'And in
the same scripture we learn that “the rest of the dead”—in distinction from the
blessed and holy—”lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”
Thus the
assessing judgment—to use the idea presented by many authors—will occupy the
one thousand years of Rev. 20, and at the end of that period the wicked will be
raised to receive their reward—the second death in the lake of fire.
When we
consider the exceeding great multitude of the lost who have lived since the
time of Cain, and that every case has to be examined, it does not appear
strange that one thousand years are set apart to the work.
The saints
are represented as kings and priests unto
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God; but
they are not actually kings until thrones are given them, which will not be
done until after the second advent.
Rev
5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden
vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev
5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev
5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign
on the earth.
In Rev.
5:8-10 the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders present vials of
incense before the throne in Heaven, which are said to be “the prayers of the
saints.” Whatever may be the chronology of this part of the chapter—whether the
song is by anticipation or sung when the first part is fulfilled—it is true
that there is a past and a future in the song. They were redeemed out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, which indicates the fullness of
the gospel work as then accomplished, and they were made kings and priests unto
God, and they “shall reign on the earth.” It seems evident that they were made
kings and priests before they reign on the earth. And such we find is the order
presented in other scriptures. The only priestly work of the saints is done
while they are on thrones of judgment, which is altogether during or within the
thousand years. One important end which will be gained by this examination of
the cases of all the wicked by the record of their lives, is the complete
vindication of the Government and providence of God. To all of the human race,
while they only “know in part,” many of the ways of God are dark and
mysterious. In the words of the poet:— “That vice should triumph, virtue vice
obey, This raised some doubts of Providence’s sway.” And this is the case with
the righteous, while the wicked have openly murmured and denied both the
justice and goodness of God. It was said by the Saviour that even a cup of
water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose its reward.
And who so fitting to plead such an act in behalf of a lost one as the person
to whom the kindness was shown? Paul says: “Therefore judge nothing before the
time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall
everyone have praise of God.” 1Cor.4:5. On
the last sentence of this text Barnes remarks:— “The word here rendered
praise (epainoe) denotes in this place reward, or that which is due to him; the
just sentence which ought to be pronounced on his character. It does not mean,
as our translation
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H. Waggoner
would
imply, that every man will then receive the divine approbation—which will not
be true; but that every man shall receive what is due to his character, whether
good or evil. So Bloomfield and Bretschneider explain it.” And this is
doubtless the true interpretation of the passage. Greenfield says of the word:
“By impl. reward, retribution, recompense. 1 Cor. 4:5.”
1Co
4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest
the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
This
bringing to light the hidden things of darkness, and making manifest the
counsels of the hearts, means that they shall be revealed or made manifest to
the saints by their examination of “those things which were written in the
books.” Rev. 20:12. As there are to be degrees of punishment, it is evident
from the scriptures noticed, that the determination of the measure of
punishment is the work of the saints, where every mitigating circumstance will
be presented and considered. This is the sense in which they will be priests in
that judgment. The objection raised against this view, that this does not
conform to the idea of the work of priests according to the Levitical law,
cannot lie against it, because we may not draw a parallel between the service
of the priests under the law and that of the saints in the Judgment. We must
decide by the definition of the word, and the facts of the New Testament. The
word priest does not necessarily imply a mediator in the sense of one who
offers sacrifices. Robinson and Greenfield define it, “One who performs the
sacred rites.” These rites may pertain to offering sacrifices or to mediation,
or they may not. If the saints have the work of determining the degree of
guilt, and of fixing the amount of punishment, their office is properly that of
a priest. And it must be evident to every one that our ideas of the work of
priests, if gathered from that of the Jewish priests, must be greatly modified
when we come to consider the office of the saints, as the priesthood of the
saints is on thrones of judgment, which was not the case with the Jewish
priests. We may not reason from one to the other, but must let each class stand
in its own place, according to the work ascribed to it in the Scriptures. But
it is not alone the righteous who need to have the mysteries of God’s
providence opened to them. As we remarked, the wicked have lived and died
complaining of the ways of God. The Judgment will
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be made
the means of bringing them to confess their error, and to realize that they
alone were responsible for their own ruin. The Lord will “convince all that are
ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly
committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
against him.” Jude 15.
Myriads
have died, glorying in their wickedness—in the success of their selfish
plans—unconvinced of the ungodliness of their actions. But they will all be
convinced; they will all be brought to see the enormity of their crimes against
the Most High God, and to confess the justness of his judgments. As is said by
the prophet: “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in
righteousness, and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and
strength; even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him
shall be ashamed.” Isa. 45:23, 24.
