Actual copy of pages 108-111 of Christendom Astray. 1899 Edition Before subsequent changes
(what ‘1 The state of things that John witnessed -the reigning of the accepted for a thousand years)-THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION
(Rev. xx. 4, 5). There is no mention of the act of coming out of the grave. John merely sees certain persons who had been dead, occupying a certain position with Christ; and, describing the scene as a whole, he calls it THE FIRST RESURRECTION. Evidently the word resurrection cannot here be restricted to the act of rising from the grave. Many will have a part in this “first resurrection” who will never go into the grave at all, viz., “ those who are alive and remain.” “Resurrection” here broadly covers a state and a time to which the persons seen are introduced by rising from the death-state, whether in that state they are below the sod, or walking above it in mortality. But both living and dead will have to appear before the judgment seat, before they take the position in which John saw them, and when they appear at the judgment-seat, they will have companions whom they will never see again, for to some, Christ will “say unto them in that day, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. vii. 22, 23~. Such will be “ASHAMED before him at his coming” (1 John ii. 28; Dan. xii. 2).
A principal obstacle is found in the words “The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished.” This is made art obstacle by assuming that it applies to the faithful servants of Christ.
This assumption is evidently a mistake, because at the time when that is developed which John styles the “first resurrection,” viz., a living and reigning with Christ, the judgment which disposes of the unfaithful and rewards the worthy is past. The “rest of the dead” cannot apply to the unfaithful persons amenable to the judgment seat of Christ, inasmuch as if raised at that time, their resurrection and condemnation are accomplished facts at the time when these words are used. If they apply to a specific class, it is a class not amenable to the judgment which Christ brings to bear on his household, and a class undealt with till the close of the thousand years. Possibly, it may refer to men like Nero, and others great in wickedness, who are unpunished in the present life, and who, though outside of specific law to God, have acquired a degree of moral responsibility by external contact with divine things. Rejectors of the Word, who do not come under the law to Christ by belief and obedience may be reserved till the close of the thousand years. It does not seem reasonable that those who put away the counsel of God front themselves should be passed over without judgment, and vet, since they do not become constituents of the household of faith, their resurrection, at the time when account is taken of that household, would seem inappropriate. May they not be dealt with at the end? ON the other hand, the language under consideration may have a more general meaning than this, viz, that is to be no further resurrection of dead people till the end of the thousand
pg 109
years; that though power to raise the dead is upon the earth for a thousand years, it is not to be exercised till the close of that period. In that case it may only be intended to teach that the dead, or mortal population of the earth, left over after the advent, and, therefore, a remainder, or “the rest” divided from this dispensation by the advent, and related entirely to the dispensation of the kingdom, will not be dealt with till the close of the kingdom, when those who live and die under the reign of Christ will rise again All that it really proves is, that there is to be no more resurrection of dead people after Christ has come till the end of the thousand years. We cannot be certain whether its bearing is retrospective or prospective, whether it relates to people actually in death when the saints begin to reign, or to the dead comprehensively, of whom a remainder will exist during all the thousand years. This much is certain, that it is not intended to teach, and, as we have seen, does not teach, that there will be no resurrection of unjust at the coming of Christ; No one part of the Scriptures can violate the unequivocal testimony of other parts. To admit of the common interpretation of Rev. xx. 6, would be to abandon the great doctrine of judgment with which the Scriptures (the New Testament ~.-more particularly) teem in an emphatic form.
But
the greatest stumbling-block with those who deny the judgment of the saints
consists of Paul’s statements on the subject of resurrection in 1 Cor. xv. “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It
is sown in corruption, it is raised in
incorruption ; it is sown in
dishonor, it is raised in glory; it
is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is
raised a spiritual body. -
The dead shall be raised incorruptible “ (verses 42-44, 52). Restricting these words to the mere act of emergence from the ground, they naturally seem an express affirmation that the body is incorruptible, spiritual, and immortal from the first moment of its restoration; and that, therefore, judgment is anticipated and superseded by this silent proclamation of acceptance, and that nothing lies between those thus rising incorruptible and perfected salvation, but a joyous re-union with the Lord. The mistake consists in construing Paul’s words too narrowly, and reading them as if he were dealing with the dramatic incidents of the resurrection, instead of the state of existence to which the act of resurrection leads. Paul is not discussing the scientific aspect of the subject. He is not defining the process by which a dead man ascends from the depths of corruption to the nature of the angels; the literal details are foreign to the subject before his mind. He is dealing with the broad question propounded by the objector; first, how-as a question of possibility-- are the dead raised ‘I and second, for or to (“ with” not being in the original) what body do they come I The first point he disposes of by an appeal to a phenomenon, which exemplifies the power of resurrection organically exerted; and the
Pg 110 CHRISTENDOM ASTRAY { LECT. V.
