GOD’S EAGLES
Or,
Complete Testing of the Saints
BY
GEORGE D. WATSON,
Author of “Love Abounding,” “While
Robes,” “Holiness
Manual,” “Coals of
Fire,” “Seven Overcomeths.”
and “Fruits of
[Page V]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1. God’s Eagles Page 7
Chapter 2. Job’s Eagle Vision Page 24
Chapter 3. Gideon’s Eagle Band Page 33
Chapter 4. The Molting of the Eagles Page 51
Chapter 5. Principles of Perfection Page 63
Chapter 6. Paul’s Eagle Prayer Page 73
Chapter 7.
Creation Groaning for Coming Glory
Page 83
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9. The Flight of the Eagles Page 106
Chapter 10. The Prayers of All Saints Page 116
Chapter 11. The Eagles in Judgment Page 129
Chapter 12. The Judgment and Reward of the
Saints Page 140
Chapter 13. The Song of Moses and the Lamb Page 154
Chapter 14. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb Page 168
Chapter 15. The White Horse Army Page 182
Chapter 16. The Destruction of Anti-christ Page 195
Chapter 17. The Chaining of Satan Page 208
Chapter 18. The Kingdom Age Page 218
Chapter 19. The New Jerusalem Page 234
Chaper 20. The Plan of the Ages Page 247
Chapter 21. The Three Appearings of Christ Page 256
[Page
VI]
PREFACE
When
Brother Watson was corresponding with us relative to this volume, he wrote somewhat as follows:
“This book, ‘God’s Eagles,’ is of a
kind that no one else that I know of has ever published. It is a series of
Bible expositions describing the destiny of the saints clear through all the
ages, from the time of the new birth, on through life and death, translation
and resurrection, the judgment of the saints, the marriage supper of the Lamb,
the chaining of Satan, the millennial reign, and the New Jerusalem, so as to
present to the Lord’s people a continuous history of the saints clear through.
I do not know of any other book in the world that presents such a delineation
of the destiny of God’s people. I have had the book in mind for twelve years,
and at last it is ready for print. I believe it will have a large sale.”
We therefore send forth “God’s Eagles,” praying that its circulation may prove
a mighty inspiration to the children of God anywhere, and that the author may
have every reason to praise God both now and hereafter. that he was permitted
to pen the messages which are thus given publication.
THE PUBLISHERS
-------
[PAGE
7]
CHAPTER 1
GOD’S EAGLS
There
are many places in the Bible where God mentions eagles, and in such a way as to
indicate that the term applies to a class of the servants of God, who have in
them those qualities that correspond with eagles in the rank of nature. God has
put a language into all things of His creation. There is a spoken language for
angels and men, and then there is an unwritten language in all the works of
God, just as distinctly and clearly as the spoken language. God puts a language
into trees and rocks, leaves and birds, and beasts, and fishes, and the sea and
the sky, a language known to Himself, and doubtless a language in due time to
be perfectly interpreted to the saints of God.
God calls His people by the names of cattle, and sheep, and
doves, and eagles. Just as there are sheep among human saints which are not
fourlegged animals, so there are eagles in human character, which are distinct
from rapacious birds. God compares
Himself to a great Eagle, and
compares His true saints to eagles. The Lord says in Exodus, “I bare you on
eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” In David’s lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan,
he said. “They were swifter than eagles, and stronger than lions.” The Psalmist says that those who wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength and mount up with
wings as eagles. Jesus tells us in the Gospel that at His coming when His [PAGE
8] crucified and
glorified body shall appear in the sky,
“the eagles
will be gathered unto it,” referring to the
rapture of the saints.*
[* NOTE: All bold type, underlining and highlighting throughout
the author’s writing is mine.]
We are told in Revelation that of the four living creatures,
which represent the highest rank of saved men, one of those living creatures
has the form of “a flying eagle.” And in the eighth chapter of Revelation where our English
reads that John heard an angel flying in the midst of heaven, the Greek word is eagle: “He heard one
eagle flying through heaven,” which was the voice of a glorified man, taking part with
Christ in judging the world in the great tribulation.
In everyone of these Scripture references, the eagle is used
in a good sense to signify the Saints of God, who are taking rank in the [millennial]
The most striking passage bearing on this subject is found in Deuteronomy 32: 11, 12. “As an eagle that
stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh
them, beareth them on her wings; so Jehovah alone did lead him,
and there was no strange God with him.” These words give us a beautiful insight into God’s
method of dealing with His people, as to how He draws them to Himself, and as
to how He makes the eagles, and what attributes they are possessed with.
There are various ranks among the servants of God,
corresponding to the different ranks among birds, or among trees, or among the stars, and Paul tells us that
as one star differs from another star in glory, so will it be in the resurrection of the Saints.
1. Now, in the first place, let us
notice how God makes His eagles. God makes all things by a plan in His own
mind, as he told Moses to make the Tabernacle according to [PAGE
9] the pattern shown
him in the mount. When God makes a tree, or a world, or a race of beings, He
works according to some plan, and hence when He makes a class of saints which
ranks as eagles, He works by a method which is set forth in the text.
The first step in the process of making an eagle saint is to
stir up the nest. The eagle
builds its nest on a lofty mountain
crag, or in the highest tree it can find, and forms it of sticks, and branches
of trees and then lines it with softer
things like wool, or paper, or rags, or the skins of animals, making it soft
for its young. When the young eagles have become large enough to fly, the
mother bird forces them out of the soft nest by tearing away the soft lining
and throwing everything out of the nest that would make it comfortable, and
letting the young birds down on the sharp sticks and thorns, so that they
become dissatisfied with their home and are willing to move somewhere else. This is the way God deals with those of His
servants that He calls into close and heroic union with Himself. He begins
by stirring up their nests, and making them unhappy, that they become willing
to move out into a new place of experience, and thought, and life. This is the way He stirred the nests of the Israelites in
the
All the Apostles had their nests stirred, all the reformers,
and great evangelists and great religious leaders had their nests, stirred,
until they were willing to emigrate into new quarters, or go to the ends of the
earth. or change their locality. Or change
their religious relationships, or
change a traditional theology, or
move out into a new realm of thought,
or prayer, or work, or experience. We can never move into
any new, locality without breaking our relationship with the present locality.
We can never go into a better climate without disrupting from the climate we
are now in. We can never move toward God
without leaving something of Adam. We can never migrate toward the west
without leaving the east. We can never
step toward holiness without breaking with unholiness.
God takes away the soft things on which we lean, the dear old
props of nature, of friends, of old forms, and old ceremonies, and old
comforts. He undermines our natural foundations, and lets us down on the bare
rock. If God did not thus stir our nest, we would be unwilling to move out into His
realm. Abraham is a Pattern, and he was God’s [PAGE
11] immigrant, and
all true saints are immigrants from the old nest of natural things into the
upper air of the things of God.
The second step in the making of an eagle is, the mother bird flutters over them. The young birds hear the sound of
wings to draw their attention from the thorns and sticks to her. The mother
eagle will watch her young, and when they begin to whine and complain, and move
uneasily, and hunt for some easy place, and cannot find it, then the mother
bird rises over the nest and flutters
her feathers, and shakes out her wings right over their heads, with a most
peculiar sound, to draw the attention of their eyes from the painful thorns and
sticks in the bottom of the nest. Oh, what a language there is in the sound of
wings, a language perfectly intelligible to the young eagles. When they hear
that peculiar sound, the young birds look up to the parent. This is just what God does in the making of
His saints. When God allows trouble, sorrow. sickness, poverty, bereavement
and desolation to come to us, and we weep and cry and murmur, and find fault,
and get sad, and blue, and look around us to find something to lean upon, and
hunt for comfort in the creature, in that which is of the earth, and find
nothing but sharp briars and piercing trials, then God flutters over us, and we
hear the sound of His wings. God does it to draw our attention to Himself, and
for us to look away to Him, to look away above us, from the coffin, from the
grave, from the old house, from the deserted farm, from departed friends, from
earthly property, from a good reputation, from human comfort. We look up to
catch the sound of those mysterious wings that flutter in the ears of our
souls. God draws us to look up to Him with sounds we have not heard before, and
like the prophet Ezekiel, God causes us to hear the noise of wings.
[PAGE 12]
The next step in the process of making eagle saints is, he spreadeth abroad his wings. No bird
in all the world has wings like the eagle, and the mother eagle is always
larger than the male bird, and her wings are the largest. Many an eagle
measures fourteen feet from tip to tip when its wings are spread out. When you
see the wings folded, you would not think they were over two feet long, but
when those wings are stretched out it is amazing how long they seem. If the
young eagles could talk they might say to their mother, “I never saw you look so big before, for when you
were here with us in the nest, you looked rather small, but since those wings
are spread out at their full length, we are amazed at the magnitude of your
protection and strength.” The spreading abroad of the eagle’s wings is a
revelation to her young of her strength. This is the way God deals with us. He
not only flutters over us to draw our attention to Himself, but “he spreadeth
abroad His wings.” When we get our attention on God He unfolds His magnitude to our faith, He
spreads abroad the great wings of His attributes, His majesty, His power, His
glory.
There have been times in some of our lives in which we lost
apparently everything on the earth, when property and friends, and health, and
prospects were swept away as in a storm, and at those times we heard the
flutter of the Divine wings, and looked up and saw God spread abroad His wings,
and unfold to our earnest faith the marvellous strength of His perfections. It
is an epoch in our lives when God unfolds Himself to us, when He gives us a
vision of His infinite providence, the vastness of His resources, the revelation of His inward feelings, the largeness of His arrangements, the [PAGE
13] delicacy and
minuteness of His care over us, the far sweep of His eternal purposes.
What a thrill of inspiration goes through our souls when
we see the great wings of the Jehovah Eagle spread abroad above our heads,
those wings that stretch from horizon to horizon, that spread out without
beginning and without ending, from the eternal past into the eternal future,
those wings that can support worlds on worlds
as easily as carrying an insect, and those wings whose feathers are the
attributes of Almighty God, are stretched out for our safety, our [future] salvation, our security.
We never see the infinite merit of Jesus until revealed to us
by the Holy Ghost in the outspreading wings of the atonement of the precious
blood. Just as the spreading abroad of the eagle’s wings is the great
revelation that the young eagles have of the parent bird, so the spreading
abroad of God’s eagle wings constitutes that revelation of Himself to us of His
unlimited perfections. It is then that the wings of the mother bird become
larger and softer than all the comforts found in the nest. It is when God
spreads abroad His wings over us, and around us, that we see He is infinitely
greater than everything in nature, or than everything in our dreams, or our air
castles, that He has sufficiency in Himself, infinitely beyond all our wants and
all our imaginations.
Are you an orphan? Is your husband dead, or your wife dead?
Are your parents dead? Are you poor, or hated. or cast out? Are you criticized,
or ostracised, or minimized, or undersized? Are you perplexed? Are you
barefooted, hungry, homeless, a beggar on the street, or are you on your way to
the poor house? If you are in such a condition, and you could see God spread
abroad His wings, and unfurl the [PAGE 14] blue sky of His attributes above you, and around you, you would cease to feel
sorrow, you would be lifted above your circumstances, you would have an
inspiration from above that would be more than a match for all the ills of this
world. The sight of God’s infinite wings spread abroad would make us forget the
tearing up of any earthly nest.
The next step in the process of making eagles, is the mother
bird taketh them, and beareth them on her wings. She stands on the edge of the nest, and lays her wings
down so the young eagles can climb up on her wings and fasten their young claws
into her feathers, preparatory for a great flight up in the air.
See how God stirred the nest of the early Christian Church in
It is then that the believer learns to trust in God alone,
without leaning on past experiences, or any feeling, or religious emotion,
without leaning on saints, or on the Church, or on circumstances, but to run
the tremendous risk of falling helpless into hands of Infinite Love. It is then
that God turns loose His eagles in a thunderstorm.
at midnight, or a cold, winter’s day, with a wind blowing a gale, or to face a blizzard of
circumstances, and to practice that
venturesome and seemingly reckless reliance on God’s Word, and on His character. This is the way that God makes those eagle
saints which are to take rank in His coming [millennial] kingdom.
We now come to consider what are the qualities of eagles.
There are certain moral and spiritual
qualities that constitute a fitness for rank in the
The lion is not the largest of animals, but it is the king
among all animals just the same. There are some birds which are larger than the
eagle, but the eagle is emphatically the king of the air, and over all other
birds. There is a royalty and majesty in the eagle which belongs to no other
bird or fowl. This is true of the eagle saints, for they constitute a race of rulers that are to reign in the coming kingdom.
The man that governs the air governs the world. At first men
fought with clubs and stones; later on, they fought with arrows and spears;
still later on, they fought with gunpowder
and bullets; then came the era of warfare in battle ships, and the conquest of
navies on the sea, but in these times they are carrying on the art of war up in
the air and down under the sea, which is
a clear sign of the winding up of this [evil and apostate] age and the concluding of the drama of man’s rule in the earth and the
preparation for the final scene of this world's history in its present fallen
condition.
Satan according to Scripture, is the prince of the powers of
the air, and, from the fall of man, he has had his throne in the aerial regions
above this earth.
[PAGE 17]
The word heaven in the Bible has several
meanings to it. When the word heaven is used in referring to where God has His
throne, the word in the original is always in the plural number as, for
instance, “Our Father who art in the heavens,” is the literal rendering, but where
the word heaven applies to the aerial regions, the blue sky, or the elements of
the atmosphere around this earth, the word is in the singular, prefixed with
the definite article “the,” as “the heaven.” It is this local heaven that belongs to our earth that Satan
has for his playground and the place
of his authority, and where he marshals his fallen angels to carry on the
wickedness of this world. And because Satan has his seat up in the sky, he also
has power over the earth, and is the god of this present age and of the fallen
state of this world.
During the tribulation judgment,
the archangel Michael will drive Satan from his place up in the air, as
described in Revelation twelfth chapter, and he will be compelled to walk on the earth in
humiliation: and then these heavens are to be cleansed, according to Paul’s
teaching, and the glorified saints are to be elevated to take charge of the
things up in the air, and to govern this world in the coming age. And thus, as the eagles are now the kings of
the air, and have a dominion greater than all other birds, so, in the coming age, the eagle saints are to be lifted to possessions of authority and
dominion with Christ in ruling this
world, and superintending all the
affairs of the nations that survive the tribulation judgment and live in the
millennial age.
The Scriptures abound in promises concerning the ruler-ship of
the true saints in the ages to come.
After Christ arose [out] from the dead, He spent forty days upon the earth, but during that time He
lived almost entirely [PAGE 18] up in the air and out of sight of human beings. With
His glorified [and immortal] body, He appeared to chosen witnesses, at various times and places, during
the forty days, taking His body through stone walls without opening a door, and
transporting that body from place to place at will, and instantaneously showing
that He was as much at home up in the air as down on the earth.
The earthly example of Christ during those forty days is a perfect picture of the way the glorified
saints will exist in this coming millennial age, for being glorified they
will have [immortal] bodies like Christ and transport
themselves at will through any part of Heaven or earth, like Jesus did, and be
perfectly superior to what we call the law of nature.
Those people who are
not killed in the great tribulation judgment, and who submit to Christ and who
live on through the millennium, and at that time multiply and fill the earth,
will form the nations which will be superintended by these glorified saints. As we suffer with Him, we shall also
reign with Him. “Ye who have followed me
in my temptations, I will give you a kingdom, and you shall sit on
thrones, judging the tribes of
In the next place, the eagles are great watchers. There is not an eye in all the world like the eagle’s eye.
The eagle has an eye both telescopic to discern things afar off and microscopic
to see the smallest. The eye of the eagle can penetrate a great distance and
discover things that no other eye on [PAGE 19] earth could find at such a long
range. It is said by the best of authority
that it is impossible to deceive an eagle. They may be captured when young, or
shot, or conquered in battle, but they cannot be deceived in a matter of vision.
Audubon knew more about birds than any man in the world, and he gives it out
that he never could succeed in deceiving the eagle. He once climbed a mountain
crag, near an eagle’s nest and hid himself, as he thought, perfectly private to
the habits of the mother bird. When the mother eagle returned, she soared
aloft, round and round above her nest, piercing every nook and corner of the
mountain, until she spied Audubon in his hiding place, and then dropping the prey that she was bringing to her young,
gave a loud scream to her mate which was miles away, notifying him that their
nest had been discovered. This quality of eagle vision is referred to by our
Saviour concerning those saints which He pronounces to be the elect. Remember that the word elect in the Bible does not refer to
salvation, but it refers to a rank which people take after they are
justified, and mostly the term refers to sanctification, and to being in the company of the bridehood
saints.
Jesus says that there shall arise many false Christs and false
prophets, and shall deceive many; that is, deceive many [regenerate] Christians, and if it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect, but it is impossible for the true elect
saints to be deceived in matters of religious faith. Thousands in every
generation have been deceived by foolish and heretical religious leaders, but no one has ever been so deceived who was
perfectly sanctified and had the real genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit.
John Dowie and Sanford, and Charles Russell and others
have deceived thousands of Christians, to more or less extent, but not one soul
who was [PAGE 20] thoroughly sanctified, and delivered from the old man, and had the one abiding baptism of the Holy
Spirit has ever been deceived by such men.
Not one of God’s eagles will ever be deluded by Mormonism, or
Christian Science, or Spiritualism, or Dowieism and
Russellism, or any other “Ism.” because they
are divinely illuminated with that apostolic light which Jesus and the prophets
and the Apostles had.
The Apostle Peter refers to some Christians who are near-sighted,
and cannot see afar off, but he distinctly affirms that such Christians are
near-sighted because they have not escaped the corruption or the depravity
which is in the world, and because they have not added to their faith,
virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, and brotherly kindness.
He describes a soul that is thoroughly sanctified, and filled
with the Holy Spirit, and then says, he that lacketh these things is
near-sighted, and cannot see afar off; in other words, he may be a Christian, a
weak Christian; he may [eventually] get to Heaven, but he is not one of God’s eagles, and does not possess
that keen penetrating vision which can see things afar off, and distinguish
between truth and error.
It is amazing how multitudes of good people can be hood-winked
and fooled in so many ways, and by so many people. It is said that the
Patriarchs had such vision that they
saw the promises of God afar off. They had an eagle vision to see things
thousands of years ahead of them, not
only as to the first coming of Christ,
but also to His second coming, and
to that city which had foundations,
and whose builder and maker is God.
[PAGE 21]
Another quality of eagles is, they prefer great heights. They
build their nests on high mountain peaks and in the highest trees they can
find.
They love to soar miles and miles above the earth, in the vast
upper blue sky, far above the height of all other birds. Their instincts are
lofty, they spurn low spots for their resting places. This is a trait of eagle
saints. Their song is.
“You need not look
for me down in
For I have pitched my tent far up in
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith on heaven’s table land.”
An eagle saint is one that has been delivered from the old
Adam, and filled with Divine love - the love that came down from the Godhead,
and the love that instinctively arises to dwell with God in the heavenly
places.
The first man had two names. His first name was Adam, which
signifies “red earth,” and indicates the earth
nature or fallen man. His second name was Ish,
translated by the word “man,” but this name Ish indicates the higher spiritual part of a man’s life.
The Greek word which we translate “sanctification,” signifies to take the earth out; the word is hage,
a combination of two words. The word ge, always in the
Greek Testament means earth, and the prefix ha is
the strongest negative, and means no earth. Now that is the word that the Holy Ghost has selected for
holiness, or sanctification. Thus you see the word “Adam”
means “red earth,” and the word hage, or “holiness” means “no earth.” Thus when
a believer is truly sanctified, and the
earth, or the old Adam, is taken out of him, and he is filled with the Holy
Spirit, he is lifted into the heavenly places, and his faith and [PAGE
22] prayer and
spiritual life ascends to those spiritual regions which corresponds with the
lofty flight of the eagle.
Eagle saints have high motives, and lofty prayers, and
heavenly aspirations. In giving their money, and in their spiritual work, they
are wider than sectarian bonds, and higher than sectarian walls, and far above
selfish motives.
There is a word in the Song of Solomon which says. “Let us look from the top.” This is the lofty eagle vision of those who have, in the truest and best
sense, entered the higher life. Such believers soar in their faith and prayer
and love above narrow boundaries, above national lines and see the great world,
with its teeming millions. from God’s standpoint, and see the affairs of this
world in the light of Heaven and eternity. In the language of Isaiah, they dwell on high, and their
defence is the munitions of rocks. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” and grasp things that
are above the world.
In the fourth place, eagles
are strong of wing. An eagle can knock a man down with his wing. The power
of the ostrich is in his foot, and they have been known to kill horses with a
kick. The power of the lion is in his mouth, by which he can tear flesh. But
the power of an eagle is mainly in his wing. A man in the
This power of the
eagle’s wing sets forth the supernatural strength of the eagle saints in
prayer, and faith, and endurance, and long suffering. There is a strange Divine
power in saintly souls which outmatches all physical strength, or all
intellectual [PAGE 23] sharpness, or all subtlety of philosophy, or all the
ordinary strength of human beings. There are little women, and sickly men, and
poor people, who have reached a place in God where in spiritual things they are
giants, and are like lions and eagles in the natural world. There are those who
seem to be full of weakness, and yet by the power of prayer and the
loftiness of faith they are carrying burdens, bearing
troubles, enduring sorrows and
accomplishing things through the Holy Ghost beyond all the natural strength of
man, and beyond all the intellectual
greatness of scholars and orators and this world’s great ones. They
have that strength of the eagle’s wing by which in union with Jesus Christ through the baptism of the [Holy] Spirit they bear all things, and endure all things, and hope all things. This is a Divine
strength just beyond all fanaticism, or fleshy demonstrations; it is above all
boasting, or all self-conceit; it is higher than air castles, stronger than a
mere notion, but firm with a rock bottom, and a sky-blue clearness which is attained only through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These qualities of God’s eagles are obtained
by that perfect attitude of abandonment, and obedience and faith that waits
on the Lord, until the strength is
renewed, and in that strength the soul mounts up with wings as eagles and
runs and is not weary, and walks and is not faint.
* *
*
[PAGE
24]
CHAPTER 2
JOB’S EAGLE VISION
From the
first promise that God gave Adam and Eve, and on through the history of the Old
Testament, the patriarchs and prophets looked far ahead for their salvation
because they knew that there would be no salvation except through the coming of
the Son of God, in human flesh, to make an atonement for the human race. We
Christians look back to the crucifixion of Christ as the basis for our saying
faith, and we look forward to the coming of the Lord again as the consummation
of our faith. But the believers in the Old Testament had nothing to look back
to, but everything pertaining to salvation and the resurrection was in the
future to them.
The Holy Spirit gave to Job a
wonderful vision of the Lord Jesus as a personal Redeemer, and this vision was
given to Job in the darkest period of his life. There is in the 19th
chapter
of Job,
a description of the darkest period and the greatest humiliation and sorrow
that that patriarch was ever called to endure: and yet in that hour of greatest
distress and gloom, there came to him the brightest vision of the future. He
says, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth, and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another,
though my reins
be consumed within me.”
It is a singular fact that the people of God get their
brightest visions of Divine things in
the very darkest hours of their lives. Whether it is because of the law of
compensation, or whether it is because of some unknown reason in the mind of
God, so it is, that out of the greatest
humiliation and trouble of soul there comes the clearest insight into Divine
things. The darkest hour in the life of Moses was when the
people of Israel turned back from Kadesh Barnea, and yet it was at that time that God said to Moses, “As true as I live, saith the Lord, the whole earth shall be full of my glory.” It was when the Apostle John was
banished to the lonely Isle of Patmos, away from friends and Christian
fellowship, amid the desolation of barren rocks, that God opened up to him the brightest visions of the day of the Lord, and he had fellowship with angels and
heavenly beings. It was when John Bunyan was shut in a filthy jail for
twelve years in
When we walk through a deep, narrow canyon, we can look up in the day time and see the stars shining
in the sky because the glare of the sun is shut away. Out of the deepest depths
of lonely sorrow and earthly deprivation, we have the grandest visions of
heavenly things. The deeper we are baptized into crucifixion, the higher we ascend in spiritual discernment and experience.
Job was one of the great eagle saints of ancient times, and
his vision is a sample of what God has provided for the true saints in all
generations.
There are four items mentioned in this eagle vision of the
patriarch.
1. “I know that my redeemer
liveth.” This refers to the coming of the Son of God
in human flesh, as a Redeemer and Saviour. The word redeemer in the Old Testament
has [PAGE 26] a peculiar meaning. It refers to a person who has lost his property
through poverty, or death, and no one could buy it back and restore the
forfeited land except some one of near kin, such as a brother, or uncle, or
cousin. This near kinsman who would buy back the forfeited estate and restore
it to the original heir was called a “redeemer.” This is the sense in which the word
redeemer is used all through the Scriptures. The eternal Son of God came forth
from the Father, and took upon Himself a human body and a human soul: and
thereby made Himself a near kinsman to the human race, a brother of mankind,
and in His human nature He suffered, the just for the unjust, and made an
atonement sufficient to meet all the claims of Divine law against the fallen
race of Adam.
In this substitution of the spotless Son of God, and Son of
man, Jesus paid the price to the claims of the Divine government whereby He
could save the human soul from all sin, and raise the dead body, and glorify it
in immortality; and also restore the earth from the tyranny of Satan, and
remove every curse from man and the earth, and restore all things back to
original holiness and glory. All this is involved in Christ being a Redeemer.
Job had a vision of the personality of the Son of God before
His incarnation, for his words are in the present tense and he had the Divine
assurance that the Son of God was a
living person in his day, for he says. “I know that my redeemer liveth.”
The Son of God had his distinguished personality and character
before His incarnation. It was not the human body and soul of Jesus which gave
him His personality, but it was His Divine personality which took to Himself,
from the [PAGE 27] Virgin Mary, a human body and a human
soul, so that Christ was alive from eternity. and Jesus said to the Jews, “Before
Abraham was, I am.”
2. The next item in this eagle vision,
refers to the second coming of the Messiah, when He should stand at the latter day
upon the earth. It is true that Christ stood on the earth in His human body at
His first coming to make an atonement for the human race, but that did not take
place at the latter day, and hence these words must refer to the second coming of Christ when He will
stand on the earth in His glorified
humanity as the ruler of the world. The word stand implies something firm,
fixed and settled, without any question, in the most perfect authority and
power. At the first coming of Christ He was hounded from place to place, and
hunted as if to be a prey to the vengeance of mankind. He was a pilgrim in His
own world and a stranger among His own people, and He had no special home, as
He said, “No place to lay his
head,” so that
we can hardly say that He stood upon the earth, but only walked to and fro in
it for a short time until He should take His flight back to the right hand of
God.
But by His death, having redeemed
the world, not only human beings, but also
the earth itself. He will come again to
reap the harvest of His redemption and take His place on the earth with
absolute firmness and undisputed authority. As a Redeemer Jesus has made
provision to save the soul from all sin, and to save the body from death and
the earth from all the curse which sin has brought on it. The perfect
consummation of all these things will be when Jesus returns and stands on
3. The third item in Job’s eagle vision
of redemption refers to the resurrection of the body.
The patriarch had a clear revelation that his poor body, which
was then full of sores, would be resurrected from death and shine forth in
immortality, perfectly free from all disease or pain, or the possibility of
dying any more. “After my skin worms shall destroy this
body, yet in
my flesh shall I see
God.” Here is a recognition that after his
body had returned to the dust, the same body would
be
resurrected in a glorious condition, and that in that glorified
body he would look on the face of his Divine Redeemer. God revealed to Job the literal resurrection of the dead body.
He was not tinctured - [i.e., made from a dissolved solution.] - with that modern infidel notion, which
to many preachers in these times have, that
the dead body will not rise again, and that nothing will survive death except the human soul.
The spirit of man is never buried, and never turns to dust,
and is never consumed by worms; and hence the word resurrection is never in the
Bible applied to a man’s spirit, but [PAGE 29] only to his - [disembodied
soul, (Acts 2: 27, cf. Ps. 16: 10, R.V.), and decomposed] - dead body. If the dead body does not rise into life again, then
there is no such thing as resurrection, for the term is applied only to the
body - [when it will
be united to the soul]. There were no heresies in ancient
times among the professed people of God. Scripture prophesies that heresies belong to the
latter days, and the multiplying of these heresies is a
proof that we are living in the very latter part of this age, and on the verge
of the coming of the Lord.
As Job looked upon his afflicted body,
he saw only a mass of putrefying sores from the crown of his head to the soles
of his feet. He was such an object of loathsome disgust that he tells us in this chapter, he was
stripped of his glory, and the crown had fallen from his head, and that he sat
in darkness, and that God’s providences were like an army of enemies encamped
against him, and that his acquaintances were estranged from him, and that his
own servants counted him a stranger, and would not respond to his call, and
that his wife would not be entreated by him, and that the little children
despised him, and he cried out for some one to have pity upon him, but there
was no one in all the world who would respond to his cries. And yet with this
picture of unutterable distress in his flesh, God revealed to him a glorious
future resurrection, when that poor, diseased and loathsome body would arise from
the dust and be radiant with immortal glory, and shine forth in youth and
honour, and out of that body he would worship
the Jehovah Saviour and enter into
the unspeakable joy of communion with his God and Saviour. He not only got the
vision of a [future] glorious resurrection, but he also was made to know that the righteous would rise before the wicked, and that he would be in the first resurrection.
[PAGE 30]
In the twenty-seventh chapter, Job speaks of rich men who will die in their sins and
be buried, but that they shall not rise at the same time that the righteous do. He says of
the rich, “He is buried in death, but he shall not be gathered,” that is, gathered with the
righteous in the first resurrection. (Verses 15-19.)
Hence the vision of the resurrection given to Job agrees with
all Scripture that there are two resurrections - the first for the righteous,
and the second for the wicked.
David says in the first Psalm, in describing the character of the
blessed man, that the ungodly shall not stand up in the judgment nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous. In this world both the righteous and the wicked are in the saint congregation in the
churches and all assemblies, but in
the judgment period, the blessed man will rise from the dead and leave the
ungodly still in death.
Thus we see that away back in the centuries before the Bible
was written, God gave to Job a vision of things far in the future concerning
redemption and salvation and the resurrection, just as perfect as the teachings
we have in the New Testament. This was not something that Job learned by study,
but it was revealed to him by the Spirit of the living God, and revelations of
God are perfect.
4. The next item in Job’s great vision
was that in his glorified [and
immortal] body he should look on the face of his Redeemer and behold
Him in all His glory. “In my flesh shall
I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and
not another.” This
is what spiritual writers have called the “beatific
vision.” The word signifies the vision of God, or seeing the face of God
in His uncreated glory and beauty, [PAGE 31] and power. To see the face of God, in the person of
the Lord Jesus, is the climax of all vision in the universe.
Nothing in creation can surpass or equal the seeing of the
face of God. The face expresses all things in the soul, mind and heart. The
most beautiful thing God has ever made in Heaven or earth is a beautiful face.
The universe is full of beauty, and we never tire of the charms of sea, and sky,
and land, and flowers, and mountains, and clouds, and all the beauties which
are spread around us in the creation that came out of the mind of God. And God
has put all of His mind in the person, and in the face of Jesus Christ, so that
every perfection of the Divine Being is revealed in the face of Jesus. The body
of the Lord Jesus must of necessity be the most perfect and the most glorious
of anything which is formed in all the universe, for He is the crown and glory
and ornament of everything which is formed
in creation, and there never can be any creature which will surpass the body of
the Lord Jesus, and there never can be any glory which will excel the glory of
the Son of man. Suppose we could have set before us in one vision every
perfection, and every charm, and every beauty, in all the created universe;
suppose that all the beauty which has ever been seen in human faces, in rolling
seas, and blue skies, and sun, moon and stars, and mountain and valley, and flowers
and rocks, and rainbows, and flowing rivers - all this collection of beauty put
into one single picture, would we ever tire of gazing upon it? And yet all this
assemblage of charms would only be as a drop compared to the vast ocean of
uncreated beauty and glory there is in the Divine nature.
In addition to all these beauties and
glories, there is another universe of moral and spiritual beauty, such as the [PAGE
32] beauty of
humility, of charity, of tenderness, of love, the brightness of wisdom, the
loftiness of righteousness, the stability of truth, the grandeur of courage and
faith, all those beauties of character, which require a spiritual discernment
to see and appreciate them. All this universe of spiritual loveliness exists in
the Divine nature to an infinite degree, and all this moral beauty will be
manifested in the face of Jesus Christ. It is this vision of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus that Job referred to when he said, “Mine eye
shall behold him for myself, and not another.” The word does not mean a mere passing
glance, but it signifies a fixed and steady gaze at the glory of God. “I shall not
only see him, but I shall behold him.” This refers to that abiding vision of
the glory of God fixed in the eye of the mind forever. It is that vision desire
in our being. This is the consummation of all bliss and happiness possible to a
created intelligence.
This is the great ocean of infinite and endless joy, to which
all other joys are like little rivulets. It
was this eagle vision of Job’s which sustained him amid his unspeakable sorrow,
and desolation, and suffering. It is this vision which we need to lift us up,
and inspire us, amid the trials through which we are now passing on our way to
the coming kingdom.
* *
*
[PAGE
33]
CHAPTER 3
GIDEON’S EAGLE BAND
The battle
that Gideon fought with the Midianites was one of the most remarkable in the
history of the world. It was not only a miraculous battle, but it was one
arranged by a special Divine providence, and every detail of it was made
prophetic of the last battle that will ever be fought in this world’s history.
The Lord took the initiative with Gideon, calling him from his
secret place, where he was threshing out grain, and subjected him to various
tests of faith, and answered his request for signs, and arranged all the
details of the battle; so that it was in reality not Gideon’s battle, but the
Lord’s battle against his enemies, and for this reason it occupies a place in
so many Scriptures, as prophetic of things to come, in the winding up of the
history of warfare in this world.
We are rapidly approaching the time when a great many
prophecies concerning the winding up of this age will he fulfilled, and if we
look forward to the coming of Jesus, and the great tribulation judgment, and
the fulfilling of God’s plan for Israel, and for the kingdom age, we can get
very clear ideas of these things by looking back at the patterns of them which
are furnished in the Old Testament history.
We are taught by Isaiah that the ten
plagues put on the Egyptians is a pattern of the great tribulation judgment
coming on the earth. And we are taught in several passages that Gideon’s battle
with the Midianites is a pattern of the great [PAGE 34] and last conflict with the enemies of
God in this world. In the seventh chapter of Judges,
we see God’s method of selecting a band of eagle saints, heroes of the first
rank, who were samples and types of that company of heroes which will be with
Jesus in the latter day conflict.
There are three points connected with this history: First the
two divisions of the soldiers; second, their armour; third, the battle.
Each of these points is filled with instruction for the saints
of God.
1. Let us notice
the two divisions of the army. Gideon had under him 32.000 soldiers who had
volunteered to go with him into the battle.
They were all Israelites, circumcised, and members of what might be called
God’s visible Church on earth. They had all volunteered, and were in good
standing, as respectable members of God’s
Gideon made a proclamation that all who were afraid should return and depart from
The second division of the army was of
a different nature and on a different basis. God will not only make a division
between those members of the Church which are born again, and those who are not
converted, but he will proceed to make another division between those who are
partly carnal and those who are entirely yielded to Him: and have in them the
spirit of perfect consecration, and perfect love, and heart loyalty. After separating
all those who did not have the true heart of an Israelite, the Lord said again
unto Gideon, “The people are yet too many; bring
them down unto the [PAGE 36] water, and I will try them there,
and it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the
same shall go with thee, and of whomsoever I say,
This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.” So Gideon brought the people down to the water, and
the Lord said, “Every one that lappeth of the water as a dog lappeth, him shalt
thou set by himself; likewise every one that
boweth down upon his knees to drink, and the
number of them that lapped, putting their hand
to their mouth. were three hundred men, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to
drink. And the Lord said, ‘By the three hundred men that lapped, will I save you, and deliver
the Midianites into thy hand’!”
This is a very remarkable passage of Scripture; and unless it
had been inspired by the Holy Ghost, nothing like it would ever have occurred
to any human mind in all the world. It is a clear revelation of things in the
The best of saints often wonder why they are kept in such
reduced circumstances and loaded with so many infirmities, not understanding
that this is God’s plan to destroy all self-dependence and self-glory, that
their faith may be perfectly pure and centered in God alone.
Gideon’s three hundred needed to be made perfect as soldiers,
and hence it was needful to subject them to a special [PAGE
37] test that would
reveal the qualities of a soldier. It is one thing to be a citizen, and another
thing to be a soldier.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that when we become justified we
are citizens of the household of faith; but after that, it is by the baptism
with the Holy Spirit that we put on the whole armour of God, and become
soldiers to fight the Lord’s battles.
The bridehood saints must not only be citizens of the
There are certain actions that naturally flow out from citizenship, and there are other actions that flow out from the character of a soldier, and in this testing of Gideon’s army, God
was planning to make the men reveal those qualities which would best express
the nature of a soldier. It was by a special providence that all the ten thousand should be thirsty at the same
time, and that the whole army should all want to drink water at the same time,
and thus God would discover by the way they drank water as to who they were that
had in them the true character of the vigilant soldier.
It is a universal law that the act always flows from the
nature. There is an infallible relation between the noun and verb of everything
in creation. Thus it was God’s plan that those who were the best soldiers
should manifest that character by the way in which they drank water.
This is exactly what God has been doing with all His saints in
all generations, and He is dealing with His people at the present time on the same plan, that each one may be led to
manifest the deepest qualifies of faith and character which will decide whether
they are prepared to be in the chosen
company which forms the Bride of the Lamb.
