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SECTION TWO

MOVING ON TO THE SEVENTH ISLAND

ITEM 7

MILLENIAL MATTERS

(and see Ch. 19 below)
 

4

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

Part I

 

  Adapted from
 

NEWS 124

 

A RETURN TO THE ISLANDS

Preliminary for Orientation
and then the Movements that Liberate

 

1. The Islands and their inhabitants

 

What is going to happen ?

Before we answer this question, let us look at some of the possible impediments, and remove them. God has said many things about this in the Bible. Our present task is to gain orientation, so that we do not listlessly lose them.

Often enough we have presented this, from SMR pp. 502ff., to The Biblical Workman Ch. 1, End-note 3 and many more. But today, put differently, we are going to look beyond the more obvious immediate features, on ... and to consider again the phenomenon of islands, as first considered in Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 2.

There we saw a number of areas where unity is needlessly breached, and where due and proper understanding is achievable. We looked at examples: such things as predestination and freewill, exclusive psalm singing, bishops and the like, in a series of matters needing some moderation, since there has been needless division without ground or authority, tending to extremes instead of Biblical moderation: what is that ? It is a moderation BY the Bible of views which tend to skip off without its authority, either because some church gets too many big ideas, or some philosophy, or some slack habit, or some other causative invention. It is possible to achieve this by removing extreme inferences that lack actual warrant, but by simultaneously regarding principles which ARE there, and ensuring that these are kept.

These things we considered, and took SIX cases requiring such improved unity. But now there is a seventh.

So you see, there IS another topic, but one coming like a child from a womb, inherent in our news. It is the greater topic of what must be seen coming. It is the matter of prophetic standpoint. This is what relates to us now, in our present topic.

In this field, there are some stumbling blocks, some of which we have noted at some length before. There is for example the confusion of fighting corners (amillenialism, premillenialism, postmillenialism and all that) with facts. These positions, to which as a sad addendum, must be added dispensationalism, though this is sometimes modified somewhat, have secured their grounds and have their staff and officers very often. They tend often enough to interfere with simple Biblical exegesis, like Calvin's (non-systematic) error on love (as seen in Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 2, End-note 1 cf. Predestination and Freewill Section 2).

Now then, we have occasion to consider in this island setting,  a new and SEVENTH area of scriptural moderation: prophetic standpoint.

With a view to seeing straight and getting clear what is clear, outside the squalor of needless competitiveness, let us consider something of these matters, before seeing a little further ahead in the Middle East, and indeed in the history impending, of the world. The three largely involved religiously and mentioned for this area, Judaism, Muslim belief and Roman Catholicism, as so often demonstrated on this site, are wrong (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 13,30, and Errors in Other Religions). But apart from that, we need to be unsaddling the stubborn mule of partisan conflict and looking at what is written with cleared eyes. Let us now look at the Biblical presentation.

Incidentally, as preliminary reading for this, try SMR Appendix A (amillenialism), Scoop of the Universe 45, esp. Part II (post-millenialism), and Biblical Blessings Chs. 2  and 3 , The Biblical Workman 1 (dispensationalism). If your appetite is still unsated, see Amillenialism, premillenialism... in the Index. Indeed, in the first of these references, when a typical error of amillenialism is seen in the light of the word of God (the tendency to REMOVE the prophetic scriptures on Israel, post Christ, without warrant, and contrary to warrant), we see that the martial combat often engaged in, on the millenial topic, is unfortunately by tradition or philosophy, extended to the simple facts of the predicted Jewish return to Israel.

Thus the nomenclature of things far less vital at this moment, tends to be confused or even confusing to some. The question of the millenium's meaning is quite different from the fact of the prediction of Israel's return. As indicated, camp politics or philosophy or both, have tended to confuse things. It is time to un-confuse them. The word of God is working, and so must comprehension follow it. It is time.

The fact that premillenialism has tended to overflow into the wastelands of dispensationalism, and that the latter tended to be a term used both of facts and of fictions, does not help the unwary.
A view that the Lord acted in different ways in different times tends to become a divorce of unitary MEANING from the diversification of procedure. Let  us look at that for a moment.

 

2. Developments and Dispensations: the Same God with the Same Heart Deals with a New Situation

Thus it is of course true that in the beginning, Adam without sin, was in a test of one kind; and ever afterwards, man has been in a different environment, that of sin, where the question at stake, the burning, central and vital question, has not been obedience as such, but faith in the Lord and reception of His salvation. That certainly was no small DEVELOPMENT!

Obedience is now not in the same format as before. ONCE it was a test, the test; now it is the fruit of a final challenge: to receive the Saviour. Then no saviour was needed, no sin was in Adam. Since then, the case is very different (as in Romans 5:1-12).

From salvation, obedience now follows, as night from day, as good fruit from good trees; and though there are many struggles, it is a simple fact that the regenerated being looks like it in fruit. It It is not now THE test, but it assuredly is a RESULT of the test. Now it is a matter of being 'planted by My heavenly Father' as Jesus declared, regenerated, not in existential glories of emotional ratpure WITHOUT reality, but by faith. THAT is what is the same: FAITH in Him who is invisible, but whose multitudinous works are MOST visible, as we have repeatedly seen; faith WHICH is invisible, like love and courage and character, in its own dimensions, but like all things of spiritual power, operational in the more immediate grounds of action and purpose. Faith remains thus the same, in a world which like a novel, has been crafted with a material format. That has always been the same.

Obedience is now a result of the criterion, faith with repentance in Christ according to His word, so that as a matter of fact, a life with characterisable obedience follows. It is NOT our characterisation which makes it what it is, since we are fallible, and presumption is not pleasing to God (Psalm 19:13, Matthew 7:1). Nevertheless, without presumption, we see not the squalor or defeat as the criterion of the Christian life, but apart from occasional falls (even Peter, even Paul, even David), but the glint of victory on the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, as it is wielded in combat with evil, and as it is wielded in our hearts, to produce contrition and stimulate inspiration. Let us however for one moment, pursue this confusion sometimes found on the topic of obedience, and its assessment!

Evils such as trying to 'judge' (despite the 'judge not' in Matthew 7:1) those whose left hands may be doing what neither their right hands nor their neighbours SEE, and living a life far beyond what other sinners realise, are a mere excrescence, having nothing to do with Biblical Christianity. It involves a 'voluntary subjection' to the buffetings of those who intrude (as in II Corinthians 11). It is neither equipped with the liberty in Christ (II Cor. 3:17ff.), nor the singularity of the Lordship of Christ.

Fruits are certainly indicative, so long as you do not, in looking at or for them, violate the 'judge not' and move into the realms of spiritual assessment, instead of the just area and arena of obvious realities - such as the sin of David with Bathsheba.

The fruit passage in Matthew relates to false prophets at its commencement, the sure and steadfast way in which they can be recognised, and the outline of the inference to good trees, as the opposite extreme and good fruit is by contrast. It is not setting up some poor, intrusive and lordly church connection to perform operations at which angels might tremble. When things that are indeed obvious and scripturally clear are violated, then is time for discipline. But faith is  sui generis, it is from God, it operates BECAUSE it is there, not because it is given licence by some sort of nonsense as though it were for men to assess! I believed, therefore I spoke remains the case: what is there ACTS. It cannot help it. You might as well 'ask' radioactivity to remain dormant while you assess whether it is there. It will act; even though, to revert to our topic from this figure, men stand in judgment and aver otherwise!

Worlds apart from the point made by Christ, of seeing the clear testimony of false prophets as negative (Matthew 7:15), since it lacks the doctrine and the willingness to follow it, a proper judgment based on the Biblical doctrine is any concept of making subjective assessments that transcend the clear indications of objective reality which are as written. Let no man play God, nor any Church. HE ALONE knows the heart. Let us leave it so. Arrogant 'authority' must not be allowed to distort vision. But let us return to our field. Obedience then is in common with the case of Adam, but it is not the test as such any longer. It is fruit not root. Faith however in both cases, Eden and now, is fundamental and operative and has results, clear and sure, steadfast and open to God.

In sum:

Of course, it always follows in essence and principle from FAITH (as James is quick to remind the reader). Keeping all assessment of one another, on the part of Christians, within the prior BOUNDS of 'judge not' in Matthew 7 (which is in the same chapter as the good fruit reference), means that one must deal with all these questions conjointly. You do not judge who is what on subjective and partial concepts; but only in ways too stark to be confused, and as presented for the purpose by the Bible. Thus obedience has changed its nature from absolute determinant to the character of one's walk.

This much you could call, if you will, a difference of dispensation; but one would prefer a development from purity to sin, and the co-ordinate provision in the realm, now, of salvation. Nevertheless, the cleavage is important, though there is no change in God, only in man. The Lord addresses the change in state of man, just as a scientist addresses the change in state of alcohol from liquid to vapour. It IS different, but it is not something which makes a change of heart in the scientist. It is a new field for the application of what is in mind always. At least, if the scientist were divine, that would be the case, for always known then, would be the situation and all possible situations.


The position, then, in the Fall of man, of obedience changes from primary expression of faith, to secondary. At that, however,  we see, there is FAITH always back of it. In PRINCIPLE that is the same, although now there is a new dimension for its operation, as man a sinner, comes to the provision by covenant of salvation.

Nevertheless, this is a development to be expected, as when one goes to hospital instead of being normally healthy. So it was a major movement from Adam to his offspring, but apart from His nature as love being further now invoked in man's predicament (but not for all that changed in itself), God is not moved. His hand is stretched out to man in his new unloveliness, that is all. In the end, it was to become a crucified hand; but that was a development always required, ultimately paid for, and then provided in the consummation of salvation as that hand handsomely held the elixir of eternity for man, to his lips, in the resurrection which broke death.

Though, then, many presume, and expect people to await church decision that their fruit is suitable for endorsement, and that they may now consider themselves believers, as it appears (so that their faith would not exist till they were told, so that the fruit COULD not come - for nothing pleases God without faith): nevertheless, apart from these distortions, the point is that good trees do IN FACT bear good fruit. Trees not planted by the Lord ARE to be uprooted (Matthew 15:13). Clear violations that are chronic and fester can occur; these must not be ignored. Regeneration is not perfection, but it is a change of state, and its results will assuredly follow and become conspicuous to the angels, and in a healthy church, to men. Many who are first will be last, and the last first, however, so that the presumption of haughty disdain, so worthy of the Pharisees, and knowledgeable schisms and divisions of proud flesh, is to be excluded in all this.

Regeneration by the word and Spirit of God DOES lead to the principle, "He who is born of God does not make a practice of sin". The matter is however not a simple case as in Eden, for anyone who imagines he is without sin is a self-deceived, and the advocate for the sinner is pressed on the Christian by John in I John 2:1ff..

Biblically, then, there is NOW, since the beginning the change. Man fell and has been in a pathological condition ever since: NOT one without remedy. But the remedy has been without fail essential, and never fails, though many toy with their medicine and never swallow it, as in Hebrews 6 and 10.

Thus there is now a necessity of repentance to life (Acts 11:18), and a requisition for faith that seizes the substance of hope, in Christ, a requirement for reception of the same Christ by faith: and He,  being alive, administers the believer's life. There are frauds, meaningful ones, confused ones: but there are the believers also. That was then, the simple change from sin-free Adam (as at the first) to sinful man.

However, after this development in and for faith, which remains the same, there is a continuity of case. Thus, in the Old Testament, they were looking toward the Messiah, to pay or overcome; in the New, they are looking back on the payment. It is all one. These things have been covered in Biblical Blessings Ch. 4, Barbs, Arrows and Balms Ch. 13 and 17, and elsewhere. The unity of treatment since man fell into sin is basic, principial and arresting. The divine word has grown in specification, but not changed in portent and scene. This is what is shown in the above references.
God never changes and His ways do not change (Habakkuk 3:6).

