is very simply solved by a distinction between the Antichristian host and the remaining world of peoples, particularly those under the Eastern kings—irrespective of the fact that it is doubtful whether the killing of the rest (Rev 19:21) should be taken literally. Vitringa calls attention to the fact “that the ἔθνη, Gog and Magog, dwell in the uttermost ends of the earth (Ezek. 38:15 and Rev 20:9).”10 Another difficulty, according to Düsterdieck, consists in the fact that foes belonging to this earthly life fight against the faithful who have part in the first resurrection. This will undoubtedly be a very foolish proceeding, but it will not on that account be improbable, as those who have passed through the resurrection dwell upon earth in bodily form. Dogs attack lions, beasts attack men, barbarians and savages attack civilized nations, the foes of Christ attack the Church of God;—all these are wars from motives of, sheer instinct, the rationality of which we have not to take upon ourselves to prove. In the antithesis of Cain and Abel, it was, in reality, the mortal who assaulted the immortal. Consider further “that these heathen peoples are seduced to battle against the saints by Satan himself directly.” Rev 16:13, it is affirmed, militates against this idea. That passage, however, rather gives an explanation of the manner in which we should conceive of the agitation of Satan. At first, as the red Dragon (Rev 12), he had no such definite organs as at a later period (Rev 13), and yet even then he could work by spiritual influences. And even though the Beast and the False Prophet are destroyed, the frogs which went forth from their mouths as well as from, the mouth of the Dragon, reminiscences of rancor, resentment and rage [Groll. Gram und Grimm], can be made effectual for the seduction of the heathen, primarily through their leaders. In the four corners of the earth.—Hengstenberg, in the interest of his exegesis, has very ingeniously taken the edge off of the four corners of the earth by striving to prove that the corners comprehend that which lies within them, and that hence the four corners of the earth denote the same ground as τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς (see his citations, vol. ii., 368 sq. [Eng. Trans.]). But allowing that the four corners might denote, by synecdoche, the complete totality of the land or the people, such a use of the term is entirely different from the present statement, that Satan shall go out to seduce the heathen in the four corners; and from the further statement that they went up upon the breadth of the earth. Gog and Magog.—The following questions arise here: 1. What ethnographical sense did the theocratic world attach to Gog and Magog? 2. How did Gog and Magog become, in the Old Testament, the symbol of the last foes of the theocratic Church of God? 3. How has the Apocalypse taken up this symbol and applied it in manifold forms? 4. How is the same idea reflected in Jewish tradition? [1.] In respect to Biblical ethnography, the name of Magog appears, by the side of Gomer, amongst the sons of Japhet, Gen. 10:2; see Comm. on Genesis, p. 348 [Am. Ed.]. Josephus explains Magog as indicative of the Scythians. “Magog seems to be a collective name, denoting the sum of the peoples situate In Media and the Caucasian Mountains, concerning whom a vague report had reached the Hebrews, etc.” See Winer, Title MAGOG; Düsterdieck, Note on p. 552. Gog, according to Uhlemann, as there quoted, and others, means mountain; Magog the dwelling-place, or land of Gog. According to Ezekiel, Rev 38:2, the prince or the nation is called Gog, the land of the same being denominated Magog, which embraces Rosch,11 Meshech and Tubal (see the table of nations). [2.] In the Apocalypse of Ezekiel, the spirit of prophecy has, in accordance with a distinct ethical pre-supposition, arrived at the idea that the people of God shall, after all its conflicts with familiar anti-theocratic enemies, after its complete restoration, re-instatement and renewal, have to undergo one more last assault from the rude and brutal enmity of Eastern barbarian nations. These enemies are introduced by Ezekiel under the names of Gog and Magog. Hitzig [Commentar. zu Ezech., p. 288) thinks that the Prophet chose the name Gog, the Scythian, on account of its being the name of the most remote peoples; and adds that the Scythians had appeared in Palestine not so very long prior to the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy—two explanations which invalidate each other. On the question as to whether the Scythians had been in Palestine previous to the prophecy, comp. Winer, Title SCYTHIANS. We behold in the name the symbolic term for the rudest and most savage heathenism as contrasted with the perfected Theocracy. Jehovah will curb, subdue and destroy Gog like a wild beast. [3.] In harmony with the same eschatological idea, the Apocalypse took up the symbolical announcement, and to its representation of Gog and Magog as two collateral powers the inducement was given by Ezekiel, in his designation of Magog as a complex of different peoples. In the general judgment picture (Rev. 16) these enemies appear as the kings of the east, who come from the region of barbarism beyond the Euphrates. [4.] “In Jewish Theology, also, the two names, of which the first denotes in Ezekiel l. c., the king of the land and people of Magog, are found in conjunction as the names of nations: In fine extremitatis dierum Gog et Magog et exercitus eorum adscendent Hierosolyma et per manus regis Messiæ ipsi cadent, et VII. annos dierum ardebunt filii Israelis ex armis eorum (Targ. Hieros. in Num. xi. 27, etc.).” DUESTERDIECK. Comp. De Wette, p. 191. Ibid., singular interpretations of the names by Augustine, Jerome et al.; application to the Goths, Saracens, Turks, all enemies of the Church, Antichrist. “The sorriest interpretation is that of Bar Cochab (Wetst.).” Hengstenb. (2. p. 369 [Eng. Tr.]) seems to find a significancy in Brentano’s initial juxtaposition of Gog, Magog and Demagog. A witty reply to the perhaps only seeming desire to discover Gog and Magog in the demagogues of the 19th century, see in Ebrard, Note, p. 517. To the war.—That last great war, foretold for ages by Prophecy. The number of whom is as the sand of the sea.—According to Ezekiel even, Gog leads with him a mixture of eastern nations (as did, in reality, Attila, Genghis Khan and Timur). At the same time, the figure employed is expressive, on the one hand, of the multitude of sordid human natures, and on the other hand, of a blind trust in this multitude. The salvability of the Scythians, however, is expressly declared by the Apostle Paul, Col. 3:11.

