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Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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Contents Exposition of Daniel

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32. - Resurrection To Judgment In The War Of Ail-Shaddai


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But, while some are to arise to the life of the Age, others are to awake from the dust of the earth "to the reproaches and abhorrence of the age". This will be a new element in the trouble of this disastrous time. This class of Jews are doubtless those whom Jesus referred to in reproducing the words of Daniel, saying, "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man (or Michael) and shall come forth; they that have done good things UNTO a resurrection of life; and they that have done evil things unto a resurrection of Judgment". In these words Christ shows that coming forth from the grave precedes the attainment of rewards, and subjection to punishment. He speaks of Daniel's "many" as the all in the graves, in certain particular graves; from which some will come forth to take forcible possession of the kingdom of Babylon; and having wrested it from its Gentile rulers, to reign over its populations with Christ for a season and time; while others come forth to participate subjectively in the judgment to be executed upon the nations, peoples, and languages subject to the fourth beast which is to be destroyed by the burning flame. Of the latter class are they to whom Jesus said, "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out". This casting out is exile from the Holy Land to the countries then still in the possession of the powers, indicated as "the Beast, the False Prophet, and the kings of the earth", and styled by Christ, "the Devil and his Angels" (Matt. 25:41). This region of the kingdom of Babylon is separated from the Holy Land by a great gulf, called the Mediterranean, which being subject to Michael's power, those who would repass into Judea will not be able (Luke 16:26). The apocalyptic name of this judicial region, or country where judgment is to be executed by the saints (Psa. 149:5-9), is "a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20). With the goat-nations of this region the resurrected exiles will be commingled, that they may there "drink of the wine of the wrath of the Deity, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb" (Rev. 14:10). This tormenting as I have hinted already, is "the war of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14), in which Christ and his associates, as the commanders of the Twelve Tribes, are engaged for the destruction of the kingdom of men. The material of the war is symbolized by "fire and brimstone"; and being brought to bear upon the objects of divine indignation by the people of the holy ones as the soldiery of Christ and his associates in command, the battle-torment is very fitly represented as being inflicted "in the presence of the holy messengers and in the presence of the Lamb". The saints are styled "the holy angels", or messengers, because they are sent by the Ancient of Days to destroy the fourth beast, or Latin and Greek powers of Babylon. This is the judgment into which resurrection introduces those "who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ". Exiles among human devils and their princes, they are even there the objects of reproaches and abhorrence. Whether their miserable existence will be prolonged after the war of God Almighty against the Powers of the Gentiles shall have ceased, there is no testimony in Daniel to determine. The words of Jesus would lead one to conclude that it is not; for he says, concerning them, "Those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them. before me" (Luke 19:27); or, apocalyptically, "in the presence of me, the Lamb". When this sentence is executed upon them, death lays hold of them a second time, and they "reap corruption" as the threatened consequence of "sowing to the flesh". Hence, not having their names written in the Book of Life, they are expelled from Paradise, "that they might not eat of the Tree of Life and live for ever". Death is therefore the eternal consummation that awaits them--death, consequent upon their "having their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). Thus, "the wages of sin is death; but in the gracious gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ the Lord".

A word of explanation may be deemed necessary concerning the phrase "human devils and their princes", among whom I have said the resurrected enemies of Jesus are to be objects of abhorrence and reproach in the hour of judgment. In the heraldry of the Bible the subjects of dominions are designated and distinguished by the symbols or emblems which represent the power. Thus, the Goat is representative of Greece; therefore the Greeks and their princes are styled goats; and the Lion, of Anglo-Tarshish; therefore the British are termed "the young lions thereof". Now the confederacy of Gentile powers under the Autocrat of all the Russias in the latter days, is not only symbolized by Nebuchadnezzar's Image, and called Gog; but it is also represented by "THE DRAGON", which is to be "bound for a thousand years" by the destruction of the fourth beast, and the taking away the dominion of the Lion-Man, the Bear, and the Leopard, for a season and time; the subjects therefore of the Dragon-dominion are Dragons. The dragon was the symbol selected by the Romans to represent their imperiality. But the Spirit of the Deity did not deem it sufficiently expressive of the character of the power, which in the time of trouble is to be an imperial organization of sin, specially manifested as the Adversary of Michael, his associates, and Israel their people. The Sin-Imperiality, having its root in the serpent-excited rebellion of the parents of our race against Yahweh Elohim, is styled "that old Serpent"; while Michael and his party, at the epoch of the binding, antagonize it as the Woman and her Seed. Hence, to express the great wickedness of the Dragon-power, and its "enmity" to all pertaining to the Holy Land, it is "surnamed Diabolos and Satanas", rendered in the common version "the Devil and Satan"; which is not a translation, but a transfer of the untranslated words into an English connection. The sentence in which they occur is ha aphis ha archaios, has esti diabolos kai satanas; and which in plain English signifies, "The old serpent, who is that causing to fall and an adversary". This will have ever been characteristic of all the administrations of the Kingdom of Babylon from Nebuchadnezzar to the last of the czars, popes, emperors, and kings of the Dragon-confederacy. These are the princes, or "angels" of the Devil-and-Satan power; hence the phrase "Devil and his angels", whose power is to be destroyed by the fiery stream issuing forth from the Ancient of Days; that is, by the consuming and destructive energy of Michael and his hosts. The power, then, being commonly styled "the Devil" in the English scriptures, all who are subject to its dominion, not being of the household of faith, are "human devils and their princes". Their imperial chief is the head of the serpent-power, which is to be so bruised and crippled that it shall be chieftainless for a thousand years.

33. "THE WISE" -- "THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND


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