Our point at this moment is this: dispensationalism is not normally taken to mean this obvious reality of the fall of Adam, and the unity of the approach from the Lord, to man, since then and the unity of faith in the Lord at all times since man ever began.  Instead, it disperses the unity of the everlasting gospel, and can pitch the line forwards to the 'millenium' or back elsewhere, or import certain features into the present, or export them without warrant, and contrary to warrant. It tends to select slots and to make things fit in, rather like the proud flesh of those too large for their clothes. It is unsound, unlovely and misled. Thus if Christ is telling us certain things that are to be done, it is only by explicitly ADDING to the word of God, that this is imagined to be FOR some other period. If it were, would He not have told us so (as in John 14:1-3, by parallel!).

To move the relevance of something directed to listeners to some other phase, period and place is certainly possible, provided the initiative for DOING SO is that of the SPEAKER. Otherwise, it is scarcely distinguishable from mind wandering ... on the part of the hearers, who through their traditions, as Christ declared (Mark 7:7) can make void the word of God.

There must be strong and necessary grounds, which however spiritual, are present so that it becomes an OBJECTIVE study of the word of God, and not a subjective situation in which a a flirtation with a site replaces its instruction. What He really meant is what He actually said, and what is necessarily implied. Beyond that, there is no doctrine. One may have intimations or feelings, but this is not the stuff of doctrine. What GOD says must NOT be added to by such inventions, invasions and obtrusions from the carnal mind. Even if in something such a subjectivity happened to be correct , it is unteachable, for it is the mind of man adding itself to the mind of God, who, if He had wished to intimate more, would have said it. His word is not twisted, intricately devious or the like (Proverbs 8:8).

Restraint therefore is as necessary as boldness in declaring the word of God. But this is always so with authority: there is the certainty provided, to be executed with zeal (if it is not in violation of the word of God), and there is the ZEALOUS INTERPRETATION OF THE EMPLOYE who rushes in with misdirection and officiousness. It is, says the wisdom of God, all clear to him who understands. A GOOD understanding have those who keep His commandments, rather than invent them, or add their slants to His word, like channels to allow the weir waters to exit!

It is necessary to give proof for all propositions from the Bible, and by contrast, this dispensational approach gives nothing but a combination of profusion and confusion. As Romans 4 indicates, the very faith of Abraham is the one which is now operative, before all works. The arena of terms, the dynamics and the inter-relationship with God are all quite the same. It is always and only the works of God which benefit the sinner's change of state from lost to redeemed (Romans 3:23ff., Ephesians 2:1-10). God never allows man to come as a sinner and make his own door to life, even even contribute. It is the work of GOD that one should believe; the WHOLE gamut, by faith through grace being saved, is NOT of yourselves, BUT the work of God. On this see further SMR pp. 524-532.

It is not of course our purpose now to go over all these things so often treated before. It is however necessary to remove any confusion at the outset as we see the need of clarity, having already done our base work in this field. We are going to see the need to return from some MORE islands, as in Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch. 2, to the mainland; or from one more island, with many areas of occupation. We shall not be ungrateful for some of the contributions, but if we are to grow, it is essential we move forward, from the dull thud of cannons, or the swift fire of rockets across straits to the islands to the peace of truth as it is indited in the word of God.

It is time for many to return to the mainland from such distortions, contortions, proud flesh of philosophy, and be rigorous in keeping precisely to what the Bible warrants, with no addition of mere preference. When that happens, the future is abundantly clear in the abundance of declarations the Lord has made. There is neither need nor liberty to add, or to subtract, to opine or to intone.
 
 

3. Modes of Movement
on the Return
from the Millenial Island, in Much Misnamed

A vote of thanks, despite the difficulties, in some things,  needlessly pursued.

Amillenial Inlet

Thus we could thank the amillenial island, or the amillenial inlet of the millenial island if you prefer, for its reminder that while the millenium is (indeed as we shall present shortly) largely unknown in size, a topic which they take too far, there is indeed NO OTHER GOSPEL, nor has there ever been, it being everlasting, true from the first, unchanged to the last, merely amplified in its applications and verified in its predictions, paid for in its redemption and vindicated in the resurrection of the body of the only Saviour.

It shows likewise correctly that there is, as there has long been, just one church, which the church in the wilderness or other (as in Acts 7:38), one called out body, with one gospel in pictorial form, and in principle and prophecy, or in substantial fulfilment, but one, with one Lord. It is true that the theocratic State of Israel was one, whereas the peoples now from whom the assemblage and congregation of the elect is drawn, is international; that the latter are not subject to the political laws therefore of the theocratic state, since they do not in fact live in one. Nevertheless, despite this administrative difference, the gospel is unchanged, as shown so often on this site, and in particular in Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17.and stressed in Romans 4 and Hebrews 8-10.

Accordingly it is indeed true that the church is mentioned in the Old Testament, though not with the fulness of course, which is to be found in the state of the art articles of the New Covenant, as presented in the New Testament.

Concerning this, see for the relevant New Testament scriptures, SMR pp. 1108-1101, and for the Old Testament, SMR pp. 94, 459, 756-763, 792-793, 801, 825-829, 941, for example; and with special reference to Isaiah inter alia, The Biblical Workman Ch. 1, pp. 17ff., esp. End-note 3, in which general location you also see the unitary Old Testament representation of the New Testament Gospel and the inter-penetration of Old and New Testament figures in that unity, even to the point of the operational buildings in view! In Isaiah 66 (cf. SMR Appendix A) we see it in a priesthood notation which shocks while it incorporates, moving from external to eternal form, in Christ (paralleled and advanced in Isaiah 65:13-15, Isaiah 41-42 as the one chapter changes to the other, and the desolation of nullity for all men and any man of the children of men, in 41:27ff. becomes the consolation of the presence of the Messiah, in 42:1ff., the child of God - Isaiah 9:6, 48:16, Micah 5:1-3, Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 45) in whom, alone of all men, man must trust (Psalm 2, Jeremiah 17:5ff.).

Such inter-penetration and consummate ease of interaction of Old and New Testament symbols as seen in these sites dealing with the prophecies of  Isaiah, result from the essentially identical nature of the faith and fellowship covenant in both Testaments.  In the same relationship, see The Biblical Workman Appendix I, Excursion.  Here indeed you see traced in some detail, just that development to which we are now referring, from Gospel to the end-time enterprises which follow. This makes it clear that our present purpose is not so much to trace these, already traced more than once in the above references. Rather now we aim to see some further irenic perspective, to prevent mist obscuring the wind-screen.

For more on Isaiah's presentation of the Gospel, with special reference to the end-time events following, see Scoop of the Universe 47, esp. End-note, and more directly on the gospel enshrined in Isaiah, SMR pp. 755ff., 763ff, 55ff., The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 10, pp. 175-179.

These then have been biblically warranted emphases in much that is (rather unfortunately, because the name can mislead) amillenialism. For these UNITARY considerations relative to the people of the Lord in both Testaments, and this insistence on the church in its preliminary format in the Old Testament, we are glad for amillenialism, even if this excellent contribution is associated so unnecessarily with an evacuation notice given to the millenium itself!

Amillenialism moreover sometimes, if not often, associated with a desire for things to progress, and progress, rather as one might expect in the British Empire situation (The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 7, final End-note 1, Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane 73, 77), and US revival action of the nineteenth century.

 


The contrast with any such expectation and visible reality, on the one hand, and Biblical prediction, on the other,  has been shown in such places as Scoop of the Universe 45,  Part II , Part II, SMR Chs.   8,     9. Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane 73, Joyful Jottings 14.

Indeed, as to the British Empire  so clearly - despite its most numerous faults, a force in its day to give arrest to many evils, and this on a profound scale, it had perils that were inbuilt, in the field of religion. The formalised conformity sometimes without conception, and often without conversion, was one of its downfalls. All was by no means well in the state of England. In fact, the more certainly non-Christian the nation, the more certainly ludicrous any church in its hands! In this, the Presbyterian desire, passion, to have the LORD ONLY as its head was most wise and entirely scriptural. NO ONE is master but Christ in the church (Matthew 23:8-10).

This applies to Rome as to London. While Rome's interventions were colossal, the Anglican misfortune to be under the State also has led to a failure, and if to vastly less imposition, nevertheless to its own contribution to the maladies and murders of the times. Moreover, the Church of England had a vast array of martyrs and scholars of great eminence, and its 39 Articles are quite sound. It was not its doctrine (in the days when it was kept) which has been the question, at that level (though now it seems, it can move massively and that with little restraint cf. Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 7): it was its subjugation to the State, a fallen institution, despite its moments of excellence. The State is not in itself Christian, and no Christian body can ever afford to be 'under' such a thing.

The spirit of Babylon is now vested cordially in Rome's increasingly recognised pontifical face, as England sinks in spiritual apathy increasingly, as far as the C. of E. is concerned, and popular involvement lapses just as ungodly moments or phases of terrorism, have for centuries past,  departed. (Cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 2, pp. 21ff., SMR Ch. 5, p. 446, Ch. 10, pp. 1088Gff., *20, 973A, *23.) Its leadership in Reformation realities from the traditional suppressions of Rome is lost. It is now being increasingly submerged as a mere satellite to the evils of Babylon's final luminary, the religion of Rome. Yet that itself is soon to be submerged in that far more secular and accepted religion of international humanistic self-exaltation which, though present in Rome's grasp for power, is here taken to its final consummation (as seen in the  Biblical Blessings reference above and SMR pp. 750Bff.). Such 'progresses' have not been the way. Christ is the way.

Leaving aside these harmful excrescences, it is time for a return from the heavily insulated island of error, with these treasures justly on board, to the mainland of what both the Bible and the news are saying so repeatedly, in so many spheres, the former for so long, the latter with such immensely increasing intensity, as we have occasion on this site, frequently to notice.
 
 

Premillenial Outpost

Now this IS an outpost.

Some of the premillenial contingent is already on the mainland. Some however kept bad company with thoroughly misled dispensationalists, and have been variously, to different degrees, infected. The whole invisible arena of churches that disappear into thin air, despite the fact that orders for the church's operation have no limit, nor do the gates of hell prevail against it (Matthew 16, 18), is not very helpful. One well remembers the 'invisibility' of such support when in New Zealand, fighting for the faith at the very primary level of the bodily resurrection how many of this persuasion, apparently grateful for Biblical teaching when all was well, and the ecclesiastical junta did its squalid work of oppression. One was left to fight alone: but not alone, for the Lord is never absent, and His presence is what counts.

It is true, of course, that many churches will, did and must disappear in the ruins of their itching ears (II Timothy 4:1ff., II Thessalonians 2), with veering courses from the word of God taking them into the vortices of destruction, as predicted. It is true that the social establishment  or even political power, with which some churches have been connected is going, fast. It is quite to the point to note that the sort of 'we are IT and the rest are not', national situation, as perhaps reflected from Victorian England in some ways, is completely ludicrous now. No nation gives even a glimmer of hope for its Christian identity. The pressure is ON! MANY are falling. The Graham organisation's virtual alliance with Rome is merely an index to the EXTENT and SUBTLETY of it.

However, the whole disregard of New Testament provisions in detail, for organisation, and of its significance for the organised church has tended to lead, in an extreme reaction, to the very things not desired. Thus the lack of visible authority and actual co-operation in a reliable and grave way in the midst of things, so that the church STANDS and does not duck when various pressures assail christendom, being too 'invisible' to ACT, is to be overcome with patience and love, but neither with the radicalism of unbelief nor the folly of mere inaction.

Alas the 'invisible' church emphasis, though true in the ultimate, yet as a basis for current inaction is merely one more false implication and addition to scripture, in violation of its provisions. We must stand (Ephesians 6) with weaponry and in joint integrity, fearless and biblical, without the luxury of additions and subtractions to taste (II Corinthians 4:1ff., Galatians 3, 5, Romans 12, as shown by the apostle, exemplified by Christ and charged in I Timothy 4:6ff., Titus 1:9, Hebrews 13:17, Philippians 1:20-21, Acts 4:23ff., 5:29).