[PAGE 38]
The word try, found in the fourth
verse, is a very striking expression: It is the regular Hebrew word for sanctification, the same word that
is used in Malachi,
where the Lord says, “I will purify the sons of Levi.” The real meaning of the passage is, when
you bring them down to drink water, I will find who the sanctified ones are, I
will put them to a test of their fitness for front rank service, by the way
they drink water. Here we see again that God did not pick out those who were
the
bravest, and those who were really fitted to be eagle saints, or to be
in the bridehood company, but He
arranged for each man to reveal his
own character, and his own fitness
for front rank in the kingdom of God, in an unconscious way, which is always
the best way to get the revelation of true character. God is an infinite
gentleman, and never behaves Himself in a rude or uncultured way with His
people. If God had in some visible manner picked out those three hundred eagle
saints, it would have wounded the feelings of the other nine thousand and seven
hundred, and at the same time it might have been a temptation to the three
hundred to spiritual pride, but God’s ways are absolutely perfect, far beyond
the conception of human minds. God allows each man, in an unwitting way, to
manifest the true inwardness of his own being, so that the absolute truth is
manifested, and in such a way that no one can lay the blame on God.
The Lord stood there with His Kodak [camera], and was going to take a snapshot of
all the ten thousand soldiers, without letting them know it, and in this way He
would get an infallible photograph of the moral and spiritual character of
every man. God has never changed His
plan in this respect.
[PAGE 39]
The souls of men throughout the world, and all generations are
being photographed at such times and in such attitudes as will best reveal the
true character of each one; and this is being carried on in such a way that at
the last every human being will see that he has manifested his true self, and
God will be exempted from all blame, by every human being; and every creature
will frankly admit what is in himself.
Those soldiers who bowed down on their knees, and put their
mouths down in the stream to drink, in that posture could not see any stealthy
approach of the enemy, and it was a lazy and easy position to be in. On the
other hand, those soldiers that only stooped and caught the water in their
hands, lifting it to their mouths, they could have their eyes lifted up to see
the approach of enemies, and also the posture of their bodies was such as to
indicate that they were on the alert, that they were wide awake and diligent,
and ready at any instant to make a charge on the foe. In this, they manifested
the supreme qualities of vigilant soldiers, and, without being aware of it,
they were manifesting to God and to angels their fitness for the very highest
rank in service. This is exactly the way God is working among His
people. Those believers who are not fully
purified, though they are soldiers, yet they have in them the love of ease, the love of self, a proneness of character and disposition, a lack of watchfulness, a lack of understanding, a lack of prompt and swift obedience; and this lack of the baptism of the
Holy Spirit is constantly being manifested by them in unconscious ways.
They are sluggish in prayer, in testimony, in liberality, in obedience;
they do not discern spiritual
things, or the approaches of the
enemy, and always inclined to take
the side of self, or to take the easy
[and most profitable] side
of religion, and in a thousand
ways, [PAGE
40] without knowing
it, they avoid
the way of the cross, and thus
manifest the lack of inward holiness. Those who are accounted
worthy to be in the three hundred have in them the very spirit of diligence, prompt obedience, watchfulness, are ever on the alert to see God, and to see the enemies, and to
move forward in every duty, in every
service, with a promptness, and eagerness, with a courage and freedom of spirit, which is often criticised by weaker and sluggish Christians. True sanctification by the baptism of the
Holy Ghost will manifest itself in spite of everything, it will show itself in various ways, and at times of emergency,
in such a way as can never be imitated or counterfeited by those who do not
have the real grace of that experience.
This eagle band God gave to Gideon were the true elect in the real sense of that word.
The word elect, as
used in Scripture, never refers to salvation, but always refers to a rank that
believers take after their [initial] salvation.
The word either refers to being sanctified, or to being in the company of the bridehood saints.
Peter says, “That we are elect through
sanctification,” and
urges us “to make our calling,” that is, our conversion, “and our election,” that is, our sanctification,
both sure. In the Song of Solomon, there is reference to the
various companies that are in the
2. The second point in this lesson of
Gideon’s band is that of their armour.
They had no arrows, or spears, or slings, they had no
implements of death in their hands; and this goes to show it was a battle for
God, and not on the plan of carnal warfare, but most emphatically a prophetic
type of the last battle which Christ and His glorified saints will fight with
the armies of anti-christ, without any earthly weapons, but only with the sharp
word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Son of God. Their weapons consisted
of trumpets and lamps, and pitchers. Each one was to have a trumpet held in his
right hand to blow at a given signal. These trumpets were usually made of rams’
horns. The same ram that was slain in sacrifice would furnish the horns that
were cleaned out and made into trumpets. The trumpet is a type of the Word of
God. Jesus is the ram which was offered in sacrifice, and the same Saviour who
was offered up as the lamb of God for our salvation furnishes us with His Word.
His horn, His trumpet, and that Word is to be proclaimed in preaching,
exhortation, and testimony. The same Sheep whose blood makes an [PAGE
42] atonement for our
salvation is to furnish the ram’s horn, the Word by which we are to fight the
battles of the Lord.
The Word of God must be apprehended by a living faith, as the
true inspired Word of God, and not of man. That Word not only becomes the instrument
of our salvation by being applied with power to our own hearts and lives, but
that Word also is the instrument by which we are to repel Satan and overcome
our spiritual enemies. Jesus resisted Satan by repeating the Word of God as
spoken by Moses. That same Word which we are to use as a trumpet will also
prove to be the sword of the Spirit by which we pierce evil spirits, and by
which we puncture all false teaching and expose all error. The trumpet will
especially be an instrument that will he used in the great tribulation
judgment, as we see described in Revelation, by the seven angels blowing their
trumpets.
This battle was in a certain sense the judgment day on the
Midianites, and so the use of these trumpets at the destruction of the Midianites
was a prophetic type of the blowing of the seven trumpets by the seven angels
in the on-coming judgment on the nations of this world.
The next instrument of armour was that of lamps.
These lamps were types of the Holy Spirit, and just as the
lamps were concealed in the pitchers, so the true saints of God are to be armed
with the Holy Spirit hidden in their hearts and in their bodies. The lamp
furnishes both light and heat, and the Holy Ghost is to dwell within us,
furnishing illumination for the mind in the understanding of all spiritual
things, and also to supply a Divine heat in the heart, the flame of perfect
love to God and man.
The human soul is the wick, but the oil and the fire represent
the presence and work of the Holy
Spirit, acting upon the [PAGE 43] soul. It is said that John the Baptist was a burning
and shining light, but the words really are “A burning and a shining lamp.” All through Scripture those two facts
of burning and shining go together.
The High Priest wore upon his breast, Urim and Thummim. The
word Urim signifies light, illumination, and
the word Thummim, signifies perfection, a Divine fire,
the pure heat of perfect love.
The bridehood saints must have the real baptism of the Holy
Ghost and fire,
not only an illuminated mind to understand Divine things, but a heart of fire, and a tongue of fire, to speak forth the words of God, with unction, and force, and penetration.
The third instrument was the pitcher that each one was to hold
in his left hand. This pitcher was an earthen vessel, and fitly represents
ourselves, our earthly human nature. These pitchers were to be broken at a
given signal, in order that the fight of the lamps might shine forth. How fitly
this represents that we must be broken
in ourselves and of ourselves in order that the light and fire of the Holy
Spirit may shine forth from us.
This truth that God’s saints must he broken to pieces is
expressed throughout all Scripture and all through religious experience.
Everything of self must go to pieces, and everything that is of Christ must
shine forth in ever-increasing light and power.
Just as Gideon, the great leader, broke his pitcher that his
light might shine forth, so Jesus, our Leader, broke His pitcher on the cross, in the crucifixion of His
body, in order to let out the great fullness of the Holy Spirit, and of Divine
life, upon a starving and lost world. And as the three hundred [PAGE 44] followed
Gideon’s example and broke their pitchers, so the heroic saints, and especially
those who are to make up the bride of Christ, must follow His example and be
crucified with Him and be broken as He was broken, that out of their broken
lives may shine forth the lamps and heat of the Holy Spirit.
It is from the
smitten rock that the water flows out, and
from the crushed olive berry that the oil flows, and the broken alabaster
box that the odours escape, and from the broken pitchers that the light shines
forth, so it is from the broken lives of the saints of God that the light and
power of the indwelling Christ shines
forth both to bless the world and to overflow the adversaries.
3. The third item is the battle. This
battle was so arranged by God’s
providence as to make it a perfect picture of the last battle which will be
fought in this world, as described in the latter part of Revelation 19. It was also a
prophetic picture of the spiritual warfare which the saints of God are waging
against wicked spirits in high places. We find in reading the account in Judges
that Gideon staged his three hundred on three different hills, forming somewhat
of a triangle, while the vast hosts of the Midianites were in the valley below.
This position of the hosts is also confirmed by the dream which one of the
Midianites had of the barley loaf which rolled down the hill and struck his
tent, and this barley loaf was interpreted to be Gideon, showing that Gideon
was up on a hill while his enemies were in the valley below.
When everything was ready, about the hour of midnight, when
the great host of the heathen were sound asleep, Gideon broke his pitcher and
let the light of the lamp shine out,
and then blew his trumpet, and all
the three hundred followed [PAGE 45] his example, shouting with all their might. “The sword of
the Lord and of Gideon.” This was all the fighting that they did. The hundreds of thousands of
Midianites were suddenly aroused from their sleep, and looking up they saw the
hills all around them filled with shining lights, and heard the loud shouts of
Gideon’s band, and were thrown in utter consternation, so that in their alarm
and terror they drew their swords, and began killing each other until the great
majority of them were slain by their own fellow countrymen, and rolled in their
own blood, and the rest fled for their lives, and were chased all that night.
In Isaiah 9, there is a prophecy of Gideon.
This is described as the typical battle which will be fought
against the armies of the anti-Christ at the winding up of the great
tribulation judgment.
In Isaiah 9, there is a prophecy of that great
battle: “For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of His shoulders, the rod of His oppressor, as
in the day of Midian. For every battle of the
warrior is, or was, with confused noise, and
garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with
burning and fuel of fire.”
The oppressor referred to is the great anti-Christ who will
despotize this world in the latter part of the great tribulation. This
anti-Christ is to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s appearing, and all
his vast armies are to be slain in a similar manner to the Midianites. The
common translation of verse 5 in Isaiah 9 does not give the real
correct idea. The thought is this, the warriors of the Midianites fought with
confused noises, and their garments were rolled in blood; but Gideon’s band
fought with burning lamps, and they had
oil in their lamps. The Midianites fought with swords [PAGE
46] and shed blood;
but Gideon’s band fought with lamps and trumpets without shedding any blood,
but they shouted, “The sword of the Lord
and of Gideon.”
They did nothing at the beginning of the battle but to shine and shout, and blow their trumpets.
The heathen fought with carnal weapons, but Gideon’s band
fought with spiritual weapons, light and shouting.
The same battle is referred to in Psalm 83: 9: “Do unto them as
unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook Kidron.” This verse also refers to the
destruction of the armies of anti-christ. According to the destruction in the
book of Revelation,
the armies of anti-christ in the last great conflict will be spread from Bozrah
in the land of Idumea, southeast of the Dead Sea, up along the east of the
Jordan as far north as Samaria, and then on the west side of the Jordan the
great valley of Samaria up to Mt. Megiddo, under Mt. Carmel, a distance of one
hundred and sixty miles, and this is the distance mentioned in Scripture.
According to Revelation 19, Christ will come riding down from
Heaven on a white horse, and the glorified saints following Him on white
horses, and they will descend right over Bozrah, and begin slaying the armies
of the anti-christ, and ride along over the heads of those soldiers, and slay
with the sword of God every one of them up to Mt. Megiddo, or which is called
Armageddon, which means the top of Megiddo.
It is expressly said that those armies will all he slain by
the sharp sword which goes out of the mouth of the king who rides on the white
horse. Just as Gideon’s three hundred were on the hilltop, while the enemies
were below [PAGE 47] them in the valley, so the glorified saints will be
riding along up in the air over the beads of the armies of anti-christ.
This battle is described in Isaiah 63. It is very erroneous to apply this
Scripture to the first coming of Christ, or to the Gospel age, for Jesus was
never in Bozrah during His earthly Life, and there was no vengeance in His heart during His sojourn on
earth, and hence this Scripture refers to the second coming of Christ,
returning with His saints to crush out the armies of the anti-Christ, beginning
at Bozrah. “Who is this that cometh from
It is really pitiful to notice the ignorance of so many Bible
teachers, who try to apply these words to the first coming of Christ, or to the
Gospel, when every word in the passage refers most positively to the day of
judgment on the nations, and on the anti-christ, and to the wrath of God which
will he poured out upon the beast, and the false prophet, and their soldiers,
in the winding up of this [evil
and apostate] age. On the cross, Christ shed His blood, but in this
Scripture His enemies will shed their blood.
On the cross there was nothing but infinite mercy, but in this
Scripture there will be the vengeance of judgment. Christ died at
These are some of the Scriptures which refer in a special way
to that last great battle with the armies of the anti-christ, of which this
battle that Gideon fought is a perfect picture.
Isaiah compares the anti-christ to the King of Assyria, and
says. That he shall smite
Another reference is made to this battle in connection with
selecting the three hundred which represent the sanctified soldiers in the
Lord’s army, where the prophet says
concerning the last great battle: “Lift up a banner upon the high
mountain, and exalt the voice, for I have commanded
my sanctified ones; I have also called my mighty ones to execute mine angers even those
that rejoice in my highness, and because the kingdoms of the nations are
gathered together against the Lord, [PAGE 49] therefore the Lord of hosts
mustereth His host to the battle, and that the armies of the Lord shall come from a far
country, from the end of heaven to destroy the whole land.”
(Isaiah 13:
2-5.)
These Scriptures all point to the same thing, that the time is
coming when the armies which have the mark of the beast on them, and who are
led by the anti-Christ, shall be utterly destroyed in a supernatural way by a
great sanctified host of heavenly soldiers, fighting with supernatural weapons
and gaining the final and everlasting victory over all the enemies of the Lord
Jesus Christ in this world. In a spiritual way, God’s eagle saints are now
engaged in a warfare which corresponds very much with this battle against the
Midianites.
Our enemies far outnumber us, both
visible and invisible, but if we belong to the three hundred, we are in spirit
stationed on a high vantage ground and are fighting in the heavenly places with
our enemies below us.
It was God who did the fighting in Gideon’s battle, it was God
who made the Midianites turn on each other, and slay each other, and it is God
who gives us the victory and puts our enemies to flight. We are fighting the
battle of faith, as the Apostle says, “Fight the good fight of faith.” It is our place to follow the Lord
Jesus as Gideon’s band followed him, and did as he did.
The greatest events on earth have spiritual causes behind
them. God brings things to pass in a supernatural way which worldly minded
people know nothing about. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. “They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.”
This Scripture is still a true word of God, and will receive
its last fulfilment in the overthrow of the beast and the false prophet. It is by the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we link
ourselves to the supernatural and fight the true battles of God, and it is thus
that we have the whole universe and the very stars on our side.
* *
*
[PAGE 51]
CHAPTER 4
THE MOLTING OF THE EAGLES
The
eagle is a very long-lived bird, and some of them have been known to live over
a hundred years even in captivity. When they reach a certain age they shed
their old feathers and put on a new growth, by which they renew their strength
and their youth. This is referred to by David where he says that the Lord
satisfied his mouth with good things, and that Paul had renewed its youth like
the eagle’s. (Ps. 103: 5.)
This is one of the characteristics in the spiritual life which
has been experienced by multitudes of God’s devoted saints. Christian biography
supplies us with many cases where believers have reached an advanced state of
grace in their old age, or after they have passed middle life, and have taken
on a renewed strength in prayer and spiritual unction, so that in all their
inner life there was a renewal of spiritual youth, illustrating the words of
St. Paul - that though the outward man shall perish or wax old, the inner man
is renewed by the spirit of God. In some cases this has been true of the
physical being as well as the spiritual. Mr.
Wesley testified that after passing his seventieth year he hardly ever felt
any bodily pain or weakness. I have met some rare cases where saintly people
have testified that at the age of eighty they felt almost perfectly free from
all weariness or bodily suffering. These cases may be rare, but it is especially true that the [PAGE
52] soul that walks in communion with the Holy Spirit will,
in riper years, renew its youth as if it were prophetic of
the immortal youth that we are to have in the glorified state.
In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah there is presented a
contrast between the natural and the spiritual life: that while in the natural, even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, yet, in contrast to
this, they that ‘wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength’; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isa.
40:
31.)
The word renew in this passage should more properly be change: they that wait on the Lord shall change their strength. That is, change it from the natural to spiritual, from the human to the Divine. And this
change of strength corresponds to the nature of the eagle in molting its old
feathers and putting on new ones. There are three statements in the passage
which it will be interesting for us to look into as applicable to our own
experience.
1. What is it,
then, to wait on the Lord? Waiting on
God has a special significance in Scripture, and means far more than to sit
down or stand still until a certain moment of time has been reached. We cannot
properly say that we are waiting on God until after we have done all of our
part in the process. As long as we have failed
to meet the conditions of the Divine answer, we cannot say that we are waiting. We cannot, in the true sense, be
waiting for a railroad train until after
we have made all our preparation for the journey, and have purchased the ticket, and checked our baggage,
and attended to all the little duties before leaving the station; and when we have done everything and there
remains nothing else to do except to step onto the train, it is [PAGE 53] then that we are in the condition of waiting. This illustrate our attitude in waiting upon the Lord.
When the penitent has submitted himself to God in prayer, and
forsaken all his sins, and righted the wrongs in his past life up to
his ability, and forgiven his enemies, and brought himself where he can appropriate God’s promises for pardon, it is then that, in the truest sense,
he is waiting to hear from Heaven,
and to receive the response of Divine grace
that his sins are forgiven, and that he is accepted in Christ, and can
realize that he is at peace with God. And when the believer is looking for the
gracious baptism of the Holy Spirit, he is not in a true sense waiting on the Lord until after he
has made a complete consecration and yielded his whole being point by
point, and step by step, to the will of God, and emptied himself of his own
self-will, his own plans and ambitions, and laid himself limp at the feet of
Jesus, with nothing else that he can
do. It is then that he is indeed waiting on the Lord for the Spirit to notify
him, in his own heart, that he is accepted, and that his whole being can settle
down into perfect soul-rest and
pure, boundless love.
Our waiting on the Lord for any answer to prayer does not
imply that we are to make God willing to bless
us, but it is to bring us into a proper
attitude where our inner being comes round into perfect agreement with the
Divine Word, and the Divine nature.
There are so many things in our nature that we are not aware of, and oftentimes
we are not in perfect heart agreement with God though we may not be conscious
to say just what the difficulty is. It is the Holy Spirit that searches our hearts and minds, and He
knows what it is that hinders; and it is while we are praying and waiting and
thinking, that the unseen difficulties are brought to light, [PAGE
54] or else melt
away, to that we come into conjunction with the Divine will, where the
conditions of God’s promises are fully met.
This waiting on the Lord may apply to a great many experiences from the beginning to the ending of
our religious life on earth. Sometimes the waiting has reference to our own
salvation or sanctification, or healing of sickness, or deliverance from
trouble, or success in work, or some blessing for which we are pleading for
other people. But let the object be what it may, the principle is the same:
that to prevail with God in prayer, we
are to reach a place in union with God which He will recognize and sanction as
the time for the answer.
The life of Jesus supplies us with the most perfect example in
the world of waiting on God. So many times in the life of Christ He said: “My time has
not yet come.” His
whole being and life moved on a Divine schedule, and all His words and actions
were timed by the Father’s will - and hence the perfection of all His words and
ways. When the disciples asked Christ if He would restore the kingdom of
Israel, Jesus replied that the times and the seasons were all set by the
Father, from which we learn that God
does have appointed times for all things that take place, and this must apply
to small things as well as great, and to our individual lives as well as to
that of the churches or of the nations at large.
2. The second item in the text is that
of changing our strength, which corresponds to the molting of the eagle’s
feathers.
We are to change our strength from that of sin to grace, and from that strength which is
natural to that which is spiritual; and from
that strength which proceeds from our [PAGE 55] will power to that higher form of
strength which is inspired by the Holy Spirit. There is most surely a strength
in sin, a power in our fallen nature in its energy towards that which is evil.
Sin perverts all the faculties and powers of the human soul. It changes the
centre of gravity from the will of God to the will of self. No man can estimate
the power of sinful thoughts and self-will, and a self-centered ambition, until
he sets himself to live a better life; and then he finds that he is a slave to
his own sins, and that the law of evil is working in him with a tyranny and a
force he never dreamed of before. It is this strength of sin working in his
soul that is to be changed by the incoming of the new power that will set him
free, and institute a new current of strength from some supernatural source
outside of him, that will make him a new creature.
In the new birth the
believer finds that his whole heart has been changed, and that by the Divine
life imparted to his spirit through faith in Jesus, he receives a new energy
which he never suspected was possible for him to have in this life.
The power that can change human desires and affections is
truly a great miracle. It is by this new strength that the new-born soul
becomes capable of hating the things he once loved, and loving the things he
once hated, and which enables him to go in the opposite direction
to all of his previous life. There is no greater proof in all the world of the
miraculous power of Divine grace than the great change in a real, scriptural
conversion. It is this miraculous change which the world cannot understand, and
it makes a real child of God a puzzle to the unregenerated mind. It is like
putting another law of gravitation into the universe, which attracts bodies in
an opposite direction to the old gravitation.
[PAGE
56]
After the believer has gone on a while in the new life he will
find his need of another change in his strength, for he will discover that
there are forces in his heart and mind which he was not aware of when first
converted, that hinder his spiritual progress. No believer will at first
understand these difficulties in his inner life, for he is not able to discern
deep spiritual truths, and he cannot distinguish within himself that which is
purely spiritual and carnal; but he is sadly aware of antagonistic principles
within himself. The controlling current of his desire is toward God and
holiness and Heaven, but at the same time there are other desires which are
earthly and fleshly which weaken his moral efforts, and yet he cannot clearly
see how to divide these conflicting desires, or to settle what part is of grace
and what part is of the old self. There is a mixture in his life of things
heavenly and things earthly, of things which are spiritual and things which are
carnal.
Man has a three-fold nature of spirit, soul and body. The
spirit is the highest part in man’s nature, and that part embraces the
conscience, the moral life which comes into more immediate touch with God and
with Divine truth. Then the soul is that part of man which takes in the natural
mind, the sensibilities, the reasoning faculty, and through the body and the
five senses, comes in touch with the laws of nature. The body, of itself, is
simply animal, and under the operation of laws in a similar way to other
animals; but the body is the instrument through which the spirit and mind
operate.
Now, in the religious life, there are many things in which the
soul or the mind act without the co-operation of the deeper spirit and moral
nature. There is such a thing as mental religion, which will accept of Bible
doctrines and an outward moral life and church enterprises, and be energetic in
a great [PAGE 57] many moral and social reforms, and do much in the way of civic
righteousness, where there has been no spiritual repentance, or saving grace in
Christ, or real change of heart. There is such a thing as having religion in
the soul without having real scriptural salvation in the spirit. There is a
vast amount of human religion which does not have in it the life of Christ, or the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
Even after we have been converted or born again, we will find that our
religious life is largely mixed with human strength, and that we are
unwittingly depending on our will power to reach complete victory in the life
of faith. It is here that we learn the need of another change in our strength,
by which we are to moult the old feathers of our self life, and take on the new
feathers of Divine strength which are wrought in us by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. We need to exchange our mixed
condition of motives and desires for a condition of heart purity and singleness
of eye and oneness of purpose, so that the forces of our moral being are not
divided. This is what the psalmist refers to when he prays: “Unite my heart to fear Thy
name.” Until the soul is
baptised in sanctification it suffers with various divisions in the heart, and
these divisions are caused by the things of the spirit going one way, and the
things of the natural mind going another way. And while this is going on,
We find illustration in the natural world of these various changes of strength in the spiritual
life. In utilization the forces of nature for commercial and scientific
purposes, men began by utilizing the blowing of the wind, and falling of
streams of water, to move their machinery and propel their vessels. After many
centuries of using these natural forces there came the invention, or the discovery, of the power of
steam, and so the mechanical force of the world was largely carried on by steam.
And in recent years the great motor force has been changing from steam to
electricity; so that after the human race has been waiting for long centuries,
there has come these changes in the use of various forces, which
looks as if the great eagle of the natural world has been molting and taking on
new feathers, by which industry and commerce and art have been able to mount up
with new wings in the industrial world. These changes of forces in the natural
world beautifully set forth the various changes of strength in a new spiritual
life.
The religious life often begins in the human feelings and sentiments of natural affection for our
loved ones, by which our emotions are stirred; and if we begin to pray, these
sentiments deepen until the conscience is aroused and there comes real sorrow
for sin. And as we push on in prayer and believing the promises, the spiritual
life takes a still deeper hold upon our inner being, and the spiritual
understanding is at last opened, and we discern heavenly things and take hold,
as it were, of the invisible world. And as we push on, the power of life
becomes deeper in our spiritual mind, and we seem to retire from the outer
panorama of the world about us and get more secretive, like men digging deeper
in the mines [PAGE 59] for the hidden treasures of the earth; until, by and
by, the whole strength of the Christian life is taken up in the power of the Holy Ghost, and the soul is drawn
upward as if the centre of gravity had been changed to another world.
All these changes that come in the strength of the soul are
reached by waiting on the Lord, by successive steps of meeting the conditions
in the Divine mind and in God’s promise. It is those that wait on the Lord who
renew their strength.
3. The third item in the Scripture we
are expounding is that of the effects of the baptism with the Spirit
corresponding to the results after the eagle molts its feathers.
There are three effects resulting from this great change of
power: the mounting up with wings, the running, and the walking. The believer,
after receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit, mounts up with wings as
eagles. He is then initiated in a more special way into the supernatural life,
and enters the zone of things new and grand and startling in spiritual life and
experience. It is a day to date from, when the believer is set free from the
old nature, and is lifted by the Holy Spirit into a condition of pure faith and
perfect love and cloudless spiritual vision. What great worlds of truth and
beauty burst on his vision as he takes his first flight into the upper blue sky
of perfect love! His Bible becomes a new book; he looks down from his flight of
pure love upon the landscape of his past life and sees all things with such
clearness and distinctness! He sees the state of the world, and the state of
the visible churches, just exactly as it is described in the Bible. He sees the
things of time and the things of eternity in this true light without any cloud
on the horizon; his prayers have a spiritual grip in them never known before.
There is a directness and a swiftness
in spiritual things which [PAGE
60] are quite startling.
Though he has been a Christian for many years, yet, with this mounting up on wings, there is a
youthfulness put into every part of his life.
What a wonderful thing is youth and spring time! It is the
time of wonders, the period of poetry and discovery and fresh vision. It is an
historical fact that great poets always arise at the beginning of a nation’s
life far more than in the maturity or old age of a nation. Every great poet in
the world’s history has arisen in the early stage of that nation’s history, or
at the dawn of some new era of reformation or of letters. What a wonderful
thing is youth in our individual life when we are emerging into the manhood of
experience! It is felt that the whole world is full of poetry, and there is a
freshness and zest about everything. There is a period of adolescence - of the
bursting forth of youth - which is true of nations, and of churches, and of
individuals, and this is true of the spiritual life as well. This is the period
of mounting up with wings of eagles.
After a while, the believer who has received the great baptism
with the Holy Ghost comes down from his ecstatic flight into the upper sky and
touches the earth again, and runs along on his journey without being weary.
This is also a perfectly natural effect of the life of perfect love. This
represents a more practical and steady going form of religious experience. He
does not fly so high, but has learned to run and to use his feet more than his
wings. In this stage of the spiritual life there is a steady, burning zeal for
the things of God that urges on the soul with an energy that cannot be well
described. The soul is working with the force of a dynamo in the heart, and
there must be an outlet to the pent-up energy. There is a zeal for good works,
and missions, and religious meetings; [PAGE 61] or the writings of books, or
composing hymns, or singing songs, or starting of benevolent enterprises, or going out to the heathen, or the
giving of money, or visiting the sick; a zeal which fairly consumes the soul,
like that mentioned in Scripture and applied to David and to Jesus, which says:
“The
zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.”
Then, later on, comes the third effect of the baptism with the
Spirit, which is a steady, patient, daily walk with God. “He shall walk,
and not faint.” The flying and the running stages of experience are
just as natural and appropriate in the spiritual life as the developments of
youth and early manhood in the physical life.
To walk with God requires more grace and maturity of thought
and habit than to fly or run. Young Christians are apt to get impatient with
the quietness and seeming slowness of riper Christians. Youth wants to accomplish things with a rush and a
speed and a self-effort. To go slow with God is one of the greatest arts in the
deeper life of the Christian, and one that it takes a long time to learn unless
it is taught the soul by the Holy Spirit. We
may read the life of Jesus over and
over in the Gospel, but we never get the true insight into His life until it is
revealed in us by the Holy Spirit; that life of unutterable calmness and
tranquility and quietness and assurance; that life in which everything was measured
by a Divine regularity like the movement of the sun, moon and stars, like the
rising and falling of the ocean
tides, like the orderly movement of the four seasons: that life in which there
was no haste, nothing done or said ahead of time or behind time, that life
which was so perfect in every form of expression that not one spoken word had to he corrected, not one act
was out of place or out of time or out of harmony; that life [PAGE
62] which moved like
the river of eternity, with infinite
smoothness and victory. That was the life of God Himself, unfolded to us poor
creatures through the humanity of the Lord Jesus. We never read that Christ ran
in all His life, but that He walked;
and yet He was always on time, and nothing was ever over-due. It is into this
life that we are to enter and move by the inworking of the Holy Ghost within
us. We can never walk with God except as we walk in Christ, and with Christ, and for Christ.
The steady, quiet, slow, mature walk with Christ in the life
of faith is the condition of the deepest and most perfect knowledge of Divine
things. This is the state where the graces all ripen for eternity, and where
the soul becomes prepared for that fixed position it is to occupy in the city
of pure gold, which is the bride
of Christ, in the ages that are to come.
It is a long way from Adam to Jesus, from self to God, from
sin to holiness, from the earthly to the heavenly; but the length of the
journey does not depend on years as counted by men, but it depends on
the rapidity of the steps that are taken, and of
the spirit of obedience, and
on the willingness with which we comply with Divine conditions.
Waiting seems to be a slow thing, and yet it is by waiting on the Lord, in the
proper way, that the soul meets the conditions upon which it changes its
strength, and passes through the various forms of moral and spiritual power,
till it reaches the end of the journey in everlasting rest and union with the Son
of God.
* *
*
[PAGE
63]
CHAPTER 5
PRINCIPLES OF PERFECTION
In
treating of the subject of the fullness of Christian life, there is a very
interesting portion of Scripture found in the first six verses of the 6th
chapter
of Hebrews,
where believers we exhorted to proceed from the foundation doctrines of
Christian faith, and go on unto perfection. Throughout the entire Bible there
is abundant teaching on the perfection of faith and love in the life of the
Christian, just as truly as in the completing of a structure, or a building, or
the making of a harvest, or of a tree, or of anything in the natural world that
reaches its full size or its finished production. In these six verses referred
to there are three distinct forms of character. In the first place, we have
what may be termed the a-b-c Christian, who has accepted the foundation
doctrines of Christ, but gone no further. And then we have a description of the
apostate, or of one who has turned
away from the faith, and put himself
into perpetual rebellion against God. And then we have a description of the virtues which constitute the perfect believer.
In order to have a clear understanding of these things, let us
briefly analyze the words which belong to each of these characters.
1. Let us notice
the a-b-c Christian: The expression, “Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” really means, in the original,
leaving the first words. Just as
we leave the study of the alphabet
when we go on to reading, [PAGE 64] and just as we leave the foundation of a house when we
put up and finish the building, so it is in that sense that we are to leave the
foundation doctrines of Christ, and advance to the knowledge and ripeness of
perfection in love.
There are six things that belong to the foundation of
Christian doctrine, namely: repentance, and faith, and baptism, and laying on
of hands, and resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. There are a great
many more things in Christian doctrine and experience than these six things,
but they form the foundation upon which all the other things rest. Of these six
things, two of them belong to the inner life - repentance for dead works, and
faith toward God; and two of them belong to the outer life. viz., baptism and
laying on of hands; and two of them belong to the future life, viz., the
resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Repentance and faith are the foundation of everything in the
inner religious life. Baptism and the laying on of hands are the foundations of
the outward sacraments and ceremonials, in the church. The resurrection of the
dead and eternal judgment are the foundations of everything that is taught
concerning the future life. Though there are many more things involved, yet
they all rest upon the resurrection and the judgment.
Repentance prepares the way for faith, and it is impossible
for any one to have saving faith in Christ except on the condition of a
complete repentance for all their sins. Baptism is an outward sign of inward
operation of the Holy Spirit. You notice that the apostle puts baptism in the
plural number in this Scripture; this is because the Jews had various baptisms,
and even believers who were baptized by John the Baptist were often baptized
over again by water after [PAGE 65] receiving Christ, so that water baptism is spoken of
in the plural number. On the other hand, when the apostle says in his epistle
to the Ephesians, that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, he refers to the one baptism of the Holy
Ghost, for while there are various baptisms of water, there is only one
Holy Ghost baptism.
The laying on of hands was practiced in the early church, and
is still practiced in the ordaining of preachers and missionaries, and also for
the recovery of the sick and the casting out of demons.
With reference to the future state of existence, everything
depends on the resurrection of the dead body and upon the decisions of the
final judgment. It is these doctrines of the future that furnish the motives
and incentives to present faith and conduct.
No one can be a Bible Christian, or form a New Testament
church, without the acceptance of these six fundamental doctrines of New
Testament teaching. But if these are the only doctrines that are held, the
believer will always remain an infant in the spiritual life.
2. Let us notice the terms descriptive of the apostate. There are
three words used to designate the character of one that falls away from the
Christian faith and remains permanently in that condition.
In the first place, he falls away in heart and life; and in the second place,
he crucifies to himself the Son of God afresh; and in the third place, he puts
Christ to an open shame. These words do not refer to what may he termed backsliding in the ordinary sense of the
word, for there are many who backslide in heart and even in life. Who still
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that the Bible is divinely
inspired, and who still hold to the doctrines [PAGE 66] of Scripture, and many of them repent
of their backsliding and are restored to the favour of God, and in some
instances they become very zealous in their devotion and religious experience.
Here these words refer to what may be termed the apostate, the people who backslide or fall away in such a
measure that they become what we call infidels, and utterly deny the deity of
Jesus, or the virtue of His atonement, or the doctrines of Scripture. They put themselves where it is impossible
to renew them again unto repentance. It does not say that it is impossible
for God to save them if the conditions are met, but that they put themselves where it is impossible to make them repent; or,
as the word may be rendered, exceedingly difficult for them to repent. Those of
us who have had much observation and experience with religious people have met
some cases of those who were once in a state of true religious experience, and
manifested great zeal in the Christian life, who have not only lost their
experience, but gone so far in their
backsliding as to became utterly insensible to Divine things, or eternal
interests and are in such a state of
mind that nothing avails to lead them back to repentance and saving faith.
3. Now let us, in
the third place, notice the five things which are mentioned as constituting the
perfect believer. These five things are: First, to be enlightened; and second,
to taste of Jesus Christ, who is the heavenly gift; and third, to be a
partaker of the Holy Ghost; and fourth, to taste the good word of God; and
fifth, to realize the powers of the world to come, or, as the word really means, the
powers of the age to come, for
word “world”
should be “age”. These are the different terms
used by the apostle to describe the richness and perfection of a true Christian
life and experience.
[PAGE 67]
The first word in the process of a believer being made perfect is to be
enlightened, which does not refer to education or learning or civilization, but
it refers to being illuminated in the mind and consciousness so that the
Christian may discern the real state of his heart and inner life.
Christian perfection deals mainly with the inner life; with
the motives, intentions, desires and propensities that spring up from the
heart; with the purification of the fountains of experience and conduct. There
are multitudes of [regenerate] Christians who are not enlightened with regard to their inner character
and who have sinful dispositions and a hardness of conscience and a lack of
sensibility to Divine things which they are not aware of, and before they can
ever become strong Christians they need to have an inward enlightenment so as
to clearly discern the defects in their moral nature, and to discover the deep needs of their moral being. Many
Christians manifest evil tempers and a lack of sympathy which they regard as
only little infirmities, and they never see the magnitude of their shortcomings
until they are illuminated by the application of Scripture truth to their
conscience. In other words, Christians need to be truly convicted about the
necessity of inward holiness, just as really as a sinner needs to he convicted
for his sins; and hence, this enlightenment referred to is the first step in
the process of the perfection of Christian faith.
The next step to a perfect Christian character is that of
gift, for Christ is referred to as “God’s unspeakable gift” To taste this heavenly gift implies that we have five
senses in our spiritual being, corresponding to the five senses in the body;
and just as our five physical senses bring us in touch with the outward
creation, so the five senses of our inner spirit bring us in touch with the
things of God and of spiritual truth.
[PAGE 68]
When we see our deep need of inward cleansing, it leads us to
a life of prayer and of complete consecration until we reach a point where we
trust Christ to cleanse our hearts, and it is then that we receive an inward
sensation of purity of heart which is denominated the “tasting of Jesus.” The sense of taste is a sensation,
and we can have a spiritual sensation as to the state of our hearts just as
truly as we can have a sensation on our tongue when we taste sugar.
Jesus is not only a being of infinite purity and love, but He
has been constituted our Saviour, and because He is a Saviour He is able,
through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to communicate His feelings and
sensations and desires into our souls and our spirits; and it is by this communication
of Himself into our spiritual being that we become conscious of Hig blessedness and purity of nature. It is in this sense
that we taste of Jesus, and by that taste are partakers of His holiness.
The next step in the process of this heavenly transformation
is that of being partakers of the Holy Ghost. The inward sin in the heart
prevents the imperfect believer from a full union with the Holy Spirit: but
when Christ has been received as a perfect Saviour and the soul is purified,
then there is nothing to hinder the real partnership of the believer with the
Holy Spirit, and it is then that the believer is made a partner, or partaker,
with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit yearns to take the believer into
partnership with Himself, for the accomplishment of all the will of God with
the soul, and in carrying out God’s plan for His Church in the world. By
perfect union with the Holy Spirit the believer is taken up into partnership
with Christ in a life of prayer, and of good works, as well as the partnership
of love and joy, and spiritual power.
