and ever and they have no rest day nor night, who wor The above argument seems to us conclusive; and therefore we add nothing further in this place; but as to the fact that aion in all its forms is used to describe the continuance of temporal judgments, we might, if necessary, extend the proofs and illustrations to great length. So far was the argument extended, in the form in which our Commentary on the Apocalypse was first published. But we esteem it proper here, where we have more room, to extend it. Any person who looks at the common version alone, must be satisfied that no dependence can be placed on the phrase "forever and ever" to prove the endless duration of punishment. We do not deny that it is sometimes used to signify endless duration; it is equally apparent that it is also used in cases where it cannot have that sense. The force to be given to the phrase must therefore depend, in all cases, on the subject to which it is applied. That it is frequently used in the limited sense will be made certain to the mind of every person who will carefully consider the following facts. We will analyze the expression, and consider the Scriptural use, 1st of Ever, 2d of Forever, and 3d of Forever and ever. And, 1st, EVER: The fire was ever burning on the altar; Lev. vi. 13; David ever had a sense of his sins; Psa. li. 3; the word is applied to the threshing of corn; Isa. xxviii. 28; to the continuance of the bounds of Zion, xxxiii. 20; the brother of the prodigal was ever with his father; Luke xv. 31; Jesus ever taught in the synagogue; John xviii. 20-which could not have been longer than his life at the most; and some were ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth; 2 Tim. iii. 7. From these quotations it must be evident to every person, that the word ever is frequently used in the common version in cases where endless duration was not intended. 2d, FOREVER: This word is used in so many instances where the sense can not be that of endless duration, that we shall hardly do justice to the whole by the few references we shall make. It is applied to the Jewish possession of the land of Canaan; Gen. xiii. 15; Exod. xxxii. 13; Josh. xiv. 9- to the Mosaic ordinances; Exod. xii. 14, 24; Numbers x. 8-to the bondage of the Hebrew slaves; Exod. xxi. 6; Lev. xxv. 46; Deut. xv. 17 — to the ownership of a house; Lev. xxv. 30 to a structure of stones, a monumental memorial; Josh. iv. 7 — to the continuance of the disease of leprosy in a family; 2 Kings v. 27, &c. &c. &c. What can be more plain, than that the Jews were accustomed to use the phrase forever in application to things of known and undeniable earthly character that long ago had an end? If, then, both the phrases, ever and forever, are unquestionably used separately in numerous instances, in cases where only earthly or limited duration could have been intended, can it be possible that when they are combined, they invariably signify endless duration? On the contrary, it is certain that forever and ever is used where nothing but earthly or limited duration is intended. See the following: 3d, FOREVER AND EVER: This phrase is applied by the sacred writers to earthly life, or "length of days;" Psa. xxi. 4. to the duration of a book; Isa. xxx. 8- to the residence of the Jews in Canaan ; Jer. vii. 7; xxv. 5; out of which they were long ago expelled; and also to the temporal punishment of Idumea, the streams of which were turned into pitch, the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof was made "burning pitch." This judgment is described as having been by fire and brimstone; and yet the merest tyro in Scripture criticism would know, that it was simply a highly wrought metaphor to describe the desolation produced in the land by the judgments of God. "It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof ship the beast and his image, [mark of his name. and whosoever receiveth the 12 Here is the patience of shall go up forever; from generation of eternal fire, i. e., of a temporal to generation it shall lie waste: none calamity, a fire which completely shall pass through it forever and destroyed them." Note on Rev. xiv. ever. But the cormorant and the 11. As the case of Sodom and bittern shall possess it; the owl also Gomorrah is here referred to, and as and the raven shall dwell in it: and it is a similar case to that of the he shall stretch out upon it the line Roman persecutors spoken of in the of confusion, and the stones of empti- Apocalypse, we give the opinion of ness. They shall call the nobles the learned Dr. Whitby, himself a thereof to the kingdom, but none shall strong believer in endless misery, as be there, and all her princes shall be to the extent of the torment intended nothing. And thorns shall come up by the phrase "eternal fire." "That in her palaces, nettles and brambles this is spoken not of the cities themin the fortresses thereof: and it shall selves, but of the inhabitants which be a habitation of dragons, and a dwelt in them, - that is, of them court for owls;" Isa. xxxiv. 10-13. who had given themselves over to forniThis punishment, although it was cation, and gone after strange flesh,said to endure forever and ever, we is evident; but yet I conceive they know cannot be in the future and are said to suffer the vengeance of immortal world; but was a temporal eternal fire, not because their souls are judgment on a section of the sinful at present punished in hell fire, but earth. "It would be very unreasona- because they, and their cities, perble (say the editors of the Improved ished from that fire from heaven, Version) to infer the gloomy doctrine which brought a perpetual and irrepof eternal misery from the loose and arable destruction on them and their figurative language of a prophetic cities." "To deigma, an example, vision, in opposition to the plainest is to be taken from something visible dictates of reason and justice, and to to, or knowable by, all who were to the whole tenor of divine revelation. be terrified by it, especially when it is But if any one is disposed to lay an example manifested and proposed. undue stress upon this text, it may Now such was not the punishment be