The church of Christ makes itself MOST visible, as Christ did, and Peter, and all from Cranmer, Ridely and Latimer, to Calvin and Know and the thousands of vocal martyrs who fear nothing and speak together. Alas, the exclusion of the other part of the 'invisible church', its visible manifestation (as in Matthew 18:15ff.)  tends to lead to mere maverick authority, or capacity for caprice in inadequately formulated creeds, conditions and significance. That leads to weakness, as well as failure to co-operate with the team the Lord has on the field. This is no excuse for combination with what defies the teaching of the Bible, but a feature of the place of Christ in the body which is His, who acts today, and does not cease.

THIS part of the premillenial contingent needs, being tainted by excess, to come back, but bringing the correct premillenial component, AS SUCH, with them. There is a millenium as we have seen (SMR pp. 502ff., Repent or Perish Ch. 6, pp. 128ff., and see Index) and shall see further shortly. It is not yet.

Further, some premillenial emphasis has given wrongly short shrift to the two MASSIVE contributions from amillenialism: the ONE GOSPEL and the ONE BODY emphasis, noted above. This is quite fundamental, and shows the danger of taking up POSITIONS, instead of sensitive and continual reference to the word of God.
 
 

Postmillenial Bay

It is in precise conflict with Matthew 24, II Thessalonians 2, II Timothy 3, I Timothy 3, II Peter 3.

It is best to realise however that this Bay has had its contribution also. There is a sense in which the MAIN and MIGHTY work of the Cross of Christ having been done, the enemy of souls being discountenanced, the power of God in precise perfection having been shown, the knowledge of God having been seen in the face of Christ Jesus (Hebrews 2, II Corinthians 4, II Timothy 3:16, II Corinthians 5, John 1, Hebrews 9-10, John 14), the rest is something that might perhaps almost be compared to a mop up. Isaiah 7, and the incarnation of 9, are past; so that in all the outworkings of wonder and fulfilment, it remains true that the principal need is past already. The residue, while dramatic, does not alter the substance in the slightest detail. The atonement, in power and wonder, is FINISHED.

We must not however be carried away by the spiritual realities, to imagine that God does not mean, actually, just what He says about the conflicts, moral, spiritual, political, military to come (as in Isaiah 66 notoriously). Isaiah 9 for example, has not only the incarnation of the prince of Peace who also has the name of the God Almighty (as in Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 2:8, John 8:58). It has verse 7, where His government is geared for ENTIRE TERRESTRIAL IMPLEMENTATION! (cf. Psalm 66:3-4, 86:9, Psalm 2).

The saints in heaven, in Revelation 6, to await in their concern, the completion of the ravages on the saints on earth, would not concur in the concept that nothing more remained! What remains is, in Revelation, filled with increasingly devastating disorder of astronomy, maritime and terrestrial evil, moral rebellions and aspiring gluttony for spiritual power, just as we have seen, and II Timothy 3, Matthew 24 and II Thessalonians 2 detail to the end. The "beginning of sorrows", to use Christ's words, horrendous as the Lord Himself showed this to be, is not the end. The increments of the great tribulation are express, and delivered orally by Christ, as they will be by history, at His will and word accordingly. And so, of course, is the case. The case, for that matter, was verbally packed by the Lord and is now being chronologically unpacked for the newscasters to note. They must not be the only ones who note it!

From the postmillenial emphasis, therefore, one must turn, for it is

From all this, with due gratitude for the stress on the salvation in its core and conquest,  there should be emigration, back to the mainland. One thing does not engulf all, even when it is basic. The heart is not the only organ, even if the cessation of its beat would spell death.


Carried with them, however, is this just if not indeed glorious emphasis, amid the error, but no part of it, on the SINGULAR effectual, basic and overall victory of the Lord on the Cross and in the resurrection already so signally effected.
 
 

Premillenial Promontory

The premillenial population, however, where not ensnared as quite frequently occurred, can now and should now proliferate their mainland testimony on the fact that while the actual duration of the millenium is basically unknown (for reasons to be noted soon), yet it IS utterly consonant with the criteria, the conditions, the THINGS TO HAPPEN IN IT, which the word of God has detailed, some of which were noted above. Evacuation of the clear teaching of the word of God on account of certain philosophic principles, simple extrapolations of one doctrine, without ground, beyond the territory accorded it in the word of God, this is something to be eschewed, avoided like rats and cok-roaches, the implements of disease in a ruin.

Here is no ruin, but the very testimony of God, the truth. The millenium will happen, and the vindication of the glory of the Lord on the earth which crucified Him, is scheduled. Its power and majesty are very clear in many places, such as Psalm 72, 86, 2 and Isaiah 11, 65, Zechariah 14. A certain desire for the chic look of just finish is more like the swooning defeat of a tired boxer than the delighted awe of a watchful servant. Here has been a major excellence in some of premillenialism: it has REFUSED to do such excision to the word of God.

Here however we must avoid a further dispensational trap, or blindness to the unity of the faith, one faith, and of the Gospel, whether to and through Abraham, or in its fuller actualisation (as in Romans 4). The events in Zechariah 14, concerning animal sacrifice, MUST be interpreted as IN the one Gospel, inalienable, immutable, indisputable (as in Galatians 1), so that even if Paul or an angel preached another, their would be CURSES upon the whole.

This is a BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE. We must therefore allow the LAW of God to LAY ITSELF DOWN here. What GOD EXCLUDES, no man can include, except in rebellion, if not voluntary, then actual for all that. If God speaks, be still! THAT is the principle. If God speaks, LISTEN: that is another. This is indispensable in all understanding of the will and mind of the Lord; just as it is for children, however naughty, when heeding the desires of their parents.

Hence in Zechariah 14, we understand this feature as one of the many uses of the events, signals, episodes of the one covenant or time, to represent by imagery of an interesting and stimulating kind (because it forces you to SEE the unity underlying the image and the reality and hence to understand better what is in view), the meaning of the other. The bud is put for the flower; the preparation for the consummation. We do the same sort of thing when we say, for example, as adults: 'He knocked my marbles out with his tore', or 'He is walking on stilts'. The usage of earlier things, here of childhood,  for later ones can evoke emotion, and bring to light an underlying similarity. When you KNOW the principles of the actual thing, there is no slightest danger of confusion. When the failure to realise it brings you into catastrophic, Galatians 1 style collision with the word of God, then at that, it is time to quit!

Allegory has its place as in all speech, when it is CLEAR that this is what it is. It cannot be INCLUDED when there is no ground for the supposition that it is occurring. It MUST NOT,
however,  be included, as if literal, when a STATED PRINCIPLE would by this be violated. We are, in short, supposed to use our eyes, ears and common sense, and to actually read and apply all that is written. That is WHY it is written, that it should be read, heard, applied, done, understood (cf. II Timothy 3:16)..

That having been said, the premillenial insistence on development of evil to a climax to be thrust into destruction with contempt by the sudden, glorious and invincible presence of the Lord, returning to the site of His crucifixion experiences, indeed to the Mount of Olives, is just.
He left there, He is to come back there, and the angel indicated He would return in the way He left (Acts 1, Matthew 28, Zechariah 14). In short, where we have ground in principle, we can understand allegory; where we have not, we need to remember that allegory is at the discretion of the clear minded author (Proverbs 8:8), who does not leave things up for grabs, but says what He wishes and indicates the just criteria of comprehension.

We do not intrude into especially clear situations on a given plane, because we feel like it.
This is neither modest nor scholarly. It is unwise and forbidden. The word must speak for itself. When God is the speaker, this becomes not only desirable, but utterly essential. What GOD excludes (as in Galatians 1), let no man include. Indeed, Isaiah 53 with 66:1-4, had already made it clear that the former things were to pass away, not be re-installed, as did Jeremiah 3:16 with 31:31, Isaiah 65:13-15 in context.

With these caveats, then the premillenial camp on the mainland can have its doors opened further, and the returning islanders, including many premillenialists, infected from without, can join.
 
 

PRINCIPLES

We have already seen something of the concept of EXPRESS and EXPLICIT teaching being the STRUCTURE into which all real or imagined figures of speech or allegory are to fit, a binding in any literature, and above all, in what is statedly not twisted or contorted (Proverbs 30:6).

There must be

 

There must, in short be
 


There MUST on the other hand, be CONTEXTUAL FIDELTITY in EACH text, as well as between ALL texts, and this at whatever cost to pre-conception. What has often been seen is this: some texts give one idea, and this then for some reason rules in the mind of the reader, so that complementary material is not allowed to 'interfere', and with this behaviour comes the result of division, divisiveness and clamour. There must be, as in the human brain, an inter-activity between components, and a stream not of electricity, but of understanding, between all the parts with extreme sensitivity and delicacy, doing violence to NOTHING, and giving assent to all that is clearly affirmed.

In short, the word of God is to be taken seriously, strenuously, with imagination that is at HIS instance, not our own; but without a stolidity which does not find where His liberty applies without verbal restriction, the nuances that fit with other scriptures and are reinforced and even, indeed at times, are interpreted by them. We are to respond to what it is, take it as it comes, adapt to its every intimation and intonation, and be sure that the ground is not imagination at any time, on our part, but response to what is demonstrably written and necessarily implied.
 
 

THE SIMPLICITY OF THE THING

Profound, but like some other things, relatively easy to comprehend in its magnitudes, when you take the presentation as it is given. That is what Proverbs 8 teaches. It is when, like an unbalanced service action in tennis, you try to FORCE this or that ON the wordof God, or FROM the word of God, that you get division and dissension, decline and confusion. But this ? it is not necessary. Take the word as it comes and it is quite clear, even if, in some things, it is a challenge to the great and a delight to the most intense activity. It is the unstable who wrest things, as Paul puts it, to their own destruction. Let us then be stable, and delight in the word of God, and STOP where our thoughts run on, and PROCEED when we shrink back from WHAT IS THERE. It is self-interpreting, and the Lord Himself is the basis of understanding. HIS direction is to the word itself, but it is His presence which enables.

When it is all over, and the pugilistic campaigns as if for the election of some US President die down, and the word rules, we come back to the excellent LIMITATIONS on error which some of these island stresses, insular though they have been at at times, have placed on other and different errors. There has been a tendency to mutual restraint, the one from the other. We come back from this mutual interaction to what is written. That is what remains. That is what is there. That is the testimony of the Lord.

As we have seen in detail, and some of the references noted above show in detail, this brings in a vindication of Christ when He returns personally where He left off, not in works of salvation, but in works of majesty and rule (as in Isaiah 11). The 1000 year period of Revelation occurs, and as Isaiah 26:10 makes as clear as Revelation 20, it is obvious that the sheer effrontery of refusal of rule (as in  -We shall not have this man to rule over us, in the parable of Christ) is independent of good conditions. Give them what you will, there are those many who WILL not submit, WILL not love, MUST stage a rebellion even from the Lord, that majesty of grace, that criterion of beauty, that base of all goodness, and tenderness.

Give to many, a world filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, and you will still get satanic rebellion. There are always those wanting the power without impediment, and willing to go where it is, or seems to be, to get it.

The millenium, before this final outbreak so explicit in Revelation 20, certainly requires the application of all Biblical principles as noted under 'principles' above. There are however certain guarantees to work's outcome, to peace, to rule, to majesty, to discipline, to ALL knees bowing (Isaiah 45, Zechariah 14), and there are certain residues of evil (as in Isaiah 65:20), co-incident with this wholly unworldly quietus. It takes time for all this submission and eventuation, for all this peace and quelling, all this power and glory to manifest itself.

How long then is the millenium to proceed ? Who knows ? Revelation is a book filled with symbols; though symbols signify, they do not occlude! Peter in the very context of the return of the Lord, has already in this future context, made a day as 1000 years. It is enough, and it would seem most fitting to speak with authority: YOU CANNOT KNOW HOW LONG. It could be quite short. It must be a DAY enabling and allowing the outcomes so frequently noted ( as in Isaiah 65, Micah 4, Isaiah 2, Zechariah 14).