[PAGE 69]
Just as the Holy Ghost produced the incarnation, uniting the
Son of God with our human nature through the body of the Virgin Mary, so in
like manner the Holy Ghost unites Christ to the perfect believer, and thereby
makes the sanctified church a partaker with Christ in all His plan of
accomplishing the Scriptures in the saving of sinners and the perfecting of
saints, and preparing the way for the coming [millennial] kingdom, and for God’s purposes in the
ages which are to come.
The next item in the process of perfecting the believer is
that of tasting the good Word of God. It is by the Holy Spirit that the inner
senses of the heart are made strong and active. The sense of taste is just as
true in the spirit nature as in the body, and under the operation of the Holy
Spirit we ran taste the good Word of God in a moral and spiritual way just as
truly as we can taste food.
The Word of God is different from uninspired books because it
is quick and powerful, or living and active, and can be felt when applied to
the heart as consciously as material things are felt by the bodily senses. The
Holy Spirit can make the Word of God as sweet to the heart as honey is to the
tongue, according to the testimony of David in the Psalms, and which has been
confirmed by countless examples or witnesses.
As Christians, we need to pray a great deal concerning this
matter of our spiritual senses being brought in touch with the Word of God, and
the manifestation of Divine realities to our hearts. In a short time we are to
pass out of these earthly bodies and exist in a purely spiritual condition, and
come in contact with unspeakable things in the unseen world - [of ‘Sheol’
/ ‘Hades’ (See 1 Sam. 28: 18, 19,ff; cf. Ps. 16: 10 & Acts 2: 31-34; 2
Tim. 2:
17b,
18, R.V.)];
and we will not he prepared for those marvellous and supernatural
manifestations unless we are renewed in the spirit of [PAGE 70] our minds and of our tastes that we
may he qualified for those manifestations.
The last item mentioned in this list of the characteristics of
perfection is that of realizing the powers of the age to come. The word “world” in verse 5 should he “age”. There are no less than 35 places in the New Testament where the word “world” should be “age”,
and because of this there has been produced so much misunderstanding
concerning the second coming of Christ and the things connected with the coming
[millennial] kingdom.
The teaching of the apostle is, that by the Holy Spirit acting on the perfect believer he is
brought into a state where he can clearly apprehend the things of the future,
and feel strongly the force of those prophecies in relation to the coming age.
There are many passages which refer to the power of things to come in their
influence on our hearts and lives. It is said of Jesus that He endured the
shame because of the prospect of the joy that was set before Him. John tells us
that if we have the hope of seeing Jesus, we will purify ourselves even as He
is pure. These and many other Scriptures indicate that if we are perfect
believers we will be mightily influenced by things to come, and especially by
what the Bible reveals of the coming of the Lord, and of the next age when His
kingdom shall be established in the earth.
Noah lived many hundred years before the flood, which was the
first age of human history, but God revealed to him the coming of the flood and
then another age or dispensation, which would succeed after the flood; and
though Noah lived before the flood, it was by his perfect faith that he felt
the coming of future events, and so he realized in his heart the powers of the
age to come after the flood would
take place. [PAGE 71] In a similar way, John the Baptist lived in what we
call the Jewish age; but he felt the coming of another church age, or gospel
age, and he prophesied of the things that would take place in the church age.
He knew that Jesus would die and rise again and baptize the disciples with the
Holy Ghost and fire, and though he did not live to see those things take place,
yet he felt the power of those coming events in his soul. Now, as Noah before
the flood felt the powers of a coming age that was before him, and as John the
Baptist, living in the Jewish age, felt the powers of the coming things in the
gospel age, so we Christians living in the present church age are to realize in
a very distinct way the powers of the coming kingdom age, when Jesus shall
return and with His glorified saints reign on this earth, and chain Satan, and
fill the world with the glory of God as waters fill the sea.
Instead of our being fanatics for being alive to the coming of
the Lord, we are only getting back to real sober Bible religion by being thoroughly awake to all that
prophecy has revealed to us of the coming age and the coming kingdom. In fact, we are not perfect believers according to
the New Testament, until we are
illuminated and intensely alive to the glorious things connected with the
return of Christ and His reign on the [presently sin-cursed (Gen. 3: 17,
18,
R.V.)] earth.
There is a tree known as the sugar maple which grows in many
sections of the
These are the five great principles which constitute that
perfection of faith and hope and love which the apostle urges us to press on
into, as a living and powerful experience and life.
* *
*
[PAGE
73]
CHAPTER 6
PAUL’S EAGLE PRAYER
Some of
the most remarkable flights of religious thought and language are expressed in
Paul’s various prayers. His prayer in the first chapter of Philippians, and the first and
third chapters of Ephesians, express the most intense and
heavenly experiences possible for a Christian to obtain in this earthly life.
Every Christian life is measured by prayer, not merely the amount of prayer,
but the intensity, the spiritual insight, the fervour, the sweep, and the
perseverance of the prayer. It has been said that prayer will stop sinning, or
else sinning will stop prayer.
In these lofty prayers which Paul offered, that I referred to,
there is no reference in definite terms to the work of sanctification, because
in reality they are post-sanctification prayers, the heavenly out-breathing of
his heart for the fullness of God’s life in the soul after it has been
purified from all sin.
For many years I have had a desire to write out an exposition
of Paul’s great prayer in Ephesians 3: 14-21. This prayer is away beyond
the ordinary ideas of Christian people, and opens up to the devout mind a realm of spiritual knowledge and insight and
experience the most attractive and the most for a soul that is thirsting after
God. Let us notice by point the various items in this great prayer.
“For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven [PAGE 74] and earth is named.” God is here called the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God
is the Father of angels and saints through creation or redemption, and that is
effected through His Son, the Lord Jesus. It is this name of the fatherhood of
God, the Father of Jesus Christ, after whom every other father in heaven and
earth is named. The word “family”
in our English Bible is not the word that Paul used; he used the word patria, which means fatherhood;
just as the word mater means a
mother, so the word pater means a
father. The apostle says that every father, or fatherhood, in the heavens, and
in the earth, is named after God the Father.
The word “heaven” in verse 15 is, in the original, in the plural
number - the heavens. The meaning is that throughout all the heavens and all
the worlds in the vast creation there are races of intelligent beings that
worship God, and that the fatherhoods of all those beings in all those worlds
is named after God the Father, and in conformity with His being the eternal
father of the eternal and only begotten Son. Everything in the universe goes in
families, whether it be among angels or men, or stars, or trees, or animals, or
insects; everything throughout the universe goes in families, and the family
idea is the one in which all creation is moulded. The Godhead is an infinite
and eternal Divine family or union of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three Divine
persons, of one substance, one eternity, and one glory. And all the families in
the universe are in conformity to the glorious Godhead, and all created fathers
are named after God the Father. This is the surpassing, lofty conception that
Paul presents to God the Father, unto whom he bowed his knees in this
surpassing prayer for the saints.
[PAGE 75]
“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to he strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man.” The central word in this verse is strength to be imparted to the perfect
believer. But that strength is to be given according to the measurement of
God’s riches in glory. There are three kingdoms of nature, grace and glory. The
kingdom of nature takes in everything belonging to the creation of the material
and mental world in its original form; the kingdom of grace takes in that
special plan for the saving of sinners and restoring fallen men back to the
image and union with God, and includes the incarnation, death, and resurrection
of Christ and the whole plan of redemption and salvation. The kingdom of
glory takes in the ultimate state of glorified beings after having passed their probation, after the resurrection, and
the enjoyment of that full and perfect fruition of the vision of God and the
participation in the immortality and bliss and power that belong to the
glorified Jesus.
Now just look at the unmeasured wealth in all these three
kingdoms. You see that the riches of glory must exceed all the riches of the
realm of nature and of grace: and it is according to God’s riches in glory by
which he is to measure out this donation of spiritual strength to His perfectly trusting and obedient
children.
The next thought in the verse is, that this Divine enduement
of strength is to be imparted by His spirit. The Holy Ghost is that Divine
person which brings things to pass, which executes, performs, and carries into
effect all of God’s plans and words. The gift proceeds from the Father Himself,
through His dear Son, for every gift that God bestows is included in His Son;
and then it is by the Holy Ghost that that gift, whatever it may be, is made effectual in the
believer.
[PAGE 76]
We are told, in another place, that the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and Paul says that the Holy Ghost
wrought in him effectually and with power; the same Holy Ghost that applies to
our hearts the blood of Christ in cleansing us, is the same Spirit by which we
are to be strengthened with might in the inner man, and that Spirit works in us
in co-operation with our prayer and
diligence.
The next word in this verse is the “inner man.” This word opens to us another
department of knowledge. We are constituted with a body, a soul and a spirit,
and it is our spirit which is the inner man. This inner man of our spirit
nature is endowed with five senses, exactly as the body has five senses, of seeing,
hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. In the case of an unconverted man,
this inner man of the spirit is dormant, dead, unconscious of the things of
God, though his body and his sensibilities of mind are awake. In regeneration,
this inner man of the spirit nature is brought to life, and in sanctification
the inner senses of this spirit man are clarified and opened up in contact with
Divine things and a living touch with the Word of God and the operations of the
Holy Ghost, and the great realities of the unseen and eternal world. But after
the believer has been delivered from inward sin, this inner man, with its five
senses needs to be mightily strengthened so as to apprehend the glorious
reality and power of Divine things. There are countless degrees in which this
inner man may receive strength, expansion, inspiration, illumination and power.
The soul is greater than the body, but the spirit is greater than the soul, and
hence our inner man is the greatest part of our compound being, and the needs of
our inner man are more imperative and more lasting than the needs of either the
body or the intellect.
[PAGE 77]
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” This petition is in close connection
with the previous one about being strengthened in the inner man, because it is
in the inner man where Christ is to dwell upon
the condition of our faith. This indwelling of Christ is not a metaphor or
a symbol, but it is to be accepted as a literal and positive reality that the
Lord Jesus Christ, in His Divine personality, is to come and dwell in the
centre of our being, and reveal Himself in fellowship with our human spirit. In
order to understand this, we must remember that the Lord Jesus is infinite, the
same as the Father, and that His personality can be revealed in an infinite way
to an infinite number of His creatures. The rising sun can he reflected in
millions of dewdrops, and each dewdrop can receive in itself the entire image
of the sun without in any way robbing any other dewdrop, but each drop can take
into its bosom the image and glory of the entire sun as perfectly as if there
was only one dewdrop on the earth. In like manner, every believer throughout
all ages, can receive in his heart the entire personality of the Lord Jesus as
completely as if there were only one believer on the earth. This indwelling of
the personality of the Lord Jesus is not accidental, but it is conditioned upon the
intelligent, scriptural faith of the believer, and it is our part to accept of
the indwelling of Christ, and depend upon it, and recognize it as a literal
fact in our lives, in order that such indwelling may become effectual in our experience.
The next petition in this gigantic
prayer of the apostle is, “That ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend” (or apprehend) “with all
saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.” In this verse [PAGE
78] the word “grounded” really means founded, or a foundation, such as is made for a large
dwelling: rooted like a tree, and foundationed like a house, in love. In other words, the spirit of
the believer is compared to a tree, with its roots running down into the soil
of the earth and is compared to a house with a good foundation dug down into
the ground. These two thoughts, of a tree and of a house as being likenesses of
a righteous man, run all through the Scriptures. David says: “The righteous
shall be like a tree planted by the river of waters.” And Peter speaks of believers being
built up into a spiritual house. Love is spoken of here as the ground in which
the tree is to grow, and as the earth in which the foundation is laid for the
house. Love is the soil of the heavenly world or the heavenly life, just as the
earth is the substance of this material world. Everything that grows in the
world grows in the ground or the earth as its basis and support, and so
everything that grows in the heavenly world grows out of love as its soil and
its foundation.
The prayer is that we may live in the love of God just as
truly as the tree lives in the ground, and just as the roots of the tree
penetrate the earth and draw out from thence all the substance of its being, so
the roots of our soul are to penetrate into the love of God and draw out from
the love the sap, the substance, of every part of our life, the flower, the
foliage, the fruit, the beauty, the fragrance, and every attribute of our
lives, just as truly as a tree takes every atom of its being from the earth
through the roots, we are to live in God; as a fish lives in the sea, as a bird
lives in the air, as a tree lives in the soil of the earth.
As a result of being rooted and founded in Divine love, we are
to become able to apprehend, with all saints, the [PAGE 79] magnitude of that love. The word “comprehend” in our English Bible should he
apprehend. The word comprehend means to grasp the entirety of anything, but the
word apprehend means to take
hold of anything though you will not be able to put your hand entirely around
it. We cannot take hold of the love of God in its entirety and infinite extent,
but we can take hold of that love in the Lord Jesus and realize that it is a
living fact in our hearts. It is love that gives ability to the understanding,
just as human love opens up the natural faculties of the mind; and, as some old
writer has said, Love makes every man a poet, so Divine love - and that is the
word used here in the original - opens up the spiritual faculties of the inner
man to apprehend the magnitudes of the love of God. Divine love is the greatest
stimulant in the universe, and when that love is born into the hearts by the
Holy Ghost, it is a Divine wine, a heavenly intoxicant, a giant stimulation to
all the faculties within us, and nothing else will give us the ability to
discover the vastness of God’s providences; and plans and feelings towards us.
Men have been trying for centuries to find what they call the
fourth dimension, but St. Paul had no difficulty in discovering that fourth
dimension in the love of God, and he speaks of the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height - in other words, he viewed himself as occupying the centre,
and in every direction - above and beneath, in front and on either side, - he
saw a boundless ocean of the presence and love of God which could not be
measured. And hence he proceeds in the next verse to say, that we might know
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. The word “know” in verse 19 signifies the most
perfect assurance, an inward certainty in our consciousness which cannot be
doubted. Some have inquired: [PAGE 80] How can we know a thing that surpasses being known? It
is very simple, for we can know the atmosphere in which we live and breathe,
and yet it extends 25.000 miles around the earth, and about 50 miles into the
sky, and contains possibilities and attributes which we do not know of, and yet
the air can most surely be known, though, at the same time in so many ways, it
surpasses all our knowledge. This is
just as true of the love of Christ, for there is nothing in the world more sure
to a perfect believer than the love of Christ, and yet it is infinite in every way and everything, and has attributes
and qualities beyond our understanding.
This leads the apostle to say: “That ye might
be filled with the fulness of God.” The more literal translation is, that ye might be filled in
all the fullness, or unto all the fulness of God. It does not mean that we can
contain all of God’s love, but that we may enter into all the fullness, as we
enter into the ocean or into the air. The expression “all the fullness of God” means all the variety, all the
attributes, all the perfections, all the various parts of the Divine character.
There are two words for all in the Greek Testament: one is holos, which means the entirety of anything,
and the other is pantos, which means all parts, or all of the number. The word here is pantos, which signifies that we are to
receive into our nature all the graces and perfections of God up to the measure
of our capacity.
The water in the ocean contains gold, salt, iron, sugar,
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and a great many different elements. You can take a
thimbleful of that ocean water, and that thimbleful of water contains as many
attributes of the sea as the ocean contains. Every part of the ocean is in that
thimbleful of water. This is the meaning in Paul’s prayer, [PAGE
81] that our finite
spirits are to receive from God all the parts and perfections of His being up
to the measure of our nature.
“Now unto him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” It is impossible to exhaust the provision that God has for us either in grace or in
glory. Our asking is measured by our thinking, but as we advance in the
spiritual life, our thinking power is constantly increasing, so that we can
apprehend far more than we did years ago; and this increase in our apprehension
will lead to the increase in our asking; but God stands with an infinite supply
ready to meet every increase of thinking or asking, and His ability will
eternally exceed all that we can think or ask.
The expression, “according to the power that worketh in us,” refers to the power of the Holy
Ghost, for He is the Divine person that works in us to bring to pass every
promise of the Father, and every grace and
purpose in Christ Jesus.
“Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world
without end.” It
is a singular blunder that in our English Bible one word in the original Greek
has been entirely omitted, and that is the word generations. The verse should read: “To Him (that is, to God the Father), be glory in the church in
Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age of the ages.” The reason why the translators left out the word generations is because they thought that the word generation meant the
same as the word age or ages. The word ages refers to
periods of time, to dispensations; but the word generations refers to races of
beings, such as men and angels, and it is a great blunder to confound the word generations
with the word ages. Paul expressly teaches in this Scripture, that there are
to be generations, races of beings, like the [PAGE 82] generations from Adam, that are to be
created or propagated in the ages throughout all future eternity, and that
these on-coming generations in the future ages are to be blessed, taught,
guided and ministered unto by the saints who are now being saved and
sanctified. The
This prayer soars like the eagle into the upper region; of the
sky, with a mighty sweep of vision that stretches to the uttermost well-being,
both for this life and for the life to come, not only as to personal salvation,
but as to the possibilities of ministering in a glorious way to untold
generations that are yet to come.
* *
*
[PAGE
83]
CHAPTER 7
CREATION GROANING FOR COMING GLORY
One of
the choicest portions of Scripture, revealing the glory of the coming age on
this earth, is found in Romans 8: 18-27. In the previous verses, the apostle has been speaking of our
being the sons of God, and having the witness of the [Holy] Spirit, and then being joint-heirs with Christ to the great inheritance
that He is to receive as the world’s Redeemer, and of the part that we are to share in that inheritance, and then draws the contrast between our
sufferings in this present age, and
the glory that shall be revealed in
us when the [millennial] kingdom has come. The sufferings are of short
duration, but the glory will last
forever. The sufferings are mostly external, but the glory is revealed in us
and also manifested outwardly. The sufferings originate from the creature, but
the glory comes out from God.
The apostle then makes a statement that all the creation in
this lower world is waiting and
looking for the time to come when the
sons of God will he fully manifested, and
when the curse shall be lifted from the earth, and every part of the lower creation set free from the curse, and share in the glory that Christ has
purchased for His people. There are several passages in Scripture which
speak of the children of God having presentiments and longings for coming
glory, but in this passage the apostle tells us that the lower creation itself [PAGE 84] is groaning, as
if in a mighty prayer, for the
glorious liberty of the children of God.*
[* NOTE: Scripture
makes a distinction between ‘children’ of God
and ‘sons’ of God: for not all ‘children’ will be accounted worthy rule or to ‘share in that inheritance’!]
The word “groan” occurs three times in these verses; he
says: “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now;”
and then he says that we Christians, who
have received the Holy Spirit, we
groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption, to wit: the redemption of our bodies; and then
he says, the Holy Spirit Himself
intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. If we study these
three groanings in their relation to coming glory, we get a wonderful sweep of
vision as to the extent of God’s purpose concerning His people, and concerning the renovation and restitution
of our natural world in the age to come. Taking the whole passage together,
we may regard it as the universal prayer of our creation for the consummation
of God’s plan of redemption. It is as if God inspired the whole material world,
and all the animals and fishes and birds and the human bodies and souls, with
one gigantic longing and prayer for the coming of Jesus, and the fulfilment of
God’s purpose in redemption.
Let us study in detail this threefold groan or prayer for the
glory that is to he revealed.
1. The whole creation groans: “For the creature (that is, the lower creation) was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of Him who hath
subjected the same in hope; because the lower creation itself shall he
delivered from the bondage of corruption in the glorious liberty of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation (or more literally, every creature that has been made in the
creation) groaneth and travaileth together until
now.
[PAGE 85]
Notice the following items which are mentioned by the apostle:
In the first place, all the lower creation has been put under the curse and subject to the law of death not on its own account, or because the lower creatures committed
sin, but on the account of man. Everything in this world rises or falls with mankind. When Adam fell, the
whole world and everything in it fell with him, and was put under the curse as
being identified with Adam’s
character and destiny. We see in Genesis that
when God put the curse on Adam, He also put the curse on Eve, and then on the
lower creation, and on the earth itself
and then on Satan, the old serpent, so that every part of this world was cursed with man. On the other hand,
when Christ redeemed the human race, and purchased salvation for mankind, and
gave a promise to deliver the children
of God from sin and all the curse and
death and every woe, that covenant of redemption embraced all the lower
creation, and cattle, and birds, and fishes, and all the products of the soil
of the ground and the sea and air; so that when the sons of God are brought forth it in the perfect
manifestation and glory, all the lower creation
wil rise with glorified mankind, and enter into the
liberty of the resurrected and glorified sons
of God. This is the exact promise in verse 21, that the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption in the glorious liberty of
the children of God.
It is simply marvellous how God has united the human race with
this world, with the earth and the laws of nature, and there is a most perfect
likeness between man and the earth itself. The world is composed of earth and
sea, and air, and so man has a material body which is his earth, and a soul
which is his sea, and a spirit which
is, his atmosphere. [PAGE 68] And also the laws that govern these three parts of the world are exactly like
the similar laws that govern the body and the soul and the spirit. The earth
has rocks pervading it as man’s body has bones; the earth has trees growing out
from the surface as hair grows out from the human body; the earth is full of
rivers running all through it as man’s body has arteries and veins of living
blood through it; the earth is full of fire and heat, and man’s body, in his
heart and lungs and bowels, is full of fire, the heat of which keeps the body
alive; the earth has volcanoes out of which come the heating fires and gases as
man’s body has mouth and nostrils for the outbreathing of inward heat and air.
The earth is a great, stupendous animal, made like unto man, and man is a
microcosm, or a small world, made like unto the earth. God has so united the
fortunes of the human race with the earth upon which it lives, that they arise
together or fall together, and share in the same fortunes for blessing or for
cursing, and this is a proof in connection with the words of Scripture that this world is yet to come forth from its curse, and be the beautiful
theatre for the glory of God in the coming kingdom age.
Another item mentioned by Paul is that the lower creatures are
looking with earnest expectation to see the manifestation of the sons of God (verse 19). Have you ever noticed that in the eye of the lower animals there is
always a look of expectation? How domestic animals, when they look at us, seem
to express in their voiceless gaze a great interrogation point, as if looking
for something from us, or in us, which their nature craves? It is a part of the
very spirit of creation, a sort of prophetic prayer, a yearning anticipation
for some blessing, for some deliverance, to come to them. All the lower [PAGE 87] creation seem to
act and look as if they wanted complete freedom from the condition which they
are in. They may not be conscious of all these facts, but God Himself has
planted the mute expectation into all His creatures, of something better that
is to come.
Another item mentioned in the passage is that of the groaning
of the lower creatures as if inspired by an unutterable prayer for God’s [millennial] kingdom to come. He not only uses the
word “groan” but also the word “travail” as if creation was in birth-pangs
for the glorious manifestation of the sons
of God, for when the sons of God
are manifested then all the lower parts of creation will share in the glory.
It has been noticed by scientific men that every sound in the
natural world is in a minor key. The breaking of the waves, the moaning of the
wind, the rippling of streams, the bleat of cattle, the singing of the birds;
every single sound in the natural world is in a minor key, as if, in spite of
all the charms of nature and the beauties of creation, there is still a curse
that pervades every atom of the world about us which is expressed in tones of
sadness; and it will only be when creation is delivered from the curse that the
sounds and voices of the natural world will rise to the glad and victorious
major tones of music.
Another item mentioned is that all the lower creation is
earnestly looking and expecting to see the manifestation of the sons of God.
God made the natural world to be
governed by a pure, noble, inspired child of God; but when man fell, he lost
his crown, his sceptre, his holiness, his wisdom, his beautiful and powerful
dominion over all things; and then the lower creatures missed their divinely
ordained ruler, and instead of paying homage to man as their rightful lord,
they [PAGE 88] turned against man, to bite, and devour, and rebel against his authority.
God made man to be lord of the lower creation, as is
positively set forth in several portions of Scripture, such as, “For thou hast
made man a little lower than the angels, and
hast crowned him with glory and honour, and thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; and thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea,
and the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the air, and
the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the seas.” (Psalms 8: 5-8.) The lower animals cannot know or worship God because they do
not possess a spirit nature such as God has. They do have bodies and souls, and
can remember and love and hate, and have many sentiments kindred to those of
the human soul; but they do not
possess a conscience, a moral and spiritual faculty, and so cannot come into
conscious relation with God; but they can have fellowship with mankind through
their faculties of emotion and affection and perception; hence man was made to
be their god, and they were made to worship
and obey man, as man was made to worship and obey God. When man sinned, he lost his godship over the lower
creatures, and they turned against
their natural lord. Man, full of sin, has proved himself a brute in countless millions of instances. and far more brutal than the lower creatures, and hence the poor, afflicted animals have been looking for six
thousand years to find their natural lord and loving master, the true child of God in his original
holiness and power. Had it not been for sin, no lower animal would ever
have hurt a human being, but all of
them would have been the glad and willing servants to do man’s bidding with the
utmost docility and affection. Hence the lower creatures are [PAGE
89] on the lookout
for the time when they shall see the sons
of God manifested, according to God’s original plan. It is true that God has many children in the world, but
they are not yet manifested in open vision and power as the sons of God.
God’s children, in this present life, are kings in disguise, heavenly citizens
covered over with infirmities and still under the curse of death and many
limitations; but when the resurrection comes and the saints are glorified, then
the sons of God will be openly
manifested to all the universe, and to all the lower creation, and then the
lower animals will be glad to yield perfect worship and obedience to their
divinely constituted rulers.
Not a single animal in all the world
would ever have hurt the Lord Jesus Christ, for everything in the world felt
instinctively that He was the pure, holy, harmless Son of God, and all the
demons recognized Him as the spotless Son of man, and Son of God, the ruler and
judge of angels and of men.
In that passage in the Psalms,
where it is said, referring to mankind, “I have said that ye are gods, but ye shall die as
the children of men,” it refers to this very truth, that God made Adam and the human
race to be the gods over the lower creatures, and to exercise perfect dominion
over all the lower works of creation. Many think that when Christ walked on the
seas He did that only because of His Godhead and as the Son of God; but such is
not the case, for the blessed Jesus, in his humanity, had absolute dominion
over the works of God, and He could walk on the sea by virtue of the fact of
His spotless humanity. If Adam had never sinned he could have walked on the
sea, and the fire would never have burned his body, and water could never have
drowned his body, and he would never have suffered from the scorching heat of
the sun [PAGE 90] or from cold or wind or lightning, because it is expressly said, in three
places in the Bible, that God made man to have complete dominion over all the works of His hands. We
never will know how much Adam lost by the fall until we are glorified, and look
down from those lofty heights of glorification into the depths of the fall of
man.
All these things form a part of that coming [messianic and millennial] glory which is to fill this world when
the sons of God are manifested in resurrection splendour and power, and it
is for all this that the lower creation is groaning and in earnest expectation.
2. In the next place, let us notice the
groaning of the children of God who have received the Holy Spirit. “And not only they (that is, the lower creature), but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to
wit, the
redemption of our body.” It is by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we are
yearning or groaning for the [time of] resurrection. Now it is true that all the heathen
world is in a state of groaning, and millions of them are seeking for peace and
know not where to find it. Though they have no knowledge or information of the resurrection or the promises of God
concerning the future, yet their souls are conscious of being under a curse
and they are yearning for deliverance, and we know not to what extent the Holy
Spirit may be working in them to produce these longings. But it is in a more
definite and scriptural manner that the Holy Spirit inspires believers with
groanings for the coming glory.
When the apostle speaks of us having the first fruits of the
Spirit, the meaning is, as expressed in other passages, that the gift of the
Holy Spirit is the first of all the things that God has promised to His
servants concerning the future life and [PAGE 91] coming glory. In another place the
apostle speaks of the Holy Spirit being the earnest, or the first payment, or
the first instalment, of coming glory, and that, having received the Holy
Spirit, He is God’s pledge that we shall receive all other things embraced in the covenant of redemption. Our
inheritance, as joint-heirs with Christ, includes a glorious - [select] - resurrection
like Christ has, and perfect dominion and lordship over the lower creation, and
perfect participation in the joy of God, and perfect exemption from every evil,
and perfect possession of every good, and
that this completeness of glory is to last throughout all ages without ever
being diminished; and hence, He is God’s pledge to us that all other things
will come to us in due time. This is the import of receiving the first fruits
of the Spirit.
Now, in the next place, it is this Holy spirit that causes us
to groan for our adoption in the resurrection of our bodies. The Holy Spirit
does not work outside of the believer in bringing things to pass, but He works
through the believer. The Holy Spirit cannot pray by Himself and apart from the
human soul; but He prays through the believer, just as the Son of God cannot
save the world except by taking a human body and a human soul, and through that
humanity make an atonement for the sins of the world, so the Holy Ghost must
needs be joined to the believer and live in the believer, in order to inspire
the prayers and yearnings and good works and experiences that belong to the
Gospel of Christ.
And another thought is, that this groaning of the believer for
coming glory is not altogether voluntary on our part; that is, we do not
originate these longings, but the Holy Ghost takes the initiative with us, and
prompts us to yearn for things to come, so that we hear a great cry coming up
from the unknown [PAGE 92] depths of our being, that God would consummate His
great plan of redemption. Just as the lower creation groans without
understanding the subject, so the believer, under the operation of the Holy
Spirit, has drawings and yearnings for coming glory which are beyond his own
understanding, and which he does not originate through his own choice.
In the next place, this groaning of the believer, by the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is for the resurrection in a glorified body.
The word “adoption” as used in verse 23 is very seldom
understood. We are not really adopted until the resurrection and we come into
our full inheritance, though we receive the spirit of adoption after we are
regenerated, which is an assurance that we are God’s and are heirs to all that
Christ has purchased. The word “adoption” was
taken from the custom of the Roman people in the days of Paul, which was that
when a son of a gentleman reached his majority of twenty one years, there was a
public ceremony and a feast made for him, and the father, in a public way,
recognized his son as heir to his estate, and passed over to his son certain
possessions which gave him power as a free citizen of Rome, and also authority
to act in all matters of business and property again. This custom was used by
St. Paul to illustrate a similar thing in the kingdom of God, that when the
sons of God shall be resurrected and glorified, God will, in
a public and universal manifestation, recognize them as His sons before angels
and men, and pass over to them their full inheritance of all the possessions
which accrue to them as joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is
the Heir appointed to receive all things in the universe. When we are born of
God, we become at once heirs to these possessions, and God gives the obedient believer the Holy
Spirit to assure [PAGE 93] him of his sonship
and as a pledge that he will possess his full estate in due time; and this
called the spirit of adoption; but the full adoption takes place only when the
children of God are manifested openly to the universe in resurrection glory.
This is what Paul teaches by saying, in verse 23, that we groan within ourselves because we have the
Holy Spirit, and we are waiting for the adoption, which is the glorification of our bodies.
The word “redemption” in the New Testament always refers to the resurrection of the body, the
complete consummation of the whole plan of redeeming grace. Also the word “salvation” is often used in reference to the final part of salvation which we are to receive at the coming of the Lord. The
Scriptures speak of an initial and
of a full salvation, and also of a present and a future salvation, and hence we read of the grace that is to
be brought unto us at the revelation of
Christ, and of an eternal salvation. When a believer dies and his soul enters ‘paradise’
[see Lk. 23: 43,ff. R.V.], that is not
the consummation of New Testament salvation; that is not the perfect state, for as long as his body is resting in the grave he has not received his
full redemption; and so we do not enter upon our majority or reach
the time of receiving our full possession until our spirits and bodies are
united in resurrection glory, and then we reach the consummation of all our prayers and all
our groans - [see Rom. 8: 23, 24, R.V.] - and all our faith and all the purpose that God has
made for us through the redemption of
the Lord Jesus.
And this is why the apostle says. in verse 24, “We are saved
by hope; but hope that is seem is not hope; for what a man seeth, why
doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we
see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” It is hope that runs ahead and links us onto coming [millennial] glory in [PAGE 94] the resurrection state, and this hope, by taking hold of future
glory and the resurrection, is the power by which we are saved, by which we press on, by which we continue to maintain our life of prayer and trust in this present
state. We are saved by faith from our past sins and in our present condition,
but if our salvation is not likened unto the future, and if it does not bring us to the
consummation of resurrection glory, then everything
is lost. Paul says: “If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable.” And again the apostle speaks of hope
being like an anchor that enters within the veil and holds steadfast in
perseverance until we are consummated in glory. Hence everything in our
Christian religion and experience has an ongoing movement, and we are bending
forward and like the apostle, pressing to the mark of the prize of the high
calling in Christ Jesus; and this is why we, by the Holy Spirit, groan within ourselves, constantly
looking and waiting for our glorious
resurrection, or else, our glorious translation to meet the Lord in the air.
3. In the third
place, let us examine the groaning of the Holy Spirit. “Likewise the
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought; but the
Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.” As I
have said before, the Holy Spirit can only groan in conjunction with the soul
of the believer. If there were no believers, no salvation, no redemption in
Christ the Holy Spirit, in His eternal oneness with the Godhead, could not
groan for anything; but when the Holy Spirit comes into us to carry out the
saving grace of God, to apply the atonement, to work in us the will of God, He
unites Himself with our human spirits, and draws us into fellowship with
Christ, and unites us with Christ, and causes the [PAGE 95] redeeming grace of Christ to become actual and powerful in our hearts and lives.
The Holy Spirit can see with infinite knowledge every detail
to the uttermost extent concerning the fall of man and the curse of man and on
creation, and He can see the infinite merit of the death of Christ, and also
the infinite extent of the glory that is to come, and hence, being a Divine
person and knowing everything with absolute clearness, He works in us, not
according to our vision or our knowledge, but according to God’s infinite
purpose and glory, and so His intercession and prayer in us is on the lofty
scale of Divine measurement, and must be beyond our ability to understand or to
express; and so the apostle says that He makes intercession for us with
groanings that cannot he uttered. If the prayer that the Holy Spirit prays
through us was nothing more than our human thoughts and desires, then it could
be expressed or uttered; but became it is an infinite prayer to the Godhead for
an infinite glory, it lies beyond all our ability to express in words.
According to the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit does everything
for the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot find where the eternal Father, or the
Divine Son, or the Holy Spirit, act in their various offices for their own
selves, but each Divine Person seeks the glory of the other. The Father does
everything for His Son, and the Holy Ghost does everything for the Son, and
Christ does everything for the glory of the Father. Hence the Holy Spirit
desires to see the believers in Jesus perfectly
sanctified and led on to the full consummation in the resurrection glory, that they may share everything that belongs
to the Son of God, and it is this love that the Holy Ghost has for the Lord
Jesus, and his desire for the glory of Christ, that He works through the
children of God, and groans in them [PAGE 96] for the final and perfect state of glory which will be
the full inheritance of those who are
joint-heirs with Christ.
We ace that the lower creatures are groaning for the
manifestation of the sons of God, because they yearn to see their true lords
and masters ruling over them in absolute righteousness and love and wisdom and
power; then we see that the Spirit-filled believer groans for his resurrection
body and his full estate in open adoption before angels and men. But the Holy
Spirit groans for something greater than these things, and that is, for the
absolute consummation of every plan and every purpose and every work that
belongs to the Son of God.
It is beautiful to notice the rising scale in the reason for
these three groans. How the lower creatures want to see the sons of God
manifest: and then now the believer wants to see his resurrection glory; and
then now the Holy Spirit wants to see the ultimate consummation of everything
in the purpose and will of God. It is certainly one of the most extraordinary
passages in all the writings of
* *
*
[PAGE
97]
CHAPTER 8
Paul was a specimen of the eagle saints - those servants of
God who occupy a place in the very front rank of all the people of God. Just
before his death, he uttered a valedictory, as it were, a graduating address, in the winding up of his life here, and his entrance into paradise to
await the glorious first resurrection.
The spirit of
Let us look closely into the wonderful
words of this valedictory: “For I am now ready to he offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day; and not to me only, but all
them that love his appearing.”
(2 Tim.
4:
6-8.) These words cover three tenses, the
past, the present and the future. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.” This is retrospective of his past [PAGE
98] Christian career.
“I am now ready
to be offered.” This is
circumspective of what was his condition at that time. “Henceforth a crown is laid
up for me,” which is
prospective of the great glory reserved
to the future.
1. As to his past Christian life, Paul groups together the whole of his past life
under three forms of speech. The first was the battle he had fought: “I have
fought a good fight.” The Christian life is most positively a
warfare, not with carnal weapons but
with spiritual weapons such as the Word of God, and prayers, and watchfulness.
The true servant of Christ is in union with Christ, and has the same enemies
that Christ has, consisting of Satan and demons, who are Satan’s [fallen] angels: and then wicked people,
treacherous, deceitful human hearts; and then the carnality which the [regenerate] believer has to antagonize in his own self until he is
perfect in love. The people of
In the next word he compares the Christian life to a
race-track: “I
have finished my course.”
In many places the Christian life is compared to a racer running on a given
track to obtain the crown at the end of the race. There is a special vacation
for each believer, and no two Christian lives are exactly alike; for, though
the principles of the life are the same in each, yet the outward circumstances
and the diversified callings and incidents give to each believer a distinct [PAGE
99] personal history
which is not duplicated in the life of anyone e1se.
In another epistle Pail had said that he did not fight like a
man who was beating the air, and that he was so running as to obtain a crown at
the end of the journey.
The third word that Paul used, he compared his life to a
stewardship: “I
have kept the faith.” In
this expression Paul compared faith to a golden deposit, a Divine treasure that
had been committed to him for safe-keeping; and as a good banker takes care of
the money that is deposited with him, so Paul, as a good banker, had kept the
faith that Christ gave him, inviolate against all heresy and error and
infidelity, and had preserved in his heart the one pure faith that Christ had once for all delivered to the
saints. There is only one true faith, which is called, in one place, the faith
of God, and also the faith of Christ: and this faith, which was in Abraham and
in Jesus, has been committed to the true Christian; and the keeping of this
faith inviolate against all false doctrine and all unfaithfulness is the test
of our probation in this life. Great multitudes of Christians get their faith
mixed up with heresy and false doctrine, and fail to preserve the true faith of
Christ to the end. This true faith always brings salvation, and sanctification
and perseverance to the end. Faith is the soul, and obedience the body of
Christian life, and just as, when soul and body are separated, there is a state
of death. so when faith and obedience are separated there is spiritual death. Hence
faith is both a doctrine and a life. It is perfect agreement with the sound
teachings of Scripture, and also a life of righteousness which corresponds with
the Word of God. Fidelity is the crowning thing in a Christian life, and the [PAGE
100] verdict at the
judgment, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things.”
