The reformation of the earth "never was, nor yet shall be, till the righteous King and Judge appear for the restoration of all things."-_John Knox._
"The groans of nature in this nether world, Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end.
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung, Whose fire was kindled at the prophet"s lamp, The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes: Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course Over a sinful world; and what remains Of this tempestuous state of human things, Is merely as the working of a sea Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest; For HE, whose car the winds are, and the clouds The dust that waits upon his sultry march, When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot, Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend, Propitious, in his chariot paved with love; And what his storms have blasted and defaced For man"s _revolt_, shall with a smile _repair_."
_Cowper"s Task._
The above are only a few of many extracts which might be made, showing the faith of the church in past ages; but which are of no weight, only as they are in accordance with the harmony of scriptural testimony.
When man sinned, this earth was cursed for his sake. The Lord said to him, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," Gen. 3:17-19.
Such was the curse to which the whole creation was subjected because man sinned. "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope," Rom. 8:20. And this hope is for a removal of the curse thus inflicted, and a restoration of all things to their original condition.
As the earth was subjected to the curse at the time when man was made subject to death, the removal of the former would naturally be expected at the epoch of the fulfillment of the promise to the just: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death I will be thy plagues; O grave I will be thy destruction," Hos. 13:14. And thus Paul testifies: "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of G.o.d, ... Because the creature itself, also, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of G.o.d. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, 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," Rom. 8:19, 21-23.
The removal of the curse removes also its consequences. Thus it is promised: "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree," Isa. 55:13. "The inhabitant shall not say I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity," Isa. 33:24. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord G.o.d will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people will he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it," Isa. 25:8. "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth," Isa.
65:17. "And there shall be no more curse," Rev. 22:3. "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody,"
Isa. 51:3.
The removal of the curse is called "the regeneration" (Matt. 19:28), "the times of refreshing," and of "rest.i.tution;" which Peter places at the advent of Christ: "whom the heavens must receive until the times of rest.i.tution(10) of all things, which G.o.d hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," Acts 3:21. He also places it at "the perdition of unG.o.dly men," which must synchronize with the epoch when the beast "goeth into perdition" (17:11), and "the remnant" are "slain with the sword," (19:21); "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not G.o.d, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
2 Thess. 1:7, 8. Says Peter: "The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word ["whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" v.6] are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of unG.o.dly men.... But the day of the Lord will come, as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pa.s.s away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also; and the works that are therein shall be burned up....
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," _i.e._, "righteous persons"-_Horsely_, 2 Pet. 3:7-13. This harmonizes with the day that "cometh that shall burn as an oven," when "all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly" shall be burned up, and become "ashes under the soles"
of those on whom "shall the Sun of righteousness arise," (Mal. 4:1-3); which must be the time intervening between the resurrection of the righteous and that of the wicked. This also harmonizes with the testimony of our Saviour, that when, "in the end of this world," He "shall send forth his angels and gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; ...
_then_ shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," Matt. 13:40-43.
The earth being cleansed, and all things made new, it will have been prepared for the "dwelling" of "righteous persons" (2 Pet. 3:13), who,-having "put on incorruption" (1 Cor. 15:53), and been "caught up ...
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:17), where, const.i.tuting "the bride," "the Lamb"s wife," they were "called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" (19:7-9),-will descend from heaven to take possession. Thus John writes, that one of the angels said to him: "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 he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from G.o.d," 21:9, 10.
"Lo, what a glorious sight appears To our believing eyes: The earth and seas are pa.s.sed away, And the old rolling skies!
From the third heaven where G.o.d resides, That holy, happy place, The New Jerusalem comes down Adorned with shining grace.
Attending angels shout for joy, And the bright armies sing, Mortals, behold the sacred seat Of your descending King."-_Watts._
The Kingdom given to the Saints at the resurrection of the just.
"And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given for them: and I saw the persons of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of G.o.d, and those, who had not worshipped the wild beast, nor his image, nor had received the mark on their forehead, or on their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ the thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Happy and holy is he, who bath part in the first resurrection: on such, the second death hath no power, but they will be priests of G.o.d and of Christ, and will reign with him a thousand years!" Rev. 20:4-6.
"Thrones" are symbols of power. As the saints are to reign with Christ on the renewed earth, in obedience to the invitation: "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," (Matt. 25:34); their being inducted into the kingdom is symbolized by their being seated on thrones. Thus they sing in the "new song,"
addressed to Christ: "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to G.o.d by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our G.o.d kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth,"
5:9, 10. In the first chapter, also, all who ascribe praises to "Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," also add: "and hath made us kings and priests unto G.o.d, and his Father," 1:5, 6.