What does it matter ? THIS is not an explanation of anything, but a depiction of a necessity which the Lord has laid on things, that HE will be vindicated IN the Messiah ON this earth (as in Psalm 86:9, Zechariah 14). It is easy to DIVIDE when you do not know. Far better in some things, not given, to admit it. It is no shame not to know what is not told. What of it ? It is God who knows all things. Let us be sufficed with what He has said. That is what is our need. It is enough to find that! But let us return to this odious rebellion to terminate the millenium, which also acts as a signal, if you will, to the dismissal of the earth (as in Revelation 20:7-11).

It is so majestically clear and clearly majestic, what follows: "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great , standing before God, and books were opened" (from Rev. 20:11-12).

IN THE FACE of that, millenium though there statedly be, there will STILL be revolt. This is the painful, grievous and empirical fact which is to be exhibited, at the end of the millenium: yes, even then.

Thus by the church will be made manifest even this to the principalities and powers, that there is NO other alternative. ALL that could be done, is done. NOTHING is left undone that could be done. The cross was stated;u so that ALL things in heaven or earth (Colossians 1:19ff.) should be reconciled.

If God chooses to have Christ speak even to the spirits in prison (on which see Scoop of the Universe 43, pp. 165ff.), and to have a millenial authority in the earth which has had surfeit of liberty, to vindicate and indicate the residue of things to all, for ever, so be it.

It is wonderful in conception, clear in diction and it is to this, like rest after examination, which is coming. By the millenium, the saints have finished their time, and their works do follow them, as it says; the earth will receive its Indian Summer, before it vanishes (as in Isaiah 51:6, II Peter 3) with much noise. And then ? the very premises of pollution replaced with a New Heavens and a New Earth, indeed with a celestial reality to replace this spoilt planet (Revelation 21:1).

With God, it is not too hard. He did it the first time. His stage will be removed. The palace is next. It is for His princess, or His bride, His accepted, His beloved. Where love is, there is He, not lust, not mere affection or affectation: love that has no bars or barriers to bringing to what receives it, the immensity of its profession. It must be high as God, not low from man; and man must be restored to God, to find it in its purity and reality, free from pathology, without limit or spot or speck (I John 4:7 with I John 5:12).

Thus (Ephesians 1:10) Christ will be all in all (Revelation 21:22-23, 5:12-13), as now He is to His own, but in an environment, not merely of terms, but of architectural beauty and spiritual profundity (Revelation 21-22) which is the correlate of love, its exhibit and its place. Meanwhile, the residents will all prefer the Lord to His place, as any bride prefers her husband to her house (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37). His Messianic Mission, proceeding FROM the Father to His task in mankind, His sending all consummated, He with the Father and the Spirit (Revelation 22:1) will be One God, in three persons, glorious, victorious, triumphant, humble in majesty, ineffable in power, with His people whose talents He has made, filled with His joy in the everlasting realities to which in Christ, they have come.
 
 

NOT 'IT' - but
HE is Returning, and it is Not Distant

Events, like conspirators, with red faces, are happening in public, but the public do not seem to notice! These are the necessary events, this is the pathway to glory, or here is seen the glide to shame.

Which is it for you ?

Be ready therefore. The tension builds, but the word is clear. There are many inlets, but the mainland is without uncertainty. Its hills and contours are all mapped. The forces, as in World War II, can be seen mapped, with pincer movements as various obstructions go, and very instructions are followed.

Be ready as the Middle East develops like an ulcer. The pain has reason; but there is no reason to share the pain.
 

The Middle East rises like Terminal Yeast,
the thing rises to receive the One whom the Deceiver has long maligned,
Whose people he, the prince of this world,
has long abused,
frequently murdering close followers of Christ
with feisty flashes of ever new folly:
aligned against the people of the Prince of peace,
versus His book, His glory, His word.

As for that worldling, the prince of this world (John 14:30),
his vainglory lacks splendour,
there is no beauty in his majesty,
and his heart is deceit. How long does it take to realise this!

He has nowhere to go,
beyond this world:
Except there, where he is put to ruin,
and there is his end (Revelation 12:7-12, 19:14ff.).

When the last curtain is down,
Was it worth it,
To lend gullible credence to his vile
and erratic propaganda,
When the truth has stared you in the face -
Like Mount Everest at close quarters!

That TRUTH is coming, He is coming back,
And all things are now made ready.
His people know; they do not slumber.

Are you prepared ?
It is a friendly question:
You NEED to be prepared by having cover from Him, the cover of pardon,
The cover in peace, the cover of blood, the overtures of sacrifice
Accepted on your behalf, from Him, before judgment
(II Corinthians 5:17-21, Galatians 3:1-13).

Are you asleep (Matthew 25) ? - for it is a common malady when
Vigilance is required!
Do you doze in some facade of a church without the word,
Or one abusing it, confusing the people with platitudes,
Empty, and all jazzed up with music without reality:
One contrived, 'arrived' but never there!

Are you in some temple of today,
called contemporary
but in fact extemporary,
a phase of luke-warm spittle, ready for ejection (Revelation 3:16):
that is another 3:16!

There are many more of them: ALL the word must be heeded.
It would not have been given if it were not needed.

The Middle East was the site of the stabbing of Christ -
many are they who have been stabbed
and crucified there since!

It is time to make peace with the Prince of peace - there is no other,
nor any other peace,
nor will there be, nor can there be (Ephesians 1:10):
For this is the peace of God, which passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7, John 14:27).

It is bought in Christ's blood (Ephesians 1:7),
empowered in the resurrection (1:19),
seen in word, in the Bible,
found in love, in His heart,
which showed,
when God sent His only begotten Son
into the world
to provide it with necessities
unduplicable,
at cost immeasurable,
for man, as many as received His Son,
only begotten, light of light, focus from eternity,
the living word of God.

The scar of the Middle East remains until He comes.

That is not your responsibility.

The scars of sin remain in your heart,
till they are transferred to Him,
crucified, the just for the unjust (I Peter 3:18),
bearing sin in shame,
being without sin,
available for you, and all,
knowing His own,
shunning none,
receiving all who come.

Christian, look up, for your final redemption, even of the body (Romans 8:23), even the resurrection, is drawing near. Live as those who look for the end; live as one who has realised the beginning, and having begun in Christ, will be kept till that day (II Timothy 1:9,12).
 
 

TIME

THIS ? It is not a time to be sending missionaries home, Jew or Gentile, provided they give the pure word of the unchanging God, whose everlasting Gospel has shrouded the earth like a friendly cloud, guarding against the arid harshness of undimmed heat. It is a time, for Jew or Gentile alike, for there is no difference, to receive that Christ who, Jew though His format has been, is MAN for MANKIND, God as man, the Lord of glory, predicted, performing, coming, consummating His own mission and enabling each one who receives Him, to be consummated as a new creation, and triumphant in Christ evermore.

It is time to have time for eternity, so that eternity may have time for you.
 
 
 

End-Note

*1

In fact, in the actual scenario, so magnificently parallel to the events culminating and accumulating as detailed in Matthew 24, there are many scenes. We see the British Empire (Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane 73, Joyful Jottings 14) discarding its power, much of its religious dignity and indeed, religious basis (as also seen in The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 7, final End-note 1), while the puny forces of international co-operation in blasé unbelief, unbend like a bow sending forth the arrow of the end, and push into the integration without reverence, the aspiration without end and the consummation that IS the end.

See Mystery of Iniquity, in The Other News. See also SMR pp. 750Bff. (Demonic Head).

 

 

 

Part II


 Adapted from

Sparkling Life ... Ch.   10

 

The melding, not welding, is apparent

As the wonders and harmonies

Of the scriptural millenial teaching

Are traversed by the worshipping eye of the beholder

 

CHAPTER 10

THE CLARITY OF SCRIPTURE
THE CHARITY OF CLARITY

Of course, anyone can say that there is no need for the above alliterative assonance. However this would be wrong. There is a charity which begets clarity, when truth is the focus. The heart needs to be disciplined (as a jeweller's hand when he cuts diamond), the mind needs to be impressed with authority as its source, not as a suggestion box.

Thus it helps when love is impelling you to investigate your subject, not enmity, hostility, or indifference. You must fascinated see the actualities with no tremor of intrusion, no tide of inrush, but yet with an active involvement for all that, like a surfer, moving with the tide, in no way controlling it, but immersed in its very movements with ceaseless activity.

There is a charity for clarity.

It involves, as love always does, discipline. In the case of literature, if you impel your very being and thoughts into it, then it is unlikely the impulsion of the author will undimmed, undiminished or unalloyed reach you. If you let it pass passively over you, then you may be too inert to respond. In all your response, however, it is necessary for accuracy, that you distinguish with the utmost gravity and care, between your response and what causes it. As a topic, your response may be worthy; in itself, however, it is NOT what the author wrote. It may contribute, by stimulus, to your grasping what the input of the author was, but it is not at all the same thing. So in love, if a maiden is captivated by the countenance of her beloved, her response is assuredly relevant to its actual character; and if she had hated it, doubtless some diminution of its actual charm might have resulted. However, her response, though it may alert her to actualities, is not at all the same thing as that to which she responds.
 
 

THE IRREFRAGABILITY OF THE BIBLE

Now let us come to the Bible itself. It is essential that it be realised from the outset, that if in interpreting a human author, restraint and awareness of the danger of insensitivity on the one hand, and intrusion on the other, is a becoming thing for one working to comprehend what is written, then in the case of the Bible, the dimension is singularly intensified. If what is mere courtesy and good understanding with a colleague requires deft self-discipline for competent and precise understanding, how much more is this so when the infinite God divulges the thoughts of His mind. The principle is precisely the same; the need however is vastly amplified.

If, again, we come to a book of the Bible which specialises in stringency on this topic (and Matthew 5:17-20 makes it clear that ALL the Bible is given to the accuracy of jot and tittle specification, and Proverbs 30:6 that NO part of it is to suffer addition), so adding to the enormous emphasis already generic for Biblical interpretation, then we are in ultra-stratospheric precision precincts. NOTHING is to be added to THESE things and NOTHING taken from these WORDS. This is the specific directive of the writer chosen for the book which is soon to engage our attention, that of Revelation. The site is at the end, so that we have a cut off of carrying on, and a restraint order about cutting out. This is found in Revelation 22:18-19.

Further, the emphasis of the writer is more intense than this. There are even sanctions against any such licence which any might presume to take, arrogate or utilise in assailing or caterwauling with the text. IT ALONE is to give the sound, both in purity, its own alone, and in overtones, NO ONE OTHER SOUND. It is not really a lot to ask. After all, if you feel very passionately about writing something, it is always a good idea to make yourself the author rather than to attack, either with undue appetite or lavish freedom, the work of another, which you did not create, as if to make it really your own!

This is, even in general, also most clear from I Corinthians 2:9-13, where you see that not only are the subjects themselves made clear to the scriptural writers by the Holy Spirit (always a wonderful thing to be found in competent lecturers, who orient you and help open your mind to the nature of the topic, large or small), but the expressive units for their depiction, the words also are supplied (cf. SMR Appendix D). .

When God speaks, it is always good to realise who you are NOT; and especially is this so,  when it is in that sole authoritative specification of His mind and principles, committed to writing, which exists in this world, the Bible, that you are dealing (cf. SMR Ch. 1). Now let us to Revelation to consider a little matter which, as matters go from this source, may COMPARATIVELY be of far less profound importance than some other topics, but because it is a topic from the mouth of GOD, must be of substantial importance nonetheless!

It is that of the millenium.
 
 

THE MILLENIUM IN REVELATION 20 IN CONTEXT

A. THE FOOTHILLS

Because this is a regal topic, we put it in royal purple.

Here is the time when the DEVIL IS DELIVERED FROM HIS INTERNATIONAL DECEPTIVE POWER. The one is severed from the other. You will note that this deliverance is not savoury to the devil. After all, in Rev. 12:10, we see the setting. Being cast out of heaven, where his undue prominence led to efforts to instal himself, though merely a comparatively remarkable created being, in the place of God, his heart lusting, and many angels following his abortive cavorting, he had yet more rebellion to accomplish. He was set to the task like a runaway steam-roller, except that down was the direction in which he was SENT!