In the coalition of Satan with the mob of Gog and Magog, the combination of demon and beast, serpent and swine, formed by the dragon figure, is completely realized.

SECTION NINTEENTH

Third or General End-Judgment. b. Earth-picture of the Last Judgment. (Revelation 20:9, 10.)

General and Special.—Brief history of the greatest war. 1. The war: (a) they went up; (b) they surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. 2. The defeat: (a) fire from Heaven devoured them; (b) Satan is cast into the lake of fire.—Great Heaven as an ally of this little earth.—The Kingdom of the Lord must always be victorious.—The greater the danger which menaces the people of God, the more wondrous their preservation.—The last victory, in its magnitude: Most wonderful (apparently without a weapon of defense), most mysterious (from Heaven), most glorious (destruction of Satan forever).

STARKE: Those who regard this vision as, in part, fulfilled, apprehend it as relating to Turks, Tartars, Scythians and Mohammedans, etc. Those who take it, in company with the thousand years, as still future, etc. (Confused mingling of the most diverse periods!)—DIMPEL: O wretched hellish trinity ! The Beast, the False Prophet and Satan, are tormented in the fiery lake to all eternity.

H. BÖHMER (p. 293): The fact here presented, to wit, that Satan, after having been bound, shall at last be loosed again for a short time, seems to us to constitute a deep and weighty truth; not because sin can be traced only to a seduction through Satan, but because we must naturally suppose that God will, at some future day, permit all who set Him at defiance to unite themselves for the last possible battle against Him and thus prosecute their abuse of liberty to the climax of self-inflicted judgment. We hold this final emergence of Satan to be necessary, because without it there would be no real finale to that conflict which was begun in apostasy from God, and, consequently, no full victory.

[From M. HENRY: God will, in an extraordinary and more immediate manner, fight this last and decisive battle of His people, that the victory may be complete, and the glory redound to Himself.—From VAUGHAN: Upon this gathering, this confederation of infidelity, of ungodliness, and of atheism, will burst the light of Christ’s coming, and the devouring fire of God.]