The one
thousand years of Rev. 20 are but the beginning of the reign of God’s dear Son
after he resigns his position as a priest on his Father’s throne. The angel
said that of his kingdom, on the throne of his father David, “there shall be no
end.” Of the stone, which represented the kingdom of God, it is said in Dan.
2:35 that it “became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” In Dan.
7:27 it is said that “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of
the Most High.” All the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the
whole earth, are to be destroyed. Jer. 25:26-33. The kingdoms of this world are
given to Christ, and by him will be broken with a rod of iron and dashed in
pieces as a potter’s vessel. Ps. 2. They are not to be transformed or merged
into the kingdom of Christ, but he destroys them and his kingdom takes their
place. It fills the whole earth. And this makes plain Matt. 25:34. “Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.” When God made the world he said it was “very good.” There was
every tree which was pleasant to the sight, and good for food. No thorns, no
thistles marred the face of the fair creation. No evil was found therein. And
to man was given “dominion over the
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H. Waggoner
fish of
the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth.” Gen. 1:26. This was “the first dominion, the kingdom [which] shall come
to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah 4:8. And this will be the fulfillment of
the promise that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” Matt. 5:5. The psalmist
adds a condition which the beatitude of the Saviour only implies: “The meek
shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
peace.” Ps. 37: 11.
And this
is proof that the reign of the saints over the whole earth—under the whole
heaven—is not in this present state. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.”
John 16:33. The wheat and the tares will grow together until the harvest, which
is the end of the world, or of this age. Matt. 13:36-42.
Mat
13:36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and
his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares
of the field.
Mat
13:37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the
Son of man;
Mat
13:38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the
kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat
13:39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of
the world; and the reapers are the angels.
Mat
13:40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so
shall it be in the end of this world.
Mat
13:41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Mat
13:42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth.
Mat
13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
The
“little horn” will practice and prosper and prevail until judgment is given to
the saints of the Most High. Dan. 7:21, 22.
Dan
7:21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed
against them;
Dan
7:22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints
of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the
kingdom.
“That man
of sin,” the wicked one, will exalt himself until he is destroyed by the
brightness of Christ’s coming. 2 Thess. 2:1-8.
2Th
2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th
2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by
spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at
hand.
2Th
2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition;
2Th
2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or
that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God.
2Th
2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these
things?
2Th
2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his
time.
2Th
2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now
letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th
2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming
These, and
many other scriptures to the same intent which might be quoted, prove
conclusively that in this world—in this present state—the wicked will enjoy
their triumph; and the saints must still remain in expectation of theirs; they
are but “heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love
him.”James 2:5.
There can
be no “abundance of peace” for the meek, while the tares grow with the wheat,
which will be until the harvest, or the end of the world; while that man of sin
opposes and exalts himself against God, which will be until Christ’s coming.
Not in this world, but in the world to come, will the saints reign, and the
will of God be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. Well has the poet said:—
“There is a land, a better land than this; There’s my home, there’s my home.”
There is
not the shade of a contradiction between the two statements, that the saints
shall have tribulation in this world, and, the meek shall inherit the earth. If
the earth were always to be in its present state and condition, where the
wicked prosper and the righteous are oppressed, then it would not be possible
that the meek should inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance
of peace. But the earth is not always to remain under the curse. The
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Atonement - 186
thorn and
the thistle shall not always mar the face of the dominion which was given to
man at first, and which man shall eventually inherit forever. God’s original
purpose will be accomplished; his counsel shall stand. The work of the Captain
of our salvation was not ended when he died upon the cross; when his soul was
made an offering for sin. Isa. 53:10.
Isa
53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he
shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his
hand.
His work
will not yet be finished when he has cleansed the sanctuary by the sprinkling
of his blood upon the mercy-seat. The Atonement has in view the fullness of the
glory of redemption. It is necessary to understand what is included in the work
of redemption, in order to understand what the blood of Christ has purchased
for us; what his Atonement accomplishes for man; and what are the riches of the
glory of his kingdom. This glory is greatly obscured by reason of limited views
of the design of the Atonement, and of the work of redemption. “The greatness
of the kingdom under the whole heaven,” which “shall be given to the people of
the saints of the Most High,” will not be realized until the work of redemption
is fully completed, or until the “restitution of all things, which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21.
And especially do they limit the Saviour’s work, and rob him of his glory who
claim—and many do—that the work of redemption is already completed. It is
necessary that we give this subject our careful attention.
(To be
continued)
(Excerpt
from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:
THE
ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE
(1884)
BY ELDER J. H. WAGGONER
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