Revelation 12

Having the effrontery to seek to devour the Christ when the magnificence of His incarnation was wrought (Rev. 12:4-5), as was perpetrated through the instrumentality of King Herod (as in Matthew 2:16ff. 'the massacre of the innocents' as it is known), when the Lord came in the form of a babe, he sought unswervingly his own unruly eminence, while experiencing only the rebuffs to arrogance and the furies of the frustrated. As to Christ however,  having been sent to Egypt and so escaping this murderous multiple infanticide,  unharmed He proceeded on the way to the manhood in terms of which alone would He make Himself, as man for man, the focus of desolatory judgment to which man is just heir, so that He might justly forgive those who receive Him for the One who He is, with the work which He has done, with repentance and faith (as specified precisely in Romans 3:25-26).

Now it is true that in Revelation there are a number of themes which are duly announced and pursued. This one in Revelation 12, just noted,  is an overview of Israel as the genetic site for the deliverance - all 12 tribes of it therefore (12:1) - of the Christ in the incarnation as in Micah 5:1-3's prediction. The text looks at the arrival of the babe, the diabolical fury to exterminate Him, the only Saviour sent from His everlasting Father, from whose eternal abode He came as Micah shows; likewise at  the war in heaven where the devil was ousted in an inglorious flurry, at his humiliation on earth as at his fury in responding to this debasement in the usual motif of passionate self-assertion, for which likewise so many of his disciples are famous, as they seek to rule this earth, whether with a pope, a commune or a false prophet, Muhammad, as their inspiration  (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms Ch. 30 and see Index on these topics) .

It is to be noted most carefully, that in accord with the utter stringency which the author back of Revelation puts on this text, there is NO liberty to add, insert from the invisibility of the human mind, ONE SLIGHTEST THING into the text. IF THE TEXT announces a topic, topic it is. If it creates a theme, and declares it, theme it is. We have the following liberty to announce a topic, where the book does not, the following to indulge in thoughtful reveries and dispose a text this way or that FROM NO INTERNAL EVIDENCE WITHIN IT: ZERO. It is what is known, in another trade, as ZERO TOLERANCE.

Very well: the case of the book being thus, we have looked at one relevant theme for our purpose, both as an example of a theme when it is as such announced, and as a prelude to related themes to come later in the book of Revelation.

The devil then persecutes others who obey the commands of Christ. It is like spewing out water; but the Lord protects His people, and the "earth swallowed up the flood". The evil urger, the devil,  proceeds indeed beyond the persecution of Christian in Israel, to find a broader category, in those who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."  "The rest of her offspring" being distinguished from the woman herself, being seen as fleeing into the wilderness, very probably refer to those Gentiles who now have a spiritual affinity, in the testimony and love of truth which is emphasised in the text, to those of Israel who have recognised their real and duly arrived on time Messiah: that is Gentile Christians (cf. John 10:16).

Revelation 13-14

Indeed in Revelation 13 at once we see a broader perspective, or rather a more specifically indicated one, in that one of the beasts comes out of the sea, as specified as to type in Daniel 7, 8 and 2, with some of the features of the Danielic beasts are noted in 14:2. He deals, in expectation from the end of Rev. 12 as just noted, with "every tribe, tongue and nation". His blasphemies, since he was "given a mouth" are heady enough to satiate the lust of Satan himself. His interwoven aspect, relative to Satan, is seen in this: "So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying 'Who is like the beast!' " (13:4); and indeed  there is even an auxiliary beast, the propaganda specialist (13:11), who joins in the satanic throng.

His office, apart from diverse devious signs and expressions of some degree of supernatural power (13:12-13), is not least just this, so to act that "he deceives those who dwell on the earth" , using the authority of the first and more generic beast "in his presence" , "to cause the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast." For all the world, he is like Dr Goebbels to Hitler, except far more (spuriously and deceptively) religious, and in this case, it is not just Europe, but the world which is his dupe.

Not all follow him of course, despite the enormous sway exerted, for in Rev. 14 you find the "everlasting gospel" pronounced by angelic means (14:6), and the warning addressed to many who heed, "Fear  God and give glory to Him, for the hour of judgment is come" (14:7), and it is "the patience of the saints" in such a scene and indeed scenario, which is commended, even of those who KEEP His commandments! (which includes the first commandment in Exodus 20)! We know well from Matthew 24:22, that so terrible will be these times that unless they were "shortened" , no flesh could be spared, but for the elect's sake, we find written, they will be shortened.

Thus we find the devil in a virtually insane paranoid fury, seeking to swallow up all resistance, with various agents and supernatural power and sinuous deception, flaming with his inglorious fiasco, without humour, and not to be humoured.  As Ch. 14 ends, we come to the vast death toll not slow to arrive in the fury of the Lord (14:18-20).

Already, in Ch. 14, we have been advised that Babylon is fallen (14:8), and so to Ch. 15, where we see "another sign in heaven" . Amidst this tremulous scene of wrath, comes the announcement that "in them the wrath of God is complete", that is the specified seven angels whose terminator work is to proceed (15:1), shortly (16:1ff.). The scenario in its strict sequence and verbal finesse, proceeds ungarnished, uninterrupted, cohesive and constant. Now we look to heaven, which continues whatever happens on earth, following this completion announcement as just noted.

Here the judgments of God are acclaimed (for how many centuries has Babylonish wickedness as in 17:1ff., occurred, and how long have the saints seen satanic power do its strenuous blood-letting against many of the best and most beautiful souls - as in Revelation 6:9ff.), and vindication of the victorious love of God is sought. In love He has waited to seek the lost; in justice He acts (15:6-7 cf. 6:9-11), to vindicate the truth.

Thus, the earth which is the scene of the boiling vices of the devil, of the murder of the Messiah, is not at all to waft off on its delusions. It is to be JUDGED (as in Psalm 2) so that the Messiah is to "ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Psalm 2:8), and this, it is not only a spiritual thrust to redeem SOME, but a sovereign majesty to subdue all, even the rebellious, though their liberty to find hell is not thereby annulled, as we shall shortly see!

Indeed, this being the stated scope of the operation, we further learn from Psalm 2 of a surely coming situation, as sure as God is, for He has spoken it, and His word is restrained by none (Isaiah 43:13). Thus "You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."

As a result of this soon coming situation, the "judges of the earth" are to "be instructed", and such magnates are to "Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish in the way." Scene: the whole earth. Result: entire majesty, none exempted from conformity. Penalty: being broken into pieces. Compare and contrast this with the Gospel situation: being healed, with those rejected it having the wrath of God brooding over them, but ENTIRELY free to be rich, persecutory of Christians, murdering them, ruling in the world and despoiling the beauties and peace of it (as in Herod, Hitler et al.).

So is it in Micah 7:15 where the intervention of God is to reach such a climax that only the Exodus, redolent with miracle and immediate sovereign devastation of all resistance, to the point of being proverbial, can be used for comparison. It is just the same in Isaiah 66:15 where the martial power of God, wrought in anger,  subdues the regimes of earth-ruling force,  in dynamic action delivering the people of God from the woes of the assailants, in that case (see With Heart and Soul, Mind and Strength Chs. 4 ff.) Israel. With "anger and fury" His rebuke with flames of fire, leaves the desolatory dead the heavily apparent result.

This world ? It does just that, as far as it is able,  to the people of God. With this, God is not satisfied; with it likewise, the saints in heaven are not satisfied, the clamour of prayer is not satisfied, the glory of His justice is not satisfied, and He acts to satisfy these things, to meet these just criteria,  as in Psalm 2. It was this very Psalm which was cited in the book of Acts, in the midst of the slaying of many BY THE EARTHLY RULERS, which would mount to a climax. The precisely contrary and predicted vindication of the justice of God, is forecast to come TO THIS EARTH as in Psalm 2, Micah 7, Isaiah 32 showing the results of such power on this earth, as Isaiah 65:18.

The one is and was; the other is to be. That is what the word of God unabashedly declares, yes with passion and zealous promulgation.

Just one of the consequences of this is that people will NOT be able now to snatch the work of others, and take the fruits of their toils for themselves, in other words, a world crucially and most manifestly contrary to the present one, where such things are RIFE! (Isaiah 65:22ff.). It is not a question any more of patience pending harvest; it is observation of power before final judgment, which Revelation 20 likewise hastens to disclose without intermission, except this, the next announced step being the  COMPLETION of the announced millenium, and the opening of the books, when heaven and earth flee, for no place is then to be found for them.

We are not dealing, in all these things, in shades and shadows, but in explicit contrasts with the cause assigned, the removal of deceptive power among nations from the devil, and his incarceration for the millenium, followed by this stark judgment!

The record advises us of these developments "when the thousand years have expired" not "some" 1000 years, but the one revealed, hence "the", and it notes that "then" ..."I saw a great white throne."

Allegorises often try to make WAR mean peace, WORLD mean heaven, and even ignore such things as death being accursed (Isaiah 65:20), as if YES means NO. Interpretation however cannot say 'symbols' and then invent imagery, when the scene is stated, and contradict the import of the imagery. This is not licence. It is authorship!

Such should write their own works. They certainly do not interpret this one. Allegories may indeed be put, and any good writer makes it crystal clear what is what; and when it is an allegory, still does the meaning not depart from the central thrust, as if a writer could not manage to leave out things that were in the strictest, most substantial and  emphatic contradiction to what he had in mind. For any author, such clumsy interpretation is intrusive.  When the writer is ultimately through inspiration, the Lord Himself, however, the case is even clearer!

Such contradiction means confusion: not in the writer, but in the interpreter, who interprets text out of the text, and inputs imagination where the text forbids.

Alas*1, that is really all there is to it.

However, HERE WE ARE EXPLICITLY TRACING THE HISTORY OF THIS EARTH, WITH REFERENCES TO HEAVEN FROM TIME TO TIME, AS EVENTS UNFOLD.
 

Revelation 15-16

We were moving into Rev. 15, noting that the wrath of God complete, via the seven angelic visitants, and finding that purity of that heaven which suffers no intrusion, and vindicates righteousness to the uttermost. It is then that His will being done on earth as in heaven, despite the wonders of mercy and longsuffering in love and patience with faithfulness; for justice and righteousness are the foundation of His throne (Psalm 89:14), while mercy goes before His face.
Thus is His will done on earth as in heaven: for the millenia past (as in II Peter 3:8-9, who warned of the end just as he emphasised the length before the end came!), replete with the wonders of mercy and forbearance, sacrificial love in the many following the loving sacrifice of the One, come to the conclusion. Now, there is the millenium to come.

There is now exposure. Justice and righteousness are the foundation of His throne (Psalm 89:14), while mercy goes before His face.  The judgment now exposes the necessity of righteousness in the very air of earth, which so long grew in pollution, while the tempests lashed increasingly, the seas roaring as predicted by Christ, conveyed by Luke; and mercy is no longer available for the critique of caricature.
 

To Revelation 16 we come, to find the order to the angels, the seven noted in 15 above, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth." It is not heaven. It is not a new earth. It is the same old one, the one the works of which are to be burnt up (II Peter 3:10-12). We are not in fairy land, in fey land: we are statedly on this earth. It is getting what justice requires. What gets judgment is what asked for it; this is its come-uppance!

That of course is part of what is coming, that not only is the evil to gain its due recognition with power, its own power AT LAST abased with its lies and fraud, for that is but one part of that righteousness which GOD INSISTS on making clear, as He judges; the other is its MANIFESTATION POSITIVELY when as in Psalm 72, the Lord rules, yes as in Isaiah 11 and 32, as implied in I Thessalonians 3:13 and stated as we shall see, in this work also.

Psalm 2 reeks with this righteous fury, and manifest judgment; the apostles cited it, and the case is clamorous in scripture, unable to be either subdued or seduced. Here it is, and it is to come.