B.—EARTH-PICTURE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT

REV 20:9, 10

9And they went up on [om. on—ins. upon] the breadth of the earth, and compassed [encompassed] the camp [army or fortification (παρεμβολή)] of the saints about [om. about],and the beloved city: and fire came down from God [or om. from God]12 out of10 [ins. the] heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived [seduceth or misleadeth] them was cast into the lake of [ins. the] fire and [or ins. the]13 brimstone, where [ins. also are] the beast and the false prophet are [om. are], and [ins. they] shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever [into the ages of the ages].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

SYNOPTICAL VIEW

By the prophetic preterite, as well as by the brevity of the description, the Seer expresses the vanity of this last rebellion, which is aimed directly against God in His people, and which, notwithstanding its terrifically mighty development, is instantaneously annihilated. These enemies, with their creaturely forces, stand opposed, as they think, merely to a city of the children of peace, whilst in reality they are drawn up against all the cosmical powers of Heaven. And they went up upon the breadth of the earth. The idea is that they come from the low-lands of the corners of the earth—to destroy the City of God upon the more central, elevated plain of the earth. But that the words are intended to convey the precise idea of a going up against Jerusalem, is difficult to suppose, because for the Seer the true Jerusalem, according to chap. 21, comes down from Heaven, and here only the beloved city is spoken of, which, as well as the camp of the saints—who are drawn up before the city, in order to its protection—the enemies encompass. It cannot be without reason that the Seer has here avoided the name of Jerusalem (although for an Israelitish heart it might be paraphrased by the expression, the beloved city), whilst in chap. 21. he uses the name in the same sense in which it is employed by the Apostle Paul, Gal. 4:26. At this moment, when the last and, apparently, the most fearful crisis of the world’s history is close at hand—a crisis which is all the more fearful, or, we might say, the more demonically unnatural, if we conceive of the glorified Christ as shut in, together with the saints, by the hostile host—there falls from Heaven a fire which consumes the foe. An exegetical reading, with the confident feeling that this direct war against God must likewise be put down by God, has added the words, from God; viewed in another aspect, however, the brief term from Heaven is more effective; Heaven itself, the whole Cosmos, against which they finally rage, must now, for God’s sake, react against them, in destroying might, with its fire. And now Satan himself, who seduceth the nations, is cast into the pool of the fire and brimstone, whither the Beast and the False Prophet have preceded him. This view, like the discourse of Christ (Matt. 25.), is at variance with the mediæval idea that Satan, as a fire-demon and prince of hell, torments souls in hell. They shall, it is declared, be tormented day and night into the æons of the æons To the essence and spiritual condition of the prince of darkness and his consorts, their sphere and external mode of existence shall correspond. There are in their character no motives for a change; except that through the consummate stagnation of their condition, their consummate irritation must be more and more neutralized.

EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL

Rev 20:9. And they went up.—Hab. 1:6. “The term ἀναβαίνειν, usual where military marches are spoken of (1 Ki. 22:4; Ju. 1:1), because the position of the attacked is naturally conceived of as on a height (Hengstenberg), is the more fitting here, since the march of the heathen is really directed upward against Jerusalem.” DUESTERDIECK. The primary statement is rather, however, that they go up upon the breadth of the earth, the symbolic elevated plain of the earth, which, as such, forms the specific antithesis to the symbolic four corners of the earth; it is the highland of the spirit. The object of the attack is then, certainly, defined in accordance with an Old Testament conception (see Zech. 12:7, 8; comp. Köhler, Sacharja, p. 185). The saints have encamped about the beloved city to protect it. All the forces of the Kingdom of Heaven form the defence for all its possessions. If we glance once more at the passage cited [Zech. 12:7, 8], Zech. 14:1, 2 might seem to afford an explanation as to wherefore the Seer did not call the beloved city Jerusalem. Grotius apprehended the Seven Churches by the camp of the saints, and Constantinople by the beloved city. Others (Augustine, Vitringa, Hengstenberg) have regarded the city as the Church; Bengel and most moderns, as Jerusalem.

And fire came down.—Ezek. 39:6; 38:22; Gen. 19:24; Lev. 10:2; Num. 16:35; Luke 9:54. See SYN. VIEW. The fire catastrophe shows that the universal judgment of the world is at hand—the fiery metamorphosis of the earth. And consumed them.—To be understood of the destruction of their life in this present world.

Rev 20:10. And the devil that seduceth (or misleadeth) them.—Πλανῶν, as the present participle, denotes the continuance of sin under punishment. And they shall be tormented.—Namely, the Devil, the Beast, and the False Prophet. A preliminary general presentment, see in Rev 14:11; the final presentment, Rev 20:14, 15; 21:8.