Paul was a victorious warrior, and a successful racer and a
faithful steward, and these are the three great functions that make up a front
rank saint in the
2. As to the present tense. “I am now
ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand.” The perfect believer always lives in such adjustment to the will of God as
to be prepared for anything that God sends, and to go anywhere in this or any
other world where God may appoint. Jesus moved every day according to the
program which His Father made for Him, and all His acts and words were timed to
the Father’s will. There is one word which in a perfect way acts forth our adjustment
to our heavenly Father, and that is the word “ready.” “Be ye also ready.”
“They that were ready went in to the marriage.” At the point of death Paul said, “I am now ready.” This is the sublime test of a
boundless consecration, to be so adjusted to the Lord
Jesus that wherever we are, at any
time, we can be so yielded to Him as
to say, “I am now ready.” Ready for service, ready for suffering,
ready for worship, ready for prayer, ready for patient waitings,
ready to live, ready to die, ready to stay on earth, ready to enter ‘paradise’, - [(See Luke 23; 43;
cf.
16:
23, R.V.)] - ready for [the First Resurrection at] - the Lord’s coming, or ready for long years of labour [in His Millennial Reign.]
The word “offered”
here more literally would be poured out. Paul refers to the sacrifices of
pouring out water or wine or oil, and he compares his body to a cup and his
life to a liquid that was to he poured out on the altar of death. Hence he
says, “I am ready to
be poured
out.” The
word “departure” is, in the Greek, analysis;
in fact, analysis is [PAGE 101] the Greek word itself which we have adopted into the English language. The
word signifies, to take to pieces, and was also used among the Greeks to mean to take the harness from a horse,
or
take the armour from a soldier, as well as to take anything to pieces. This is one of the words used in
Scripture for death. When the Christian dies he lays aside his armour, or he
puts off the harness in which he has toiled; and he is taken to pieces; that
is, the spirit - [and
‘soul’ (see 1 Sam. 28: 11, 19b. Cf.
Acts 2:
27;
Ps.16: 10,
R.V.)] - and the body are separated. But
there is not one hint of annihilation.
The miserable doctrine of soul-sleeping and annihilation is utterly
contradicted by these words of the great apostle. When the animal is
un-harnessed he is not annihilated, and when a soldier puts off his armour he
does not become unconscious; and when Paul laid aside his human body his spirit
did not become unconscious, but entered into that paradise which he had seen
before at the time his body was stoned
to death in Lystra.
Thus, so far as the present tense was concerned, the apostle
was in perfect agreement with God’s will and God's providences, and this is the
attitude of the perfect believer who is so given up to Christ as to be adjusted
to all his circumstances, day by day, depending not on his circumstances, but
depending moment by moment on the Lord Jesus for all things.
3. As to the future. “Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” Apart from the future, everything
would break down and give way. If
there be no [select] resurrection [out] from the dead,* Paul says, our life is vain, our hope is vain. Paul says his crown is laid up for him, and that he
would receive it “at that day,” that is, the day [PAGE 102] of Christ’s second coming. There is not one
single word in all the Bible about anyone getting his reward at the time
of death, but every single Scripture on the subject teaches that the righteous
will get their rewards at the second coming of Christ and not before.
In speaking of the death of a Christian, people often say that he has gone to
his reward; but the Bible denies it, and it only shows how many common
expressions there are among Christians that are not found in the Bible. The
Scriptures always speak of the death of the righteous that they have entered
into rest, that they are gathered to their people, that they have gone to be with Christ, that they have entered into ‘paradise’ [see also Rev. 2: 7; cf. Lk.
16:
22,
23,
R.V.] - that they have ceased from their works;
but there is not one word about getting their reward till Jesus comes.
It was said to Daniel that he should rest, and get his reward at the end of the days. Jesus says: “I come quickly, and my reward is with me.” - [See
also John 14:
1-3; cf.
Rev.
2:
7,
R.V.] And so the crown that St. Paul is to
wear through the glorified ages is now hung up in the heavenly places waiting for
him to get his resurrection body, and
receive his judgment at the seat of
Christ, and then Jesus will give him the crown, and he will take his place
in the front rank of the great saints in the kingdom of God.
Some years ago a very saintly man in humble life, dreamed that
he went to Heaven and saw a great factory where angels were making crowns for
the saints, countless thousands of crowns of all sorts and different sizes and
shapes and of almost infinite variety in their make-up and degrees of purity and splendour. He dreamed that his
guide told him that when a man became a Christian the Lord sent an angel to
measure his head, and have a crown prepared for him that would fit nobody in
the world except that one person, and that if
[PAGE 103] that Christian would
carry out the life work that God had
planned for him he would get the crown, and that if he failed to do all his work the crowned was changed.
We are saved by faith, but we are rewarded according to our
works. We have [eternal] salvation now through faith, but our
crown has connection with our life-work. We are to earn the crown before we
die, but receive the crown at the coming of the Lord.
The Bible speaks of a crown of life, and a crown of
righteousness, and a crown of glory. I do not think we ought to say that these
different words represent three different crowns, but they are different terms
which refer to the same crown which we are to receive. The Crown of life may
refer to a crown for having lived a godly
life, or a crown wrought out of the life of Christ; a crown of
righteousness implies a crown for
righteous actions, not only a crown for having a righteous heart, but a
crown for righteous activity in thought
and prayer and will and love and action and obedience, and the crown will
correspond exactly to the amount of righteousness; a crown of glory implies the
crown of glorification belonging to a
resurrected and glorified body, a crown of glory in distinction from a
natural crown or a crown of grace. This crown will be literal and real. John
saw the elders in the Revelation wearing crowns of pure gold, and I take it that the words mean exactly what
they say. Gold is the finest metal that has ever been found in the material
creation, and the city of the New Jerusalem is made of pure, transparent gold,
which will be a literal fact and not a metaphor. The people who
teach that the crown is only a metaphor or
an illustration are apt to have a religious experience of the same order; in other words, they have only a metaphorical religious [PAGE 104] experience, a metaphorical conversion,
and a metaphorical sanctification,
and only a typical baptism of the Holy Ghost, and so they have nothing but
a symbolic religious life without any powerful reality, and are looking for nothing but symbolic
resurrection and a symbolic second coming of the Lord, and all their religious life is a shadow and a sham.
The crown that the glorified saint is to wear on his head will
have in it those things which indicate the life he has lived, the work he has
done, the measure of his piety; and that crown will indicate his rank in the
kingdom of God, and everyone that looks on his crown will he able to see at
once his rank in the kingdom of heaven, and the measure of his rewards as well
as what has been the peculiar state of his life of faith in the past.
The apostle unites himself with other saints and speaks of
other believers receiving a similar crown, especially those who love the
appearing of the Lord Jesus. To love the appearing of Christ is something more
than to love Christ in the ordinary sense of that word. It means not only to
love Christ as a Saviour, and love His character, and to love His church and
His gospel, but, more than all these, to love His person, to love Him in His
glorified body, to love Him as a coming King to rule over the earth, to love
Him the way He appeared to Daniel and on the Mount of Transfiguration, and in
His resurrection glory. This form of love makes Christ a more vivid reality
than is experienced by ordinary believers. It makes Christ a glorious, bright
reality to the soul, and this is what we need to qualify us to see His face.
In all the Bible, Paul is the only one that has left us a
testimony at the close of his life, and God has used him [PAGE 105] as a sample of the eagle
saints who have, by grace, prepared themselves for the flight, either into
paradise, or for the flight of the - [pre-tribulation (see Rev.
3:
10;
Lk. 21: 34-36)] - translation,
when Jesus gathers His people to Himself in the sky.
* *
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[PAGE
106]
CHAPTER 9
THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLES
The
second coming of Christ will have two stages to it. The first stage is called
the Rapture, or the catching away, when Christ will appear in the sky and
resurrect the dead saints and catch away the living saints and gather them unto
Himself. And the second stage is called the Revelation, when Christ will return
after the tribulation judgment, and bring His glorified saints back to the
earth, and chain Satan, and set up His Kingdom on the earth. The Greek word parousia is used in connection with the
Rapture, and the Greek word apocalppse
is used in connection with His return in open glory with His glorified people.
There are two sets of Scriptures concerning the second coming of the Lord. One set represents the Rapture, and
other portions of the Scripture represent the Revelation, and it is impossible
to understand these different Scriptures except they be explained in connection
with these two stages.
There are two passages which speak of the catching away of the
saints as the flight of eagles that are gathered to the crucified and glorified
body of Jesus. See Matt. 24: 28, and Luke 17: 37! “I tell you,
in that night there shall be two in one bed; one shall be taken, and the
other shall be left. Two shall be grinding
together; the one shall be taken and the other
left. Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken, and the
other left.” “And the disciples said unto [PAGE 107] Him, Where, Lord,” that is where
will they be taken. “And He said
unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”
Many teachers try to interpret this Scripture as referring to
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the coming of the Roman legions like eagles
to devour the dead body of Judaism, but such interpretation is absolutely
foreign to the Scripture, for in the entire passage there is no reference to
Jerusalem or to the Roman armies; but it is expressly in connection with the
second coming of the Lord, and to the
fact that those people who are prepared to meet Jesus will be called away from
the earth, and those who are not prepared to meet Him
will he left behind. All the Scriptures that set forth the
second coming of Christ have been, for so many centuries, misinterpreted by being
treated only as metaphors and spiritualized away, that it is difficult to get
the church back to the interpretation of Scripture as understood by the early
disciples in apostolic times.
We have seen, all through Scripture, a class of saints that
are designated as “eagles” because of
their being in the front rank of the Lords people, and occupy a place in the
spiritual
In the second place, reference is made by our Lord to the fact
that eagles will gather around the body of some animal which they have slain,
and that they will feed on that body. Eagles do not feed on carrion, but they eat the fresh meat of some animal which they
themselves have killed, and they will not touch any decayed flesh, except to
prevent starvation. Both in the passage from Matthew, and also from Luke,
this reference is made about the
eagles feeding on a slain body. [PAGE 108] It is certainly true that Christ was crucified by the
human race, and it was our sins that nailed Him to the tree, so that in one
sense we are all partakers in slaying the blessed Son of God. This same body of
Christ that we have slain by our sins, is the very food on which we live, for
we are saved by His death, and Jesus emphatically tells us that except we eat
His flesh, and drink His blood, we have no life abiding in us. The crucified
and glorified body of Jesus has been the vital source of nourishment to all
believers in all generations; and
when that glorified body descends from the Father, and appears in the sky,
those saints who have been feeding on that body, and who will continue to feed
upon it, will be called up to meet that blessed body in the air; and the catching away of the living
saints is compared to the flight of eagles.
When the Roman soldiers destroyed Jerusalem, there was no such
thing as two being in bed together, or cooking their breakfast together, or at
work in the field together, and one was called away and the other left; hence
it is absurd to apply this Scripture to the destruction of Jerusalem, and it
can have no meaning in the world except as applied to the translation of living believers at the time Jesus comes in the air
to gather His saints unto Himself.
In the third place, the Scriptures furnish us with
some types and samples of the translation of the saints and the flight of the
eagles, and such translations have taken place
just before great [divine] judgments were poured out. Just before the flood, Enoch was translated, called away from his family and associates
on earth and instantly removed to some place in the heavenly world. Also just before God’s judgments on the
ten tribes of Israel, in their captivity by the Assyrians, God [PAGE 109] translated the prophet Elijah, and in a moment of time he was called away from his companion and
servant Elisha; and his other
brethren of Hebrew prophets; so that,
in a moment, one was taken and the other was left. In both of these cases the translation took place just before severe
judgments, and in this respect they
are samples of the translations of the prepared saints just before the setting
in of the great tribulation judgment which is to come on the entire world.
Another type of the [select] translation of the saints is
furnished in the case of Moses, who went up in Mount Sinai to meet God, and took with him seventy of the elders of Israel who were separated
from the congregation, and gathered
up into the mountain and had a vision of God, and ate and drank in God’s presence, while all the nation of Israel remained below. “Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of
Another type and sample of the flight of the eagles is given at the time of the
transfiguration, when
Jesus selected three disciples, Peter,
James and John, and separated them
from the other disciples and took them up to the mountain top, and was transfigured before them, giving them an appearance of Himself just
as He will be seen at His second coming in glory.
These instances agree in their teaching, and show precisely what is to come
at the time of the [pre-tribulation] Rapture.
In the fourth place, the [pre-tribulation] Rapture will not be pre-announced, but will come suddenly, without any preliminary notification, [PAGE 110] and hence may take place at any
time; and this is why Jesus
commanded all His disciples to watch, for
He would come at a time when people were not expecting Him.
Now, on the other hand, before Christ returns from
Heaven with all His glorified saints. He will be
heralded by the two witnesses that stand up against the Antichrist in the
judgment period. In this respect the first coming of Christ supplies us with an
exact sample. The birth of Christ was the first stage of His coming, and it was not announced beforehand, and He came in the night, and unannounced, in a private way, at a
moment when the world was not expecting it; and only after His birth was it made known, and then to nobody except a few prepared ones who were to receive
the truth. On the other hand, after spending thirty years in retirement, - [from His secular work as a
carpenter] - , He suddenly appeared in open manifestation at the Jordan, to be baptized by John, and that open appearing was heralded six
months beforehand by John the Baptist. Thus we see the first stage of His
coming in
[PAGE 111]
Now let us notice the fifth point in connection with the
flight of the eagles at the time
of the [second]
translation and the first resurrection. The change that will take
place with the righteous at that time
- [at
the end of the Great
Tribulation]
- will be far beyond all our
comprehension in our present state. In this present life, Jesus compares
His children to chickens. Referring to His people who were living in
In order to understand any word in Scripture, we must take it
in connection with its proper situation and setting in relation to other
things. For instance, Jesus told Peter that he was blessed, and that flesh and
blood had not revealed the deity of Christ to him, but that his Father in
Heaven had revealed to Peter the true Messiahship of Jesus. Now, [PAGE
112] it was hardly an
hour after this that Jesus called Peter Satan, when Peter reprimanded Christ
about dying, and Jesus said, “Get thee hence, Satan,
for thou savourest not the things that are of God.” Now, you see, you must take words in
their proper relationship. When Peter confessed his faith in the divinity of
Christ, he was speaking by the Holy Spirit as a believer; but, on the other
hand, when he reproved Christ at the thought that Christ must die, he was
speaking simply out of his natural, carnal, human reason. The faith of Peter
was of God, but the carnal reason of Peter was of Satan. And there are many other
things in the Bible that can never be understood except by taking them in their
proper relation. Hence, as poor, weak servants of God in the present life of
trial and suffering, we are like little chickens, running to the mother hen for
shelter. But, on the other hand, when Jesus comes and the living saints are
suddenly glorified and translated, they will be like great, powerful eagles,
soaring to the loftiest heights in the sky and absolutely victorious over every
difficulty and every adversity and every limitation and infirmity connected
with the flesh.
According to Scripture, nothing will be more instantaneous
than the catching away and glorifying of the saints at the Rapture. Paul says: “We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall he changed; and
this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shad put on
immortality.” (1 Cor. 15: 51-53.)
And again: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent”
- that is, go in advance of - “them that sleep; for the Lord himself shall descend from [PAGE 113] heaven with a shout with the
voice of the archangel! and the dead in
Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall he caught up
together with them” - [the resurrected saints from the underworld
of the dead in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’ (Acts 2: 34; cf. Heb. 9: 28ff.; 2 Tim. 2: 16-18, R.V.).] - “in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thes. 4: 15, 17.)
Nothing can be quicker than the twinkling of the eye, and yet
just as suddenly as we wink the eye so suddenly will come the great change from
our present condition into that of unspeakable glory and immortality. This
shows that it will not be in the line of natural law or evolution or any
progressive change like the development of species in the animal kingdom, but
the instantaneous act of an omnipotent God, who speaks and it is done. This is
contrary to all nations of men and all human philosophy, and belongs to things
revealed by the Holy Ghost and not to things sought out by human discovery.
The resurrection of the dead
saints - [at the end of the
Great Tribulation] - will
take place first, and then,
immediately after, the righteous [saints] who are living will undergo a change
which will be equal to death and to resurrection, and then both the resurrected [dead] saints and the transfigured [living]
ones will be caught up together in that sublime flight from the
surface of this earth to the upper regions of the sky, where they will meet the
glorified Jesus, and see Him in His infinite splendour and holiness, and hear
His clear, sweet, audible voice, and be led by Him to some place in Heaven where
they will give in their account to Him, and be judged in order to receive their
proper - [position
and authority in Christ’s Kingdom, and just] - rewards, and each one be allotted his place
and rank in the kingdom of Heaven, and where the crowns will be given and
rewards will be given. This great Divine change will be beyond the region [PAGE
114] of all human
science or earthly knowledge or experience thus far known in the history of
mankind.
In concluding this chapter, I want you to notice the connection
between the latter part of the third chapter
of Revelation
and the first part of the fourth chapter. To the last of the seven
churches John says: “To him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, as I
overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Rev.
3:
2l.) This is the last reference to the
church in the gospel age, and the word “church”
does not occur after this chapter clear on to the millennium in chapter 20; and we have in this verse a hint at the translation of the saints when
they are called up to sit with Christ in His Messianic throne. Now notice that
in the next verse, in chapter 4: “There was a
door open in heaven; and a voice like a trumpet
said, Come up hither.” And immediately John was in spirit,
and the word does not mean that he was in Holy Ghost, but the original word
signifies that he became like a spiritual being, like a glorified saint, and
saw a throne, which was the Messianic throne
and not the eternal throne of God the Father; and around that throne he saw
twenty-four other thrones (for the word “seat” is in the original, “throne”),
and on these twenty-four thrones he saw the glorified elders sitting, clothed
in white raiment. And then he saw, in the centre of the throne and round about
the throne, four living creatures, one like a lion, another like a calf, the
third like a man, and the fourth
like a flying eagle. (Rev. 4: 1-7.)
Now, here we see another reference to the eagles, showing that the victorious
saints, who were the overcomers in
the last of chapter
3, were, in chapter 4, caught up through the open door in
Heaven where they saw the Lord on His throne, and where they had thrones in companionship [PAGE 115] with the Lord Jesus, and those saints
who were - [overcomers] - like eagles had taken their flight
and were now associated with the Son of
God in His royal authority, taking part with Him in administering the
dispensation judgment upon the World.
* *
*
[PAGE
116]
CHAPTER 10
THE PRAYERS OF ALL SAINTS
There will be a
great many things that will occur after the saints are caught up to meet the
Lord and pass their judgment and get their rewards, before they return with
Christ as a glorified army back to the earth to govern the world with Christ
through the thousand-year kingdom period.
The bridehood saints will be caught up through the open door
into Heaven, as described in Revelation, Chapter 4. The word “church” is not used in the book of Revelation between chapters 3 and 20, because all of those chapters
are filled with the events that will
occur during the great tribulation, and at that time
the true - [obedient (Acts 5: 32; 1 John 3: 22, 24, R.V.) members
of the] - church will not be on the earth, but glorified and up in Heaven.
The tribulation judgment will likely last for forty years,
corresponding to the forty days and nights it rained at the time of Noah’s
flood. The Antichrist does not arise until toward the close of the great
tribulation, so we must not confound the time of the Antichrist as being the
same as that of tribulation judgment.
Soon after the beginning of the great judgment on the living
nations, there will come a great revival, which is described in the seventh chapter, during which time the storms of judgment are held in check
by the four angels on the four corners of the earth; and after that great
revival, in which one hundred and forty-four thousand of Jews are saved as the
first-fruits [PAGE 117] of the restoration of Israel, and also a countless
number will be saved from among the Gentiles, then will occur an event of great
significance, when the Lord Jesus, as High
Priest of His people, will collect all the prayers of all the saints of all
ages, and present them to the Father for the great consumption of the history
of God’s people, and the final answer to all their prayers, both in glory to
the saints and in judgment on the wicked. This event of offering the prayers of all the saints is described in Revelation 8: 1-5. “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God;
and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and
there was given unto him much incense, that he
should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was
before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,
which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and
cast it into the earth: and there were voices,
and thunderings, and
lightnings, and an earthquake.”
This consummation of all the prayers of God’s people will be
manifested at the opening of the seventh seal. The events in the seventh seal
include the seven trumpets, and the seven vials of wrath, and run on to the end
of the tribulation judgment, and terminate at the destruction of the Antichrist
and the chaining of Satan.
There will be some deep relations between the prayers of the
saints and the ministry of the seven archangels referred to in this passage,
for inasmuch as those angels have been actively engaged for six thousand years
ministering to the [PAGE 118] human race in various capacities, they have had much
to do with the lives and destiny of God’s people, and so it is fitting that
they should appear before the throne, and be witnesses to the great
consummation when the prayers of the saints receive their final answer.
These seven angels stand before God, and are called the angels
of God’s presence, but more literally the angels of God’s face, and Jesus tells
us of certain angels that do always behold the face of our Father in Heaven.
The names of these seven archangels are not all given in the Bible, but from
the writings of ancient Jews which have come down to us in Apocryphal books, we
learn their names, and also an indication of the various ministries that they
perform. Their names and official ministers are as follows:
Uriel is
the archangel that superintends all wars and conflicts of nations.
Raphael is the angel that presides over the
spirits of men.
Raguel is
the angel that superintends various punishments dealt out to nations and men.
Michael is the archangel that has special
guardianship over
Sarakiel
is the angel that presides over transgressions and various degrees of
disobedience.
Gabriel is the archangel that has supervision
over the church, and over paradise, and the spirits [and disembodied souls] of the righteous dead. Hence it was
Gabriel that announced the birth of John the Baptist, and announced the birth
of Christ, and likely the one that appeared to Cornelius, and that will blow
the trumpet for the first resurrection.
[PAGE 119]
Ithuriel
is the angel that presides over frauds, deceptions and intrigue.
These seven archangels rank the highest of all creatures in
the government of God.
The church of the first-born,
which make up the bride of
the Lamb, will sustain a closer relation to the Son of God in love and in
domestic union and in the outworking of the plan of redemption than these seven
angels, because we must distinguish between those relationships which are of a
domestic order or belonging to the family ties, and those which relate to the
imperial administration of universal government. For example: our President has
a body of men united with him called the Cabinet, who are the heads of the
various departments of government, and they make up the official body of the
President, and take the highest rank of any citizens of the nation next to the
President; but the wife and children of the President are more Closely related
to him in domestic affairs and in family relations. This will serve to
illustrate the difference between the archangels being the highest creatures in
the universal government of God, but that those
saints who make up the bride of Christ are more
intimately united to God in ties of redemption and love and family organism.
In the passage we are expounding, after the mention of the
seven archangels, there is mention of “another angel” that had the golden censer, and that offered the prayers of
all saints. This “other angel” is the
great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Himself, and there are several passages in which Christ is spoken of as “another angel,” and in all such passages He is described by the attributes
and functions of the High Priest, the Son of God.
[PAGE
120]
When we study the progress and destiny of the human race, we
must remember that it has one history in the natural life, which is the history
of the fallen race of Adam, and which has never shown any improvement, so far
as moral character goes, from the days of Cain down to the present hour; and
all of this history, in every detail, and comprising the life of every
individual, has been recorded and preserved by the angels of God, who have kept
the record of all human affairs with infallible precision. Then there is
another history of the righteous and comprising all the operations of Divine
grace upon human beings, which includes the various revelations God has made to
men, and the operations of the Holy Spirit upon human beings. and all the
instances of repentance and faith and salvation and good works and growth in
grace, and the history of all the prayers that have ever been offered in
sincerity and in truth by all the Lord’s people in all generations.
There are some points in connection with the prayers of all
saints that we ought to fasten in our minds, in order that we may see the
magnitude of that event when this Scripture will be accomplished, and when
there will be the perfect and final answer to every prayer that has been
offered in a manner acceptable to the Lord.
1. Prayer is a
fundamental part in the history of the human race, and was arranged for by the
Almighty in His original plan of the creation. Foolish and ignorant men that
know nothing of God, and almost nothing of His inspired Word, look upon prayer
as a fanaticism, or as something that lies outside of the realm of law and the
government of the world. When God formed the universe He instituted the law of
prayer as being just as fundamental as any other law in creation. We speak of
natural law, but no such term is used [PAGE 121] anywhere in the Bible, for in the inspired
Scriptures every such thing as we designate by “natural
law” is attributed to God, as a mode of the working of His power and
wisdom in all things. According to our way of speaking there are certain laws
which operate in the natural creation such as gravity, light, heat, motion,
cohesion, repulsion, electricity, and similar forms of power and force. Then we
speak of certain laws operating in the soul or mind. as love, hate, memory,
decision, cause and effect, and the various relationships of creature to
creature, and the various developments in the progress of society. But we have
revealed in Scripture another set of laws which outrank those in the material
or in the mental world, and they are those laws which operate between God and
the soul.
God has planned in all the creation to deal with men according
to their desires and choices and conduct, and He has made certain rules by
which He will act, upon certain conditions that His creatures may conform to.
Nothing in all the Bible is more absolutely revealed than the fact that God
will answer prayer, that He will do certain things upon the condition of men
presenting their requests to Him in the way that He prescribes, and in the spirit which He dictates.
When we pray to the infinite and eternal God in the name of
His only beloved Son, and in the spirit
of complete submission and faith and hope, we are acting in agreement with
a Divine law which is higher than any other law that operates sin the realm of
nature. God is certainly greater than His works, and the welfare of the souls
of men is greater than the mere display of material things. So that prayer is a
higher law than the forces that scientists deal with, and just as, when a king
takes a journey through his kingdom, every railway [PAGE 122] train must be side-tracked in order
to make way for the royal train, so every law in the material world must if
necessity so requires, be set aside
to make way for the answer to those
prayers which are more dear to God than all the things of a material nature.
2. In the next place, prayer is the
highest power in the gift of mankind. On the Divine side the law of prayer
outranks all other law; so, on the human side, prayer enables man to exercise
the greatest power which it is possible for a man to have. If by prayer, in conformity with the revealed will of God, we can move God to do things which He would not otherwise do, it is certain that we thereby have a power
to accomplish results greater than we have in any other direction.
After we have enumerated all the powers of the human body, and the human will,
and all the devices of invention and art, and then added to that all the power
of personal magnetism and influence, and all the power of the united gifts and
talents with which we may be endowed if, above all these things, we can
persuade God to do things for us, and in us, and through us, which would never
be accomplished except on the condition of
prevailing prayer, you see at once that here is a force that is
supernatural.
There can he no greater power given to a human being than that
of prevailing with God to do things which neither man nor angel could otherwise
perform. It is certain that prayer moves the arm that moves the world. The
weakness of man is beyond all our comprehension, and when we look at ourselves
as disconnected from God, nothing can be more hopeless or helpless. And yet
while our weakness in and of ourselves is simply infinite, yet God has given us
His
Only begotten Son, that by His crucifixion and death and resurrection, [PAGE
123] we may present - [not DEMAND, as some are in the habit of
doing, which prove to be contrary to His will] - our petitions in His name, and in union with
His merit as a Saviour, and thereby
cause miracles to be wrought in a great many directions, so that it is like
taking hold of the arm of Omnipotence, and using that arm to accomplish things
needed for ourselves, both in this life and in the life to come.
3. True prayer is immortal, and does
not belong to those things which die and pass away, because it originates in
the immortal spirit of man, and under the guidance and inspiration of the
spirit of God, and also it belongs to the immortal world, and not to the realm
of material or animal things. It is by prayer that we take hold on God, and get
visions of God, and understanding of His revealed Word and will, and get
insight into His providences, and besides it is by prayer that we form a character in conformity with the image of Christ.
Every man’s character depends on his prayers. It will he seen,
at the final judgment, that all holy character will be in exact conformity to
what has been the prayer-life of the individual. There is a history to prayer
which is so interior and spiritual that we ourselves are not able to analyze
it, or to mark its various degrees, and it would take the intelligence of an
angel to write out the history of the prayers of God’s people, and doubtless it
is this that will be by the archangels manifested at the time that the powers
of all saints are brought to their culmination and completion.
4. The history of prayer has been
interwoven with the history of the world from the beginning, and none but God
can know how all the history of the world, and the various nations and families
and individuals have been connected or modified or moulded by the prayers of
God’s people. What would history of the human race be if every true prayer of
the righteous should be taken out of it? In order to form a conception of [PAGE
124] this picture,
let us suppose another one, by asking, what would the history of the world be
if the Bible were entirely taken out of it. Suppose that not one line of the
inspired Scriptures had ever been made known or revealed to mankind, what would
have been the condition of the world? In order to eliminate the Bible entirely
from the world, we must not only destroy every copy of the Bible that has ever
been written or printed, but we must remove every quotation from the Bible that
has been put into every other book in the world, and then subtract every
thought that has gone into any book that was taken from the Bible, and then
search the laws of the nations and take out of every human government every
truth that has been taken from the Bible, and then eliminate every name that
has been copied from Scripture, and then take all the works of art, in
painting, statuary or poetry, that have been copied from the Scriptures, and
destroy them; and then go into all the cemeteries in the world, and erase every
text on every tomb that indicates the thought of a resurrection or immortality;
and after we have subtracted every word, every Scripture, every thought, every
trace of God’s inspired Word from the world, it would he impossible for us to
comprehend what the human race would be without a word of holy Scripture to
guide it.
In a similar way, what would
the history of the world be if there had been
no prayer?
5. In all true prayer there remains
something that is not answered in this present life, and there is a residue
which remains to be answered in the great consummation when the saints are
glorified, and when the history of redemption culminates in the judgment day.
[PAGE 125]
In all true prayer there must be one continual thought and
desire. Though it may not always he expressed in words, yet it is that which
form the essence of all prayer, which is the petition: “Thy kingdom come, thy will he done on earth, as it is heaven.” True prayer is divinely inspired, and
God cannot inspire any prayer that does not look forward to the complete
removal of sin from this earth, and the complete restoration of His kingdom and
glory, and the doing of His will on earth as the angels do in Heaven. Hence God
must put His thought, and feeling, and purpose into every prayer which He
inspires, although the one that is uttering the prayer may not grasp in detail
all the things that God means by the prayer.
When we look out across the earth, we can see only a few miles
of the earth’s surface because it bends around in a circle, and our eye can
grasp only a small arc of the circle. In a similar way, all things that come
from God have a larger extension, beyond the grasp of our minds. And though our
prayers may he answered, often times with remarkable precision, yet when they
are answered in the most perfect degree, there still remains a fuller answer
which is to come later on.
Now think of it: of the countless millions of prayers that have been offered in all generations, there is a
residue to the answers to those prayers which will be manifest and fully
answered in that great day when the glorified saints stand with their glorified
High Priest, and have all their prayers presented to the Father for the last
and perfect answer.
6. The depth and power and magnitude of
our prayers depends on the spirit of
sacrifice, consecration and
obedience which is put into the prayer. This is revealed by the two altars
that were in the tabernacle. The brazen altar was [PAGE 126] where the sacrifice was offered and
burned, and the priest must always offer sacrifice first. Afterwards he went to
the golden altar and offered the
incense; and the effect of the incense and of the prayer, of which the incense
was a type, was dependent on the work that had been accomplished in the
sacrifice on the brazen altar.
The cross on which Christ died was His brazen altar, and after
making that complete sacrifice, He then arose from the dead, and became the
High Priest of intercession, and the power and efficiency of His intercession
is based upon the merit of His sacrifice. Hence we read, in the passage under
consideration, that He took fire from the altar with which to burn the incense
before the throne.
The more perfectly we enter into the death of Jesus, the more
powerful and prevailing will be our prayers.
7. Let us endeavour to comprehend what
will be the answer which will come at last to all the prayers of God’s people
throughout all ages.
These prayers have been remembered by the Lord, though in so
many instances forgotten by those who offered the prayer. These prayers not
only sustain a relation to grace in
rewards, but they also have a relation to the wicked, and administration of the judgments of God. You notice in the passage that when the High
Priest set the prayers on fire, with fire taken from the altar, that those prayers
were cast into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings, and
lightnings, and an earthquake, showing the connection between the prayers of
the saints and the outpouring of the judgments of God on the wicked.
The altar was the basis upon which the prayers of the saints
were
offered, but that altar was rejected by the [PAGE 127] unbelieving world. The blood of
Christ was trampled on and treated as an unholy thing; the promises of God were ignored; the law of God was denied or denounced; and so in the
winding up of the history of this world, every human being will be judged according to their attitude
towards the altar where Christ shed His precious blood. Those who accept of
that altar, and depend alone on the slain Lamb for their salvation, and to give
efficiency to their prayers, will be lifted in fellowship with the great High
Priest, to share His destiny and to enter into His joy; and on the other hand,
those who rejected Christ, and despised His sacrifice, must be judged according
to the righteousness expressed upon the altar
of Christ’s death.
God will measure everything in the human race according to the
cross of Christ. Human beings go up or down according as they accept or reject
of the slain Lamb. And hence, when the prayers of all saints are offered up
before the eternal Father, the answer to those prayers will have a two-fold
effect: an effect of glory for the righteous, and an effect of judgment for the wicked.
The snow falls on the tops of the Alps for many successive
years, until the mountain tops are covered many feet thick with snow, and then,
on some spring morning, the snow will begin to melt, and the weight is so great
that it slips from the mountain top and forms an avalanche, rolling down the
mountain side and crushing everything
before it. This illustrates what is told in this Scripture, that when the
prayers which the saints of God have been sending up to the mountain of Heaven,
shall, in the judgment time, be let loose on the earth, there will be an awful
desolation for those who have martyred the saints, persecuted the righteous,
and robbed and defrauded the [PAGE 128] innocent and the helpless, and all the cries of the
suffering righteous, shall be answered
in a perfect and adequate judgment
upon those who have despised God and hated His righteous ones.
In the Seventy-second Psalm, David offered a prayer for his son Solomon, but in reality
it was for David’s greater son, the Messiah; and in that psalm there is a
picture of the millennium, when Christ
shall reign upon the earth, and the whole
earth shall be filled with God’s glory; and then follows a remarkable
utterance: that the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Many people
misunderstand that verse, as to how David should stop praying.
The real meaning of
the passage is, that when Christ reigns on the earth, and the world is full of God’s glory, then all the prayers of
David will have reached their ultimate fulfilment. Instead of its reading, “the prayers of David are ended,” it should be the
prayers of David have reached their last perfect fulfilment.
Now, in a similar way, our prayers will reach their last and
perfect fulfilment in the glorified state, when Jesus reigns on the earth, and
we can say that God’s kingdom has come, and that His will is being done on
earth as it is in Heaven.
* *
*
[PAGE
129]
CHAPTER 11
THE EAGLES IN JUDGMENT
While
the great tribulation is taking place upon the nations on earth, a great many
events of a different character will be taking place up in Heaven with the - [select
members of the] - gloried church. Among those things
which will take place up in Heaven
will be the offering up of the prayers of all saints, and the assigning to the
righteous their various rewards, and places and ranks in the kingdom, and the
singing of the great song of Moses and the Lamb, culminating in the marriage
supper of the Lamb.
Another thing which is mentioned as taking place among the
glorified saints, is that of participating with Christ in administering the
judgments on the rebellious nations that are still alive on the earth. We are all familiar with the passage in 1 Cor. 6: 2 and 3, that the saints are to judge the world, and to judge the angels, and with
many it has been a question as to when that Scripture will be fulfilled. It is
certain that the passage has not yet had its accomplishment, for at the present
time, the world judges the righteous; and oppresses and persecutes the servants
of God; but during the great tribulation, the glorified saints who are with
Christ up in Heaven will begin their work in fellowship with Christ of judging
the world.
[PAGE 130]
This is referred to in Rev. 2: 13: “And I beheld,
and heard an eagle flying through the midst of heaven,
saying with loud voice, Woe,
woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices
of the trumpet of the three angels, which are
yet to sound!” In
our authorized version it reads: “I heard an angel flying through heaven,” but the word in the original is eagle; and the Revised Version has rendered it one eagle.
We have seen, in a previous chapter, that when the righteous dead were resurrected, and the living
saints were translated and caught up through the door that was open in Heaven,
in Rev. 4: 1, that there were four living creatures in and about the
throne having the faces of the lion, the calf, the man, and the eagle, which
represent the highest rank among those who are saved from the earth. We have
also seen, in Rev. 6, that when the Lamb began to open the seven seals, those four
living creatures had authority to send forth the four horses, which we are told
by Ezekiel, are the four sore judgments on the earth; and it was the office of
the eagle to send forth the pale horse of death.
In all these passages we notice that the eagle saints will be
called upon to take part with Jesus in sending forth the various calamities upon the ungodly nations, and to be
participators with Him in judging the world.
The word judge in the New Testament
is used in two senses. In one sense the word means to discern, to understand or
discriminate spiritual things, and this is the sense in which
In our further study upon this subject please notice the
following points:
1. We are told
that God the Father will judge no man, but
that He has committed all judgment into the hands of the Son of man. By virtue
of Christ’s death and resurrection, He has achieved the honour and power to be
the judge of all men in His humanity. Christ will not judge at the last day by
virtue of His godhead or deity, but the Scriptures clearly show that He will
act as judge as a man, and in the office of His humanity He will render the
final decisions upon all men, whether good or bad, whether for rewards or
punishments.