It is not to our present purpose to investigate the details of these furies poured out by the 7 angels, for they can readily be read, and our task is the cohesion and continuity, to perceive it relative to our major purpose and thrust.

Suffice that the very extremities of wrath greet the ungrateful world, whose turmoils in physical dimensions begin to resemble ever more closely, the passionate hostilities of spirit which so long have imbued its passionate tyrants and tedious dictators, whether of larger or smaller dimensions, composed of few or many, in their seats of power.

In this, one is reminded of what happened to Israel, MOST unallegorically, when being told that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, the temple dismantled, the nation found it true to the very stone! (Luke 19:42ff.). Christ did not weep over an allegory, but over the city of the Lord, Jerusalem! So now it is not the land of Israel - one which now is predicted to have its vast evangelical awakening (cf. Romans 11, The Biblical Workman Chs.  1 and  3, SMR Appendix A): it is not this which is in view.

No longer is it  the land which was FIRST to suffer what might have seemed an ordinate judgment - had not the preliminaries of the centuries, and the murder of the incarnate King been in view: it is the WORLD!

The scale is far larger; but the theme is exceedingly similar!

The entire world now is the target of the devil, for a unit force control; and it is, in turn,  the scene of judgment before the Messiah, exhibited in Matthew 25, which is bent on arriving. How like the warnings to ancient Israel, both the punishment and the restoration, is the word now to the world (cf. Jeremiah 30:12-17, 25:8-10, 31:15-17, Ezekiel 5:7-13, 6:9ff. with Matthew 24:17-31).  The earth it is which is to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea, and in the meantime, as Revelation in enormous details exhibits, it is getting the judgments of rebuke, the ledgers reeling with red ink as the pen of history comes to the last chapter (Habakkuk 2:14).

It is the earth in Habakkuk which is the burden (1:2ff.), and it is on the earth that the promise is made as to reference point (Hab. 2:14), remedial situation and judgment post. More is to follow, to be sure; but the world is not to escape like rumpled paper. Its judgments are all written. Let us pursue them then, in Revelation 17.

Revelation 17-19

THEN, we read in 17:1, one of the seven angels (already defined, detailed and recognised in their former pursuits) shows to John the apostle (cf. Chapter 1,  *2, above), more data on Babylon, its  mystery (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 2) and its end, which proceeds with all the punitive purgations of divine judgment in Ch. 18 of this inspired revelation, the Revelation through the apostle John. That, in the succeding chapter 18,  is the detail, of which this is the announcement; just as in Ch. 15, we saw the seven angels who should as shown in Ch. 16, act in fulfilment of the judiciously announced commission of the earlier chapter.

Having dealt often enough with this topic of the predicted devastation of the Roman religious centre, we merely here note its emission in our environment, and proceed it.
 


It is not in some strange terrestrial orb that this occurs; it is in this one, where the seven hills do not roam! God is no more mocked than is His word invaded, be the impetus what it may be!

Meanwhile, pending the harlot, Rome's overthrow, there was in this intensely cohesive narrative,  her demission from her regal status in this world, by decision of the executive conglomerate that make up the new imperial power to rule this world (Rev. 17:16-18). Thence follows her conflagration, who caused so many individual conflagrations, like that of lovable John Huss, the term meaning 'goose', on which the jollity of the day played, when Rome slew him, by fire. Fire went out; and now it comes in. "Rejoice … God has avenged you on her!" is heard amid the lamentations of those falsely in her train. It is no more.

It is vain to pretend that divine justice is not a major theme throughout! The book overflows with it like lava from a volcano. The volcano, held long in contempt, was nevertheless, there; and if its long restraint is the delay of judgment in the interests of mercy for the world, so is the unbinding of judgment, the eventual and CLEARLY PREDICTED ACTION! Scene: the world in general, Rome in particular.

This done, and Rev. 18's detailed statements complete,  on the Roman end (and it is 'mystery Babylon' as expounded in Biblical Blessings 2 noted above), with a longer history than its death mask possessor at the end, this being in turn the end of the 4th Empire as predicted by Daniel (cf. Highway of Holiness), we are told this: "AFTER THESE THINGS".

What then is to occur after these things so dramatically and sequentially exposed to our view through the prophet ?

It is this. John hears a voice contemplating the RESULT of what has JUST happened! (Rev. 19:2): "True and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He has avenged on her the blood of His saints shed by her." The harlot despatched, the topic of marriage arises, and the wedding of the Lamb proceeds (Rev. 19:8).

Cautioned that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" and not to fall to worship at the feet of the angel, John sees heaven opened, and the same Jesus coming in the ultimacy of judgment in the white horse, and the dress of those specified for the wedding is precisely the same as that of those seen to accompany Him (just as all the saints do, as declared in I Thess. 3:13). Indeed, the birds are invited to prepare for the final feast in the consummation of judgment, for the armies of heaven accompany the Lamb (as in 19:9), who is "King of kings and Lord of lords", and "the Word of God" (Rev. 19:13,16).

Beast and kings of the earth, their armies, all are gathered to make war on Him. The beast is captured, the leader lost, the false prophet is moved by a mouth stronger than his, and their end is as fiery as their misspent force in life. Meanwhile, death awaits the vagrantly arrogant multitude (19:21).
 
 

B. THE PEAK REVEALED

Revelation 20

"THEN," we are told, there is a result for  the dragon, alias for the serpent, alias for the devil, who in Ch. 16 in the continuous narrative preceding, was he who not only thought to destroy the incarnate, the Lord as babe at the Gospel outset into flesh, but from whose very mouth came some of the deadly dynamic of deception as noted in Rev. 16:13-15. THEN an angel came down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit.

This result ? It is this: "He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." There is no possibility of ADDING a new theme, a new topic, a new phase, or a new stage here. The climax is reached; the evil powers are translated from high dudgeon to low dungeon. We are told explicitly what is the next step. It completes the devastation of the enumerated powers past; and it does so with a glissade of terms, covering the devil not only in person, but in any verbal software which may be used. He is taken in his steps, his names and his power and incarcerated.

You can add if you want to write the book; but not justly otherwise!


We are in a heavily sequential narrative, with its own introductions before, for any new phase (as in Rev. 11, for its part, in Rev. 12 for its part), and there is nothing to do but to accept this, or reject the prohibitions on invention, on intervention, always present in any sober exegesis, and here commanded to the uttermost.

What then must be urged ? It is this. Disobey if you have a mind to; but it is NOT, emphatically not interpretation. If however any such act could be called interpretation at all, it is interpretation of one's own mind, which has nothing whatever to do with the mind of God, in such matters: for His thoughts are above our thoughts as the heaven is above the earth, and the One who says so, it is Himself! (Isaiah 55:8-13). You can take it or leave it: there is simply no other option. It is however  a beautiful option, to be instructed by God only, as in Isaiah 54:13, I John 2:27).

THERE IS A MILLENIUM. There is not here a legitimate question for anyone exegeting the word of God as such, and the more emphatically so for anyone following the directions at the end of it (22:18-19). You do not generalise and find that you have some theory, for example,  about cyclical coverage, by someone carelessly, casually or traditionalistically thrown together from some cases of various points of departure SPECIFICALLY ANNOUNCED in the book of Revelation, and here INSERTED into the text, as if it were a mere place for a Midsummer Night's Dream quartered in one's own mind, one having some mild relationship to things not stated or present, or available for generalisation, even if generalisation of such a kind were exact in any case.

Insert is add.

Ignore is subtract.

Each is forbidden.
 

IN THE MILLENIUM, THEN, WHAT ?

What however is IN the millenium ?

That, it is a just question, and God is just.

We do not, properly, decide what is 'the millenium' and then make up a theory, and then dogmatise, and then form parties, camps and the like about it. That is philosophy, not theology; and to the extent it claims to be biblical, it is false and misleading philosophy.

We rather SEE what is TOLD about it, first and foremost, and then present what this is and necessarily implies (if so be, anything is so implied). We may then find other scriptures, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and if their criteria are unique, and fit the unique features of 'the millenium', and the scripture tells of no other such period, then it is justifiable to collect them for this period as their heir apparent.
 

The sure and first thing about 'the millenium' here specifically used of what the book of Revelation calls the millenium, is this, that the power of Satan, in the starkest and most absolute way, is deprived of deceptive outlet to the nations in this world. The driving force attested in the preceding chapters of Revelation in the ways shown, and paralleled in approach to the same confrontation with the burning judgment of the incoming Christ in II Thessalonians 2:8 (cf. Isaiah 11:4), is the devil, the dragon, whose various names are listed in Rev. 20:2, as one arrested whose various aliases no longer will cover him. HE is now confined, abased, humiliated, arrested, imprisoned, without effectual outlet for his cunning conniving.

Thus this is a specific TEACHING about THE MILLENIUM depicted and sited, as set forth in the continuous narrative which has led from Ch. 12 right on to Ch. 20 of the prophecy.

It is the OPPOSITE, both in II Thess. 2 and Revelation, as in Matthew 24, of the criteria which relate to the period of the approaching return of Christ. It is characterisably opposite, assuredly sited, dramatically culminative, procedurally cumulative, avenue to blessedness of a type unexampled since Eden, and beyond it, in that redemption is greater than probation.

Thus not only is it categorically forbidden to ADD to the text of the book of Revelation, to present some new theme, contrary to the continuous narrative, and conspicuous in the text here by its notable absence, or in any other way so to act as to elide the time or the reality of what is written, or even to  try to suppress this phrase, ‘THE MILLENIUM’ as what follows the incendiary assault of CHRIST. It is indeed  He who as the word of God, King of kings devastates the assemblages, the exemplars of satanically empowered rebellion who have failed to heed the warning of Psalm 2:9-12.

It is not only this: it is even more than this when the millenium is gratuitously and contra-contextually shifted out. Such a fault is aggravated by the rupture of reality involved. It fleeces the foothills to this return of Christ of one of their specified main ingredients, exposed in its wily, and supernatural fury of assault on the people of God, to deceive. Indeed,  it is worse again, if this phrase, the millenium, be misplaced, or scooped out with a heading not present, and the narrative ruptured, contradicted and denied.

It is worse yet, because it contradicts all the parallel scriptures at the same time. Further it is like a piece of music, which long building to its highly specific climax, in which a repetitive theme is prominent, is suddenly 'interpreted' by some fabulous 'critic' who ignores the theme if not dominant, then prominent as one of the prongs of development, in the entire preliminaries to the end! He concocts thereby a critique of some music never written, divorced from the score! Literally, he does not know the score. That is the sad result of such switches, shifts or effectual deletions of dynamic and detail.

This however leads on to what inexorably has great apologetic significance.

Instead of adding to scripture, and subtracting from it, in such ways, as specifically forbidden, and improper in any case, if one takes it as it comes, and interprets it as it interprets itself with the words it provides for the purpose (just as Christ interpreted the parables), then you find a coherence and harmony, instead of a contradiction and a chaos of confused ideas, which naturally lead to many 'schools' of interpretation, which are not really so, but schools of intrusion or denial, which refuse what is written, and insert here from this pundit, there from that, what is not written.

In fact, however, there is a period, specified in the book of Revelation, which is to have unique characteristics, since Eden began in this world. Satan is crushed, not merely in spirit and in the sublimity of the provision to faith of the Gospel, but in this, that HE CANNOT DECEIVE THE PEOPLES for the period in question. Now deceit is his NORMAL tool of trade! THIS is now denied him. In II Cor. 4:4, cf. John 14:30, you see that the god of this world, its preferred prince, is he who, with whatever aliases, 'blinds' the eyes of those 'who do not believe', just as we find in I Peter 5 he goes as a roaring lion, and as one who sent, in Rev. 16, the false prophetic dynamisms hopping, hopping.

THIS HAS NOW STOPPED for the first time, as to type, since the Fall of Man. It is a unique period, not merely immiscible with the time when Satan is the adversary opposing the work of God, the Church Age, but the entire contradiction of one of its main ingredients!