B.—EARTH-PICTURE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT

REV 20:9, 10

9And they went up on [om. on—ins. upon] the breadth of the earth, and compassed [encompassed] the camp [army or fortification (παρεμβολή)] of the saints about [om. about],and the beloved city: and fire came down from God [or om. from God]12 out of10 [ins. the] heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived [seduceth or misleadeth] them was cast into the lake of [ins. the] fire and [or ins. the]13 brimstone, where [ins. also are] the beast and the false prophet are [om. are], and [ins. they] shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever [into the ages of the ages].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

SYNOPTICAL VIEW

By the prophetic preterite, as well as by the brevity of the description, the Seer expresses the vanity of this last rebellion, which is aimed directly against God in His people, and which, notwithstanding its terrifically mighty development, is instantaneously annihilated. These enemies, with their creaturely forces, stand opposed, as they think, merely to a city of the children of peace, whilst in reality they are drawn up against all the cosmical powers of Heaven. And they went up upon the breadth of the earth. The idea is that they come from the low-lands of the corners of the earth—to destroy the City of God upon the more central, elevated plain of the earth. But that the words are intended to convey the precise idea of a going up against Jerusalem, is difficult to suppose, because for the Seer the true Jerusalem, according to chap. 21, comes down from Heaven, and here only the beloved city is spoken of, which, as well as the camp of the saints—who are drawn up before the city, in order to its protection—the enemies encompass. It cannot be without reason that the Seer has here avoided the name of Jerusalem (although for an Israelitish heart it might be paraphrased by the expression, the beloved city), whilst in chap. 21. he uses the name in the same sense in which it is employed by the Apostle Paul, Gal. 4:26. At this moment, when the last and, apparently, the most fearful crisis of the world’s history is close at hand—a crisis which is all the more fearful, or, we might say, the more demonically unnatural, if we conceive of the glorified Christ as shut in, together with the saints, by the hostile host—there falls from Heaven a fire which consumes the foe. An exegetical reading, with the confident feeling that this direct war against God must likewise be put down by God, has added the words, from God; viewed in another aspect, however, the brief term from Heaven is more effective; Heaven itself, the whole Cosmos, against which they finally rage, must now, for God’s sake, react against them, in destroying might, with its fire. And now Satan himself, who seduceth the nations, is cast into the pool of the fire and brimstone, whither the Beast and the False Prophet have preceded him. This view, like the discourse of Christ (Matt. 25.), is at variance with the mediæval idea that Satan, as a fire-demon and prince of hell, torments souls in hell. They shall, it is declared, be tormented day and night into the æons of the æons To the essence and spiritual condition of the prince of darkness and his consorts, their sphere and external mode of existence shall correspond. There are in their character no motives for a change; except that through the consummate stagnation of their condition, their consummate irritation must be more and more neutralized.

EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL

Rev 20:9. And they went up.—Hab. 1:6. “The term ἀναβαίνειν, usual where military marches are spoken of (1 Ki. 22:4; Ju. 1:1), because the position of the attacked is naturally conceived of as on a height (Hengstenberg), is the more fitting here, since the march of the heathen is really directed upward against Jerusalem.” DUESTERDIECK. The primary statement is rather, however, that they go up upon the breadth of the earth, the symbolic elevated plain of the earth, which, as such, forms the specific antithesis to the symbolic four corners of the earth; it is the highland of the spirit. The object of the attack is then, certainly, defined in accordance with an Old Testament conception (see Zech. 12:7, 8; comp. Köhler, Sacharja, p. 185). The saints have encamped about the beloved city to protect it. All the forces of the Kingdom of Heaven form the defence for all its possessions. If we glance once more at the passage cited [Zech. 12:7, 8], Zech. 14:1, 2 might seem to afford an explanation as to wherefore the Seer did not call the beloved city Jerusalem. Grotius apprehended the Seven Churches by the camp of the saints, and Constantinople by the beloved city. Others (Augustine, Vitringa, Hengstenberg) have regarded the city as the Church; Bengel and most moderns, as Jerusalem.

And fire came down.—Ezek. 39:6; 38:22; Gen. 19:24; Lev. 10:2; Num. 16:35; Luke 9:54. See SYN. VIEW. The fire catastrophe shows that the universal judgment of the world is at hand—the fiery metamorphosis of the earth. And consumed them.—To be understood of the destruction of their life in this present world.

Rev 20:10. And the devil that seduceth (or misleadeth) them.—Πλανῶν, as the present participle, denotes the continuance of sin under punishment. And they shall be tormented.—Namely, the Devil, the Beast, and the False Prophet. A preliminary general presentment, see in Rev 14:11; the final presentment, Rev 20:14, 15; 21:8.