All the saints being thus exalted to kingly and priestly dignity, symbolizes the exalted rank they are to hold in the new creation-the symbols of their station being taken from the most exalted offices known on earth. Thus G.o.d said to ancient Israel: "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation," (Ex. 19:6); and the Christian church is addressed as "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people," 1 Pet. 2:9.
The time when the saints shall reign on the earth is in connection with the destruction of the "little horn" of Daniel"s "fourth beast," which, as he saw, "made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom," Dan. 7:21, 22. "The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever," _Ib._ v. 18. "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," _Ib._ v.
27. "And they shall reign forever and ever," 22:5. Thus the Saviour said: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father"s good pleasure to give you the kingdom," Luke 12:32.
Those who receive the kingdom are symbolized by the souls of martyrs, &c., living again and reigning with Christ. The symbol includes, with the martyred saints, those who had stood aloof from the worship of the beast and his image, and those who had not received his mark; who are shown by a parallel scripture to represent all who are redeemed to G.o.d "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," 5:9, 10. Some of these were symbolized, under the fifth seal, as crying from under the altar in antic.i.p.ation of this day, 6:9. Now, with "their fellow servants," they receive their reward.
The souls of the departed living again, can only symbolize those who have been subjected to death, and are again raised. Consequently they are the subjects of a real resurrection. And this is shown by the explanation of the symbol, which affirms that, "This is the first resurrection."
It is denied by many that a literal resurrection is here taught; but in so doing they deny the faith of the church in its best and purest ages. In the first two centuries after Christ, there was not an individual, who believed in any resurrection of the dead whose name or memory has survived to the present time, who denied that the resurrection of the just is here taught.
Eusebius, who opposed this view, quotes Papias, who he admits was a disciple of St. John and a companion of Polycarp, as saying that "after the resurrection of the dead the kingdom of Christ shall be established corporeally on this earth." And Jerome, another opposer, quotes from him that "he had the apostles for his authors; and that he considered what Andrew, what Peter said, what Philip, what Thomas said, and other disciples of the Lord."
Polycarp was another of John"s disciples; and Irenaeus testifies in an epistle to Florinus, that he had seen Polycarp, "who related his conversation with John and others who had seen the Lord, and how he related their sayings, and the things he had heard of them concerning the Lord, both concerning his miracles and doctrine, as he had received them from the Lord of life; all of which Polycarp related agreeable to the scriptures." Following such a teacher, Irenaeus taught that at the resurrection of the just, the meek should inherit the earth; and that then would be fulfilled the promise which G.o.d made to Abraham.
Justin Martyr, born A. D. 89, says that, "A certain man _among us_, whose name is John, being one of the twelve apostles of Christ, in that Revelation which was shown him, prophesied that those who believe in our Christ shall fulfil a thousand years at Jerusalem." He affirms that himself "and many others are of this mind"-"that Christ shall reign personally on earth;" and that "all who were accounted orthodox so believed."
Tertullian, about A. D. 180, says it was a custom for Christians to pray that they might have part in the first resurrection. And Cyprian, about 220, says that Christians "had a thirst for martyrdom that they might obtain a better resurrection."
Mosheim a.s.sures us that the opinion "that Christ was to come and reign 1000 years among men," had, before the time of Origen, about the middle of the 3d century, "met with no opposition." And it is the testimony of ecclesiastical historians, that the first who opposed it, seeing no way of avoiding the meaning of the words in Rev. 20th, denied the authenticity of the Apocalypse, and claimed that it was written by one Cerenthus, a heretic, for the very purpose of sustaining what they called "his fiction of the reign of Christ on earth." This doctrine is not _now_ evaded in this way, but by spiritualizing the language of the Apocalypse, and thus finding a meaning in it which is not expressed by any of the admitted laws of language. Theologians who thus reason make the first resurrection the conversion of the world. But those who are affirmed to be raised, are persons who have lived and are dead. If the resurrection is a mere metaphor, then the martyrs must have metaphorically died, and must have comprised only those who had been previously converted and were fallen away. The rest of the dead must then be understood as persons morally dead, which would be inconsistent with the idea of a converted world.
Those who were raised being those who were previously converted, they must have been literally dead, and the only resurrection predicable of such is a literal resurrection.
The Bible teaches such a resurrection of the righteous prior to that of the wicked. Thus the Psalmist says of them: "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning." But of himself he says: "But G.o.d will redeem my soul from the power of the grave," Psa. 49:14, 15. Of the wicked Isaiah testifies: "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise," _i.e._ with the righteous; but to Zion he says: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead," Isa. 26:14, 19. To the same import is the prophecy of Daniel, respecting the time when Michael shall stand up, and "thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some, [the awakened, shall be] to everlasting life, and some, [the unawakened, shall be] to shame and everlasting contempt," Dan. 12:1, 2.