[PAGE 132]
Now, inasmuch as Jesus is to be the judge in His humanity and as the Son of man, as we are told in the 5th chapter of Revelation, He will take His glorified saints,
the church of the first-born, into fellowship with Himself as co-regents and
co-judges of the world. It is a great
mistake for any Christian, during
this present life, to attempt to sit
on the judgment throne and condemn others, and assign various penalties to people, and whenever
anyone undertakes that kind of thing they always fall from grace, and become subject to demoniac possession, and bring calamity and destruction upon themselves.
Like Jesus, we are to live in this life with meek and lowly
hearts, discerning all things but not condemning them, patiently bearing all
evil treatment and all trial, like Jesus did: and this long-suffering spirit in the love of God, forbearing with others, and
enduring all things, is the very
thing that will qualify the saints for taking part with Christ in the judgment
day, and administering the penalties
upon the ungodly world.
2. A sample of
God’s plan in taking the saints in union with Christ to judge the world is
given in the formation of the
Now, in a similar way, when the kingdom of Heaven is fully set
up at the second coming of Christ, we will see the twenty-four elders as
described in Revelation, sitting on their thrones around the
throne of Christ, and acting in fellowship with Christ, and taking their part
in judging the world, and administering all the affairs connected with the
great tribulation.
God’s plan for the Hebrews was that they should have no king
except Jehovah, and that God would select, from time to time elders from among
the various tribes, and appoint them as judges of the people to act under the
guidance of His Spirit, and in connection with instructions from inspired
prophets that would be raised up. After awhile the Hebrew people insisted on having
a king, and God acceded to their request, and under King David there was formed
a pattern of the coming
Nothing is more clearly told in the New Testament than the
perfect oneness between Christ and His [redeemed] people, and this oneness is to be both in grace and in glory. Hence the apostle says, “If we suffer with Him we shall
also reign with Him.” If we share with Christ in this present
life of humiliation, in faith and hope and love, we are also to share with Him,
in His second coming, in glory and royalty and in do functions of
government.
[PAGE 134]
3. It is in agreement with these
remarks that we find the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, who
represent the bridehood saints in Revelation, sitting on thrones, and taking a very active part in all the results that
follow the opening of the seven seals and the blowing of the seven trumpets.
The word “come” as used in Revelation 6, has been corrected in the Revised Version to go. When the first seal was opened, it
was the living creature that had the face of a lion, and his voice was like
thunder, and he said to the white horse, “Go.” And then, when the second seal was
opened, the second living creature that had the face of an ox, said “Go”
to the red horse, and he went forth to scatter war and blood over the earth.
And when the third seal was opened, it was the living creature with the face of
a man that said “Go,” to the black horse, to spread
famine among the nations. And when He opened the fourth seal, it was the voice
of the living creature that had the face of a flying eagle that said “Go,”
to the pale horse that spread death among the nations.
Remember that these four living creatures represent a vast
number of glorified saints in this rank, for it is said in another place, that they came from all nations and
languages on the earth. Hence four is a typical number, and thus these living
creatures exercised authority under the Lord Jesus to command the out-going of
great judgments upon the earth. Under those four horses, we are told,
one-fourth of the human beings on the earth were killed with the sword and
hunger and death and wild beasts of the earth. According to Scripture, at the
time of the great tribulation, under the out-going of the four horses, there
will be slain one-fourth of the human race, amounting to at least four hundred [PAGE
136] million human
beings, compared to which all the wars we have ever read about are a drop in
the bucket.
These glorified saints who will thus take part with Jesus in
judging the world, will be those who in their lifetime on earth were persecuted
and slain, misjudged, and who suffered every indignity at the hands of ungodly
men, and bore all their sufferings with a meek and patient spirit, praying for
their enemies. But when at last the judgment is set in, the great God will take
these heroic saints and set them on thrones, in fellowship with the enthroned
Son of man, and have them take part with Jesus in administering the awful
penalties coming upon this world.
It is in harmony with these remarks that we see this eagle
sent forth, in chapter 8, to cry, with a loud voice, “Woe, to the inhabitants of the earth,” and warning them of the still greater
calamities that are coming upon them.
In examining those passages in Scripture where the saints are
to take part with Christ in administering the great tribulation judgment, we
must remember that it will be in fulfilment of many prophecies in the Old
Testament.
Many have been puzzled to know what it means in Psalm 149, where we read: “Let the saints be joyful in glory,” (that is, in the glorified state); “and let the
high praises of God be in their mouth, and a
two-edged sword in their hand,
to execute vengeance upon the heathen” (or the nations), “and
punishments upon the people: to bind their kings
with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them” (the wicked) “the judgment written: this honour have all his saints.”
[PAGE 136]
This prophecy is one among many that will be literally
fulfilled in the great tribulation when the eagle saints, the living creatures,
and the glorified elders, will exercise authority under the Lord Jesus to administer
the penalties upon the wicked world.
Another instance of the saints’ judging the world is referred
to in Rev. 11. where the apostle had a reed like a rod given to him, and he
was commanded to rise and measure the
If you do not believe these things that I am writing about,
what will you do with the words of Jesus
in Matthew 19: 27-30? Peter was asking the Lord as to what rewards the apostles should receive for leaving all and following
Christ. Jesus said to them: “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me in the regeneration” (that is, in the restoration) “when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,
ye also shall
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Another instance in which the eagle saints are to judge the
world is found in Rev. 20: 4: “And I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and
judgment (that is,
power to judge) “was given unto them; and I saw
the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God; ... and
they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Remember, the thousand-year reign is
included in the great day of judgment which will last a thousand years, and
that it is in that time that the glorified saints shall judge the nations who
are still living on the earth, and administer all the affairs of the Messianic
government upon the people that will be born and live in that age. When the
glorified saints judge the nations in the thousand-year reign, it does not mean
that they will punish those nations, but that they will act as judges, similar
to what Samuel did in ancient Israel, and that all the affairs of the nations
on the earth will be put under the infallible guidance and wisdom and authority
of the glorified saints.
[PAGE 138]
This is what Isaiah prophesies when he says: “Behold,
a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of waters in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” (Isa.
32:
1-2.)
That king is Jesus, and those princes are the glorified
saints; and while Jesus will be absolute king over all, yet under Him and
united to Him will be these princes, the eagle saints, who will act under His
direction in administering all the affairs of the human race. And those
glorified saints will be the protectors of the nations - as the prophet says,
as an hiding place from the wind, and as a covert from the tempest, and out of
their inner being will flow rivers of water in dry places, and they will serve
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And then the prophet goes on, to
show that under their righteous administration among the nations, the heart of
the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall
speak plainly, and a vile person shall no longer be praised, nor a churl said
to be bountiful. And the characters of all men will be properly judged, and
there will be no fraud or deception, and no partiality allowed among men.
In concluding this chapter, let us remember that there are
certain qualifications which are essential to rulership and to being a judge. Humility of spirit is the greatest
essential in being a ruler over mankind. It is said that Moses was the meekest
man on the earth, and hence God selected him to be the great ruler and leader
of
Just as the crucified Jesus is the one who is to judge the
world, in the same body in which He was crucified, to those saints who take
part with Christ in judging the world, are those who have been crucified with
Christ, and have been baptized into His suffering, and shared in the depth of
His humility and boundless charity.
The throne will be the outcome of the cross, and those who share the cross will
share the throne; and those who
rejected the cross will have no throne. There will be a perfect correspondence between the services of the
glorified saints and their life and labour in this present world. It is in the light of all these
considerations and Scriptures that we are to understand what it will mean when
the saints shall judge the world, and fulfil, in the great judgment period,
God’s plans which will be the proper outcome of what is now being wrought out
in the experiences of grace, in the present state of probation.
* *
*
[PAGE
140]
CHAPTER 12
THE JUDGMENT AND REWARD OF THE SAINTS
As we
follow in Scripture the successive steps in the destiny of the saints, we find
that after the righteous dead are
resurrected, and the living saints
are translated to meet Christ in the air, the next thing is that they stand
before the judgment seat of Christ, and each
one gives an account of himself according to the deeds done in the body,
and they are judged for their rewards, and receive their crowns, and their
positions and rank in the [millennial] kingdom of God.
It is difficult to get Christian people to understand the
teaching of Scripture about the second coming of Christ and the judgment day,
because for hundreds of years the theology of the Church on these subjects has
been taken from the poets, such as Dante and Milton and Pollock, instead of
from the Scriptures. The Bible sets forth a regular series of successive events
in the judgment day, just as orderly and precise as were the steps in the six
days of creation at the beginning of the world. God works with a distinct
method, and not in confusion, and the world will have its winding up just as
orderly as it had its beginning.
According to Scripture, the judgment day will last a thousand
years. Peter tells us that there is to be a day of judgment, and in the very
next verse he tells us that that day will be a thousand years. (2 Peter 3:
7,
8.)
All the Scriptures on the judgment day reveal the fact that the saints are judged first, then the apostate
church is judged next; and then the wicked world, or the nations living in the
flesh, are judged next, and then Satan
and the wicked dead are judged last. Peter tells us that judgment must begin at
the house of God. In all the parables on the judgment, Jesus teaches us that
the best saints will be judged first;
for instance, the man who had ten pounds was judged first, and then the man
with five pounds, and then the man with one, and the wicked nations that would
not accept of Him were judged last.
In the Fiftieth Psalm there is a perfect setting forth of the
second coming of Christ and the judgment, and we see there that “our God shall
come, and He shall call to the heavens and the
earth, and gather His saints unto Himself; those who have made a
covenant with Him;” and then follows the judgment on the ungodly church that simply offered
Him an outward worship in sacrifices and material things, but did not give Him
the love of their hearts. And then, from verse 16, follows the judgment of the ungodly nations for all of their crimes, and
they are to have their sins set before their eyes, and be torn to pieces.
In the Book of Revelation we see the saints are called up through the open door in the beginning of chapter 4, and in a short while after that, we see the living creatures, which are
redeemed men, and the elders there, with golden crowns, seated on their thrones, showing that they have passed their
judgment and received their crowns. Then follows, in chapter 5, the great tribulation judgment, which runs on to chapter 19, when the Antichrist is destroyed. Then follows the thousand Years’ reign,
which is really included in the [PAGE 142] judgment day, for it is during that period that the
saints are to judge the world; that is, be rulers over the earth, and have
power to judge committed to them. And after the thousand years’ reign, the
great white throne is set up, and Satan is judged, and the wicked dead are
raised and judged for their sins and receive their doom, which closes the
judgment day.
Hence the judgment day includes three distinct aspects of
judgment. First, that of the saints, and then that of the living nations on the
earth, and then that of the wicked dead.
We now want to study especially the judgment of the saints,
and the apostle tells us that the saints are not to be judged with the world,
and hence it forms a distinct chapter in the winding up of human history. The
Scripture that especially presents that subject to us is found in 1 Cor. 3: 11-15. “For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it: because
it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall
try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any
man’s work abide” (or pass through the fire test) “which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he
himself shall he saved; yet so as by fire.”
This is perhaps the most remarkable passage in the entire
Bible, in setting forth the nature and different degrees of judgment pertaining
to the righteous. There are words in this passage which nobody on earth could
ever imagine how they would be accomplished until in the light of modern
science they have been so illuminated as to become perfectly transparent.
[PAGE 143]
1. The foundation of all Christian
faith and practice is that of Jesus Christ. “Other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” This foundation is the basis of all
saving faith, and also the basis of all good works that are wrought in Christ
by the [Holy] Spirit, and the meaning of the word
is: There is no other person or religion in the whole world, or throughout all
ages, by which anyone can be saved or by which good works can be wrought that
are acceptable to God, except through Jesus Christ.
We must here distinguish between saving faith and rewards, for
so many professing Christians are in the dark concerning the difference between
salvation and rewards. We are saved by faith in Christ alone, without
any merit of our works; but we are rewarded according to our works, the deeds
we do in the body before death. Saving faith is instantaneous, but good works
are gradual and accumulative. Saving faith is depending on Christ alone to
forgive us and cleanse us; but good works are to be wrought out from our saving
faith according to our ability and knowledge and zeal. Saving faith admits us
into the heavenly kingdom, but rewards for good works will decide our station
and rank in the [millennial] kingdom, and our degree of glory and usefulness in the ages to come.
Saving faith is for this present life, but rewards are given to us only at the
second coming of Christ and at the judgment seat of Christ. We are justified by
faith, and walk by faith, and overcome the world by faith; but, according to
Scripture, no one gets his final reward
until at the resurrection of the righteous, or the translation of the [living] saints. We are
all saved alike, but we are all rewarded in different degrees according to our
works.
[PAGE 144]
People often say of a good man that he has died and gone to
his reward; but such a remark is contrary to the Word of God, for every
Scripture bearing on the subject speaks of the righteous dead, that “they have entered into rest,” that “they have gone to paradise,” that they are “taken to be with the Lord,” and “their works do follow them,” and they are awaiting the second coming of Christ to get their glorified [and immortal] bodies. On the
other hand, every Scripture, in referring to the subject, teaches that no rewards are given until Jesus comes the
second time. And Christ says. “I come quickly, and my reward is with
me, to give every one according to his works.”
2. Let us notice the different materials that Christian people
build with upon the foundation. All who trust in Christ alone to save them are
standing on the true foundation. But there
is a great difference in the lives of Christian people, and in the kinds of
material that they build with, and
in the character of their works and of their rewards. The apostle mentions
six things which represent the different building materials. viz; gold, silver, precious stones - which are
non-combustible; and then wood, hay and stubble, which are combustible.
There are several passages
in the New Testament which refer to the two classes of [regenerate] believers who are designated as
carnal and spiritual. The Apostle Paul speaks of the class of Christians that
he calls babes in Christ, who are yet carnal, and governed largely by their
natural feelings and opinions. He speaks of others as “being spiritual,” as “being perfect,” as “being able to discern all things,” and these are
those who are governed by the Holy Spirit, who have [PAGE
145] pure motives and pure intentions, and who live according to the power of
Christ ruling in them.
Here are two words whereby the apostle refers to these two
classes: one is the word “soulish,”
translated natural, and the other is the word “spiritual.” Multitudes of Christians are religious in their souls or
natural feelings and sentiments, but they are not spiritual, and do not see or
act according to the Holy Ghost. There are other Christians who have been
purified from the carnal mind, and received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
and who work in the spirit and not in the flesh.
It is very evident that every Christian will build his own
religious life according to the degree of the saving grace he has, and
according to the power of his motives and intentions, whether they are carnal
or spiritual, or whether they be mixed.
In tropical cities, we often see big stone houses most
substantially built, and on the very next lot there may be a house built of
bamboo or of wood with a grass roof. If a fire breaks out, of course the grass
house burns immediately, but the thick stone walls of the other building resist
the flames.
This is the illustration that Paul uses in the passage. All
the houses are built on the same foundation, but of such diverse materials as
to take an infinite difference in case of conflagration.
You will notice in this passage which I am expounding that
although Christian believers are
building on Christ, the true Foundation, yet the materials of their building
are of a mixed character, partly carnal and partly spiritual in many cases, and
this mixedness enters into every part of Christian life and service, and it
will never be known until in the [PAGE 146] [Lord’s coming] Judgment, which things are of gold and silver and
precious stones, and which things are of wood, hay and stubble. For instance,
Christian ministers - [particularly
Anti-millennialists] - who are not thoroughly purified and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, will
put into their sermons truth and error, Christ and self, the things of the
spirit and the things of the flesh, seeking in some measure to glorify Christ,
and at the same time in many ways seeking to glorify self, and to advance their
own material honour and reputation and self-interest; oftentimes preaching in
one sermon what they contradict in another, because the mixedness of the
religious experience will of necessity be imparted to their preaching. Also, in
the prayers which Christians present to God, there is in most cases much of
selfishness in multiplied forms, mixed in with what is true scriptural praying;
and many prayers are loaded down with so much of self that they cannot rise to
Heaven. Also in religious teaching, in books and Bible lectures, there is so
much mixedness of truth and error, of the perverting of the Word of God, of allowing one’s religious creed or
denominational theology to override the true interpretation of God’s Word.
Also in our religious motives there may be much which is intended to please
God, yet multitudes of Christians have motives of self-seeking in their religion,
in the building of churches and religious institutions, in the carrying on of
missionary enterprises, in the training of children; and in everything that
pertains to the Christian life, there is so much carnality and selfish
sectarianism mingled in with true Christian faith.
Now God is the only one that is liable to look through this
great mass of religious life and the building of Christian character and work,
and discern how much is of the spirit and how much is of the flesh. And when
the believer stands [PAGE 147] before the judgment seat of Christ, there will then
take place the sifting of the true
from the false, and of self from Christ, and a complete separation of those
elements which partake of gold, silver and precious stones, and those other
elements which partake of wood, hay and stubble.
3. Let us now examine the third
statement in the passage, that “every man’s work shall he made manifest, for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire, and the
fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it
is.” It would seem
from these words that the life-work of every servant of God will not be clearly
and openly manifested until this [future] judgment of the saints comes to pass. Although countless millions of [regenerate] believers have died, and their spirits
- [i.e., their disembodied
‘souls’]* - are
now resting in ‘paradise’, yet their life-work has not yet been judged, and the various
principles in their character and work have not yet been manifested, either to
themselves or to the heavenly world.
[*
See Luke 23:
43ff.
cf.
Acts 2:
27,
34;
2 Timothy 2:
2:
17b,
18,
R.V.)]
It is impossible for anyone of us in this life to understand
all the details of our actions, because of the mixed condition of things in our
lives, and because of the infirmity of our minds in the present state. No
action can ever be seen in the present life in its fullness, for in the nature
of things there is always an unseen moral and spiritual quality in every act
which can never be made known in this life. When icebergs are seen floating in
the ocean, we are told that seven-tenths of the iceberg is in the water and
only three-tenths of it is visible to the eye, and this may serve to illustrate
the nature of all our actions and our conduct and words; for, while a certain
part of every act can be known and judged of in a measure, yet the greater part
of our actions and words is submerged, as it were, in a spiritual sea, and we
never [PAGE 148] can fathom or measure all the parts or ascertain the magnitude of any
action or any word. The same act may he performed by a hundred different
persons, and yet the act may contain as many different forms and degrees of
character, so that the same act would not receive the same degree of reward or
of punishment to each person, because of the unknown quality that is put into
the act by each person.
The discovery of the X-ray gives us a perfect illustration of
the way our actions and lives will be manifested at the judgment seat of
Christ. We are told in this passage that the fire will make manifest every
man’s work, of what sort it is, and for thousands of years no one on earth has
ever been able to imagine how fire
could reveal a man’s actions and find the true quality of those actions. Some
years ago my wife and myself were in the office of a physician who had an X-ray
apparatus, and he shut off all the light in the room and turned on the X-ray
machine: my wife stood and held out her arm, and the light from the electric
machine passed through an inch plank, and a lot of paper, and the clothing on
my wife’s arm and her flesh, and when I looked I saw only the bones in her arm!
If someone had prophesied fifty years ago that the bones in a person’s body
could be manifested by fire, it would have been impossible for the whole human
race to have imagined how the thing could be done without burning the flesh.
But now, behold! This marvellous instrument of electricity can reveal every
part of the human body without
burning a single atom of it. In the same way, God has some method, at present
unknown to us, by which a Divine fire can be
turned onto every man’s life work and reveal just exactly the moral and
spiritual qualities of the life work and make manifest to the intelligence of
all [PAGE 149] the saints and the universe what is the quality of every act and every
word and every thought that is expressed by a human being.
When Hannah, the mother of Samuel, visited
The government in Washington has a pair of scales so delicate
that you can put a piece of thin paper in the scales and weigh it, and then
write with a lead pencil on that same piece of paper and weigh it again, and
the scales will reveal not only the weight of the paper but also the weight of
the amount of lead that was put on the paper from the pencil. This is a faint
illustration of the way in which God will manifest in the judgment time the
character and colour and weight and dimension of all the actions and words, and
even the thoughts of His people.
This judgment of the saints must of necessity take place in
order that each one may receive his proper reward and his rank in the
4. Let us, in the next place, look at
the subject of loss and rewards that will come to the Lord’s people as a result
of this final judgment. “If any man’s work abide the fire test, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward; but if any man’s
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; [PAGE 150] but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by
fire.” This
passage proves positively that great multitudes will be saved who will yet
suffer loss because their works have not been according to the truth of
Scripture, or have not been wrought in the love of God, and will be burned.
We must remember that [eternal] salvation is one thing and [subsequent] rewards is quite another. What a vast
conflagration will take place at that
judgment seat when such a vast amount of erroneous sermons and false books and
selfish prayers and selfish giving of money and carnal religious work will be
burned up because they partake of the nature of wood, hay and stubble! Many a
fine sermon, many a beautiful song, many an eloquent prayer, and millions of
money that have been given for selfish motives and sectarian pride, and so much
busy service wrought in the flesh,
will be utterly destroyed and get no reward
because it will not be able to stand the X-ray test of the judgment. The
Apostle John urges believers to so work that they will not be ashamed to meet
the Lord, implying that some will meet Him and be ashamed.
The Bible supplies us with examples of everything in the
world, and in the cases of Abraham
and
There will be no reward given for the life-work of any [regenerate] believer except for those things that
shall escape the fire, for the apostle says. “If any man’s
work abide” - that is, pass the fire test - “he shall receive a reward.”
There is a vast world of truth opened to our study in
connection with the rewards which the
saved ones will receive for their good works. In the first place, the reward
will correspond exactly to the quality of the action, and also to the magnitude
or the weight of the action, and also
to the amount of Divine love or of sacrifice or of faith or of perseverance
that has been put into action, so that the reward will fit the act as perfectly
as the skin fits the flesh. These rewards will extend down to the littlest things in our life as well as to the
greatest, for the prophet Malachi tells us that God will reward His people for
even thinking upon His name, and Jesus tells us that there will be a reward
given to those who give a cup of cold water
to another in the name of the Lord Jesus; from which we learn that the
system of Divine rewards will correspond to the system of nature, which is just
as perfect in the formation of the eye or the wing of a house-fly as it is in
the formation of the vast system of suns and stars.
The consideration of these things should certainly inspire us
to the utmost devotion and the putting into our life-work of as much of Christ
and His truth as we possibly can.
We find a good illustration upon this subject in the life of
the Apostle Paul, for the first part of his life was intensely Jewish and
sectarian and selfish and filled with the carnal mind: and when he became a
Christian he said that [PAGE 152] he suffered the loss of all things; that is, all
honour and fame and power which he had acquired by his zeal for Judaism was
burned up. But the life he lived as a Christian was built of gold, silver and
precious stones, and for that life he will receive a great reward at the coming
of the Lord. So the first part of his life, although it was intensely
religious, was also wood, hay and stubble, but his Christian life was built of
precious gems which the fire cannot burn.
5. Here is
another subject, that is not mentioned in this passage but that is referred to
in another Scripture. which will be settled at the judgment seat of Christ, and
that is, that all the misunderstandings and disagreements of
God’s people throughout all generations will have to be clarified and settled
up in the presence of the Lord Jesus at the judgment of the saints. Only think of all the disagreements and misunderstandings and earthly
prejudices which have existed among God’s [redeemed] people in all generations as
between Jew and Gentile, as between Calvinist and Armenian, as between High and Low Church,
and all the misunderstandings between individuals! In fact, everything that
has interfered in this life with the fellowship and the mutual love of all
God’s people will have to be explained and settled in the clear light of God
before the judgment seat. It is utterly absurd to suppose that all God’s people can go
on living throughout everlasting ages in the kingdom of God, and carry along
with them all the foolish disagreements and all the prejudices that existed in
them up to the point of their death. There must be a perfect. Divine adjustment
of every believer, not only in harmony with Christ, but in harmony with all
others, so that not one single soul in the heavenly kingdom will be in
disagreement with any other soul. This is what [PAGE 153] Paul teaches when he says that Jesus Christ will reconcile all things to Himself, not only which are on earth but also which are in Heaven. A beautiful illustration as well as a
prophetic sample of this is found in the life of Job, that after he passed through his severe trials, his three friends, who were all of them prophets or preachers, and who had misunderstood Job and misjudged him, had to make a second visit to Job and get
perfectly adjusted to him, in mutual
reconciliation and love and respect, and
they had to offer sacrifice and have Job pray for them that they might be
brought into perfect unity of heart and mind. And you may depend
on it, that is a sample of what will take place
in the case of God’s servants who have lived and died and have gone into
paradise; but they will have to get
harmonized with each other in the heavenly kingdom right in the presence of the
blessed Jesus, who is not only the
Saviour of His people, but the Judge
also.
Countless thousands of believers who will be saved in - [hope
of entering the coming Kingdom and] - Heaven have criticised the bridehood saints and persecuted those who
were sanctified. But at the - [time of the “First
Resurrection” (Rev. 20: 5, R.V.) and] - judgment day, in the presence of
Jesus, they will change their tune and will praise and honour the very saints
that in this life they criticised and spurned. This is referred to in Scripture
where it speaks of the daughters - that is, the companies of saved ones - when
they see the illustrious beauty and glory of the bridehood saints, they will praise her and give due honour to those
who in this life were most devoted to the Lord Jesus.
Nothing will pass the judgment seat of Christ except that
which is perfect truth and perfect love and such things as are fit to endure
throughout everlasting ages the light and truth of God.
* *
*
[PAGE
154]
CHAPTER 13
THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB
As I
have remarked in another place, during the great tribulation judgment upon the
earth there will he many things that will take place with the glorified church, with Christ up in
Heaven. It is during that time that Christ. as the great High Priest, will
gather up the prayers of all the saints that have ever lived on the earth, and
present them to the Father with much incense, and the effect of those prayers
will result in the consummation of the judgments on those who have rejected the
great sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the world.
Another event of a similar character will be the singing of
the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, which is recorded in Rev.
15:
14. The prayers of all saints has a
special reference to the office of priests, which includes the offering of
sacrifice, and kindling the fire on the altar, and swinging the censer of
intercessory prayer. On the other hand, the singing of the great song of Moses
and the Lamb belongs to the prophetic office, and includes playing on harps,
and singing both psalms and hymns, and the utterance of inspired poetry and
testimony. These are the thoughts which are expressed in the passage that we
want to analyze.
“And I saw another sign in heaven,
great and marvellous, seven
angels having the seven last plagues, for in
them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as
it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and
them that had gotten the [PAGE 155] victory
over the beast and over his mark, and over the
number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And
they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and
true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O
Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before
thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”
(Rev.
15:
14)
The first thing to observe in this passage is the glassy sea. To get an understanding of this we
must go back and find where it is first referred to in the Scriptures. When the
Hebrews crossed the
“Then sang Moses and the children of
They had gotten the victory over the
great beast of Egyptian tyranny, and over all the slave marks which had been
put upon them, and with their timbrels they sang the song of triumph.
The next time we find reference to the glassy sea is when
Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders went up into Mount
Sinai, and they saw the God of Israel, “and there was under his feet as it
were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it
were the body of heaven in his clearness. And
upon the nobles of the children of
The next time we see any reference to the glassy sea is in the
building of the temple by Solomon. “And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the
other” (which is
fifteen feet): “it was round all about, and
his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty
cubits did compass it round about” (1 Kings 7: 21) That molten sea was in the temple
before the throne, and was a prophetic image of what we have in Revelation
15.
The next reference to the glassy sea is in Revelation 4: 6, where the living
creatures and the elders, which represent the church of the first born - the true eagle saints, - were caught [PAGE 157] up through the open door into Heaven,
and were seen in relation to the throne and to a sea of glass like unto crystal.
There is a perfect agreement among all these portions of
Scripture, proving a perfect unity as to the locality and the use of this
glassy sea. It is up in the sly; it is before the throne of God, and it is a place where the translated and
glorified saints assemble to praise God for
their deliverance from everything connected with the beast or the
Antichrist.
The next item to be studied is that of their having the harps
of God, which, as I have said, proves the office work of prophets. When Samuel anointed Saul to be king of
“Behold, the Lord cometh with burning and anger and full of
indignation. And ye saints shall have a song, and gladness of heart, as
when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord. And the Lord shall cause His voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm with indignation, like a tempest and hailstones. And when the Lord shall lay on the enemy his staff, it shall be with tabrets and harps. For Tophet is
ordained of old, for the king” (that is, the Antichrist). (Isaiah 30: 27-33.)
This prophetic passage
from Isaiah is in perfect agreement with the
passage from Revelation 15, that when the Antichrist, the great
beast, is overthrown, the victorious and [PAGE 158] glorified servants of God will
rejoice and express their gladness and praises by playing on the harps of God.
But the main thing in this passage which we want to study is the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.
The song of Moses celebrates the works of the Lord in
creation. “Great
and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty.” The song of the Lamb celebrates the
ways of God in His thoughts and plans with regard to redemption.
The song of Moses refers to the external universe, the wonders
and mysteries that are expressed in the material creation. The song of the Lamb
sets forth the inward life of God, the perfections of His moral character and
the hidden glories of His love and grace in forming a plan to save sinners,
which can never be known except by a revelation through His own Son who lives
in the bosom of the Father.
1. Let us, in the first place study the
song of Moses, the servant of God, which celebrates the magnitude and the
marvellous wonders of the works of God in creation. We must remember that Moses
writes out the account of creation as God revealed it to him in a vision, as to
the origin and the successive steps in forming the world.
There are some who teach that Moses wrote the account of
creation only as he had it from the
lips of tradition, as it was banded down from Adam through the patriarchs. It
is true that the early fathers of the human race did transmit verbal accounts
of God’s dealings with them and with the world; but Adam did not see the creation when it was formed, and it makes the Word of God a very slender
thing to have it depend only on tradition. God gave Moses a look or a vision
backward, and He caused the successive scenes of creation to pass before his
eyes, so that he wrote the account [PAGE 159] under the direct and infallible inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, and as he saw the successive periods go by, in a kind of moving picture.
The book of Revelation was given to
And just as John had a forward look into events connected with
the winding up of the history of this world, so Moses had a backward look as to
the successive periods in the origin of the world, and the formation of all
things material or animal or human. Hence it is perfectly appropriate to designate
the song of the works of God as being the song of Moses - that chosen servant
who saw and recorded the creation of the material universe.
Now there are two words which characterize this song of Moses:
the word “great” and the word “marvellous.” The word “great” refers to the inconceivable
magnitudes of creation, and the word “marvellous” refers to the infinitesimal of all filings in the creation.
The greatness of creation is spread out before us through the instrument of the
telescope, [PAGE 160] and the marvellous wonders of creation are revealed to
us through the instrument of the microscope.
Let us notice the greatness of the works of God. By the use of
the telescope the greatness of the material universe has been brought to our
knowledge in such a degree as to be beyond the power of all imagination to even
grasp a small fraction of the works of God. It looks to us as if the world on
which we live is a very large thing, and yet when we come to study the
magnitudes of creation, our earth is only a small grain of sand on the shores
of the universe. The sun of our solar
system is to large that, if it were hollow, this globe could he put in the
centre of it, and our moon sustain the same relation to it that it does now,
revolving about the earth, and this world would be to the sun like a garden pea
in the centre of an empty flour barrel, or rather like the head of a pin in the
centre of a great hogshead; for the sun is millions of times larger than our
earth. And then the North Star is fifty times larger than our sun, but so far
away that the distance cannot be measured by miles, but only by the speed of
light. Light travels about a hundred thousand miles a second. The light from
the sun, which is ninety-three million miles away, reaches our earth in about
eight minutes. But the North Star is so very far away that it has been
estimated that it takes over forty years for the light to come from the North
Star to our earth.
That great North Star travels around the Seven Stars, and they in turn travel around some great
unknown centre in space. Which may be, so far as we know, the throne of God.
It has been estimated by astronomers that our solar system is
travelling around other larger systems, and that it requires about eighteen million years for these systems to make
one [PAGE 161] complete revolution around the universe. This seems to agree with what
David says in the 19th Psalm, that our sun is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
and a strong man to run a race, and that his going forth is from one end of
heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: which seems to imply that our
solar system does indeed revolve around the universe from one end of creation
to the other end of it. This gives us the magnitude of the works of God,
absolutely inconceivable to any human mind.
Suppose a man driving an automobile at the rate of twenty
miles an hour should have an accident by which one spoke of one wheel should be broken, and suppose that the
man was so powerful and so skilful that he could repair the broken spoke
without stopping the machine, and do it before the wheel had made one
ten-thousandth part of a revolution. We would regard it as a feat of
supernatural skill. We may regard this earth as a little spoke in the vast
wheel of creation, and we may regard the fall of Adam as a break in that spoke, and yet if we count the time from the
fall of Adam to the time of the new creation when all things will be restored
to their original glory, the time taken of the seven thousand years would be
accomplished before our solar system had made one ten-thousandth part of a
revolution around the centre of the universe.
It is evident that the glorified saints will have the ability
to search into and become acquainted with the vastness of all the works of God.
The other word is “marvellous,”
which introduces us to the minute things of creation, as brought to our
knowledge by the microscope. Dr. Young, in his “Night
Thoughts,” has represented that God made man just midway between the [PAGE 162] infinitely small and the infinitely great in His
universe. This poetical thought, so far as we know, may be true, and if so,
then there is a universe that lies beneath us in the infinitesimal, as
marvellous as the creation above us. The microscope has discovered many features
in the common house-fly, in the structure of its body and the number of its
eyes and the various movements it has, which are just as wonderful as the
stellar universe. A drop of water from a mud hole, under the strongest
microscope, will bring to view whole armies of living creatures too small for
the unaided eye to see. All those minute creatures are born, and live, and die,
like larger animals, and have their wars and marchings, and modes of happiness,
on a scale so small as to be beyond the comprehension of the human mind. In
every leaf, and every blade of grass, and every grain of sand, and every drop
of blood, there are whole worlds of wonders - distinct species of creatures,
with peculiar modes of life and motion, which reveal the fact that the great
Creator is absolutely infinite, and reveals His skill and power in things
beneath our notice as completely as in those great worlds that float above us
in distant space.
When we consider all these facts, and then remember that this
God is our God, that He numbers the hairs upon our heads and knows the drops of
blood in our veins, and estimates every minute thing in our souls and bodies,
and knows every thought in our minds, and every emotion in our hearts, it
should certainly impress us with a disposition of complete and boundless
confidence in such a God; for how true it is that in Him we live and move and
have our being. We shall never be able to appreciate these facts with regard to
the creation until we are lifted into a glorified state.
[PAGE 163]
2. In the second place, let us consider
the song of the Lamb. “Just and true are thy ways, thou
King of Saints.”
In this connection I want to call your attention to a thought
that I have never seen in print in any book outside of the Bible, and to which
I have never in my life heard anyone refer, and the thought is, that Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, is an infinite musician, and sings a song that is
infinite in every perfection connected with song or singing. Have you ever
thought it over, that Jesus is a singer, and that He will take part in leading
this great song of Moses and the Lamb? We often hear of David sweeping his harp
and singing his sweet psalms, but why should we overlook the fact that the Lord
will have His harp, and be the choir leader in that ultimate song of complete
victory which will he sung on the glassy sea?
After Jesus finished the Last Supper, and was on His way with
the eleven disciples to the Garden of
Gethsemane, to enter into the most awful sufferings that have ever been in the
world - while on that journey from the Last Supper to the agony in the garden, and to the cross, - we are told that
they sang a psalm. Only think of it! Jesus was going into the storm of
unutterable anguish, and yet He went with a song on His lips, repeating in
melodious measures one of the psalms that were sung by the priests at the time of the passover or to celebrate the
feast of the passover. This gives us an
insight into the infinite peace and joy
and victory that Christ had in His
soul while on the way to death.
And then we must remember that Christ, the Son of God, is the
fountain out of which has come all creation and all beauty, and all music. All
the sweet songs that the angels can sing or that men can sound forth, all the
melody of [PAGE 164] song-birds or of musical instruments, or the melodious
breaking of the waters on the seashore, all music in all worlds, comes out of
Him who is the fountain of creation and the author of all truth and melody, all
poetry, and all song.
John tells us that he heard the voice of Jesus like the sound
of many waters. When a great billow rolls up and breaks on the seashore, it
gives forth all the sounds of the octave, from the deepest bass to the highest
treble; and so the voice of Jesus sounded in the ears of John - like the
beautiful music of many waters on the rocks of
As the Lamb of God has gone down into the depths of all
sorrows, so He will ascend into the altitudes of all possible joy; and if He,
as the Scriptures tell us, groaned within Himself and thereby expressed an
agony which no one could tell, so, on the other hand, He will utter forth the
sweetest music that can possibly be formed by infinite power and skill. We have
references to this in the Song of Solomon, the witness of the bridegroom’s joy,
and the unutterable charm there is in the utterance of His words.
Now, the song of the Lamb celebrates the ways of Cod. The ways
of God refer to that vast world of interior light and love and purpose and
disposition inside the Divine Being.
Writers have divided the glory of God into two parts, and they
speak of all of the glory which God has from His created universe as His accidental glory, or glory that lies, as it were,
on the outside of God; and then they speak of the glory of His own perfections
as His internal glory, or the glory that He has essentially and eternally, in
Himself, which [PAGE 165] is not dependent on any external creation. If there
were no outward creation, God would still he absolutely perfect in every way
and form and degree within Himself. His power, love, wisdom, eternity, purity,
sweetness, tranquility, justice, and all the perfections that we can conceive
of, belong to Him in an infinite degree. Now, it is this inner life of God that
is revealed by the Lamb. The Son of God dwelt from eternity in the bosom of the
Father, and He alone is acquainted with all the thoughts and purposes of the
Father; and He alone can reveal the secret ways of the Godhead.
We can pick up a small acorn in our
hands and look at it, but how little do we suspect of the ways that are coiled
up in that acorn. Out of that acorn, when planted, will come the gigantic oak
that will live for hundreds of years; and yet every secret way of that oak is
boarded up in that small acorn - the size of the tree, the colour, the shape,
the odour, the growth, - all the characteristics of that giant oak are but the
outward unfolding of the secret ways that lie hidden in the acorn.