SECTION TWENTIETH

The New Heaven and the New Earth. The Kingdom of glory a. Heavenly World-picture of the Consummation. (Revelation 20:11–21:8)

General.—We here refer to our detailed treatment of the subject in the EXEGET. NOTES (p. 358 sqq.).

Special.—The end of the old world, the natal hour of the new world. This truth is (1) prefigured by life in nature (out of death, life); (2) grounded in the antithesis between the old and the new life of the Christian (the dying of the old man, the rising of the new man); (3) mediated, in its realization, by the verbal prophecies of Scripture and the real prophecies of the development of the Kingdom of God (every apparent down-going, the condition of a glorious resurrection).—The end of the world, a presentiment of all creature-life.—The new world, an object of the aspiration of all the pious.—[Rev 20:11–15.] Individual features of the end of the world: The Judge; the down-going [of the old world]; the resurrection; the judgment; the Book of Life; the lake of fire.—[ch. 20 sqq.] The new world: A consummate reality; anew Heaven and a new earth; the new Jerusalem; the new habitation of God (Rev 20:3); the new existence (Rev 20:4); the new creation (Rev 20:5).—The Word of God, the foundation of the first world (John 1:1[–3]);—in the explication (and world-historic operation) of His words, the foundation of the second world.—Certainty of the new world, (1) in respect of its Founder (Rev 20:6); (2) in respect of the heritage which it shall afford to the conquerors [Rev 20:7]; (3) in respect of the certainty of its antithesis [the lake of fire, Rev 20:8].—The second death? Infinitely mysterious in its nature. On the other hand, exceedingly clear as the final consequence, and hence the final punishment, of consistent sin. The second death, the last consistent result of the first beginnings of evil.—The contradiction immanent in the figure of the lake of fire, in perfect accordance with the essence of godlessness: 1. Extreme agitation and motion; 2. In perfect aimlessness; 3. Hence ethical self-consumption on the basis of physical indissolubleness.—Significant character-portrait of the lost under the superscription of the fearful. True heroic courage in the light of eternity; and its aim.

STARKE: There are two lines of opinion as to the vision set forth in chs. 21 and 22. Some consider that whilst it presents, chiefly, the condition of the Church on earth during the thousand years, a picture of the glorious state of the Church in Heaven is commingled with the former view; others hold that the contents of these two chapters refer particularly to the glorious state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven.—QUESNEL: (Comp. Rev 21:4 and John 16:20.) O precious tears of penitence and grief shed by the righteous and accounted worthy to be wiped away by the hand of God Himself. (Rev 21:6.) God will yet manifest Himself to His Church as Alpha and Omega, and prove that the promise which He gave in the beginning, He will emphatically fulfill in the end.—QUESNEL [Rev 21:8]: There is a, fearfulness which can condemn us equally with any misdoings.

CLAUS HARMS, Die Offenb. Joh. gepredigt (Kiel, 1844; p. 183): The New Jerusalem. I. It has its name and form from that Jerusalem in Israel. II. But the glory of the new is far greater than the glory of the old. III. Greater, even, than anything the Prophets have predicted in regard to it. IV. Yes, the new Jerusalem surpasses even Heaven and eternal blessedness. V. Christians, have we this glorious city before our eyes? VI. And in our hearts?

HAKEN, Kosmische Bilder, Riga, 1862 (p. 190): The new Heaven and the new Earth. Ps. 102:25, 26; Heb. 1:10. In both passages the terms pass away [perish] and change are promiscuously employed; the Heavens pass away only so far as they are changed.

[From M. HENRY: Rev 20:11–15. Observe, 1. The throne and tribunal of judgment, great and white, very glorious, and perfectly just and righteous. 2. The Judge. 3. The persons to be judged. 4. The rule of judgment settled; the books were opened. The book of God’s omniscience, and the book of the sinner’s conscience; and another book shall be opened—the book of the scriptures, the statute-book of heaven, the rule of life. This book determines matters of right; the other books give evidence of matters of fact. 5. The cause to be tried; the works of men, what they have done, and whether it be good or evil. 6. The issue of the trial and judgment; and that will be according to the evidence of fact, and rule of judgment.—Rev 21:3. The presence of God with His people in heaven will not be interrupted as it is on earth, but He will dwell with them continually.—The covenant interest and relation that there are now between God and His people will be filled up and perfected in heaven. They shall be his people; their souls shall be assimilated to Him, filled with all the love, honor and delight in God that their relation requires; this shall be their perfect holiness, and He will be their God; His immediate presence with them, His love fully manifested to them, and His glory put upon them, will be their perfect happiness.