second he meets by challenging attention to the fact that there is a great diversity of power and glory in the universe of God, and that dead people, in a future state, need not necessarily, therefore, be the corruptible flesh and blood they are in mundane life. This being so,
raise” must be taken in its widest sense, including, of necessity, the act by which the dead first resume bodily form and consciousness, but, at the same time, covering the whole process, whatever it may be, which leads to incorruption. It could not he that Paul intended to exclude any part of the process. It is doubtful if the question of process was at all present to his mind. This is suggested by the entire absence of allusion either to the judgment or the unfaithful. It was the broad question he looked at, viz., the position of those destined to be accepted, in relation to the two facts, that they are to see corruption, and that God intends to promote them, in a renewed existence, to an incorruptible and immortal state. Paul affirms that as there is a difference of nature in different orders of being, and a difference between heavenly and earthly glory, so there is a difference between the present and the future constitution of the saints, because the present is the earthly and the future the heavenly; the present the animal and the future the spiritual. The characteristics of the present state-of’ which death is but the conclusion-are corruption, dishonour, weakness, and naturally: from this the body will emerge at the resurrection, in incorruption, glory, power, and spirituality. This is true, without at all involving the conclusion that at the precise moment existence is resurrectionally renewed, the saints will be in possession of these qualities. The resurrection, as a complete transaction, inclusive of the judgment seat of Christ, will, in the case of the righteous, ultimate in incorruption, glory, power, and immortality. In a sense, they will attain to these on emerging from the ground, since they will never return to corruption; but actually, they will he in the neutral state, to be determined for good or evil by judgment. Paul, however, does not take this into account. He is not treating of details. He overleaps every item in the programme, and looks broadly at the fact that the destiny of the righteous, by resurrection, is the swallowing up of death in the victory of immortality.
The word “raised” is used elliptically, or as an act covering details not expressed, in Matt. iii. 9; Luke i. 69; and Acts xiii. 22. 23. That Paul is dealing with his subject elliptically is evident from other parts of the chapter. He introduces .Adam and Christ in proof of his proposition that “there is a natural body and a spiritual body.’ He quotes the record of Moses with reference to Adam in proof of the existence of a natural body. ~“ The first man, Adam, was made a living soul” (or natural body). His proof of the second lies in this: “the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” Now supposing a person, ignorant of the history of Christ, were to receive his impressions of
LECT. V.] CHRISTENDOM ASTRAY. Pg 111
Christ’s history from this statement-supposing he had no other source of information-would he not come to the conclusion that “the last Adam” was a spiritual body from the first moment of his existence? Would he ever conclude from it that “the last Adam” was first a helpless babe at Bethlehem, clad in the flesh-and-blood-nature of his mother; then a boy, submissive to his parents; then a carpenter, helping in the workshop to earn a livelihood for the family; then anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, going about doing good, and performing works which “none other man did,” and that, finally, he was abandoned of the power of God, and crucified through weakness, even the weakness of frail human nature ~ Would the uninformed and the superficial reader of Paul’s allusion to the last Adam learn from it that not only the first Adam, but the last Adam also, was a natural body for thirty-three-and-a-half years, and that he only became a life-giving spirit by the power of God, in his resurrection ? By no means. All these facts, so familiar to us, are elliptically compressed into the words “was made.” A process with so many striking features is expressed in a way which, if there were no other information, would conceal it. If this is the case with reference to Christ-if we are at liberty to believe against the appearance of things in 1 Cor. xv. that Christ was first a living soul and then a quickening spirit, why need there be a greater difficulty in reference to his people, whose re-awakening in the flesh and appearance at the judgment seat is kept out of sight, in a phrase which its use in other cases admits to the possibility of covering the whole ground.
Coincidentally and elliptically speaking, “the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we-the living-shall be changed.” Both events will occur at the advent. This is true, speaking broadly of the subject, without reference to details; but it is not, therefore, untrue that both classes will “appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive in body according to what they have done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. v. 10). A general statement of truth cannot exclude the involved particulars, though it may appear to do so. Those who oppose the judgment of the saints, from 1 Cor. xv., argue as if it did; as if Paul’s glorious bird’s-eye delineation of the resurrection scene here, in its i-elation to the accepted, invalidated the more sober details of the judicial transition process, which he elsewhere declares to be attendant on this epoch; a process in which, for a time, it remains problematical who are to be confessed before the angels and crowned with life everlasting. As well might they argue that because in Gen. xxii. 18, it is declared that all families of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham and his seed, therefore, they will not suffer by judgment which will decimate millions when Christ, the seed of Abraham, comes to bring the promise to pass, first “treading the winepress of the wrath of God,” as declared in Rev. xix.; that because in Zech. ix. 10,