We take up an eagle’s egg and look at it, but how little do we
suspect of all the secret ways that lie inside of that egg. Yonder, in the
upper blue sky, five miles above the earth, soars the great eagle; and yet the
way that that eagle flies and lives and screams and plunges and catches its
game, all the habits and all the long life of that eagle which make up the way
of the eagle, lie inside of the egg.
It is thus that the ways of God, which lie hidden in the
radiant depths of the Godhead, are known to the Lamb and revealed by the Lamb.
Just at there are two words which characterize the song of Moses - “great,” and “marvellous,” - so there are two [PAGE 166] words which characterize the song of the Lamb: they are “just,” and “true.” The word “just”
refers to the absolute righteousness of all of God’s ways. They are perfectly
pure and holy, free from all partiality or cruelty or crookedness, for those
ways are the outcome of an infinitely holy being, and every impulse of His
nature is absolutely perfect as to its origin and its manifestation. This
justice of the ways of God was manifested in the death of Christ, the dying of
the just for the unjust, the making of an atonement for the sins of the world,
so that God could save sinners in perfect harmony with all of His perfections.
In making an atonement for the sins of mankind, Jesus
manifested God’s character in a way that would never have been known to the
universe except through the atonement. It manifested the righteousness of God
in reference to sin, in a way which never could have been manifested in wrath
or in punishment upon the sinner, - when God Himself put the punishment of sin
upon His spotless Son in order that He might be just, and yet the justifier of
Him that believeth.
The next word is, that they are “true,” that is, faithful. This word refers
to the absolute accuracy of God’s
covenants, that His promises are
fulfilled to the uttermost without default. The fidelity of God in keeping
His covenants is referred to more frequently in Scripture than any other
perfection of the Divine nature. It is His fidelity on which we can lean with
absolute security. Solomon speaks of God performing with His hands that which
He had promised with His mouth. The promises of God are based on His infinite
justice, and the fulfilment of the promises is in agreement with His
faithfulness.
[PAGE 167]
In the period of the judgment, the glorified saints will be
assembled on the glassy sea up in the sky, and everyone of that countless
throng will be able to bear witness that God has never broken a promise; that
His faithfulness has proven true throughout all generations and under all
circumstances; and thus they will celebrate in that great song the glorious
fidelity of God, through His Son Jesus, in keeping the covenants of pardon and
cleansing and resurrection and glorification, and in giving to His saints the
inheritance of the [millennial] kingdom, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
The song of the Lamb will find an echo in every heart of those
who are redeemed, for everyone of them can look into his own life and his own
personal history and see the accomplishment of God’s promises in personal
experience.
While the song of Moses will direct the attention of the
saints to the external universe, in its magnitudes and marvellous secrets, yet
the song of the Lamb will direct their attention to their own inner hearts, and
to that marvellous work of grace in saving them from all sin, and bringing them
into the Father’s house, and crowning them with unspeakable glory.
* *
*
[PAGE 168]
CHAPTER 14
THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB
After the glorified saints sing their victorious song of Moses
and the Lamb, standing on the sea of glass and playing on the harps of God,
there follows the judgments on Babylon and on the mother of harlots, and after
the false satanic woman has been judged and destroyed, then that company which makes up the bride of the Lamb
appears in glorified splendour and the
marriage supper is celebrated.
“And I heard the voice of a great
multitude as the voice of many waters, and as
the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for
the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife
hath made herself ready. And to her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white, for the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints. And he
saith unto me. Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me,
These are the true sayings of God.” (Rev.
19:
6-9.)
The time of this marriage supper is at the close of the great
tribulation judgment, just before the destruction of the antichrist and the
chaining of Satan. The locality of this banquet is up in the sky, where Jesus
and the glorified saints have been during the years that the great tribulation
judgments were poured out on the
earth.
[PAGE 169]
There are two cities that are spoken of all through the Bible:
There are also two women that are spoken of all through
Scripture: one is typified by Jezebel, the false prophetess, and the other is
typified by Sarah, who represents the true spiritual Church, and is the mother
of us all, as Paul says. In the previous chapter of Revelation, the false woman goes down in awful
judgment, and in the passage we have now before us we see the true woman, the
bride of Christ, coming forth in everlasting triumph and radiant glory to take
her place in the union with the Lord Jesus, the Lamb, to rule - [over
the nations, (see Isa. 6: 3; cf. Rev. 3: 5, 6, 21, R.V.) and] - forever and forever.
The word “Hallelujah” is
mentioned four times in chapter 19, as expressing the perfection of
praise and victory that the great salvation has reached its final consummation.
There is more expression of joy, of gladness, over the marriage of the Lamb than over any other event mentioned in the
book of Revelation, because it is the consummation of
redemption, the fulfilment of all promises and all prophecies concerning the
victory of the Lord Jesus and His glorified saints.
In explaining this passage, let us notice:
1. Who is the Bridegroom?
The Scriptures make it very clear that the bridegroom can be
no other person than the Lamb, the blessed Son of God, [PAGE
170] the Saviour of
sinners. But when we say this, let us remember that there is a perfect fitness
in the fact that the Son of God is the bridegroom, because it is by Christ that
God created the universe, all worlds, and angels, and men, and because the Son
of God is the creator of all things the universe is to be linked on to God the
Father through His Son. Now, inasmuch as Christ is that Divine person that
links the creation to the Godhead, it is eminently fitting that He should he
the bridegroom.
The
And again, it is of necessity that the Lamb shall be the
bridegroom because He is the one that died for sinners, and purchased for
Himself a people from death. We are not [PAGE 171] redeemed
by the person of the eternal Father or by the person of the Holy Ghost, but by the person of the Son of God, through
the sacrifice of His human -[‘blood’
(see Rev.
5:
9,
A.V.) and] - body,
and He thereby is the proprietor of the saved ones as no other person in the
Godhead is.
2. Who is the bride?
In answer to this question there are a great many different
opinions, but I am sure that the Scriptures are very clear as to who they are
that constitute the bride of the Lamb. In every single place in the Scripture where this subject is
referred to there is a showing that the bride of Christ does not take
in all those who are saved from the earth, but a chosen company who have been selected
from the saved ones, because
they have met certain conditions of consecration, purification and
obedience, and have been thereby qualified to take rank with Christ* in His
rulership in the coming - [millennial age and eternal] - ages.
[* NOTE: Matt.
5: 1-20 - all of which is addressed by our Lord Jesus
to His “disciples;” (vv. 1& 2.) - whose personal, practical, and undisclosed
standard of “righteousness” ( verse 20)
is required by Christ for qualifications ‘to take rank
with Christ in His rulership’!]
There are several names given to that company
which constitutes the bride
of Christ, such as “the church of the firstborn.”
“the elect,”
“the overcomers,” and similar expressions. It is a great mistake to think that the church of the first born
includes all who are saved from among men, for the Bible expressly
indicates what is meant by the “first born.” When the death angel passed over
The word “elect” is applied often to the bride of Christ, but that word “elect” never refers to being saved; it always refers to the work of
sanctification and to a rank that believers take after they are
saved, as where Peter says, “Ye are elect
through sanctification.”
In the Forty-fifth Psalm. David describes first the bride,
groom, and in the second half of the psalm he describes the bride. He mentions
other companies of saved ones and speaks of them as Kings’ daughters and as
honourable women; but in contrast to these companies he refers to the queen,
standing at the right hand of the king, dressed in the gold of Ophir. And in the 6th chapter of the Song of Solomon
he describes various companies of saved ones under the names of queens,
virgins; and then refers to the elect
daughter who is the bride, as being superior to them all, and says, “She is the choice one,” and the word
means, the elect one of all others.
Jesus refers to this select
company of bridehood saints when He explained the reason why His disciples
did not weep and fast, in contrast to John’s disciples; because He said: “my disciples are the children of the bride chamber, and how can they weep and fast when they have the Bridegroom
with [PAGE 173] them?” Hence the bride will be a company selected
from the saved ones of all the ages, both Jews and
Gentiles, formed into one body which
will meet the conditions of heart purity and devotion to God and have
thereby been qualified for that rank which will be manifested at the
time of the marriage.
3. “She hath made herself ready.” This preparation takes place before the wedding day comes on, just as the judgment of the
saints does not save them, but manifests their salvation and reveals the rank
that each will have in the heavenly - [messianic and millennial] - kingdom,
so the bride makes herself ready during
her lifetime on the earth and in the state of probation. But the fullness of the preparation is made manifest in the time of the
wedding.
4. The wedding garments of
the bride: “She was arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white.”
The word “white”
should be brilliant, radiant. There are always three words used in describing the condition or character of
the victorious saints. One word refers to justification, and the next refers to sanctification, and the third refers to the enduring of tests and trials by
which the soul is made radiant and luminous, or radiant and glorious. Daniel says that the company shall he
purified, made white, and tried; that is, have their sins washed out, and then
made white in purity, and then tried
to test and prove their obedience. In this passage, the expression “fine linen” refers to justification, the
forgiveness of sins; and the word “clean” refers to purity, to holiness; and the word “white” refers to being tested in the fire, and made radiant in
the glory of a victorious experience. The word “righteous” is, in the original, in the plural number, and the passage
should read, “for the fine linen
is the righteousnesses of the saints.” There is [PAGE 174] a righteousness that is obtained in
justification, and there is a righteousness that is inwrought in the heart by
the Holy Spirit; and then there is a
righteousness that is wrought out in the believer’s life in obedience
and good works. The Scriptures speak of the soul being clothed by
its character. The wicked are driven away in their sins; that is, clothed,
covered, with their sins as a raiment. Also the righteous are spoken of as
clothed with the garments of salvation. When the saints are glorified they will he clothed in light, such as the angels
wear and such as Jesus wore after
His resurrection. But just as there are degrees of rewards and of ranks in
the kingdom of Heaven, so there will be great degrees in the size and lustre of
the garments that the glorified saints will wear; and David says that the queen, the Lamb’s wife,
will be dressed in the gold of Ophir, and in another
place it says that her garments are of wrought gold. It is in sanctification
that the soul becomes espoused to Christ, but the marriage does not take place
until [after] the resurrection, when the saints are caught up to meet the
Lord in the air, and pass judgment, and receive their rewards.
We should notice that in this Scripture we are not told of
what the marriage ceremony will consist. That is a subject that has not been
clearly revealed, though it is hinted at in several places in the Bible. We
know that marriage means union, and
Jesus says, “They two shall he one flesh.” And this perfect union will be accomplished in a Divine and transcendent
manner, surpassing all our earthly
conceptions.
When Moses dedicated the tabernacle,
God came down and filled the tent with His glory so that no priest could enter
the sanctuary. Also, when Solomon dedicated the
Let us now consider the supper or the banquet which will
celebrate the marriage. “Blessed are they which
are called unto the marriage of the Lamb.” Let us set it in our faith that,
according to the Word of God, this will
be a real supper, a real feast of
eating and drinking just as literally as we eat and drink in this life.
Those who represent this supper as only a metaphor or an illustration or as a
parable grossly misrepresent the Word of God, which means exactly what it says
in this connection or it means nothing at all.
This great feast has
been prophesied all through the scriptures, in both the
Old and the New Testament, and is
always spoken of as a veritable eating and drinking. Abraham entertained
three heavenly beings in his tent in
In the writings of Moses it was commanded that anybody could
take the vow of a Nazarite for any
length of time that he pleased, - for a month, or a year, or a number of years;
but it was stipulated that during the
length of time of the Nazarite vow,
the man, should not taste any
product of the vine; should not
eat the grape, nor drink the juice;
but that, when the time of the vow
expired, the man could then drink the juice and eat the fruit of the vine.
This explains the words of Jesus. Christ had been drinking grape juice all
through His life, but on the night of
the Last Supper He took the vow of the Nazarite, which was to extend throughout the entire period of the church age until His
second coming. And at the time of judgment, when - [the
pre-tribulation rapture and first resurrection of saints takes place (see Rev.
3:
10;
cf.
Lk. 21: 34-36, A.V., R.V., & N.I.V. cf.
Lk. 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11,
A.V. & R.V.] - then the marriage of the
Lamb will take place, that vow will
then have expired, and then He will be free again to drink of the fruit of the
vine. This shows
clearly that Christ will drink with His glorified saints the fruit of the vine
just as truly as He had been drinking it all through His previous life.
There is another suggestion that should be mentioned in this
connection, and that is, the wonderful sacredness of eating and drinking as
expressed throughout all Scripture from beginning to end. In the sight of God,
eating and drinking constitutes a blessed sacrament. If you will study the
significance of the eating of fruit in the Garden of Eden, and of the command
not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and [PAGE 177] then notice the change of diet given
to Noah and his sons after the flood, that they could eat meat, and then the
eating of the passover lamb in Egypt, and then Moses and the seventy elders
eating and drinking in the presence of God up in Mount Sinai, and then the
heavenly visitors eating and drinking with Abraham, and then the eating and
drinking at the Last Supper, and then the eating and drinking with Christ after His resurrection, and the
institution of the Lord’s Supper - the eating of bread and the drinking of
grape juice to be kept up as a memorial
until the second coming of Christ, and then
this great banquet in the heavens at the time of the marriage of the Lamb
- all these and many other Scriptures show us that there must be a Divine
significance in eating and drinking, as a holy sacrament which we have never
yet fully understood or appreciated.
Now let us notice that great company of guests that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is Very plain that these invited guests are not the bride,
neither can the words be construed to signify that they are the angels, but
they are human beings, saved men and
women, who have been redeemed and
resurrected from the dead, and are
invited to take part with Christ and His bride at the marriage supper. In
the Forty-fifth Psalm, after describing the bride, the queen, and saying that she
is brought unto the King in raiment of fine needle-work, it is then mentioned
that the virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought in also, and that with gladness and rejoicing shall these
virgins be brought in, and that they shall enter into the King’s palace. (Ps. 45: 14-15.) From these words it is as plain as day that these virgins are not the bride, but that they are her companions. They follow after her; they are brought [PAGE
178] as guests into the King’s palace and
partake of the banquet; but the
bride is the queen of the palace and co-regent with the King himself. John
described one company, in Revelation, as living creatures, and then elders
with gold crowns on their heads, who are in the throne and round about the
throne, and as having been saved from
all nations and kindreds and tongues,
and as taking part with Christ in the functions of judgment and of government;
and then afterwards he speaks of a company which no man can number, gathered
from all nations, standing before the throne, with white robes, and palms
in their hands; but they have no
crowns on their heads, and they are not in the throne like the living
creatures and the elders, but are standing before the throne. All these are
redeemed by the same Saviour and washed in the same blood, but they do not all have the same rank. But
these countless millions are all invited
as guests to the marriage supper.
All these things are accomplished in the life and experience
of Christians in this present life to some degree. For example, it is the bridehood saints that start revivals
and push the work of saying souls, and establishing missions, and that take
the initiative in all religious work; and when their labours are accomplished, by the power of the Holy Spirit, all
other believers come in and share the blessings and benefits, though they are
not the leaders in the work of God, and occupy a secondary place in faith and
spiritual zeal. They correspond to the
guests at the banquet. In every religious movement of the Christian faith,
from the days of the apostles down to this present time, there have always been
those who were front rank believers, and who were leaders in all movements of
revival and mission work; and these are
those [PAGE 179] that correspond to the
bridehood saints. And besides these there have always been large numbers
gathered into the church that became believers and trusted in Christ for
salvation and had a measure of the spirit of God, but who never possessed that
measure of faith and zeal to put them in the front rank, but who yet shared in
the benefits that God gave to the front rank saints.
A picture of this is set forth in the call of Rebecca to be the wife of Isaac. When Abraham’s
servant met Rebecca at the well, he gave her a ring from Isaac, which was a
type of justification [by
faith] and of her acceptance. But later on, in the home, when she agreed to leave father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and
home and country, to go to a distant land and be the wife of Isaac, the servant then brought out large gifts
and bestowed them upon her because she had accepted the position of a bride, and those large gifts typify the full baptism
of the Holy Spirit which a believer receives when he becomes espoused
to be the bride of Jesus.
Now it is said that at that very time the servant of Abraham,
in addition to these great gifts to
Rebecca, gave gifts also to all the members of the family. Laban and his wife
and the brothers and sisters and all the members of the family shared in the
bounty of Isaac. This is exactly what is set forth in many other Scriptures,
that the millions of saved ones who are not
in the bridehood, and who are the guests
at the wedding, will also share in
the boundless blessings which are given to the bride by the Divine Bridegroom.
Another suggestion is found in the fact that those saints who
are not in the bridehood company, will admire the bride and praise her for
having been counted worthy to obtain
her [PAGE 180] rank. It is said that the name of the bride will be remembered in all
generations forever and ever. (Ps. 45: 17.)
Another passage to the same effect is found in the Song of Solomon 6: 9, that when the wedding takes place the daughters - that is,
those who are not in the bridehood, - will see the bride and will bless her,
and that the queens - that is, those who have high rank in the kingdom, but who
are not the bride, - will praise her.
In this life, the bridehood saints are criticised and
persecuted on account of their
intense devotion, and because they pursue holiness of heart and life and
because of their deadness to this present world; and because of their zeal for
holy and heavenly things they are misunderstood and misrepresented, and often
persecuted not only by sinners but by
great multitudes of [regenerate] Christian people. But in the time of the kingdom, when
the wedding takes place, then the bridehood saints will come into their own,
and the very people on earth and in the churches that criticised and persecuted
the true saints of God will see things in their true light in the heavenly
world, and then they will praise the bridehood saints, and honour them because
of their excellence in the life of Christ. A
picture of this is found in the life of Job, that after he went through his
great sufferings, God made the three friends
that persecuted him, go to him and confess their fault, and get Job to pray for them, and also it
is said that his brethren and sisters and kin folks came to Job after his
trials were over, and brought many gifts of gold and silver and jewels, and
they then expressed their appreciation of Job’s marvellous faith and character.
This is what will take place up in Heaven at the time of the marriage banquet.
All of the saved ones who do not take rank in this present life sufficient [PAGE
181] to put them in
the bridehood company will, at that day, praise the elect saints and fully
appreciate their worth in the great plan which God has carried out in
redemption.
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[PAGE 182]
CHAPTER 15
THE WHITE HORSE ARMY
In
tracing the history of the glorified
saints, the very next thing after the marriage supper of the Lamb is the
sublime wedding tour, when the Bridegroom and His Bride, with the countless
millions of attendants, mount their white horses of fire, and descend to this
earth to take possession of the estate of rulership over the world, which was
forfeited by Adam and redeemed again by the Lamb of God, and all the old
usurpers who have run the world for six thousand years will be utterly
displaced, and the estate of the world will revert to the original heirs who
will take possession and rule over it forever. This event is described
in the following passage:
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse: and
he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was
clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his
name is called The Word of God. And the armies
which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean.” (Rev. 19: 11-14.)
To form a clear conception of this passage, let us remember
that in chapter
4, John saw a door opened
in Heaven and [PAGE 183] at the opening of that door, the sound of a trumpet
was, heard, which is the trumpet of the first resurrection, and a voice saying,
“Come up hither.” The first opening of the
door in Heaven is for the [pre-tribulation and selective] rapture of the saints,* to take up the resurrected righteous and
to catch away the living righteous that they may meet the Lord together in the
air. But the second opening of the door in Heaven is for the purpose of the
revelation, the full and perfect and open manifestation of Christ and the
glorified saints back to this world.
[* NOTE: There is no mention of a resurrection of
the dead at this time, which will occur at the First Resurrection, and
at the end of the Great Tribulation!]
There are two sets of Scriptures referring to the second
coming of the Lord. One set of passages speaks of the catching away of the
saints up into Heaven, and the other set of passages speaks of their return
with the Lord Jesus back to this earth. Let me give you a few passages on the
rapture of the saints:
Ps. 50: 3-5: “Our God shall come
and He shall call to the heavens from above, and
to the earth, and say: Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Here we see that the coming of God is
mentioned in connection with the gathering of the saints together to meet Him in the air.
In Luke 17: 34-37, we read: “I tell you, in that
night there shall he two in one bed; the one
shall he taken, and the other left. Two shall he
grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And the disciples said, Where, Lord, will they be taken? And He said unto them,
Wheresoever the body” (that is, the body of Christ) “is, thither
will the eagles”
(that is, the eagle saints) “be gathered together.” This Scripture does not refer to the destruction of
Jerusalem, for the words were not [PAGE 184] accomplished
then of one being taken and the other left; neither do these
words refer to Christ’s returning to the earth, but emphatically they refer to the picking up of the prepared saints,
suddenly from the earth, to be with
the glorified body of Christ in the sky.
Again, Jesus says, in John 14: 3, “I go to prepare a
place for you; and if I go and prepare a place
for you I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there ye
may be also.” This
is most explicit on the rapture, or the catching away of the [living] saints when Jesus comes to gather them.
Another passage is found in 2 Thes. 2:
1:
“Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him.”
All these passage and many more set forth the doctrine of the
rapture, this being caught up to meet Christ in Heaven. And they will remain
with Christ while the tribulation is going on upon the earth, and after the wedding supper will return, riding upon white horses.
Now, in the next place, let me show a few Scriptures on the
return of the saints, back to the earth after the marriage feast. The passage
which I have given from Rev. 19 is just as explicit as language could make
it, that the saints are to return with Christ from the wedding. But there are
other passages which agree with the one in the text. In Psalm 126: 6 we read: “He that goeth
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” This shows that there is to be a second coming of the saints back
to this earth just as truly as there is to be a second coming of Christ. In
this same world, where the servants of God have wept, and [PAGE
185] sown their
precious seed and toiled in the church age after being received up into Heaven
and passing their judgment, they are to
come back again to this earth with great rejoicing, bringing their sheaves, their rewards and honours that they have
acquired, back to this earth with
them.
In Isaiah 64, we read: “Oh that thou
wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might bow down at thy presence, as when the melting
fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to
boil, to
make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” This passage does not refer to the
rapture, but to the open Apocalypse when Christ will rend the heavens, or,
as
In the 7th chapter of Daniel we read: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down” (that is, all earthly governments
destroyed), “and the Ancient of days did sit; his throne was like the fiery flame, and a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him;
thousand thousands ministered unto him, and the thousand times ten thousand stood before him. And beheld till the beast” (that is, the anti-christ) “was slain and
his body destroyed and given to the burning flame, and I saw one like the Son of man come with the clouds of
heaven, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people,
nations and languages
should serve him.”
When Jesus comes to catch away His saints, it is said He will
come as a thief, but when He returns with all His - [previously raptured, living] - saints, He will come with flames of fire, and it is at that time [PAGE
186] that every eye
shall see Him and all nations shall wail because of Him.
The Apostle Paul speaks of having our
hearts established in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ with all His saints. (1 Thes. 3: 13.) And again, the apostle says that the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be revealed from Heaven with His mighty
angels and flaming fire, taking
vengeance on them that obey not the gospel, who shall he punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in
all them that believe in that day. (2 Thes. 1: 7-10.)
And again we read: “Behold the Lord cometh with ten
thousands of His saints to execute
judgment upon all, and to convince all that
are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.”
(Jude 14-15.)
These are a few among the many portions of Scripture which
refer especially to Christ’s coming after the [pre-tribulation] saints are glorified and receive their rewards and pass through the experience of the marriage
supper of the Lamb.
The next point to be considered is the person of Christ as
revealed in His descent on the white
horse. Let us remember that every single passage in the Bible which describes
Christ always represents Him in connection with the occasion and the
circumstance and the relation in which He is revealed. When He is spoken of as
a high priest, He is always spoken of in terms and as arrayed in garments that
specially become the functions of a priest. When He is spoken of as a sacrifice
and a suffering Saviour, the language is always appropriate to that subject, as
the slain Lamb, as a sacrificial offering, as making an atonement for the sins
of the world.
[PAGE 187]
When He is spoken of as a king, the language used and the
circumstances always harmonize with a monarch on his throne, with sceptre and
crown and similar belongings. When He is spoken of as a bridegroom, the
description always agrees with the special function. In this passage He is
pre-eminently described as a warrior returning to this earth to make war on the
Antichrist and all the armies who have on them the mark of the beast, to slay
them and consign their leader to the lake of fire. Hence every word in the
passage we are considering agrees with the presentation of the Lord Jesus in
that capacity. For this reason, we do
not find the word “Lamb,” or the word “Jesus” used in the passage, because He is
coming in the capacity of a great warrior to take vengeance on His enemies, and
the words “Lamb” or “Jesus” would not be in consonance with that office. In the previous
verses, when the wedding was
referred to He was spoken of as the Lamb, because that title is the one to be
used in connection with His marriage to the elect saints who have been prepared [and selected] to be His bride.
It will help you to understand the Scriptures better if you will keep this
thought in mind in all your Bible reading - that each description given to
Christ agrees with the circumstances and with the work to be done by Him.
For six thousand years this world has been under the
usurpation of the enemies of God, and with all the boasted civilizations,
improvements and education and the multiplied religions in the world, the human
race has constantly degenerated and the human heart grown more obdurate, proud,
self-willed, until the race culminates in bowing down to Antichrist and
worshiping that great beast in the place of God. This will be the climax to the
history of sin and natural human character, and the time will then be perfectly ripe for the Son [PAGE
188] of God, as a
Divine warrior, to return, armed with omnipotent righteousness and with a sharp
[two-edged] sword proceeding out of His mouth, in
order that He may destroy His enemies and assume absolute command of the world
which He has bought with His own blood. It is in that last great conflict that
the garments which Christ wears will be dipped in the blood of His enemies.
This is what is described in Isaiah 63. “Who is this that cometh from
How foolish it is for anyone to apply this Scripture to down
on the white horse.
The sword that this Divine warrior will use in slaying His
enemies is not made of steel, but it is a word-sword. infinitely more powerful
than any sword made of iron. The Word of God can kill or can make alive with omnipotent and
instantaneous power. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, spoke in a mild tone of voice saying that
He was Jesus, and yet one hundred
strong Roman soldiers, when they
heard His word, went backward and
fell to the ground as if struck with a cannon ball, which is only one instance of the omnipotence there is in the
outspoken word of the Lord Jesus when He comes in judgment.
The next item to be considered in the passage is that of the
army of the glorified saints following the Divine warrior, riding on white
horses and clothed in fine linen, clean and dazzling. You notice the word “armies” is in the plural number, because, as
the Scriptures abundantly show, there are a great many ranks and degrees of
redeemed human beings in the
These bridehood saints follow next to Christ on white horses,
and then follow other armies, spoken of in one place as virgins without number,
according to their various degrees. All these glorified armies of saved people
will come riding down from the sky, from the marriage supper, following the
Lord Jesus on horses of white fire, to take part with Christ in the destruction
of the armies of the anti-christ, and to take part with Him in ruling the
nations with a rod of iron, or, more properly, “shepherdising the nations with
inflexible righteousness,” typified by the rod of iron.
To make this a little more real to our understanding, let us
remember that the Scripture teaches that God forms horses of fire just as truly
and literally as He forms horses of grass or dust. Every reference to horses
and chariots of fire in the Bible is most positively spoken of in connection
with men, saved men from the earth, as truly as of angels. Elijah went up into
Heaven in a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire, [PAGE
193] and those horses
were made of fire as literally as our horses are made of dust, for it is just
as easy for God to make a horse out of white fire as out of grass or dust.
Another instance is where the prophet Elisha was in
The glorified saints will share in the very feelings which
Christ has toward the enemies of God, and in the winding up of this present
world’s history these saints are to be endowed with judgment authority over the
world and take part with Christ in judging the world and in overthrowing all
the systems of iniquity, and in ridding the world of its tyrants and usurpers.
This is described in Psalm 149, where we read: “Let the saints be joyful in glory, and let the high praises of God be
in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands, to execute vengeance against the heathen and
punishment against the people” (that is, the armies of the Antichrist) “to bind their
kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment that is written in the
prophecy; and this honour have all saints.” This Scripture does not apply to the servants of God
in the present dispensation, for we are now living in the age of the cross, in
the age of humiliation and suffering and persecution and the various testings
of our faith and love. But this Scripture belongs to the age of the crown and the [millennial] kingdom [PAGE
192] and the glory and the dominion which is to he ushered
in after the resurrection of the righteous.
You must distinguish between those words in the Bible which
belong to the age of the cross and
those other Scriptures which belong to the
age of the crown. It is very awkward when people try to make the Scriptures
fit into a period for which they are not intended. When Peter drew his sword,
and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus told Peter to put up
his sword, because that was the period
when Christ and His saints were to suffer the indignities of the wicked, and that age of patient endurance still
continues. But when the saints come riding down with Christ on white horses made of fire, that will be the age of judgment, of the righteous wrath
of God against all wickedness, and in that age the glorified [and immortal] saints will act in harmony with the wrath of God,
just as truly as in this present age they act in harmony with the
long-suffering and patience of God.
Many of the ablest Bible expositors and the most godly saints
in past generations have believed that God will raise from the dead those
horses which have been very useful to men in this life, and glorify those
horses and continue to use them in the coming ages for the saints to ride upon.
That may be true, or may not, but one thing is certain: everything belongs to
God, and He has the absolute right and law
and power to resurrect any dead creature that He pleases, and use it in any way
He may choose for His glory, and He will not stop to consult the higher critics
or an infidel church or an ungodly world as to what He may do in the glorious age that is to come. He can either resurrect
dead creatures, or form creatures by His omnipotence out of white fire, and do
the one thing just as easily as the other. We know [PAGE 193] nothing of the various modes by which
God may operate, but we do know that His Word is infallibly inspired, and that
every word written by the Holy Ghost will be fulfilled at the proper time and in the proper way.
This descent of the white horse army will be the time when all
those Scriptures will he fulfilled about the - [‘accounted worthy’ and overcoming] - saints coming into their [millennial] inheritance which has so long been promised to them, and
taking possession of those estates which have been forfeited to their enemies through so many
centuries. All such prophecies are in connection with a time of judgment. There is no place in Scripture that says the saints are to get
possession of this world by a slow and easy and peaceful process, because Satan and the Antichrist and their armies will contend for the
mastery of the world to the last point;
and it is always a time of judgment and wrath and out-poured punishment when
the world is to be conquered and the saints get possession by a Divine conflict
and the overthrow of the adversary. How striking are the words of
the prophet that
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[PAGE 195]
CHAPTER 16
THE DESTRUCTION OF
ANTICHRIST
There
are two great events that are to follow immediately upon the return of Christ
with His glorified saints back to the earth. The first is the destruction of
the anti-christ and his armies, and the second is the chaining of Satan, which
completes the removal from this earth of all forces antagonistic to Christ and
prepares the way for His thousand-year reign upon the earth.
Having noticed the progressive steps in the progress and
destiny of the saints, we have now come to the time of the destruction of the
great anti-christ and his armies, which is described in Rev.
19:
15-21. But in order to fully grasp the
magnitude of this awful event, we should have a clear, scriptural view of the
anti-christ himself, as to who he is and his origin and character and destiny.
There are a great number of passages in Scripture which refer to the anti-christ; but there are three
special portions of the Word which more fully describe him than any others. The
first passage is found in Daniel 11: 36-37: “And the king shall do
according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the
indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his [PAGE 196] fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall
magnify himself above all.” This remarkable passage describes a personality such as never
yet has existed on this earth, and one of the most extraordinary persons and
tyrants that ever has been known.
The second passage is found in 2 Thess. 2: 3-10, where the apostle
says that Christ will not return till
there comes a falling away first, or
[the] apostasy of the church, “and that man of sin he revealed, the son of perdition; who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God. And now ye know what withholdeth (or hinders) that he might be revealed in
his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth (or hinders) will hinder, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked (that is, anti-christ) be revealed, whom the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and
signs and lying wonders (or deceiving miracles).” This passage agrees exactly with the passage
quoted from Daniel.
The third passage describing the anti-christ, and which is the
last, and, in some respects, the most complete passage on the subject, is found
in Rev. 13: 1-8: “And I stood upon
the sands of the sea, and saw a beast rise up
out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon
his horns ten crowns, and upon his head the name
of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like
unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon (that
is, Satan) gave him power and [PAGE
197] his
throne, and great authority. And I
saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death: and his deadly wound was healed: and all
the world wondered (that is, went into admiration) after the beast. And they
worshiped the dragon (that is, Satan) which gave
power unto the beast, and they worshiped the
beast, saying:
Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make
war with him? And there was given unto him a
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and
power was given unto him to continue
forty and two months (that is, three and a half years). And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God and it was
given unto him to make war with the
saints, and
to overcome them; and power was given him
over all kindreds, and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.”
The Scriptures teach us that there is a trinity of hell corresponding
to the trinity of Heaven, and that Satan is a counterfeit of God the Father,
and the anti-christ is a counterfeit of the Lord Jesus, and the false prophet
is a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. And these three characters are spoken of
in Scripture as attempting to counterfeit the various actions of the three persons in the Divine
Trinity. In the Book of Revelation, Satan is described as coming down
from the air, and the anti-christ is described as coming up out of the sea, and the false prophet is described as another beast, in Rev.
13:
11, coming
up out of the earth. There is wonderful significance in
the three places from which their three personalities
come. Man is composed of a trinity of spirit, soul, and body, and the spirit of
man corresponds to the air. The [PAGE 198] soul of man corresponds to the sea, and the body of
man corresponds to the earth.
1. Notice the
time that this great anti-christ will be revealed - or, as the word signifies,
have his apocalypse, for that is the word in the original. The apostle tells
us, in Thessalonians, that the anti-christ
cannot be revealed until that which hinders him is taken out of the way - which
is the true spiritual church in which
the Holy Spirit dwells. As long as the true spiritual church remains in the
world the anti-christ cannot be manifested. The flood could not begin until
Noah and his family were shut up in the ark, and Sodom could not be burned
until Lot had made his escape; and in like manner the - [Holy Spirit filled (see Acts 5: 32; cf. Acts
6: 5
& 1
John 3: 24, R.V.)] - saints of the Lord must be first called away from this earth to
meet Christ up in the air before the great tribulation begins and before
the anti-christ can he manifested. While this is true, yet the principles of anti-christ are at
work in society and in the professed
church all through the Gospel
dispensation. This is what Paul means in saying: “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” The word “mystery” means anything which cannot be clearly
known until it is revealed - that is,
it cannot be distinctly ascertained by science or human learning, but must be divinely revealed in order to be perfectly understood. The mystery
that Paul refers to is that the greatest
iniquity that the world has ever seen or will ever see is to exist under the guise and in the name of
religion. According to Scripture, the anti-christ will be the perfection,
the culmination, the climax, of all the sin of the universe bound into the one
bundle of a living man, and that this perfection of all the sins of the
universe will be in the name of religion, for the anti-christ will assume to be
the most religious man that ever lived. This is what is [PAGE
199] meant by the
mystery of iniquity, and this mystery is at work, like a satanic leaven all through the church of the Gospel age, and it will ripen and burst
forth in full power after the - [overcomers (see Rev. 3:
10
and 21, R.V.) members of the] - true church is called up to meet the Lord in the air.
2. This great anti-christ will be an
individual man, and not a system or a theory or a nationality or a doctrine. It
has been held for many years past that the anti-Christ is a system, such as
Romish popery or Mohammedanism and some other things, but it is impossible to
make any system on earth fit in with the words that are used in Scripture, just
as it is impossible to take the skin of an elephant and make it fit a dog. All
of the names given to the anti-christ refer to him as an individual person and
not as a system, such as “the man of sin;” the “self-willed
man;” “the idol shepherd;”- that is, the shepherd that assumes
to be God and demands that he should be worshiped. He is also called “the king;” and “the prince:” and the “son of perdition,” and “the anti-christ.” But Christ was a person, and no one can be an anti-christ,
or a counterfeit Christ, without being as truly a person as Christ was. In the
next place, all of his acts are such as
belong to an individual person. He blasphemes, he persecutes, he disregards
the desire of women, he claims worship, he changes times, he enacts laws. He
performs all the acts of a tyrant or a
king.
And then the time of his dominion cannot be applied to a
system, or to a nation, or to a series of popes and governments. The period of
the great tribulation will last about forty years, but the anti-christ does not arise until toward the close of the Great Tribulation, and he occupies - [and controls] - the last [three and a half years of] - the last seven years of that
Judgment Time. According
to Daniel, when he first arises he will make
a covenant with the Jews and get [PAGE 200] them to accept him as their Messiah, and for three and a half years he
will be the most plausible potentate that ever lived on earth. But in the middle of the week of years - that is, after three
and a half years according to Daniel, - he will break his covenant, and then, in the last three
and a half years of that week of years, he will turn out to be the ‘beast,’ the most awful monster of iniquity
that the creation has ever beheld. Now, the length of his beastly reign of three
and a half years cannot be applied to any nation or system of popery and can
only be predicted of an individual man.
In the next place, the anti-christ is worshiped as a God, which cannot be applied to any nation or to
a system or to a series of historical
characters.
In the next place,
he is cast alive into ‘the lake of fire’, which cannot be
true of a nation or a system or a doctrine, for people are cast into hell - [i.e. “Gehenna” / “the bottomless pit”] - as individuals. Thus every reference to the anti-christ in the
Scriptures assumes him to be an individual man, and no other interpretation
will possibly fit in with the Bible terms that are used.
1. According to every description of the
anti-christ in Scripture he will be a supernatural character, with a constitution
and an origin and a revelation and a power and a destiny above and beyond that
of any other man in the entire human race. According to the words of
This anti-christ and the ‘false prophet’ are the only two human beings that ever go
into the abyss and come up again out of it. According to the Bible, all the other ‘wicked’ men, - when they die, their
spirits - - [and disembodied souls (See Num. 16: 26, 30; cf. 1 Sam. 15: 23 with 1 Sam. 28: R.V.)] - go [‘down’] to ‘Hades’,
which is also located inside of this earth but not at the centre. The Word of God is very explicit on this
point, that Satan and the anti-christ
and the false prophet are the three great personalities that go down
into the abyss and come up again
from the abyss, - [see also Jude
4: “Men ... designated for this Judgment”] - and also with them that vast army of demons which
Jude tells us is now in chains until the time of the judgment, and they will be let loose to torment men under
the reign of the anti-christ.