Indeed, it is contrary to the inception of the evil and the curse, when it started, and how much so is it in the terminus with the flamboyant furies of the one who knows his time is but short! and these things are divinely declared in principle, and illustrated in practice.

It does not fit. It becomes a comedy of errors, where comedy has no place.

Why is this so ? It is because when anything is intricate, realistic, true, covering all the cases and wise in the uttermost degree, then to ALTER IT is to invite the same sort of disaster as would occur if a non-engineer were to substitute one of the engines in a Boeing, with one of his own diffuse choice! The better is the original design, and the more brilliant and individual its construction, the more immiscible is it with any significant mutation whatever; just as in biology, there are limits, beyond which mutation merely kills, drains, de-energises, renders inefficient, dead or bordering upon it.

The scripture, to be interpreted as the Westminster confession so justly affirms, by ITSELF as the doctrinal basis, and not by any text of man, has the heavenly beauty of a harbour of many ships, just like the picture you may have noticed at the start of this chapter, with all the yachts of ocean-going revelation, clustered in one place.

Harmoniously and safely, that nautical library that covers the deep, and yet is composed in one place is at peace with its self, in a setting both prodigiously inspiring and unsparingly delectable in its symmetry and empathy, one part with another.

What then ? It is as it is, and its composition is in its own harbour, unbetrayed by alien vessels, without place, right or call. The word of God is the word of GOD: beware those who betray His cause by their own ideas, inventions and contentions, thrust vigorously if not indeed vehemently, where they have no place.

You CANNOT so invade Revelation (which forbids it), seducing some part of it to put it elsewhere by some spontaneous insertion not in the least provided by the text, so adding; nor can you subtract by removing such a declaration of the unique properties of an assigned period. IF you do, you end in philosophic chaos. If you do not, you end in a harmony so intense, a combination of terms from this and other scriptures so enduring, so delicate, so perfect, that it is like some wonderful painting, in which all parts conspire to produce the aura of authenticity. This is what you would expect of the word of GOD: this is what you find. Hence this very fact of the virtually autonomous misuse of the text, shows the proliferation of error which in fact  has proceeded from that, and contrasts the succinct graces of the truth, AS IT IS WRITTEN, without ornament, addition or omission.

That is the apologetic point. There is no problem when you follow the text. What could you expect ? Does a Rolls Royce purr with bicycle parts !

The mounting climax to the expressions of the divine justice as in Rev. 15, 17, 18 (1), and culminating in Rev. 19, are met in the abasement of the agents of this deceptive series of declivities in man which produce the judgments of God (2), and the final agent is himself despoiled, humiliated, disembowelled spiritually! so that HE CANNOT DECEIVE any more. The first happens, "THEN" the action proceeds, so that his most tirelessly wicked agency is exposed by what happens in its absence.

In this way not least, is God's righteous government so swelling and continuous that "the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover  the sea." Currently there is the underlying glory, and the goodness, but also the curse, also the satanic enterprises, also many millions of murders, billions of lies, fraud and rapacity rampant like young lions, not yet poisoned. Their day comes. THE EARTH, states the divine One, is not to stay like that. It is to receive a final warrant of another kind. It is to be filled as the waters cover  the sea (as in Micah 4, Isaiah 2, Psalm 73, Psalm 2, Isaiah 65, and paralleled in Micah 7 and  Revelation 20), with the KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD.

It will not be possible to hide. Works of mercy and grace will abound (Psalm 72, Isaiah 11) in this transformed and wholly diverse world, where injustice and grabbing are stopped, as by power brakes. Indeed, in Psalm 72 we learn of the divine Ruler, "His enemies will lick the dust", and "yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him; for He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and needy, and will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence, and precious shall be their blood in His sight." It is He who as in Psalm 89 has these inimitable criteria and characteristics, precisely as in His first coming (cf. Luke 24:25-26 where Christ spells it out). There we see of the seed of David, the covenanted one of whom Christ spoke in terms of Himself, as noted in Matthew 22:44, "I will set his hand over the sea, and his right hand over the rivers" (Psalm 89:25). Sufferings first, glory later, Christ indicated (Luke 24:25-26).

God will indeed rule the nations in might and with glory (Psalm 2, 117, 66:4, 67:4). It will be done through the Messiah (Psalm 2:6-12 , 89:20). Further, as in Isaiah 2:4, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Anything further from anything post-Eden, it is virtually impossible to imagine. It is diametric structural anithesis. It is however to come, for as Micah 4:4 declares in a cognate passage, "The mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Indeed, the Lord is to govern the nations on earth righteously, and "Your enemies will submit themselves to You" (66:3), so that "all the earth shall worship You". Sin is not absent, merely the devilish dash of its dynamic; further, the wonder of the way of righteousness is demarcated with a distinctness of wonder, past all confusion, abuse or decline. Indeed, many may give feigned acceptance in this millenium specified by Revelation, with criteria paralleled in its unique and defined state as shown in Rev. 20:3. We know that because at the end of the time, there is to be a revolt, an uprising.

When the TIME IS PAST and the devil is given liberty, the devilish heart is no more abased, the rebellious no more conform, and now it is demonstrated specifically that it is not environment (for He has redeemed the poor as in Psalm 73 and been tender and just) that counts in the count-down to heaven or hell; it is grace, it is salvation, it is knowing the Lord IN YOUR HEART, by His cleansing regenerative dynamic and personal presence.
 


(Keil and Delitzsch treat some of these aspects well in their Old Testament Commentary on Haggai.)

It is not that it need be anything directly to do simply with an instructed individual, except perhaps the inventor of some of these meddlesome myths. They have become 'schools' which invite people to become 'followers' and in which there are wars and corners and fights, and hype! It is very horrible, and it is very divisive, but it is entirely unscriptural. Thus, one must, of course, make it entirely clear that this is in no sense a personally oriented comment on anyone who, caught in any erroneous interpretation, happens to hold it in such a field. It is rather addressed to the misleading dynamic which tends to ensnare people, and to this itself. It is what Christ called a ‘leaven’, as to type.

One no more wishes to 'condemn' those who may have caught such a toxic dose, than those who suffer from influenza. This said, however, one is without the slightest codification, compelled and constrained to say these things about the quality of the illicit thing itself!

Again, to be sure, there are dispensational horrors which are probably far worse (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 3 esp. pp. 35ff. and 45ff. incl. *2). These, for example, omit the key which turns the door of interpretation, the clearly defined biblical principles which, like a map, allow the unfading certainties of what are the markers of the track of understanding. Ignoring the standing guidelines, many have failed to realise that orders are orders, and human principles of interpretation from philosophy, must give way to explicit statement from God as to what He is about, will insist upon and where He is going. This relates to what happens in the millenium.

The trackless wastes of covenantal confusion, as if God had forgotten the lines which He Himself has drawn, or meant symbols to signify something other than what He has laid down with all the emphasis of heaven itself, become a place of prey for the unwary. However, as Justin Martyr so beautifully stressed, the Christ is the new law and the new covenant, and as Ignatius put it, the charters ARE Jesus Christ: in Him the symbols in vast numbers coalesce and have their completion (Hebrews 10:1ff., 7:25-28).  His messianic presence is dominant and not merely prominent, the pith of the presentation, the acme of the acuity, the flame of the fire which like some vast solar flare, has reached out to illumine and to warn all.

Moreover, there are insistences that II Peter 3:8-9, is dealing with admittedly eschatological criteria, and these therefore are here far from irrelevant. They may apply assuredly, though this could not be proved. Though some indeed might wish to insist that this word of Peter is so wedded to this end period that to ignore it here is to be silent where God has not been so, and to ignore what God has divulged, and there is ground for some sympathy in such a position: yet such a position, though appealing, has no sure mandate. It merely prevents our ‘knowing’ the length.

Thus, one does not know the chronological length of the Revelation millenium for the very simple reason that the highly pertinent II Peter 3:8-9 in this whole context of the longsuffering of the Lord and the end, may well be a pointer. Since it may not be one, specifically however for the immediately following phase, though it bids fair to be an index, we simply DO NOT KNOW. There is scriptural ground for RESERVATION on the topic. We know the actual duration may be far short of a thousand years, though it is certain to be adequate for all pronounced to be done in this.
 

Symbolical in extent , or unsymbolical, however, the point is but trivial, unless more be asserted in God’s name, than can be proved from the Bible. That in itself, is never trivial! (Proverbs 30:6, SMR Appendix D, and the earlier chapters of this volume).  We simply announce that the length is not known, but as in other matters in symbolism in this work, where the key is apparent, the substance is there, and it will last as long as GOD MAKES IT TAKE to fulfil all He has said concerning this exhibition of His justice and mercy.
 

To the last jot and tittle, Christ declared, all the law and the prophets will be fulfilled. You do not fulfil an earth flowing with righteousness under the just and merciful rule of God, in all nations, one where the wicked are dashed, by having one in which these criteria disappear. You do not fulfil the word of God by excising Revelation 20. You do not have the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth, and the righteous unmolested when the righteous are systematically murdered, goods rifled and powers of satanic dynamic flourish like giant weeds, covering the deserts of desolation PREDICTED to reach their climax at His return, coming somewhat earlier in order to prevent the earth becoming WHOLLY UNINHABITABLE.
Thin does not mean fat, nor fat thin.
 

You do not avoid the context by dismissing it to some sanctuary invented by your own mind.


You continue with the word of God, neither adding nor subtracting, interpreting what is there, not disenchanted from some philosophy, deciding it really is better put away, like some 19th century relative who is not fit for society, and so is placed in a country mental asylum. It is man not God who is in mental danger; it is the word of man and not of God which is to be put away.
As to God, His glorious justice and righteous word is undivorceable, intractable, retroactive in judgment on this world, bringing its deeds of the past to contemporary exposure, just as was the case with the Jewish nation of Jesus' own day, when He said:

 

As the evil is purged, so the entry of light is urged. Sparkling, it embraces the truth, the truth embraces it, they luminesce in unison. They make manifest each and all of the appointed avenues expressive of the glory of the Lord.

As the evil is purged, so the entry of light is urged. For this millenium, then, you go not to heaven, to hell, or to Mars, and further, neither to fiction nor to fantasy for the place where His righteousness will erupt in glory, teem in wonder, be brilliant with force and strength, to govern all nations, and tender in compassion from the Redeemer, to heal all wounds: no, for all this in its defined ensemble of substance, is statedly on this earth.

It was not in Jupiter, in some fabrication of the human mind, in a scalloped work of the mind of man that Christ was to come. He was to born on this earth; and it was not in some purée of thought that His crucifixion was to occur, moving this to the garden of Eden perhaps, or to some other place.
Not at all! It was in Jerusalem, on this earth.

Redemption cost the earth and the earth will behold the majesty of the Lord, nor will He neglect any, for ...

"with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth: He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked... the nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain" (Isaiah 11:4ff.).

You observe this ? Then let us hear about the site, and the REASON for these events as dictated by the lip of the Lord:

 

What however of that glorious entry into heaven itself ? Does the book say it all ? It proceeds indeed to instruct us on this topic. Already the saints have long gone to their Redeemer in heaven, who came before the final abolition of evil (I Thessalonians 4, II Thess. 2:7-8,Matthew 24:22,29-31, Rev. 19:8ff. as above), and drew them apart, His elect from the four winds*2, to His side. It is with them that He comes (I Thess. 3:13, Zech. 14:5, Rev; 19:14, Luke 21:25-28 with Rev. 1:7  cf. Acme,  Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 5); for there is no more pain, and the works are finished. It is not part of salvation, that God desires to vindicate glory, indicate righteousness and exhibit the majesty of its tang on the earth, past the desecrations and denudations of those wilful and wiley. It is however part of His announced plan. Wiser than God is the one who wishes to snip here, and cut there, to add this or ignore that ? Far from it. It is well to be instructed and learn, from His book, without alien aid.

The ministry ? This is an aid which does not rule the truth, but is there for helping joy, not dominion over faith.