Such, according to Prof. Bush, is the precise rendering of the original.
The New Testament also teaches a resurrection of the just, in distinction from that of the wicked. Paul says, while all are to be made alive, that it will be "every man in his own order," or band-"Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ"s at his coming," 1 Cor. 15:23. None others are spoken of as being raised at that epoch. When the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, at the trump of G.o.d, not the entire ma.s.s of the dead, but "the dead in Christ shall rise first," before the righteous living are changed, 1 Thess. 4:16. In accordance with this priority in the resurrection of the righteous, Paul teaches that the worthies who died in faith "accepted not deliverance, that they might obtain _a better_ resurrection," (Heb. 11:13); and himself, he says, counted all things loss for Christ, "if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead," (Phil. 3:11); which is "the resurrection from among the dead"-it being a resurrection to which some will not attain. Thus also the Saviour taught: while "they that have done good shall come forth _at_ [as it is literally] the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil at the resurrection of d.a.m.nation" (John 5:29), the two are not co-etaneous; for the righteous shall be "recompensed at the resurrection _of the just_,"
Lu. 14:14. That must be the resurrection of which those are the subjects who receive the kingdom; for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of G.o.d," 1 Cor. 15:50. While "the children of this world marry and are given in marriage," "they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection _from_ the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of G.o.d, being the children of the resurrection," Lu. 20:34-36.
The children of the resurrection thus include all who attain unto that world, which, consequently, the wicked do not obtain, and of which the righteous dead and the living saints are made equal subjects, according to Paul"s "mystery:" "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 be changed," _i.e._, to the same incorruptible state to which the dead are raised, (1 Cor. 15:50-54); so that all the righteous will alike "bear the image of the heavenly" (v. 49) when they "shall be caught up together" (1 Thess. 4:16) "to meet the Lord in the air."
The resurrection state is that to which the ancients looked for the restoration of Israel.
Rabbi Eliezer the great, supposed to have lived just after the second temple was built, applied Hosea 14:8 to the pious Jews, who seemed likely to die without seeing the glory of Israel, saying: "As I live, saith Jehovah, I will raise you up, in the resurrection of the dead; and I will gather you with all Israel."
The Sadducees are reported to have asked Rabbi Gamaliel, the preceptor of Paul, whence he would prove that G.o.d would raise the dead, who quoted Deut. 9:21: "Which land the Lord sware that he would give to your _fathers_." He argued, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had it not, and as G.o.d cannot lie, that they must be raised from the dead to inherit it.
Rabbi Simai, though of later date, argues the same from Ex. 6:4, insisting that the law a.s.serts in this place the resurrection from the dead, when it said: "And also I have established my covenant with them, to give them the Canaan;" for, he adds, "it is not said to _you_, but to them."
Menna.s.seh Ben Israel says: "It is plain that Abraham and the rest of the patriarchs did not possess that land; it follows, therefore, that they must be raised in order to enjoy the promised good, as otherwise the promises of G.o.d would be vain and false."-_De Resurrec. Mort., L. i., c.
1. - 4._
Rabbi Saahias Gaion, commenting on Dan. 12:2, says: "This is the resuscitation of the dead Israel, whose lot is eternal life, and those who shall not awake are the forsakers of Jehovah."
"In the world to come," says the Sahar, fol. 81, "the blessed G.o.d will vivify the dead and raise them from their dust, so that they shall be no more an earthly structure."
Thus "Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance ... sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is G.o.d," Heb. 11:8-10. While he dwelt in that land, G.o.d "gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to _him_ for a possession, and to his seed after him," Acts 7:5. This was also true of all those "who died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,"-desiring "a better country, that is, a heavenly" (Heb. 11:13-16), "not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection" (v. 35), "G.o.d having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect," v. 40.
When the promises are thus made good to Israel, all who are of the faith of Abraham will partic.i.p.ate in the same promises. For "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law ... that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." "And if ye be Christ"s, then are ye Abraham"s seed, and heirs according to the promise," Gal.
3:13, 14, 29. So the Saviour said to the Jews: "Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom [unregenerate Jews]
shall be cast into outer darkness," Matt. 8:11, 12. And then, as the Saviour said to the twelve: "Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration 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 Israel,"
Matt. 19:28.
"The rest of the dead," who live not again till the thousand years are ended, must be the wicked dead; for, the righteous being raised, no other dead ones remain. They include all the wicked, who have died in all ages, and "the remnant" who "are slain with the sword" (19:21), when the kingdom is cleansed from all things that offend.