Rev 21:4. Note, 1. All the effects of former trouble shall be done away. God Himself, as their tender Father, with His kind hand, shall wipe away the tears of His children; and they would not have been without those tears when God shall come and wipe them away. 2. All the causes of future sorrow shall be forever removed; There shall be neither death nor pain; and therefore no sorrow nor crying; these are things incident to that state in which they were before, but now all former things are passed away.

Rev 21:5, 6. We may and ought to take God’s promise as present payment; if He has said, He makes all things new, it is done.—Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. As it was His glory, that He gave the rise and beginning to the world, and to His Church, it will be His glory to finish the work begun, and not to leave it imperfect.—The desires of His people toward this blessed state [Rev 21:1–4] are another evidence of the truth and certainty of it; they thirst after a state of sinless perfection, and the uninterrupted enjoyment of God; and God has wrought in them these longing desires which cannot be satisfied with anything else, and therefore would be the torment of the soul if they were disappointed; but it would be inconsistent with God’s goodness and His love to His people to create in them holy and heavenly desires, and then deny them their proper satisfaction; and therefore they may be assured when they have overcome their present difficulties, He will give them of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Rev 21:6–8. The greatness of this future felicity is declared and illustrated, 1. By the freeness of it. 2. The fullness of it; inherit all things. 3. By the tenure and title by which God’s people enjoy this blessedness; by right of inheritance, as the sons of God. 4. By the vastly different state of the wicked.

Rev 21:8. Observe, 1. The sins of those who perish. The fearful lead the van in this black list; they durst not encounter the difficulties of religion, and their slavish fear proceeded from their unbelief. They, however, were yet so desperate as to run into all manner of abominable wickedness. 2. Their punishment. This misery will be their proper part and portion, and what they have prepared themselves for by their sins.—From THE COMPREHENSIVE COMMENTARY. Rev 21:8. There is then a fearfulness which alone is sufficient to cause our condemnation, as well as the other crimes here mentioned. It is not only that fear which causes us to deny and abandon the faith; but that also which causes us to be wanting to important and essential duties, through fear of hurting our fortunes, our ease, and even our temporal and spiritual interests, and of creating ourselves enemies. True courage is, to fear nothing but God and displeasing Him. Real cowardice is, not to have courage to overcome self, nor renounce the creature, through the hope of enjoying the Creator. (QUESNEL.)—From VAUGHAN: Rev 21:3. To have God with us is to be perfectly safe: to have God for our God is to be perfectly happy.

Rev 21:8. The fearful. O terrible end! O fatal compromise carried on too long and too far with sinners and with sin ! O spirit of oversensitiveness, of dislike to trouble, of dread of isolation, of inability to judge decisively and to act courageously, which has brought you, by slow stages, by easy descents, to a level so vile, and a companionship so horrible !—From BONAR: Rev 20:12. Books are opened—books probably containing God’s history of the sinner’s life, His record of the sinner’s deeds. … The Divine version of human history how unlike all earthly annals ! Most of the leading facts the same, yet how differently told and interpreted. Alongside of these is another book, called the book of life—the register of those whose portion is LIFE eternal.

Rev 21:13. Judged every man according to his works. God keeps His diary of every soul’s doings and sayings and thinkings.

Rev 21:14. Of the old prediction in Hosea (Rev 13:14): “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction,” John here records the awful (and glorious) fulfillment.]

SECTION SEVENTH

The New Heaven and the New Earth. The Kingdom of Glory

REV 20:11–22:5

A.—IDEAL HEAVENLY WORLD-PICTURE OF THE CONSUMMATION—ABOUT TO CHANGE TO THE REAL WORLD-PICTURE OF THE NEW EARTH

REV 20:11–21:8

1. The End of the World; the Resurrection; the Judgment

11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on [the one sitting upon] it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away [om. away]; and there was found no place [place was not found] for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great [the great and the small],14 stand [standing] before God [om. God—ins. the throne];15 and the [om. the] books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those [the] things which were [om. which were] written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up [forth] the dead which were in it; and death and hell [hades] delivered up [gave forth] the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man [each] according to their works. 14And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of [ins. the] fire. This is the second death16 [ins., the lake of the fire].17 15And whosoever [if any one] was not found written in the book of life [ins. he] was cast into the lake of [ins. the] fire.