4. The anti-christ will be endowed with the most extraordinary gifts of
any man that has ever lived in the world. We are
told that Satan will give him
all his power and his throne and all his authority. so that
he will be endowed with all of the powers and attributes of the fallen
archangel. He will be endowed with all of the learning, the arts, the poetry, the eloquence, the warlike gifts, the financial skill, and all other capabilities and attributes of
the greatest men that have ever lived all put together, so that he will be the ideal man [PAGE 202] of this fallen world, the perfection of everything that
the natural Adamic man requires.
5. The
anti-christ will have a sudden apocalypse to the world to imitate the apocalypse
of Christ. You notice in the passage, that he comes up from the
sea a full-fledged monarch of the world, and in his dominion there is combined, all of the four beasts that Daniel saw, which represent the four great monarchies of the worldwide dominion, not as a slow growth of kingdoms, but a full and perfect manifestation of all
earthly kingdoms in a climax, suddenly
revealed. In harmony with this, we never read anywhere in Scripture of
the birth or the childhood of the anti-christ, for he is always referred to as appearing as a full-grown man in
all the perfection of royal power,
which is in harmony with the truth that he had previously been born, and lived and died, and then - [to imitate his resurrection from
the dead, to that of our
Lord Jesus,]
- arose again as a
full-sized man.
The names given to the anti-christ are very significant, as indicating the progress of his manifestation.
He is first called “the king,” and then “the prince,” and then “the
self-willed man,” and then “the idol shepherd,”
and then “the lawless one,” and then “the anti-christ,” and then “the son of perdition,” and “the man of sin,” and at last he is called, “the beast;” and the Greek word is therion,
which means a wild, savage beast. Thus we see that his names agree with the
fact that during the first half of the seven years he acted the part of a
proper king, but that at last he turns out to be the most ravenous beast in
character that has ever lived on earth and the perfection of the work of the
devil in mankind.
The true Christ is the god-man, that is, God coming down, and
incarnating Himself in man. The anti-christ, on the other hand, is the man-god
- that is, the man that seeks to [PAGE
203] make a god of himself. Hence the anti-christ will put
himself in the - [soon to be built] -
Of all the millions of human beings born of Adam’s race, there
is one man, and only one man, who has ever lived in whom all the points of the
anti-christ will agree and that is King
Saul - [Israel’ first chosen king]. In a similar way, all the points in
Scripture referring to the false prophet, unite in the person of Judas Iscariot.
Please note the following points about the anti-christ and
King Saul. In the first place, the anti-christ must be a Jew, because no Christ
was ever promised to this world except from the seed of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, and the false Christ must prove his pedigree from those ancestors in
order to convince the world that he is Messiah. King Saul was a Jew, or rather,
a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the next place, the anti-christ
will be a backslider [and an apostate]. Satan is himself a fallen archangel and Judas is a
fallen man: and the Bible speaks of Satan and Saul and Judas as all three
falling, either from grace or from office; and the anti-christ will be in a special
way the child of the devil, or the man who
has turned away from God and accepted of the devil in place of God.
In the next place, the anti-christ will be admired by the
whole world as the most consummate man they have ever known, and this agrees
with what is said of King Saul. When
Saul was brought forth to be crowned king, it is said that he was head and shoulders above all other men,
and it is added that he was the goodliest man in all Israel; that is, the most
handsome, the most magnificent in appearance, the most royal and captivating in
body and manner, of any man in all Israel. [PAGE 204] In the days of Saul the Hebrew race
was the best looking people on the earth, the handsomest in form and face of
all the nations, and yet King Saul was the finest looking man in the finest
looking race on earth, and this will agree with what in the Scriptures is spoken of the beast - that all the world admired
him.
In the fourth place, it is said that the anti-christ is a
king. Daniel and Isaiah both speak of him as a king; and Saul was a king. The false
prophet will be a preacher, and apostle; but the anti-christ is pre-eminently a royal personage.
In the fifth place, the anti-christ will usurp all authority
on earth and set up a religion and a worship of his own, trampling down all
other religious authorities. This agrees exactly with what King Saul did at Gilgal. Samuel told Saul to wait for him there, and
that when Samuel got there he would offer sacrifice; but King Saul grew impatient and decided to ignore the words of the
prophet, and he seized the religious performances in his own hands and offered
sacrifice, and swung the censer,
thereby trampling on the command of God
and assuming to be the
supreme religious ruler of the world and to make a worship according to his own
plan. And later on he made a foolish law, on a battlefield, that if
anyone should eat any food on that day he should be killed. His own son,
Jonathan, in a distant part of the field, did not know of that command and ate
some honey, and King Saul was going to have his own son slain in order to carry
out a foolish and devilish law which he had made against all reason: but the
people hindered him from his insane act. This proves that King Saul, before he
died, had in him the propensity to
institute a religion full of murder and cruelty, and shows us how easy it
will be for him to be the tool of the devil in [PAGE 205] forming the person of the anti-christ
and usurping all of the religious rights and dictating all worship.
In the sixth place, the anti-christ will be the special foe of
the true Christ the Lamb of God and will seek to antagonize the Lord Jesus
Christ at every single point and with the utmost malice. This is exactly what
King Saul did in his bitter persecution
against David, the true king chosen
of God. He sought in every way, for
over fifteen years, to slay David. So in this respect Saul and the anti-christ
agree exactly.
In the seventh place, the anti-christ will be a man slain by the sword before he goes down into
the abyss. The prophet Isaiah gives us a picture of the anti-christ under
the type of the king of Babylon, and speaks of him as having a more terrible
death than the kings of the nations, and says: “Thou art cast out of thy grave
like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of
those that are slain, thrust through with a
sword, that go down to the stones of the pit.”
(Isaiah 14:
19)
We also read in Zech. 11: 17, “Woe to the idol
shepherd (that is,
the shepherd that claims to be worshiped) for the sword shall be upon his arm and upon his
right eye, and his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall he utterly darkened.” Again, we read, in Rev.
13:
10.
“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity,
and he that killeth with the sword must be killed with
the sword.” The
anti-christ will at first capture the world, but Jesus and the white horse army
of saints will capture him, and he who killed so many by the sword must himself die by the sword. It
is in agreement with these Scriptures that King
Saul fell upon his own sword and slew himself (1 Sam. 31: 4).
The anti-christ dies by the sword, but the false prophet dies by hanging himself. For example Absalom was
a type of [PAGE
206] the antichrist,
and he was slain by the sword in the hand of Joab; but Ahithophel, his great counsellor, was a type of the false prophet, and he
died by hanging himself. And the same words are used in Scripture both of Ahithophel and of Judas Iscariot.
Now, put all these points together and consider that King Saul
is the only man that has ever lived in the world in whom all these points agree
both with him and with the anti-christ, and to my mind it is perfectly clear
that Saul will be resurrected in the Judgment time and will be the anti-christ.
Just as God the Father gives all His estate to His Son, Jesus Christ, so we are
told that the dragon - that is, Satan, - will. give all his power to the anti-christ.
At the time when the Lord Jesus and the glorified saints come
riding down on their white horses, this great anti-christ will be seeking to
kill all the Jews in the world because they still adhere to the teaching that
there is one true God, and because they have revolted from the anti-christ’s dominion; and in that awful crisis, just before
the anti-christ succeeds in killing the Jews, they will be delivered by the
glorious apocalypse of the Lord Jesus, revealed in flaming fire with His angels
and glorified saints, and at that time the anti-christ and his false prophet will
be seized and cast alive into the lake of fire, according to Rev.
19:
20. This will be the destruction spoken
of by Paul in Thessalonians.
The very fact that the anti-christ and the false prophet are
cast alive into the lake of fire, goes
to show that they had both previously died and come up from the abyss, because
every sinner in the world must die before passing into his eternal destiny.
[PAGE 207]
You notice that all the armies of the anti-christ are slain
with the sword that proceeds from the mouth of Christ, but the beast and the false
prophet are not slain in that way; they are cast alive into burning brimstone,
thus marking the difference between those two characters and the great army of
sinners that fight under them.
That event will remove from the earth every form of or organized
wickedness and every form of human government, and be the glorious consummation
for which the righteous have prayed all through human history.
This destruction of the anti-christ does not imply his
annihilation, for we are told in chapter 20 that after the thousand-year reign,
those two men, the beast and the false prophet, are still existing in the lake
of fire after having been there a
thousand years. So there is no such teaching as that of annihilation for the
wicked; and destruction, in the Bible sense of that word, does not imply
annihilation, but the complete undoing and wrecking of one’s life and destiny.
* *
*
[PAGE
208]
CHAPTER 17
THE CHAINING OF SATAN
The last
hindrance to be removed before the setting up of Christ’s [millennial] kingdom on earth is that of the chaining of Satan, and with him all the
demons who are under his authority, into the abyss, and this clears the way for
Christ and the glorified saints to establish their dominion over the whole
earth, and over all those nations or peoples who have not been destroyed during
the great tribulation. This event follows immediately after the destruction of
the anti-christ and the slaying of all the armies that fought under him. “And I saw an
angel come down from heaven having the
key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is
the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon
him, that
he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be
fulfilled, and after that he must be
loosed a little season” (Rev. 20: 1-3).
As Satan was the first agent of evil, that tempted our first parents in the Garden of Eden, and sowed the
seed of all the corruption and woe in the history of the human race, so he is
the last one to be removed from the
surface of the earth and from having any power over human beings living in the
flesh. Satan was the great agent behind all
the former battles in human history, and behind all the history of the mother [PAGE 209] of harlots and
1. Four different names are given to
the devil in this Scripture - that is, “the dragon,” “the old serpent,” “the devil,” and “Satan.” These are all of the names given to
Satan in the Bible, and these four names perfectly act forth his character and
various functions as manifested in the history of the world.
We can always find a revelation of Divine truth in studying
the different names that God gives to persons. places or things in the
Scriptures. Names are not accidental with
God, but are always given and used
with special significance, and this is as true with the names of Satan as it is
with the different names that are given to Christ or to His servants.
The name “dragon”
is given to Satan in reference to politics
and earthly sovereignty. It is from the dragon that rises out of the abyss,
or that comes down from the air, or that makes war with Michael for the supremacy of the government of this
world. For long centuries the dragon was the emblem of the Chinese
government on their flags, and it was Satan himself that led the Chinese rulers
in ages past to put the dragon on their flags.
There are several Scriptures in which Satan claims authority over all kingdoms of the world, and he proposed to [PAGE
210] give these kingdoms to Christ if He would bow down and
worship him.
The name of “the old serpent” is always given in reference to deceit, temptation, and treachery, in any attempt to seduce the servants of God, and tempt the righteous into ways of
disobedience. It was the “serpent”
that tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and not the dragon, or the devil,
or Satan, but emphatically the serpent, because that name belongs to him
whenever he attempts to tempt the righteous. The Apostle Paul refers to this same
name in one of his epistles, in which he urges the Gentile converts to beware
of the tempter, lest the old serpent that tempted Eve should also tempt those who were espoused to be the bride of Christ;
and he calls the devil by that name, “serpent.”
The name “devil” is always applied in reference to
his true character as a liar and a
murderer. The deepest part of the devil’s character is that of a murderer
and a liar, and Scripture says that the devil is a liar and the father of lies, and also it is said he was a murderer from the beginning.
The name “Satan”
is always given in reference to being an
adversary, like a tricky, shrewd lawyer, one who brings false accusations and trumps up false and slanderous
arguments. Hence we read that it was Satan that accused Job to the Lord.
And in the book of Zechariah, it is Satan that stands up to bring
false charges against the priest of the Lord.
These four names embrace every part of the character of Satan,
and also set forth every variety of his iniquity and wicked conduct. The
personality of the devil is revealed in Scripture as positively as the
personality of God or of any angel or
of any man. The delusion in modern heresy that Satan is only a principle or a
kind of a law is itself the [PAGE 211] effect of Satan’s teaching, for it is his policy to
delude the human race and make them ignore his personality and his agency and
to deny his character and his work.
2. Let us notice this mighty angel that
comes down from Heaven having the key of
the abyss, - for that is the word which is translated “bottomless pit.” I am very sure that this angel is
the angel Jehovah, the Lord Jesus
Himself, who is so often referred to in the Book of Revelation as an angel, or as “another angel,” and there are a great many actions which are affirmed of this angel that
no mere creature could perform. It is
the Jehovah angel, incarnate as the
Son of man that is the seed of the woman that is to bruise Satan’s head. We
are told that when Michael the archangel had a contest with Satan over the dead
body of Moses, the arch-angel did not bring a railing accusation against Satan,
but said, “The Lord rebuke thee,” showing that it was the Lord; that
is, Jehovah, who was the proper one
to rebuke Satan. The devil wanted to show the Israelites where the dead body of
Moses was buried in order that he might induce them to worship that body, and
the archangel Michael was sent to withstand Satan and prevent the people from
finding the dead body of Moses, and thereby deliver them from idolatry. It was
a hot contest of words and arguments and strategy, and the contest did not terminate until Satan was rebuked by Jehovah the
Lord Jesus. It is Christ who says: “I have the keys of death and of hell,” or, more properly ‘the keys of
death and Hades’;
that is, the keys of the grave where the body is buried, and the key of ‘Hades’ where the departed spirit - [i.e., disembodied “soul” (Acts 2:
27;
cf.
Ps. 16: 10, R.V.)] - goes down in the under part of the earth. These Scripture
references and many others that might be referred to prove conclusively that
that great angel that had the keys [PAGE 212] of the abyss was none other person than the Lord Jesus, the Supreme Conqueror of the devil and the One who has authority to
chain or to loose, to open or to shut,
which none can hinder.
3. Let us notice the great chain with which Satan is to be bound. In the
very nature of things, this chain is to be a real, literal chain, of a nature sufficient to bind the fallen
angel. So many Bible readers ask the question. How can a chain bind a
spirit? But this Scripture does not say anything about an iron chain, and it is useless to put in that word “iron” in reference to this act of chaining. There is
a spirit world as absolutely as there is a material world, and God can make a spirit chain as easily as
men make an iron chain, and God can
chain a spirit just as effectually as men can chain an animal with a material
chain.
The Apostle Jude tells us that there are certain fallen angels who did not keep their first
estate, and that they are at the present time reserved in chains under darkness until the time of the great judgment.
There are different ranks of demons, for the Scriptures abundantly teach us
that there are countless numbers of demons that are loose in the world, and
that operate upon human beings and upon the elements of nature; and then there
are other demons who are so terrific that God will not let them loose at the
present time, and they are bound in chains until the judgment. They are the
demons that are to be let loose in the great tribulation judgment as described
in Revelation 9, and who have the form of locusts, and they will
torment the ungodly in the tribulation judgment. Now, if these demons are at
present bound in chains, it is most certain that Christ can bind Satan with the
same kind of chain. We ourselves possess a spirit nature; in fact, our [PAGE
213] personality
resides in our human spirit and yet we know that this spirit which constitutes
our own personality is at the present time chained in our human bodies, and we have no power to separate our souls or
our spirits from our bodies except by
death. And hence how foolish it is for
anyone to suppose that the omnipotent Son of God cannot chain Satan, with a
spirit chain perfectly effectual in confining the devil to any part of creation
which God may choose.
4. Let us notice the locality where Satan is placed. It
is called in our English the “bottomless pit,” and the Greek word is “abyss,” which signifies the
hollow place at the centre of our earth. The Bible reveals various localities
inside of this world, and there is nothing in science or the knowledge of
material creation that can disprove such statements.
The Hebrew Scriptures speak of an upper Hades and a lower
Hades, and between these two localities a great gulf is fixed across which no
one can pass. According to the Old Testament the souls of the righteous dead were kept in the upper Hades,
and the souls of the wicked
dead were confined in the lower Hades, and David said that when God saved him He delivered his soul from the lower Hades.* Our English Bible reads, “the
lowest Hades,” but literally it is the lower Hades, when Jesus arose from the dead, we are told in two
places in Scripture that He took the
souls of the righteous dead from the lower parts of the earth up into Heaven,
or into paradise,** so that since the ascension of Christ when the righteous
die their souls ascend into Paradise
and do not descend into Hades, but the wicked dead souls are still reserved in
Hades awaiting the final Judgment.
[* NOTE: Salvation and one’s ‘soul’ being
delivered from Hades, are entirely different events, which happen at different
times! If the ‘souls’ of the dead, were delivered from Hades
at the same time as our Lord’s soul ascended into Heaven, then the
apostles Peter and Paul must be gravely mistaken in their divinely inspired
writings! (see Acts 2: 34, “For David ascended NOT into the heavens”! Again, - “...
shun profane babblings: for
they will proceed further in ungodliness, and
their word will eat as doth a gangrene: of whom
is Hymenaeus and Philetus; men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is PAST already, and overthrow the faith of some”! (2 Tim. 2: 16-18, R.V.)!
** Furthermore, the Scriptures speak of three distinct localities, known and
named as “
[PAGE 214]
But this place which is called the abyss is not Hades. It is
an empty space in the centre of the earth, and according to Scripture there are only two human beings that ever
go down into the abyss:** one is the man who is to be the Anti-christ,
and the other is the man who is to be the false prophet who, very likely, are King Saul and Judas Iscariot; and both
of these are said to come up from the
abyss in the judgment time. Now, that is the place where Satan is to be confined with all his demons during the
thousand-year reign of Christ and the saints upon this earth.
[* False teachings and statements are bed-fellows! To say “only two human beings
that ever go down into the abyss” cannot be correct! We are told
that “Korah,
and all his
company” ... whom “the God of
5. Notice some features connected with
the chaining of Satan; It is instantaneous, by one supreme act of the almighty
Son of God, and not a slow, gradual process of weakening the devil’s power on
the earth. Every word in this passage referring to the chaining of Satan is, in
the Greek, in
the aorist tense, which always signifies an instantaneous act and not a gradual
process. In the passage above quoted the following words are all in the aorist tense, viz.: “laid hold,” “bound,”
“cast,” “shut up,” “set a seal.” All these words indicate an
instantaneous act of the personal Lord Jesus, and not a slow process of
reducing the devil’s power by the
Church or by the Gospel. It is amazing how a foolish prejudice in the minds of
great scholars will make them
stultify their own common sense in the study or the translation of Bible words.
Some years ago an eminent Greek scholar wrote an article on instantaneous sanctification, and
he proved from the Greek Testament that the verbs which refer to sanctification
were always in the aorist tense, to prove an instantaneous heart cleansing in
contrast to the slow process of gradual growth. That same scholar was furiously
opposed to any teaching [PAGE 215] on the pre-millennial coming of Christ, and when
someone asked him what the Scripture on the chaining of the devil meant, he
wrote an article saying that the chaining of the devil was a slow, gradual process
of curtailing satanic power, and that every time there was a religious revival
or a new church built, or a new mission field opened up, it was the gradual limiting of satanic power, and that is
what was meant by the chaining of Satan. That great scholar stultified his own
common sense and all his Greek scholarship by refusing to admit that all these
words referring to the chaining of Satan were in the aorist tense, just as
perfectly as were the verbs on instantaneous sanctification. Countless millions
of churches and millions of revivals could never have any power to chain the
devil, for there is only one person in the universe that can chain him, and
that is the Son of God. That great event
will come to pass at the end of this
age and just before the opening of
the kingdom age. Where our English Bible reads that the devil is the god of
this world. it should be rendered he is the god of this age, and when this age
closes Satan will no longer be the god of this age, but he will he chained and locked up in the abyss. And this poor world will have a rest from
his dominion, agency and power. Satan
is still loose, and according to
Scripture he is at the present time the prince of the powers of the air, and he rules in the hearts of the disobedient
sons of men.
6. In this
connection, let us notice the four stages to the downfall and doom of the
devil. His first fall was from, his place as an archangel in the glorious
presence of God, down into the character of a liar and a murderer, and he fell
from the upper heaven of God’s glory down into the heaven which properly
belongs to this earth. When the word [PAGE 216] “heaven” in the original refers to the upper heavens, the word is in
the plural number, as where it says, “Our Father who art in the heavens,” - plural. But where the word “heaven” applies locally to the blue sky and
the upper regions of the air - the upper heavens that belong to this earth, the
original word is in the singular number and prefixed by the article “the,” - “the heaven.” For instance, Rev. 12: 1. “There appeared a great sign
in the heaven,” that is,
in the local heaven that belongs to this earth, and so of all other similar
Scriptures.
The second stage in the fall of Satan will take place during
the great tribulation as described in Revelation
12, where the
Archangel Michael will fight with the dragon up in the heaven - that is, our
local heaven above this earth; and he will be cast down upon the earth and lose
his place from the sky, and hence of the powers of the air, and be limited to move
on the surface of the earth, which will be an awful humiliation to his satanic
pride in those judgment times. It is for this reason that he becomes enraged
against
The next stage in the downfall of Satan is where he
will be chained and abut up in the abyss with all his demons, to stay there a
thousand years, with no power to reach a single person on the face of the
earth.
The fourth and last stage of the devil’s downfall is at the
close of the thousand-year reign, when he will be loosed again for a abort
while in order to sift out the hypocrites [PAGE217] which have lived through the millennial age, and then he is seized and judged
and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast, that is, anti-christ,
and the false prophet have been kept for a thousand years, and where they still are. The devil is from thenceforth confined to
the lake of fire, to be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev.
20:
10).
This is the last time that Satan is mentioned in the Bible.
How perfectly the Word of God furnishes us with the description
and history of the devil from the beginning to the ending of this world:- of
his first appearance as a serpent to tempt our first parents, on through all
the history of the human race, until finally he is cast into the lake of fire,
to remain there forever and ever.
The carnal mind is the special work of the devil in the human
heart, and there is a perfect agreement between Satan and the carnal mind. The
carnal mind will always act just like Satan under similar circumstances, just
as Satan is bound, and after that is cast into the lake of fire, so Jesus
teaches that the strong man, the old man, the carnal mind, is first bound and
then cast out and his goods destroyed. Here is a close analogy between the work
of Satan in this world and the work of a carnal
mind in a human being, but God has made provision for the complete removal of the carnal mind from the soul, and the
utter and final removal of Satan from this world.
* *
*
[PAGE
218]
CHAPTER 18
THE KINGDOM AGE
In this
series of Bible expositions, we have traced the progress of the redeemed
children of the Lord from their calling out of Egypt, that is, their
conversion, on through the different stages of Christian progress, through
death or translation, and come to the events that will transpire while they are
[taken] up in Heaven with Christ, and then their return riding on white horses to
destroy the anti-christ and to witness the chaining of Satan; and now we have
come to the Age of the Kingdom, or the thousand-year reign which is spoken of
in Rev. 20: 4-6. “And I saw thrones, and they (that is, the resurrected saints) sat upon them, and judgment (that is, power to judge or to govern) was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus,
and for the word
of God, and which had not worshiped the beast (or the anti-christ), neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads,
or in their
hands, and they lived (that is, lived again) and reigned with Christ a
thousand years. But the rest of the
dead (that is, the ‘wicked’ - [and
apostate
(see 1 Cor. 5: 9-13; Jude 4; Cf. Num. 16: 20-26, R.V.)] - dead) lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the
first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he
that hath part in the first resurrection:
on such the second death hath no power, but they shall he
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
[PAGE 219]
This is the final
statement regarding what we call the Millennium, or the thousand-year reign,
which the glorified saints are to have over the world. There are a great many
Scriptures referring to this [messianic] kingdom age scattered all through the Bible, from the writings of Moses,
through all prophecy, and in the gospels and in the epistles; but in this
passage we have the final statement and fulfilment of those Scriptures.
During the first age, from
Adam to the flood, there was no law, no [N.T.] church, no Bible; but the human race was governed by their conscience,
acted on by the Holy Spirit. In the Mosaic, or Jewish age, they not only had
the conscience but in addition they had the law, both the moral and the
ceremonial law, and the prophets, with all the types concerning redemption. The
age of law closed with the crucifixion of Jesus, and on the day of Pentecost
there was opened up the Church or Gospel age, in which the people not only had
the conscience and the law - that is moral law - but they had the Holy Ghost,
the Christian Church with its ordinances and sacraments and Gospel ministry.
The church age will close with the [Post-tribulation] Rapture, when Christ gathers His - [“accounted worthy to escape...” (Lk.
21:
36;
cf.
Rev.
3:
10)] - people to Himself up in the sky and
institutes the judgment on the living nations. The kingdom age will begin when
Christ with His glorified saints returns, riding down from the marriage supper. And when Satan is chained, then the glorified
Jesus with the resurrected - [“... out from the
dead...” (see Phil. 3: 11; cf. Lk.
20:
35] - saints will take charge of this
entire world; and the Messianic throne, according to many Scriptures, will be set
up in Jerusalem, which will be rebuilt, according to Isaiah, with precious
stones of sapphires and carbuncles and agates, and then will the kingdom come
for which the people have been sighing and praying for six thousand years.
[PAGE 220]
The kingdom will he like the King. Christ was not of the
earth, but He came down from Heaven to earth; and so the
There are a great many things spoken of in Scripture in connection
with this kingdom age, and I shall have to condense my remarks upon this
subject, as I wish to set forth many of the Scriptures on this subject.
1. No one but
regenerated people will be able to see this kingdom. Jesus says: “Except a man be born again
he cannot see the
2. We must remember that all who have
been resurrected and glorified will live in glorified [and immortal] bodies through the kingdom age
with their home - [upon this earth (see Acts 7:
4,
5;
cf.
Gen.
13:
12,
14-15,
R.V.) and] - up in the air, having perfect
control of their bodies to manifest themselves at will, to transport themselves
through the air to any point on the earth, and manifest themselves to the people on
the earth at will, just exactly as Jesus did in the forty days after his
resurrection. The manner in which Christ existed during the
forty days after His resurrection was a perfect sample of the way in which the
glorified saints are to live through the thousand-year reign. But those nations that
are living on the earth and that submit themselves to God in the tribulation
judgment, and are spared to live through the thousand-year reign, their bodies
will not be [immortal
or] glorified,
but their lives will be lengthened
out like it was before the flood.
3. We must remember that the changes
which will take place in the kingdom age over the church age will be far
greater than the changes in any previous ages. There were wonderful changes
that took place after the close of the conscience age, as, for instance, human
life was cut short, and the human race was allowed to eat meat which had [PAGE
222] not been the
case before the flood; and a great many changes took place in the laws of
nature as well as in the human constitution. And then there were great changes
that took place after the close of the Jewish age, such as the doing away with
the ceremonial law and animal sacrifices, and the institution of the Gospel
ministry, and the church sacraments, and worldwide evangelism; and these were
marvellous changes from the old order of the Mosaic institutions.
Now, at the close of the church age, when the kingdom age has
come, there will be still greater changes throughout the realm of nature and in
the constitution of animals and the four seasons as well as in the dominion
established over the earth. There will be an end to the church age, to the
Gospel ministry, to the Christian sacraments, and an end to all mere human
education as well as great changes in the systems of nature. According to
Scripture, the curse will be lifted from the lower creation. The Apostle Paul
tells us that the lower creation shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption and enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God, and that
the present groaning of the whole creation
will pass away at the time of the redemption of our human bodies. (Romans 8:
21-23.)
In fact, the kingdom age will be the great fulfilment of the jubilee of the
world, of which the institution of the jubilee year in the Mosaic law was a
prophetic type, in which all debts were cancelled, and all estates that had
been mortgaged were restored to the original owners, and all wrongs were
righted.
1. The centre of
the Messianic government will be located in
“Of the increase of his government and
peace there shall be no end. upon the throne of David, and
upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of
hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9: 7). The throne of David most certainly is not the throne of the
Eternal Father up in the heavens, but the Messianic throne which was founded in
king David, and is to be restored and perpetuated and in the Lord Jesus who is
descended from David, and who is to sit on David’s throne; and that throne was
in Jerusalem.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch,
and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jer.
23:
5). You see, this prophecy does not refer
to the throne of God in Heaven, but most positively to the throne of David, and
the execution of judgment and justice in the earth. And it can only mean what it
says.
“And in the
days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never he destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdom, and it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2: 44). This proves that the kingdom that
God will set up is to occupy the very same territory that the kingdoms of the
world occupied, so that the locality of God’s kingdom on earth is fixed by this
fact, that it covers the same countries that the
four worldwide kingdoms occupied.
[PAGE
224]
“But the saints of the Most High shall
take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for
ever, even for ever and ever. And the kingdom and dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Daniel 7:
18 and 27). Here we notice it is expressly stated that the kingdom is
not to be up in Heaven, but located under the whole Heaven, that is, over this
earth; and this kingdom, we are told in the same chapter, is to take the place
of the four great kingdoms that had previously been on the earth.
“And the Lord shall be king over all
the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. ... And men
shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but
5. The glorified - [resurrected and immortal] - saints will be partakers with Christ in ruling and judging the world in
that kingdom age. “And Peter
said, Behold, we
have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we
have therefore? And Jesus said unto them,
Verily I say unto you, that
ye which have followed me, in the regeneration (the Greek word is palegenesis, which means the universal regeneration of
the saved ones) when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall
also sit, upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt.
19:
27,
28).
“He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power (or authority) over the
nations: [PAGE 225] and he shall rule them (or literally, shepherdise them) with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers:
even as I
received of my Father” (Rev. 2: 26-27).
“To him that overcometh will I grant to
sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my
Father in his throne” (Rev. 3: 21).
All these Scriptures are very specific, and show that the
glorified saints are to have thrones in fellowship with the King, and share
with Christ in His authority over the nations, and that all the world will be
divided into provinces and subdivisions, and put under the glorified - [resurrected
and immortal] - saints, who will have charge of all
the affairs of the human race as to education, arts, industries, teaching,
training, correcting, and settling up all matters whether of business or of
religion, and be the teachers of spiritual truth to all the inhabited earth.
This is expressed in the song of the glorified saints where they sing, “Unto him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own
blood, and hath made us kings and priests (or, more literally, a kingdom of
priests) unto
God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen” (Rev. 1: 5-6).
David tells us, in the Forty-ninth Psalm, that the upright are going to
have dominion over the world in the morning, that is, in the great resurrection
morning.
Paul says. If we suffer with
Christ, we shall also reign with Him. We - [who
are obedient followers of Christ] - are now living in the suffering age, but we shall then live in the reigning age. He will give grace and glory. Grace in this age, and glory in the Kingdom
age. Paul says that the - [promised (see Ps. 2: 8;
cf.
Lk. 12:
31,
32,
R.V.)] - kingdom will appear when Christ appears, at his appearing and
kingdom. (2
Tim. 4:
1.)
The cross is the explanation of everything in the church
age; and the [PAGE 226] throne is the explanation of
everything in the kingdom age.
6. The earth is to be filled with the knowledge
and glory of God in the kingdom age.
“But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of
the Lord” (Num. 14: 21). Those words were given to Moses at the time that the people
of Israel refused to enter Canaan at Kadesh-barnea, and were turned back to
tarry in the wilderness, and which may be
regarded as the darkest days in the life of Moses; yet, at that very time, God prophesied the coming of the Kingdom
age, when the earth should be full
of glory.
“He maketh wars to cease unto the end
of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in
the earth” (Ps. 46: 9-10). There never will be a cessation of wars until God brings it
to pass at the close of the great tribulation, and then He will destroy every
instrument of battle, and put a Divine stillness over the whole earth; and the
Lord Jesus will be exalted in the earth, and perfect peace and quietness will
fill the world.
“Let the nations he glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge
the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Let the people praise thee,
O God;
let all the
people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us;
and all the ends
of the earth shall fear him” (Ps. 67: 4-7).
Here is a prophecy not only of the earth being full of God’s
glory, but also that the earth will yield her increase. When God put the curse
on Adam, He also cursed the ground on man’s account, and from that time the
earth has never yielded a full crop, and it is by toil and sweat that man gets [PAGE
227] a scanty
harvest. But when the - [Lord’s millennial] - kingdom has come, the curse will be lifted; the
earth will then yield abundantly. and likely one acre of land will he
sufficient to support a large family.
The entire seventy-second Psalm is a prophecy of the glorious time of
the kingdom age, when Jehovah, the Lord Jesus, shall judge the people in
righteousness, and all nations shall fear Him, and He will come down like the
rain upon mown grass, and the righteous shall flourish, and the lives of the
people shall be precious in His sight. That Psalm was entitled, “A Prayer for Solomon,” but really it is for Solomon’s greater Son, the Messiah. And in that prayer David
had a vision of the kingdom time, and closed the prayer by saying, “Blessed be
the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth
be filled with his glory: Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David
the son of Jesse are ended.” The proper translation of the last clause should be, The
prayers of David the son of Jesse have reached their perfect fulfilment;
that is, when Christ shall reign on earth; and when the words of that psalm are
all fulfilled, that will be the ultimate answer of all David’s prayers.
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good; and our land shall yield her
increase” (Ps. 85: 10-12). In this present age the earth often deceives us and blights
the seed and gives thorns and briars and weeds instead of grain; and the
heavens often deceive us with late frosts or early storms before the harvest [PAGE
228] is gathered; but
in the kingdom age the heaven and the earth will be under the most perfect
regulation as to climatic conditions, and there will be no disappointment in
sowing seed or reaping the harvests, but every element of nature will work in
perfect order and regularity without any damage.
“Sing unto the Lord with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar,
and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell
therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity” (Ps. 98: 5-9). Those words will have fulfilment only
in the - [soon coming millennial] - kingdom age.
“It shall come to pass in the last
days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and
all nations shall flow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us
of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths: for out of
“With righteousness shall the Lord
judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the
meek of the earth. And righteousness shall
he the girdle of his loins. The wolf also
shall [PAGE 229] dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fading together;
and a little
child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear
shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:
4-9). In the present age, lions and other
wild beasts live on flesh; but in the [our Lord’s messianic] coming age their natures will be changed so
that they will have no taste for flesh, but live on grass like the oxen. It
would seem from Scripture that no wild beast ever lived on flesh before the
flood; and that the human race did not eat meat before the flood; but that at
the time of the flood the constitution of men and animals changed so that they
needed meat. But in the kingdom age the constitution of the animal will be put
back where it was originally, so that all the animals will live on grass, and
the human race will live on fruit and grains, without any need of meat.
“In mercy shall the throne be
established: and he shall sit upon it in truth
in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and
hasting righteousness. And then the outcasts
will dwell in safety, and Jehovah will be a
covert for them; and the extortioner and the spoiler and the oppressor shall be consumed
out of the land” (Isaiah 16: 43). Here is another proof that the
Messiah will occupy the throne of David and be the preserver of perfect peace
to all the people on the earth.
“And in this mountain shall the Lord
of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees,
of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the
lees well refined [PAGE 230] And he
will destroy in this mountain the
face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all
nations. He will
swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God
will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the
rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken.” (Isaiah 25: 6-8). We are now living in a time when there is a veil over all human minds, and people do not see eye to eye; but in the resurrection state, when Jesus reigns, the veil will be taken from all eyes and we shall see eye to eye when
the Lord bringeth again Zion.
“For thou shalt be in league with the
stones of the field: and the beasts of the field
shall be at peace with thee. At destruction and
famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be
afraid of the beasts of the earth. And thou
shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin, and thine offspring shall be as the grass of the earth”
(Job 5:
22-25). This is one among many Scriptures
showing that in the kingdom age there will be no danger from
the animals or from bad climates, but that the
nations on the earth will be in harmony with God and all the laws of nature in
harmony with the best welfare of
mankind.
“Behold the days come, saith the Lord,
that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And
I will bring again the captivity of my
people of
“There shall be no more thence an
infant of days, nor an old man that hath not
filled his days: for the child shall die an
hundred years old; but the sinner being an
hundred years old shall be accursed. And they
shall build houses and inhabit them; and they
shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and
another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the
days of a tree are the days of my people, and
mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are
the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their
offspring with them. The wolf and the lamb shall
feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like
the bullock. They shall not hurt nor destroy in
all my holy mountain, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 65:
20-25). This prophecy does not refer to the glorified
saints, but to the nations living on the earth, and especially to the
Israelites who will then be restored to their own land. The expression, “They shall
not bring forth for trouble,” is a distinct prophecy that God will remove the pangs of
childbirth from the mothers in the kingdom age, and also the passages teaches
perfect healthfulness, the absence of deformity, such as blindness, lameness,
deafness, and the many afflictions which so many have to endure in the present
age. Under those perfect [PAGE 232] regulations of life and health, the human race will
multiply by billions, and all the waste places of the earth will be inhabited. The
deserts, as we are told elsewhere, will blossom like the rose, for the barren
lands will be irrigated and the whole earth will he like the garden of the
Lord.
Trees of certain varieties live a thousand years, and we have
trees, in California that are four and five thousand years old; and the promise
is, that the [mortal] nations who live in the Millennium
will live like these trees, for many centuries, or until the close of the thousand-year
reign, when all the righteous ones
will pass into their [immortal and] glorified state.
“In that day shall the Lord defend the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble
among them at that day shall be as David; and
the house of David shall be as God, as the angel
of the Lord before them” (Zech. 12: 8). Here we see that the people will be so much stronger in the
kingdom age than they are now, for there will be advancement on every line.
Those who are weak in the present age, if they were living in the kingdom age
would be strong as giants, and those who are strong in the present life, were
they living in the Millennium, would be like angels in their vigour. It is
impossible for us to imagine the infinite changes that will take place at that
time, and the countless advantages that will come to the world in that age. We
often speak of the inventions and advantages of the present day over those of
ancient times, long past, and yet the progress of advantages in the Millennial
age will be far beyond any dreams we can have in the present state of our
existence.
We are told in another place that in those days the light of the moon will he as bright as the light of
the sun is now, and that the light of the sun will be seven times brighter than
[PAGE 233] at the present time. Thus all the elements of sunlight
and moonlight, the seasons, the climates, the nature of animals, the health and
vigour of the human body and everything that relates to the welfare of the
human race will be marvellously advanced over the present condition of things.