sufficient to remark, that it is not of their souls in hell fire; but nothhere asserted that the torment con- ing was more known and celebrated tinues, but that the smoke of it among authors, sacred and profane, ascends forever and ever. The smoke Jewish, Christian, and heathen wriof a pile in which a criminal has ters, than the fire that fell down upon been condemned may continue to Pentapolis, or the five cities of Sodom, ascend long after the wretched vic- they being mentioned still in Scriptim has ceased to suffer. And a ture as the cities which God overmemorial of the punishment which threw with a perpetual desolation." has been inflicted on vice may remain See Whitby's Com. on Jude, ver. 7. long after vice itself has been utter- 12. Here is the patience of the saints. ly exterminated. After all, as the That is, the worshippers of the prophecy relates wholly to the states beast are put down; they are deof things in the present world, the stroyed; they can aid in the persecupunishments threatened ought, in all tion of the Christians no more; this reason, to be understood of temporal is the cause of the patience of the punishments, and not of the suffer- saints, and of those who keep the ings of a future life. So in Jude, commandments of God and the faith ver. 7, Sodom and Gomorrah are rep- of Jesus. In xiii. 10, we found simresented as suffering the vengeance | ilar words: "Here is the patience www the saints here are they that | and the faith of Jesus. keep the commandments of God, and the faith of the saints;" referring back to the preceding words, viz., the punishment of the Roman persecutors. So in the words before us, the allusion is to the preceding words, and to the punishment of the Roman persecutors, as described in verses 9-11. 13. Voice from heaven. — Any communication from heaven to men was said to come by the voice of the Lord from heaven, even when no words were actually spoken. Voice is often used metaphorically, as of Abel's blood; Gen. iv. 10; voice of a sign; Exod. iv. 8; the thunder is God's voice; Job xxxvii. 4, 5; xl. 9, &c., &c. ¶ Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. This passage is difficult of construction, as is agreed by persons of all sects. There are several questions of great importance involved: 1st. In what sense are the dead here mentioned? Are they the dead to sin, such as have been crucified with Christ? or are they the actually and literally dead? 2d. Why is it said, blessed are they from henceforth? The other questions, 3d. In what sense do they rest from their labors? and 4th. In what sense do their works follow them? depend much on the answer given to the first question. The usual interpretation of the passage is: "Blessed are the dead who die (i. e., pass away from the world) from henceforth, as it will be a time of great persecution, and the dead in Christ are to be regarded as happy rather than the living. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they are relieved from their sufferings, and their works follow them to the immortal state, where they will be suitably rewarded. But it is fatal to this interpretation, that it was not a time of persecution of the church that the revelator was describing, but the time of the punishment of the enemies of Christianity, and their final over 13 And I heard a voice from throw. Lightfoot says: "And now, as in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th chapters, the relation is concerning those things that should be against the church, - from henceforth the prophecy is more especially of things that make for the church and against her enemies' works;" iii. 351. Examine the context, and the truth of this will be seen. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen;" ver. 8. The worshippers of the beast are made to drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and are tormented with fire and brimstone; ver. 10; evidently describing the fall of the persecutors. "Here is the patience of the saints;" ver. 12; i. e., this has caused the patience of the saints, and of those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And then fol low the words: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth;" i. e., it seems to us, things are to be different henceforth from what they have been heretofore. The past has been a time of persecution; but soon the power of the persecutor will be broken; and from that time, from henceforth, the Christians will be blessed; they will have rest, when their persecutors are overthrown, and their works of triumph shall attend them wherever they go. Blessed are the dead in Christ, those who are crucified with him "from henceforth,” from the time the revelator was describing, - because the power of the oppressor was broken. Blessed, in a peculiar manner, are those who become united to Christ from that time; for they rest from their labors, viz., their toils and sufferings, whereas, previous to this time the Christians had been compelled to suffer great afflictions and some of them horrid deaths. But from the time that the revelator was describing, they were to have a season of comparative peace, and their works, their glorious heaven, saying unto me, Write, | Blessed are the dead which die works, would not be prevented, but would attend them wherever they might go. It is settled beyond all dispute, that death is used in the Scriptures in the literal, and also in the metaphorical, or moral sense. It is equally well settled, that even in the moral sense the distinction is subdivided, for we read both of a death in sin and a death to sin. Take a few examples, from the Scriptures, of the use of the figure in both senses. "Shall die in his iniquity;" Ezk. iii. 19; “Die in his iniquity;" xviii. 18; "Die in your sins;" John viii. 21; "Dead in trespasses and sins;" Eph. ii. 45; "Being dead in your sins;" Col. ii. 13. For the other sense, viz., death to sin, see the following: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into his death?" Rom. vi. 3; "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin;" ver. 6; "Like-| wise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord;" ver. 11; "Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances;" Col. ii. 20; "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him;" 2 Tim. ii. 11; "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness;" 1 Peter ii. 24. These passages make it abundantly evident, that believers are said to be in a state of moral death-death to sin. They are said to be in Christ. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" 2 Cor. v. 17. They are said to be dead with him; to be crucified with him; to be buried with him; to be "baptized into his death." According to these figures of speech, to die in the Lord is to die to sin in him, in his faith, and his spirit, - to be buried with him by spiritual baptism. The revelator had spoken of the dead in error and sin, in xi. 18: "And thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged,' &c.; i. e., the time of their judgment had come. In the case before us, he speaks of the other class of the dead, viz., the dead in the Lord, those who had been buried with him by baptism into his death. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth;" i. e., as the power of the oppressor was contemplated as broken, as Babylon was contemplated as fallen, -as the worshippers of the beast were tormented, so the Christians for a time would enjoy peace. Blessed, then, from henceforth, (said the revelator,) are those who shall die in the Lord; meaning, as we think, after the sense in which Paul sets forth the matter to the Romans, chap. vi. For they rest from their labors, (Kopon,) their toils, trials and troubles. This rest was precisely what the Christians were promised when their enemies were put down. In fact, all Christians are said, in a certain sense, to rest from their works. See the words of St. Paul: "There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, (ton ergon,) as God did from his;" Heb. iv. 9, 10. Do we not find something here parallel to the passage in Revelations? When that great persecutor Saul was converted, "then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria;" Acts ix. 31. The Thessalonians had suffered for the kingdom of God's sake. The time of the destruction of their enemies was about to come; and Paul said to them, "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven," &c., &c.; 2 Thess. i. 7. They rested from their labors and in the Lord from henceforth :| Yea, saith the Spirit, that they sufferings when their enemies were So, then, after the Lord had spoken punished; and this, it seems to us, is unto them, he was received up into precisely the idea given in Rev. xiv. heaven, and sat on the right hand of 13: "Blessed are they who die in the God. And they went forth, and Lord from henceforth," from the time preached everywhere, the Lord workof the overthrow of Christ's enemies. ing with them, and confirming the "Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest word with signs following;" xvi. from their labors," as the churches 17-20. The Greek word translated had rest at the conversion of Saul, "works" in Rev. xiv. 13, is applied and as the Christians generally had to the wonderful works of Christ and rest at the time the kingdom of Christ his apostles in repeated instances. came with power, and he took ven- John heard while in prison the works geance on his enemies. ¶ For their of Christ; Matt. xi. 2. Jesus was a works do follow them; -or go with prophet "mighty in deed (en ergo) them. They held fast their faith, and and word;" Luke xxiv. 19. See, also, their efforts were crowned with suc- John v. 20, 36; vii. 3; x. 25, 38, in cess. The revelator was obliged to all which places the word is ergon. reprove the church at Ephesus, be- "Blessed are the dead who die in the cause it had forsaken its first works; Lord [the Christians who are dead to Rev. ii. 15; which they were required sin while in Christ] from henceforth : to keep unto the end. "And he that [because the power of the persecutor overcometh, and keepeth my works is broken;] Yea, saith the Spirit, unto the end, to him will I give for they rest from their labors," power over the nations;" Rev. ii. 26. their toils and sufferings, as the Here it is evident that the Christians Thessalonian Christians rested when were required to be faithful; and in Christ came to take vengeance on being so, their good works continually his enemies; "and their works do went with them. Some were faith-follow them;" i. e., if they are faithless, and did not do their first works. ful, the fame of their purity and their David said, 66 Surely goodness and wonderful deeds, as signs of their mercy shall follow me all the days of faith, shall attend them wherever my life and I will dwell in the house they go. This seems to us to be a of the Lord forever;" Psa. xxiii. 6; reasonable construction of the pasi. e., goodness and mercy shall attend sage. It is based upon facts that we me wherever I go. The works of know did exist; and the language the faithful Christians, the fame of employed in describing those facts is their works, and the power of them, similar, in other parts of the New attended them wherever they went. Testament, to the language of the This was precisely the case with the passage before us. We are sustained early faithful Christians, when they therefore in our view by the analogy rested so far from their labors and of interpretation. But in addition to sufferings that they could work to all, we think the force of the context advantage in the cause of Christ. leads directly to the construction we See the words of Mark: "And these have given. The hour of God's judgsigns shall follow them that believe,ment was announced as having come; [their works shall follow them:] Inverse 7. The revelator then promy name shall they cast out devils; claims, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen;" they shall speak with new tongues; ver. 8; and then follows an account they shall take up serpents; and if of the punishment of the persecutors they drink any deadly thing, it shall of Christianity, who were tormented not hurt them; they shall lay hands with fire and brimstone in the preson the sick, and they shall recover. [ence of the holy angels, and of the : |