See Revelation 21:1 ff for the analysis on Revelation 20:11 ff.

Footnotes:

[8]Rev 20:6. [Tisch. (8th Ed.) inserts the article in accordance with א. B*.; Alf. brackets it; Lach. and Tisch. (1859) omit with A.—E. R. C.]

[9]Rev 20:8. Τὸν πόλ, according to Codd. A. B*., et al.

[10][The G. V. reads here (Ezek. 38:15): “Thou shalt come out of thy place, namely, from the ends against the north.”—TR.]

[11][The LXX. has ̔Ρώς, but neither the Vulgate, nor the German, nor the English Version, gives it.—E. R. C.]

[12]Rev 20:9. Ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ is supported by Codd. א. B*., et al., but is not firmly established. [Treg. inserts; Lach., Alf., Tisch., omit with A.—E. R. C.]

[13]Rev 20:10. [Tischendorf (8th Ed.) inserts this article with א.; Lach., Tisch. (1859), Treg., Alford, omit with A. B*. P., et al.—E. R. C.]

[14]Rev 20:12. The Recepta inverts the order, giving “small and great.”

[15]Rev 20:12. Codd. A. B*., et al., give θρόνου; the Rec. gives θεοῦ.

[16]Rev 20:14. A. B*., et al., give οὖτος ὁ θάνατος ὁ σεύτερός ἐστι.

[17]Rev 20:14. This clause is omitted by the Rec. [Crit. Eds. insert it in acc. with א. A. B*. P.—E. R. C.]

SECTION SEVENTH

The New Heaven and the New Earth. The Kingdom of Glory

REV 20:11–22:5

A.—IDEAL HEAVENLY WORLD-PICTURE OF THE CONSUMMATION—ABOUT TO CHANGE TO THE REAL WORLD-PICTURE OF THE NEW EARTH

REV 20:11–21:8

1. The End of the World; the Resurrection; the Judgment

11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on [the one sitting upon] it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away [om. away]; and there was found no place [place was not found] for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great [the great and the small],14 stand [standing] before God [om. God—ins. the throne];15 and the [om. the] books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those [the] things which were [om. which were] written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up [forth] the dead which were in it; and death and hell [hades] delivered up [gave forth] the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man [each] according to their works. 14And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of [ins. the] fire. This is the second death16 [ins., the lake of the fire].17 15And whosoever [if any one] was not found written in the book of life [ins. he] was cast into the lake of [ins. the] fire.

See Revelation 21:1 ff for the analysis on Revelation 20:11 ff.

Footnotes:

[8]Rev 20:6. [Tisch. (8th Ed.) inserts the article in accordance with א. B*.; Alf. brackets it; Lach. and Tisch. (1859) omit with A.—E. R. C.]

[9]Rev 20:8. Τὸν πόλ, according to Codd. A. B*., et al.

[10][The G. V. reads here (Ezek. 38:15): “Thou shalt come out of thy place, namely, from the ends against the north.”—TR.]

[11][The LXX. has ̔Ρώς, but neither the Vulgate, nor the German, nor the English Version, gives it.—E. R. C.]

[12]Rev 20:9. Ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ is supported by Codd. א. B*., et al., but is not firmly established. [Treg. inserts; Lach., Alf., Tisch., omit with A.—E. R. C.]

[13]Rev 20:10. [Tischendorf (8th Ed.) inserts this article with א.; Lach., Tisch. (1859), Treg., Alford, omit with A. B*. P., et al.—E. R. C.]

[14]Rev 20:12. The Recepta inverts the order, giving “small and great.”

[15]Rev 20:12. Codd. A. B*., et al., give θρόνου; the Rec. gives θεοῦ.

[16]Rev 20:14. A. B*., et al., give οὖτος ὁ θάνατος ὁ σεύτερός ἐστι.

[17]Rev 20:14. This clause is omitted by the Rec. [Crit. Eds. insert it in acc. with א. A. B*. P.—E. R. C.]