We are also told in [divine] prophecy that at that time God will restore to the human race a pure
language, which implies that all
nations in the world will speak one language, which will perfectly simplify the matter of education and of communication
between the various peoples.
There are not less than fifty places in the Bible which
prophesy the things that will take place in the kingdom age, and these various prophecies cover the entire
range of every thing in nature and humanity, in government, in prosperity, in health, as well as in righteousness among the people and in the manifestation
of the glory of God to all the nations that will live on the earth.
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[PAGE
234]
CHAPTER 19
THE NEW JERUSALEM
“And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth; and I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he will dwell with them and
they shall be his people. And God shall wipe all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, for the former things are passed away. And one of the seven angels talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride,
the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed
me that great city, the holy
This city is the last of all the revelations that God has
made, to men in His Word.
The first
It is by a study of these contrasts that we get a more vivid understanding
of the character of the city of pure gold, which is to be the final home of the
redeemed from this earth.
Just as there was a transition period from the age before the
flood to the age after the flood, accompanied by judgment, and just as there
was a transition from the Jewish age to the church age accompanied by judgment on Jerusalem and the Jews, and just as
there was a transition from the church age to the kingdom age accompanied by
the great tribulation [PAGE 236] judgment, so there will be a wonderful transition from
the kingdom age into the age of the new creation, and this transition will be
accompanied by the judgment upon the wicked dead and upon Satan.
We read that at the close of the thousand-year reign Satan
must be loosed a little while out of his prison. (Rev. 20: 7.) Many have questioned as to
why Satan will be loosed again. It will be a necessity in order that he might
sift out from all the nations those who had lived through the Millennium in a
hypocritical state of heart, and make them show their true character before the
opening of the eternal ages. We are told in several places that many will serve
God feignedly, and although no open sin
will be allowed in the kingdom period,
yet great multitudes during that thousand years will not yield their hearts to
God and will live in a deceitful state of character, and when Satan is
loosed he will work upon these hypocrites and lead them to revolt at the close
of that age, and thereby manifest their inward character by rebelling
preparatory to being slain.
“And they went up on the breadth of
the earth and compassed the camp of saints: and
fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them” (Rev.
20:
9). This was all typified in the Old
Testament. The reign of King Saul was a type of the law, which, as Paul said,
proved to be a failure. Then the reign of David was a type of Christ in the suffering
dispensation of the church age. Then the reign of King Solomon was a type of
the reign of Christ in the Millennium. When Solomon reigned, there was a powerful
man who became his enemy, named Jeroboam, and this man fled to
This terminates the seven thousand years of the world’s history,
and closes the probationary condition of the human race. The number eight is always,
in the Bible the number for a new creation.
The Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day - a type of the new life, the
new birth, the new creation. David was the eighth son of Jesse and the founder
of a new kingdom, a Divine theocracy, and the one whose throne is to be perpetuated by the Lord Jesus. Christ
rose on the eighth day to set forth the new creation. There were eight persons
that came out of the ark after the flood to start a new world with. The new
creation takes place at the beginning of the eighth thousand years of the world’s
history. There is never a blunder in God’s Word as to dates or numbers or types
or dispensations.
We have been tracing the wonderful destiny of the true front-rank
saints through all the dispensations and experiences from their call out of
Egypt and their regeneration on to the end; and now we have come to where we
see them everlastingly fixed in immortality, and get a vision of their eternal [PAGE 238] home in the city of the living
God. In our further study of this subject let us notice the following points:
1. This city is a composite structure,
including both the material of the city and the inhabitants that live in it. It
is called a city built of pure gold like unto clear glass, and yet it is
called the Lamb’s wife, and both of these descriptions are inspired and both
are true. A city is a composite thing including both houses and people. If all
of the inhabitants were taken out of a city and nothing left but the material buildings, it would not be a
city. And, on the other hand, if all the population were scattered on a prairie
or in the mountains, they of themselves would not make a city. A city must have
houses, streets, material facilities, and also must have inhabitants that live
and move and carry on their daily affairs of life, and both of these are
equally essential to make up a city. This is just as true of the city of
This New Jerusalem will be constructed of pure, transparent gold,
with streets, and a river running through it, and a throne in its centre, and a
light beyond the brightness of the sun, with trees of life, and every possible formation of beauty and wealth and
glory and convenience that the Creator can form. And it will also contain the
countless millions of those who have been redeemed from the earth, including,
all the ranks that are mentioned in the Scriptures - prophets and apostles and evangelists and pastors and teachers
and the saints; the four living creatures, and the twenty-four elders who
represent multitudes of their rank from all nations, and the hundred and forty-four
thousand, who are the front-rank saints gathered from Israel in their
final restoration, and [PAGE 239] then the great multitude that no man can number, saved
out of the great tribulation, that stand before the throne.
The city is called the bride, the Lamb’s wife. That is, it is the special home and headquarters of
the bridehood saints. But while the city belongs to the bride, as her
special dowry and estate, as the wife of the Lamb, it will also be the home of all her companions and the virgins without
number and all the redeemed of the earth. When Queen
2. Let us notice the twelve gates in
the wall of the city. “And the city had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and on the gates were written the names
of the twelve tribes of the children of
The pearl, in Scripture, stands for heart purity. “Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And the new version reads: Blessed are they that wash
their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and enter through the
gate into the city. Thus
all these distinctive words agree, that the saints enter the New Jerusalem
through the covenant of justifying faith
and receive the pearl of a pure heart. Of course those can enter the city who
have the gate of the city within themselves, and all those who have the pearl
of heart-purity will possess the very gate that admits them into the city of
pure gold.
3. The Foundations in the Wall of the
City:
“And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and in them the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb. And the foundations of the
wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh,
chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.”
Just as the twelve patriarchs stand for the covenant of faith
which God made to Abraham, so the twelve apostles stand for the doctrines of
the Word of God concerning variety of inspired truth, and upon these doctrines
the church and all saints must rest. We will not be able to understand from
Scripture which doctrine was especially represented by each of the apostles,
and it is not essential that we should know [PAGE 241] this matter; but we may rest assured
that each of the twelve apostles in a
special way represented some great cardinal doctrine and that these doctrines
are the foundations referred to by the Holy Spirit when He tells us that
Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Everything in creation is founded on
the Word of God, and Christ is especially the Divine Word incarnate; and Paul
says “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” So when we put all the words of Scripture together concerning
this subject, we gather conclusively that the
foundations are the doctrines of inspired Scripture. It has been suggested,
for example, that Paul in a special way stands for the doctrine of faith, and
Peter for the doctrine of holiness, and John for the doctrine of love, and
James, for the doctrine of good works, and Jude for the doctrine of judgment,
and Matthew for the kingship of Christ, and John’s gospel for the Deity of
Christ. And thus the other apostles stand for some cardinal doctrine of which
we are not informed.
There is great significance in these precious stones in connection
with the foundations. The high priest in the Jewish system was to wear a
breast-plate on which were the names of the twelve tribes of
[PAGE 242]
We learn from this passage that the New Jerusalem is made up
of saints both from the Jews and from the Gentiles; both from the twelve tribes
of Israel and from the Church of Christ, for while the gates are named after
Israel, the foundations are named after the twelve apostles, proving that the saints of both the Old and the New Testament are combined in
forming the bride of the Lamb. This proves the heresy of those who teach that the bride of Christ will
he composed only of the Jews or the twelve tribes of Israel. The Apostle Paul,
in his epistle to the Gentile
converts, makes many references to the fact that they are to be included in the
number that make up the bride of the Lamb, and he says of some, that he
espoused them as chaste virgins unto Christ. The bride does not
include all of the body of the saved ones, but is a
rib from the body, a selection of
those who meet the conditions for that high rank. The apostle
speaks of believers coming to
4. Notice the purity of the material of
the city: “It is made of pure gold, like
unto clear glass.” For many years infidels disputed the reality of this inspired Scripture
from the fact that gold is opaque, and how could a city made of gold be
transparent? Many years ago a great chemist in
In all creation no metal has been found so pure and fine as
gold. It has a fineness that is almost beyond human comprehension. It is said
that a block of gold an inch square can be hammered out into a thin veil that
will cover an acre of land, and that it can be held in suspense. Scientists
have found that there is gold in the sun. from the composition of its light;
and gold is in the sea, and all through the earth, and in the composition of
the stars. But no element has ever been discovered so fine as gold. Thus God
will make the New Jerusalem of the purest material in all His vast creation,
and of such degree of purity as to be transparent like unto clear glass. It is
in agreement with this fact that the saints are spoken of as being purified
like unto fine gold. The [PAGE 244] apostle speaks of having our faith like pure gold, for faith in the kingdom of Heaven is
just what gold is as a purchasing value on this earth. And then the bride of Christ is described in the Forty-fifth
Psalm
as dressed in the fine gold of Ophir. So there will
be a correspondence between the purity of the city and the purity of the saints
who are the inhabitants.
5. Notice the size of the city. “And the city
lieth four-square, and the length is as large as
the breadth, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.”
Twelve thousand furlongs in our English measure amounts to
fifteen hundred miles. One corner of the city could he located in the State of
Maine, and another corner in southern Florida, and the third corner in New
Mexico, and the fourth corner in North Dakota: and then the structure would
rise up in the sky fifteen hundred miles high. Of course these measurements are very small when compared with the
magnitudes of the earth and the sun and the great solar system; but for the
size of a city these measurements are beyond anything that the human mind ever
dreamed of.
It is not so much the outside measurements of the city that
make it so vast as it is the interior structure of the streets and apartments
and mansions and every conceivable furnishing of glory and accommodation for
the glorified saints. If we allow the streets of the city to be one mile apart,
and one mile high over each other, it would amount to eight million miles of
streets. But if we put the streets a quarter of a mile apart and a quarter of a
mile over each other, it would amount to
countless millions of miles. And then if we allow the most ample space for each
one of the glorified saints for a mansion, all the beings that have ever been
born of the human [PAGE 245] race would only fill one corner of that structure. Thus
there
will be ample space for every saint to have a mansion of glory with
conveniences and ornaments in some way representative of that individual’s
character or life work; just as the crowns that the saints wear will in some
way set forth their particular rank in the kingdom, and their special rewards,
so the mansion of each glorified saint will indicate in some way the
peculiarities in his life or experience or work. “In my Father’s house are
many mansions,” and this
is the Father’s house, and these the countless mansions in the house.
The apostle says. in verse 11, that this city has the glory of God,
that is, the city is the centre of Divine glory and is filled with God’s glory,
for the Lamb is the light of it; and it has no need of the sun or the moon to
shine in it, for the glory of God does lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of that
city. (Rev.
21:
23-24)
6. We must remember also that this city
is a living organism the same as our human body is. We read of the pure river
of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
the Lamb, and that this river runs all through the city and waters the tree of
life, and supplies the whole city with water. The throne of the Lamb is in the
centre, and some have questioned, How can this pure river flow with equal
facility upwards, downwards, right or left, through every part of the city.
This is explained by the fact that it will be a living organism. Look at our
earth. The rivers both inside the earth and on the surface run every way, north
and south and east and west and down into the earth, and also they gush up from
the earth into the air. Also our human bodies are little, miniature worlds; in
the centre [PAGE 246] of the body is the heart, which is the source of life, sending out a river of blood with
equal facility up to the head and down to the feet and out to the
extremities, because it is a living organism and operates without any special
reference to the law of terrestrial gravitation. The same will be true of the
river of water in the New Jerusalem. It will flow every way with equal
facility.
All the streets of the city will be amply supplied with
beautiful trees of life, and with every variety of fruit. At least twelve manner
of fruit is spoken of in this Scripture. Every curse will be removed, and every
blessing that the human imagination can conceive of will be in that city. It
will be in fact the crown and the consummation of all the works of God in all
the created universe.
The tree of life will yield twelve manner of fruits, and yield
its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for healing the nations.
This word “healing” more literally should he translated “health preserving;” it does not imply that the nations
will
get sick, and the Greek word signifies to preserve health. So the
leaves of the tree will be to preserve the perfect health of the nations throughout
the ages that are to come.
“And they shall see God’s face and the
face of the Lamb, and his name shall be in their
foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle,
neither light of the sun; and they shall reign
for ever and ever. And he said unto me. These are the true sayings of God.” (Rev.
22.)
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[PAGE 247]
CHAPTER 20
THE PLAN OF THE AGES
When we
get an insight into any of God’s plans or purposes, it has the effect of
drawing us to Him in a stronger affection and a more personal attachment, and
also it increases our interest in His kingdom and in His work. If a private on
the battlefield could be taken into the secret counsel of the commanding
general and understand all the plans that the general has for the battle, it
would wonderfully increase the interest and loyalty of the soldier, and enable
him to fight with more intelligent heroism. If a clerk in a large establishment
could be taken into partnership with the firm, and have explained to him all
the details of the business and the various plans that the head men had for
carrying on the business, it would make the clerk much more devoted to the
interests of the firm and cause him to work with more ardour and personal
interest.
This same law that governs the human mind is eminently true
when applied to spiritual things and to our knowledge of the plans of our
Heavenly Father, both concerning the things of this world, and also His purpose
in the mission of our lives.
The apostle tells us, in Hebrew 1: 2, that God has, through His Son Jesus, made a plan of all the
ages or dispensations connected with this world. Our English Bible reads that
God, by His Son, formed the worlds, but the word “worlds” should be ages, and Christ was the architect of all the various dispensations and ages of
creation.
[PAGE 248]
In the passage where Isaiah says that Christ should be called the everlasting Father, it should be, “His
name should be called the Father of the Ages.” There is only one God the
Father, and the word “Father”
is never applied in Scripture to the
Son of God in the same way that it is applied to the first person in the
Godhead, and hence the apostle says: “To us there is but one God the Father;” that is, only one Father in the
Godhead, but the Son of God is called the Father of the Ages because it was by
Him that all the various periods of duration were arranged. The word eternity occurs only once in our English
Bible, but even in that passage it should be ages, for there is no word in the original Hebrew or Greek Scriptures that
corresponds to our word eternity; the
Bible teaching is that all duration has been divided off into great epochs and
series of ages on ages.
God has made a special plan of the different ages belonging to
our world, and the various steps of progress in the history of the human race.
Each of these ages has its own peculiar features, and each successive age has
various advantages over the preceding one, for all the works of God, whether in
nature, grace or glory, always advance to higher degree. Let us notice God’s
purposes concerning the different ages of our world, especially in reference to
the probation and destiny of the human race and of His own people.
1. We may speak of
the first age, extending from Adam to the good, as the Age of Conscience. In
that dispensation God put the human race on trial to see what man would do
acting from his own conscience in connection with the work of the Spirit. God
intended to prove to all the world that the human conscience, by itself, is not
a sufficient guide for [Page 249] conduct, and this could not be proved to the
satisfaction of mankind without making the experiment.
In that first dispensation there was no written law, no publication
of the ten commandments, no church, no organized religious institution, no
fixed method of religious government, no special revelation of the attributes
of God, no details given as to the conduct of private life. Men claimed to be
able to govern themselves and to know what was right, and so God left the race
to be tried by their own consciences, to put them to the proof as to whether
they would live uprightly, and worship the true God, and live in brotherly
love, or whether they would develop into a race of giant sinners. Also in that
age God allowed men to live a long time, practically a thousand years, in order
that the living fathers might be able to transmit to their children the things
concerning the creation as related by Adam, the first father; and thus these
fathers, living through so many centuries. would be living books to the rising
generations. Thus the people had not only truth conveyed to them concerning the
things of God, but also truth emphasized by living persons and given in the
spirit of fatherly affection.
Another feature of that first age was that the laws of nature were
not disrupted until after the flood,
and during that first dispensation there were no storms, no earthquakes, no
severe winters or burning summers, but the laws of nature moved on with perfect
beauty and harmony, without any sickness, without any furious demonstration
from the lower animals - for the animals never ate meat and the human race
never ate meat until after the flood, - and so mankind had all the advantages
of outward peace and prosperity. And yet, in spite of all these marvellous
advantages, the nature of sin which had been caused by the fall of Adam,
continually developed more and more as the centuries went on, until the wickedness
[PAGE 250] of man was so great that God found it a moral necessity to destroy the
race and start humanity over again from a single family.
2. The next age we may call the Age of Law, or the Jewish Age,
extending from the call of Abraham to the birth of Christ. During that
dispensation God put mankind on trial again to see what would be the development of human character. During
this Age of Law human beings not only had the conscience which they had before
the flood, but in addition to that they had a definite published law consisting
of all kinds, viz: the moral law, written in the Ten
Commandments, and the ceremonial law, written by Moses, governing all the
details of national and family life for the chosen family of Israelites. The
moral law was written by the finger of God on tables of stones, and was for the
whole race for all generations; but the ceremonial law was written by Moses and
applied especially to the Hebrew people.
In this second age God also dealt with the world through one
special chosen family- the children of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. There were
many advantages connected with working through one chosen family, because the
family ties and affections would be a strong preservation for unity and moral
strength, and also the preserving of the select seed by which the world could
have the very best of instructors and rulers. That chosen family was the depositary
of the revealed word of God and the custodian of the laws of God, and they were
chosen to be the teachers and leaders
and missionaries for all the other nations. That chosen family also had
prophets and special inspired teachers to instruct them in the things of God.
The prophets of the Hebrew people, taken as a class, were the greatest men, the
strongest characters, the most [PAGE 251] powerful leaders, of any class of men in the whole
world, for they were infinitely superior to the poets of other nations, and
also superior to the kings and generals and rulers, for they stood in with the
private councils of God, and were His chosen spokesmen to the whole world, and
acted in that dispensation in a similar way that the Holy Ghost was to act in a
later dispensation. And yet, with all these advantages and helps in the second
age, that high chosen family went astray from God, and developed forms of sin
and a degree of obstinacy surpassing that of the outside Gentile nations, and
their rebellion reached an awful climax in the rejection and crucifixion of the
Son of God. This proved to all the universe that human character could not be
thoroughly changed by mere law or by force of mental instruction, and that
something else was required, to go deeper down into the character of man’s
soul.
3. The third
dispensation we call the Gospel or Church Age. It began with the day of
Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and is to extend to the second
coming of Christ. In this Gospel Age, men still have the conscience and the
moral law, and all the best things of the previous ages. In addition to this
the Gospel Age had the personal presence and life of the Son of God incarnate
in human flesh. The greatest event of its kind in the history of the universe
was the incarnation of the Son of God in a human body and soul. The fact that
the second person in the infinite Godhead should come forth from the bosom of
the Father and take on humanity and identify Himself with a human body and soul
and live a human life in this world and consent to die for the sins of the
human race, is the most marvellous event
in all [PAGE 252] the history of the creation of God, and we never shall be able to understand in our present life
why the infinite God of the universe should select the race of mankind and this
world of ours as the scene of the incarnation, and it must be that this mystery
will be revealed to us in the glorified state.
The Gospel Age not only has the life and death of the Son of
God, but also the gift of the Holy
Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, to apply to man’s soul the atonement
of Christ and the word of Christ and to
act directly on human hearts in transforming the lives of men into the image of
God, and preparing them for the glorious state of existence in the ages to come.
In this age we have also the Christian church with its
ministry and sacraments, and with authority to evangelise the nations and to gather out a people for the age to come.
And yet in spite of these enormous advantages, the human race remains in
wickedness and great darkness. There are ten times more heathen on earth today
than there were when the Lord Jesus lived on this earth, and sinners multiplied
a hundred times faster than believers do. The first nations that had the Gospel
are today the lowest and vilest of all nations on earth. Even among the nations
where there are most churches and active Christians, the great mass of men are
practical infidels, and manifest a hardness towards God far greater than the
heathen who never have heard the Gospel; and according to the words of Scripture,
in this Gospel Age wicked men and
deceivers will wax worse and worse down to the very hour when Jesus shall come
again.
The first age wound up with gigantic sinners, and a judgment
that destroyed the people from the earth. The second age wound up with the
climax of the sin of the chosen people [PAGE 253] in killing the Son of God, and was
accompanied with terrible judgments in the destruction of
4. The Millennial
Age will be the next dispensation upon our earth. This coming age will have all
the advantages of the previous ages and a vast addition of blessings besides.
Remember, the Millennial Age belongs to the probation of the world’s history,
and will be the period when the human race as a whole will accept the Lord
Jesus Christ and countless millions will be truly regenerated and purified. In
addition to the human conscience and the moral law and the Gospel of the Son of
God, the Millennial Age will have the
personal presence of the glorified Jesus moving hither and thither through the
air, and in all parts of the world, the same as He did in the forty days after
His resurrection. The world will
also have the presence and supervision of the glorified saints, who will rise
in the first resurrection and, according to Scripture, have authority over the nations of the earth and superintend in every
detail the affairs of the human race. Paul tells us, in Hebrews, that the angels are now sent as
ministering spirits to the children of God; but he says, in the next age, that
the angels will not have charge, but
that the glorified saints, who have
been sanctified and made one with Christ, will be made the rulers and the guardians of the world in that age, so
that the education and training and management of the nations that will be born
in the Millennial Age will be under the immediate authority and guidance of the
glorified [PAGE 254] saints. In
addition to these advantages, Satan
will be chained and all the demons that are now acting under his authority will
be chained with him in the abyss, and there will be no demon to torment or
afflict any human being on the earth in that age. Also the curse will be lifted from the earth, and there will be no more briars or thorns, and the lower animals will not hurt anyone, for the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and, there will be no more
storms or earthquakes, for righteousness
shall drop down from the clouds and truth shall spring out of the ground and
nothing shall hurt or destroy. And yet, in spite of all these marvellous
blessings, we are told in several places that even in that age multitudes will serve God feignedly or deceitfully, and at the close of the Millennial Age,
when Satan is let loose again, he will find countless thousands of
hypocrites in the earth and lead them to revolt against the government of
Christ, so that fire will come down
out of Heaven and destroy them.
Thus we see that, clear down to the end of the world’s probation, man is a failure apart from the
grace of God, and there is a stubbornness in sin which perpetuates itself
through all the ages until it is utterly expelled by Divine authority in the
lake of fire with the devil and his angels.
The probation of the
human race is to extend through one week; according to God’s
days in which it takes a thousand years to make one day. The first
dispensation extended practically from Adam to the call of Abraham, two thousand
years; that is, two of God’s days.
The second dispensation extended from the call of Abraham to the death of
Christ, which was two thousand years more, or two days. The third age extends from the death of Christ to the
opening of the Millennial Age, which
is two thousand years, or two days.
This makes [PAGE 255] six days of the world’s history, and all the features of God’s true Sabbath will
be manifested in that blessed dispensation of the seventh day.
This is God’s plan for the different ages of our world’s
history, as related to the probation of mankind. At the close of these
different ages there will start a new series of ages which is referred to so many
times in the Bible by the expression “ages of ages.” In every place where our English
Bible reads “for
ever and ever,” both as
applied to the duration of future punishment and to the duration of the rewards
and life of the righteous, the original words are “to the ages of the ages.” Hence there will be no end of the successive series of ages in the history of
the universe.
This same truth applies to our individual lives, for God has a
plan for each of our lives, and if we are able to understand what God’s purpose
is in our personal lives and our individual work that He gives us to do, it
becomes a marvellous inspiration to our hearts to be perfectly devoted to Him
and His work in the kingdom.
* *
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[PAGE
256]
CHAPTER 21
THE THREE APPEARINGS OF CHRLST
Whenever
Christ has made a manifestation of Himself as the Son of God throughout the
history of creation, it has always constituted an epoch, and been the occasion
of great events and the setting forward of some new dispensation of Divine
providence or grace. He first appeared out from the bosom of the Father in the
act of creation; for by Him all things were created, and without Him nothing
was made that was made. Thus His first appearance from the Father formed the
epoch of the creation of the universe. When He appeared to Adam in the Garden
of Eden, it formed the epoch of the starting of human history, and the setting
up of Adam and Eve as the rulers of this lower world. When He appeared to Noah
it was to reveal to him the coming of the flood, and to give instructions
concerning the building of the ark for the saving of his family. When He
appeared to Abraham it was the epoch of calling out one chosen family from whom
should come a chosen race that should be God’s agents in revealing Divine truth
to mankind, and out of which race should come the incarnate Son of God. When He
appeared to Moses at the burning bush, it was another epoch, of delivering
There are three other special appearings of Christ which are
mentioned in the 9th chapter of Hebrews, each of which forms a
special epoch in the history of redemption. It is a very remarkable portion of
Scripture.
“For Christ is not entered in the holy
places made with hands, which are the figures of
the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not as the high priest entereth often into the holy places
made with hands with the blood of others; for
then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world (or, more properly, at the
consummation of the age) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time
without sin (or
without a sin offering) unto salvation.” (Heb. 9: 24-28.)
Let us take time to study carefully the three appearings that
are referred to in this portion of the Word. He appeared to put away sin; and
then He appeared in the presence of God up in Heaven for us; and in due time He
will return and appear the second time to those who look for Him.
1.
He appeared to put away sin. The literal rendering of the words is: At the consummation of the ages He appeared to put away sin. We all
know that the world has not come to an end, and so it is incorrect to say that
He appeared at the end of the world to put away sin; and the Revised Version has corrected the translation. The word “age” or “ages” [PAGE
258] refers to a
dispensation, for the entire history of the world is marked off by different
ages or dispensations. The first age was from Adam, to Noah’s flood. In that
age they had no law, no Bible, no church, but the human race was put on trial
to he governed by the human conscience, which was operated on by the Holy
Spirit, for God said to Noah: “My Spirit
shall not always strive with men.” The power of conscience was not equal to guide the race
either in morals or salvation, and that age came to a close. With Moses came
the institution of another age or dispensation, - that of the law, which
included the moral law in the Ten Commandments, and the ceremonial law, and also the ministry of prophets, and types. The law could not save anyone, but its
office was to reveal sin, and show
the need of salvation. The law age having fulfilled its purpose in
revealing sin, came to a close, and then Jesus appeared, the incarnate Son of
God, to make a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and to provide the salvation
which the law had proved to be a necessity. Hence Christ did not appear as a Saviour at the end of the
conscience age, but at the end of the law age, because it was the law which
revealed sin, and also revealed the penalty for sin, and so showed the
necessity of a sacrifice sufficient to make an atonement for the sins of men.
The word “appear”
is very significant when we take it in the light of the crucifixion of Christ.
The crucifixion of Jesus was one of the most conspicuous things that has ever
happened in the world’s history. As the apostle says, it was not done in a
corner. The spot where Christ was crucified was outside the city of
But this significant truth has another application, and that
is, in order that Christ may be a Saviour He must appear by faith to each individual penitent, for it is by looking to Christ crucified that we
receive remission of sins. Countless instances can he related of penitents
having visions of Christ at the time their sins are forgiven. The late Col.
Henry Hadley told me many years ago, that when he bowed at the altar in old
Water Street Mission in New York to seek Jesus, that during that day he had
taken sixty drinks of liquor, and fell down at the old mourners’ bench, two
hundred and twenty-five pounds of lager beer and sin; and he said that while he
was there weeping, in a drunken state, he had a vision of the [PAGE
260] crucifixion of
Jesus, and became unconscious to everything around him, and he saw them take Christ and nail Him to the
cross, and heard the blows of the hammer on the nails, and saw the blood spurt out from His hands
and feet; and that from the moment he had [been given] that vision, all his sins were taken away and all desire for liquor
was utterly removed from his system.
Some years ago an actress on the stage of a theatre was
suddenly arrested by seeing a vision of the crucified Saviour in
one of the galleries, and screamed out that the would give herself to Jesus; and from that moment was thoroughly changed in her heart and life.
When I was seeking the Lord to forgive my sins, as a soldier
boy in the Southern army, on the 12th day of August, 1863, I became
unconscious of everything around me, and had
a vision of Jesus with His hands stretched out; and from that moment my burden was gone and I was supremely happy.
Instances like this may occur to only a few people, comparatively,
but in some way Christ must appear to
the faith of the true seekers, in order that their sins may he taken away.
The word for faith, in the Old Testament, is to look. “They looked unto
Him and were lightened.” “Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth.” Hence both in a historical sense and
in an individual sense, there must be an
appearance of Christ as a sin-bearer,
a sacrifice, an atonement to take
away our sins.
And then what significance there is in the words, “to put away sin.” Not to repress sin or to cover it over, but to actually remove it, put
it away, put it out of our sight; and God says He also puts it out of His own
sight. Christ is the only one in all the universe that can remove sin from the
sinner, and separate the soul from its guilt and shame.
[PAGE 261]
The appearance of Christ to Paul on his way to
2. “He appears in the presence of God for us in Heaven.” After finishing his work on the
earth, and [after] having spent forty days in a resurrected and glorified
[immortal] body - [of “flesh and bones” (Lk.
24:
39,
R.V.)] - to complete the testimony of His resurrection
power and authority; He ascended in the
presence of witnesses up into Heaven, to
the right hand of God the Father, where
He has been all the centuries since, appearing
before God for us.
This was all set forth in the ceremonial priesthood, where, on
the great day of atonement the high priest sacrificed the animals in the
presence of the people and the other priests, and then took the blood in a
basin and disappeared from the people and the other priests, and went beyond
the second veil where they could not see him; and appeared before God under the
wings of the cherubim, and sprinkled the blood on the mercy-seat to make an
atonement for the people, and to intercede for the people, and to finish the
work that was assigned to him in the Divine presence. Thus Christ fulfilled every point in that ceremonial; for He shed His
own blood in the presence of countless thousands who had assembled at Jerusalem
for the great Passover, and when He was buried He disappeared from the eyes of
the world, and three days after, when He arose, - [out from amongst the dead in ‘Hades’ (Acts 2: 31, R.V.)] - He took His own blood up into
Heaven and sprinkled it on the mercy-seat before God the Father according to
the exact prescription of the law, and
returned that same day, and spent
forty days living in the air and appearing at various times to chosen witnesses.
Jesus never commenced His work as a high priest until after
His resurrection. The Apostle Paul tells us explicitly [PAGE
262] that if Christ were
on the earth He would not be a priest, because
the Levitical priests performed all the services belonging on the earth; but
Paul affirms that Christ became a priest, doing the work of a priest, after His resurrection; for He was made a priest after the order or
rank of Melchizedek, and not
according to the rank of Aaron.
Very few Christians have ever put together the things that
Christ performs while He appears in Heaven in the presence of God. There are
several items mentioned in Scripture which describe the occupation of Jesus
while He appears in Heaven. I have already mentioned one of those significant
acts, and that is, the sprinkling of His own blood upon the mercy-seat in the
presence of God the Father. It is a great mistake to think that the blood of
Christ remained lying on the ground,
because it is the teaching of Scripture that the blood of atonement must be
taken and sprinkled on the mercy-seat in the holy of holies. According to
the words of Saint Paul, “Christ is a high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us.” (Heb. 9: 11-12.)
From the time that the high
priest shed the blood of the animal on the great day of atonement, no one must
touch him until after he had sprinkled the blood on the mercy-seat in the
second veil and returned out from that veil, and then they could touch him. This
explains the passage in John’s gospel, where, when Mary first saw the risen
Lord she attempted to take hold of His garment, but He said to her “Touch me not,
for I have not
yet ascended to my Father, but go tell my disciples that I ascend.” And the word [PAGE
263] “ascend” is in the present tense, which means just now, at this moment, I
ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. An hour after
this, Christ appeared again, to the disciples, and they caught Him by the knees
and worshiped Him, proving that in the
interval between the time when Mary first saw Him, and the time when He appeared to the disciples, He had ascended and taken His own blood and
sprinkled it on the mercy-seat before God the Father and had returned back to
the earth.
Another thing that Christ performs while He appears in the presence
of the Father, is the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit upon believers. It is true that Christ gave a measure of the
Spirit to the disciples before His permanent ascension, but that was the Holy
Spirit in the form of a breath, which accompanies the gift of life, and which
was the assurance or witness of the Spirit to their hearts that they were the
children of God; but after His permanent ascension to the Father He then poured out the Holy Spirit as the Divine
Comforter, the promised baptism of the spirit, the sanctifier, that the
Holy Spirit should possess the - [obedient members (Acts 5: 32; cf. 1 John 3: 24) of the] - church, and take the place of Christ on earth, and remain with the church to the end of
the age, when Christ will return. Hence the Lord Jesus, in the presence of
God, has authority to bestow the Holy Spirit, not only to the church but to individuals, and also by the Holy
Spirit to impart various gifts to
believers. Christ had no authority to give the Holy Ghost to anybody in the
world during His lifetime, until after His resurrection, and then He testified,
saying, “All
authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” It was by His
death and resurrection that He acquired authority from the Father to administer
the [PAGE 264] Holy Spirit, and
all spiritual gifts, as well as to
administer through the Spirit all matters of Divine providence.
Another work that Christ is performing in the presence of God is that of intercession. Several times
this work of His intercession with the Father is mentioned in Scripture. Some
have inquired if Jesus, up in Heaven, prays for sinners. The saying is that
Christ prayed while hanging on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do,” and Christ has certainly not backslidden, for He is the same yesterday,
today, and forever; and if He prayed for sinners while dying on the cross, He
certainly prays for them at the present time in the presence of the Father, and
pleads for them the merit of His blood that lies on the mercy-seat. And
most certainly He prays for all believers, and He still perpetuates that wonderful
prayer He offered, in the 17th chapter of John’s gospel, in which He prays
to the Father to sanctify the disciples
through His own truth; and we may be sure that that prayer is still offered
to the Father.
Another work that Christ is performing up in Heaven is that of
preparing the many mansions for the
glorified saints to have as their
homes. “In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a
place for you; and if I go to prepare a
place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.” The construction of the city of pure
gold is the most marvellous thing in all the material universe of God. He was
six days creating the heavens and the earth; but He has been nearly two
thousand years building and furnishing the many mansions.
These are some of the things which are made known in Scripture
that Christ is carrying forward while He
is absent from this earth, and while
He is appearing in the presence of the Father.
3. He will appear again
the second time back to this earth. When
we read, “He will appear the second time without sin unto salvation,”
we must remember that the
word “sin” here refers to a sin offering. When Christ first appeared He was a sin offering on the cross, to
put away sin; but at His second appearing back to the earth He will not be a sin offering, but the Judge and King of all the world
- to judge mankind as to how they have
treated the sin offering which He made, as to what
relation they sustain towards Himself.
There is a beautiful parallel between the 9th chapter of Hebrews and the 9th chapter
of Leviticus.
In the 9th
of Leviticus
there is a description of the sacrifices that the high priest was to offer on
the great day of atonement: After the high priest had finished his work in
shedding the blood and sprinkling it upon the altar, he was then to come out from the second veil, and lift up his hands towards the people and bless them, and then come down from offering the sin
offering, and come out and bless the
people; and when he did that, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the
people, and fire came out from
before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering; and when all the people saw this they
shouted and fell on their faces. How perfectly this sets forth the priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus,
that He is to come out from the tabernacle on high, and lift up His hands and
bless His saints, and appear to His people in glory accompanied by Divine fire,
and His saints will fall on their faces and give God the glory, preparatory to being translated and caught
up to meet the Lord in the air. It is beautiful to notice in how many
instances there are parallel chapters in the Bible, and this is one of those
instances.
[PAGE 266]
It is also worth our while to notice the words, “Unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second
time.” There is something in believers’
looking for the second coming of the Lord which puts upon them a character of
faith and watchfulness, and is often referred to in Scripture as to a New
Testament believer, as in that passage where Paul speaks of certain believers
coming behind no other church in all gifts, waiting for the coming of the Lord,
as if that attitude of waiting and looking
for Christ was one of the genuine marks of Christian discipleship.
Another word in this
connection is “salvation.” “He will appear
the second time unto salvation.” The word “salvation” is used in several ways in the New Testament, as, for instance, it sets
forth a temporal salvation and a spiritual salvation, as where the apostle says
that Christ is the Saviour of all men, but especially of them that believe.
That is, Christ is the Saviour of all men in
a temporal sense in preserving them alive, in giving them opportunity of
hearing the Gospel. But He is in a special way the Saviour from sin to those
who believe. And then the Scriptures teach an initial salvation and a perfect salvation, for it speaks of
believers whose sins are pardoned, and yet
urges them to go on to perfection, - to
a full salvation. And then the Scriptures speak of a present salvation and an eternal salvation, for with regard to
salvation from sin, this is the day of
salvation. And yet the word is many times used in reference to eternal
salvation, as where Peter says, “There is a grace to be brought unto
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1: 13.) And also in Heb.
1:
14, that the angels are ministering
spirits to those who shall be the heirs of salvation
- or more literally, to those believers who are just about to
become heirs of eternal [‘aionios’
i.e., age-lasting] salvation. Hence [PAGE 267] the word “salvation” in the passage under consideration
refers to the salvation in the glorified state,
not only from all sin and guilt, but from all mortality, sickness, pain, infirmity, and every
circumstance connected with our present condition of trial in this life.
Christ must appear the second time in order to reap the
harvest of His first appearing.
A farmer makes two visits to a wheat field. At the first visit
he appears in the field to plow the soil and sow the seed, and put everything
in good condition for a crop. After four months he makes a second appearance on
the field to reap the harvest and garner his grain. And this sets forth that
Christ, at His first coming, sowed the seed of His Word, and shed His blood,
and poured out the [Holy] Spirit, that He might have a harvest of souls from the earth. In due time
He will appear the second time, back to the same field where He preached and
bled, in order to reap the golden grain - the
souls that have been regenerated and
purified by His grace.
He must also appear the second time in order to set up His [millennial] kingdom. The first word that God ever spoke
about making man was, that he must have dominion and reign as a king, so that
the kingdom idea is the first that God ever expressed with regard to the human race and this earth. The first word
that Jesus ever preached was with regard to the
One more fact in connection with the second coming of Christ
is, that His appearance will have a Divine power to instantly transform and
glorify the believers who have received Him in the church age; for the Apostle
John says, “When he shall appear, we shall be
like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
THE END