Wise is he, is she who receives what according to Biblical specifications is given from those who help, and yet finds in the Lord alone the help which for the helpless is ever overwhelmingly strong, incalculably pure, marvellously kind.

If you do not know all things (I Cor. 13), at least always know this, that the word of God is truth, and blessed is he, is she who abides in it (John 15:7).
 
 

NOTES

 

  *1

Alas! that is, for the turmoil needlessly produced; but praise the Lord for the clarity which is present when awe at His authorship and restraint of compiling one's own with His, lead to that famed clarity which is endemic in the word of God, inescapable, sometimes blatantly manifest, sometimes subtle like the different shades of green, the hues on the hillsides as Spring quietly turns to Summer, of gold, as only traces of green are left and various cool golds, gleaming ones, shimmering, robust and even yellow beauties, adorn the earth.

 

To appreciate the artistry, it is necessary to take these in; for they need no adornment.

 

 

*2 

ERUPTIONS INTO THE TEXT THROUGH DEEP MISUNDERSTANDINGS

 

As with many things, people often tend to be unhappy because they turn, being either taught, drifting or deceived, from a clear presentation of the text. Something they thought to be associated with what is written, or implied, is not really there; and so troubles are invented in simply not following the text. Again and again, because of extremes which some take, parties hatch, schism erupts, divergencies arise; tangents thus create cleavages through the people, like the aeroplanes on the Twin Towers, making havoc.

 

(On this, see examples and solutions in

Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 2, and in particular,

News, Facts and Forecasts 124, Part 2 and esp. section 3 of it, where the millenial matter is constructively investigated - as likewise in

Galloping Events Ch. 8, esp. *2)
 

Thus Rev. 20:4 is amazingly mistranslated in some versions, including the AV and the NKJV, which at times seems simply to follow the AV. Better is the rendering in the New American Standard Bible which follows a literal translation of the Greek:

 

"And I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead, and upon  their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed..."

 

The Berkeley version does aptly in this point: “I also saw thrones that were occupied by such as received power to pass sentence. I also saw the souls of those who had been slain for their testimony to Jesus and for God’s message; also the souls of those who had not worshipped either the beast or its statue…”

 

The English Revised version also improves on the AV, saying: “I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast …”, likewise making clear the two categories. The American Standard version of 1901 has the same “and such as worshipped” also.

 

This matter is dealt with under translations, in The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 9,
at

John saw two categories:

 

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1) the souls of those who had been beheaded

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2) non-receivers of the mark, non-worshippers of the beast.

 

This is not some super-select category but a simple summation of the people of God who specifically rise at call, and that simultaneously, both the living children of God and those dead in Christ,  as in I Thess. 4, which very expressly itemises the matter!

 

It is that which John  saw, all scripture being read as one: firstly, the souls of those ... and secondly, those who had not  mis-worshipped in the way described.

 

The grammatical structure is different for the first group, and for the second. The first is simple accusative of the noun - the souls, that is what he saw. The second is plural, this time pronominal, those who ... They are related by the word 'and'. There are two groups.

 

The occasion is of course the drama of the end, when the final crunching of the thumbs is being executed, to be figurative, when the stress is maximal, when heroism is a flame of fire, and horror takes its toll. At once, this past and the Lord having come in Person, seen on a White Horse, as the Word of God (Rev. 19):  we see in Rev. 20, the presence in heaven of Christ's people. The action is now past, the people have come and they repose, their labours past, in Him.

 

WHO then is to be with them ? Worshippers of the beast ? So then idolaters are in heaven ? Not according to Paul in I Cor. 6:9! Far from it indeed.  Such do NOT inherit the kingdom of heaven, and in telling the Corinthians this fact, Paul is expostulating "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God ? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals ..."

 

The Lord knows how to keep His own, and who are His own (II Tim 2:19, John 10:27-28). You do not live in fear, but in the Lord; you do not worry HOW He will do it. He is on record that He will do it. Whom He called, He justified, whom He justified He glorified (cf. Romans 8:17, 29-30). Those whom He justified likewise, we there read, He predestined in the first place. THAT IS WHAT IS WRITTEN. Stay with that. Trust in God and in His word: HE knows what He is doing. The tour guide in this case is NEVER negligent!

 

I Thess. 5:9-10 tells us who are Christians that God has NOT appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation.

 

Very well: even when you take the 'worship the beast' situation in the broadest sense, for after all the beasts of Daniel 8 and 9, not to say 7, are empires from BABYLON on, they are all 'beasts' so that the phenomenon is really present when the friends of Daniel are led to furnace; and the matter is to be found not only in our own generation - it is still the same in times past, though the fruit was not then so ripe!

 

ALL God's people from all generations have not compounded their sins by worshipping the substitute for spirituality which is the ruling and dominant cultural theme which mixes religions for convenience and has power as puppet master for the inert, for those simply not inhabited by the Lord Himself. Indeed, as we see in Biblical Blessings , the whole phenomenon goes back to Babel and it is a generic. The spirit of the thing is rebellion from the word of God and the usage of some other system, theme, desire, dynamic, ultimately that of the devil.

 

These then are all the saints in Rev. 20:4 as shown elsewhere in scripture, as attested in references above.

 

It is then the exclusion in Rev. 20:4 which counts. As to the second category, as listed above, those who are NOT there are those who HAVE worshipped ... the wrong one. What would one expect ? Does not John in Revelation 21:27, which follows, tell us what is not there in the end, likewise ? Let us hear it: "But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

 

It is the Lamb's book of life, that inscription which attests the status given by faith through grace, as we find in Romans 3, Galatians 3 and 5, Ephesians 2, Isaiah 61:10 and so on. It is still salvation by GRACE through FAITH as in Ephesians 2:1-10, but it is also, as always SALVATION through faith by grace, so that the faith is not the dead substitute but the living variety which, as with a good tree, acts as it is, imperfect but effective, based in the Lord who ACTS for those who wait for Him (Isaiah 64:4-5), and who meets him who is His, on the way as the prophet declares so beautifully as testimony to the practical love of the Lord.

 

"Those who had not worshipped" being one of the two groupings, these are pervasive over time and generic as to type. There is no designation of limit, merely an exclusion zone. The ones NOT there are noted. The WIFE of the Lamb has already been installed, and accompanied Him, and now we are seeing His people with special emphasis on recent events, but with no exclusion except of falsity in idolatry (worship of what is NOT GOD cf. Deuteronomy 32:21).

 

Nevertheless, this provides a ground of exhortation to all who are called by the name of Christ. WORSHIP Him! Be aware in an acute manner that the disposition of your heart and spirit is to HIM. The spirit of prophecy is the TESTIMONY  OF JESUS (Rev. 19:10). It is in HIM that all things are to be gathered (Ephesians 3:10), and on account of His cross that one should glory, yes, so glory IN IT! (Gal. 6:14). One well remembers a gentleman orating with singular amplitude to attack this sort of thing, as though one could in great purity of heart CONDEMN the cross of Christ, the very 'cross' being in some way shanghaied into evil. To be sure, some have misused it grossly; but does one amputate a foot because it trod on a rabbit!

 

The fact is that though the symbol is grossly misused by some idolaters, just as the brass serpent of Moses became later an object of idolatry, this does not remove the legitimacy of what God has ordained. The call to the cross of Christ is universal and continual, not idolatrous or iniquitous, but ubiquitous and spiritual.

 

It is in the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord we glory: that is, in the whole plan of salvation which culminated in it, the love which drove to it, the Person who accomplished it, the fortitude it displayed, the efficacy of its provision in providing just ground for the cancellation of sin for everyone who receives Him (Galatians 3:10-13, Romans 3:23-27), the just for the unjust to bring us to God (I Peter 3:18).

 

Thus the worship which is involved in this Messiah, whose goings are from eternity (Micah 5:1-3), whose throne is that of God, and who is addressed as God, in whom one is to TRUST whereas in no created being is one to trust (Psalm 45, Hebrews 1, Psalm 2, Jeremiah 17), this one who is the SAVIOUR whereas GOD ONLY is the Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11), who is with His Father the Creator, one triune God, where ONLY GOD is the Creator (Col. 1:15ff., Isaiah 45:18), whom Thomas worshipped, declaring "My Lord and My God" - lit. 'the God of me' (John 20:28): this worship of Christ is basic.

 

It is exclusive, and it is through Him the Son,  by the Holy Spirit, worship of God, the triune God, and NO ONE ELSE and NOTHING ELSE can share it. This is the constraint of the heart, the testimony of love, the object of faith, the dynamic of godliness, the motif of the life. Those excluded worshipped elsewhere! What is the first commandment ? It is not merely some format (though one is involved in the last case of the beast), but the spirit of the thing, for GOD IS A SPIRIT and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. When you ARE His, this is the natural testimony and triumph in the heart, for it is like saying 'dad' to your father at the table. It is IN YOU, for you are OF IT! (cf. Romans 8:16).

 

Finally, in review, note that John in Rev. 20:4 is shown a culmination in world history, specialising in it like an on the spot reporter. Even then, his language does not say WHO IS included in "those who..." but those NOT included. Naturally the bride is not going to be separated from her 'husband' of so short a time ago, in the celestial wedding service! (Rev. 19:8ff.). Indeed, WHAT shall separate us from the love of God ? neither things present nor things future, nor powers, nor nakedness nor sword (Romans 8:38-39).

 

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If God wants to resurrect His people
and then have a celestial matrimonial expression of the love, in such a figure,

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and is determined to expose the corruption of the earth in the absence of His people,

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when He who restrains is removed out of the way (II Thess. 2:7),

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calling the very birds to devour the offscouring,

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the people of the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit
being first gathered from the four points of the compass;

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and if then He likewise desires to judge the mêlée directly seeking to fight
against the Lord (Rev. 19:19),

Himself personally moving to judge on the earth as the prophets had repeatedly
declared in roundest terms and Revelation directly,
dramatically and with specifications exhibits in Rev. 20: 

 

·       then that is His affair.

 

Will a man teach God, or one of the redeemed instruct His Saviour ? It is simply a question of what is written; and these things are abundantly testified and verified as noted above, in the sites specified, from the word of God.
 

The desire to 'make it simple' evidently involves a failure, here, to see the moral brilliance of the exhibition of the Lord's justice, judgment and mercy. If God wants to deploy on earth the vigour of righteousness as expressly indicated for example in Psalm 2 and 110, in Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, in Isaiah 59 and 65, so be it. Is it for man to tell Him that His moral zeal is unnecessary, that - to use a figure - an ANZAC service at Gallipoli is not really necessary ?
 

Did man suffer on the cross for sin, or GOD-AS-MAN ? Does it not then matter than Christ as King rules the nations as He declared WOULD HAPPEN (as distinct from already happening) through the Psalmist, repeatedly ? Is God then to be taught ? or man!

It is necessary to worship God, not instruct Him, and to learn of Him, not to teach. What is written, is written. It does not back off because of misconstruction!

But consider the beauty of His peace, who is not a poem, merely, or a symbol, a suggestion or a motif. He states most explicitly that this earth is going to get it, first the filth of its doings, and then the purgative brilliance of His own majesty, being filled with His knowledge, the curse in abeyance, and the wonder of it all in full flow. Does wisdom say, 'No!' or if French, 'But no!'

 

The stupendous vigour of the Lord is not cutting any corners. All will be manifest in life, in judgment and in such steps and implementations as He brings to charge. All is accounted for and nothing in the word of God is annullable, nor any symbol dismissed, like some dirty urchin, not fit for the dining room. He made physical things; they will be shown the power of God. He made the body; it will be shown the blessedness of the Lord. He handles history as we handle our houses. He has His program and will not depart from it. Those who are His, they come to Him at the time of his coming for them, and resurrected, they partake, participate, spectate or witness as He will. Mighty is He who executes His word, to the jot and the tittle. You see, He KNOWS what He is talking about, so it is wise to  CONTINUE in His word! It is truth.