Facts and
Theories as to a Future State
CHAPTER XXXV
THE APOCALYPTIC VISIONS. - 3
THE examination of our next passage will not detain us so
long, as the argument with regard to it is necessarily of a very similar nature
to what has been already advanced on either side. It is, however, a separate
and independent testimony of the destiny of the wicked, and as such we must not
pass it by. It reads thus: -
"And the third angel followed them, saying
with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his
mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the
wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His
indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up forever and ever (for ages of ages) ; and they have no
rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name" (Rev. xiv. 9-11).
One would think that
was as plain as it is solemn. Even Mr. Morris "putting to the proof"
instead of "torment" could scarcely much darken it. He has noticed the passage,
however, and objects to its teaching the commonly received doctrine on these
grounds
1. It is the penalty of a specific crime, and therefore cannot be
the doom of those who have not committed that crime. Therefore, if it teach
endless woe for some, that cannot be the "common penalty due to sinners." But
Mr. Morris is again at fault; for hell-fire may be the common penalty of
sinners, and yet men be solemnly warned, as here, that once let them commit the
sin in question and that hell would be their portion. What is intended very
evidently is that for such persons there would be no escape The objection is
therefore vain.
2. Mr. Morris says, that, whatever may be the "dramatic
force" of what is said, " it is evident that it transpires on earth, and before
the coming of the Lord."
But be gives no evidence for this at all, unless
"it is evident" be considered such. I should think myself that "the presence of
the holy angels and of the Lamb," would rather make the opposite evident.
3. He appeals to the " smoke of Babylon rising up forever" (ch. xix. 3), as
showing that such words do not imply the necessary existence of the sufferers,
as Babylon had been "utterly burned with fire." But this we have looked at in
our reply to Mr. Milton on the previous text.
The comments of the rest
of annihilationist writers are no better than this. Mr. Dobneys main
argument is that "the advocates of any tenet - no matter what - must be hard
driven, if they are glad to take their stand among the hieroglyphs that attract
us to the isle of Patmos." If he had been one of those "foolish Galatians" whom
the apostle rebukes with the statement that "Abraham had two Sons," etc., he
would, of course, have brought a similar argument against the apostle. Yet he
will condescend to notice the "hieroglyphs;" and the second argument he
produces is, that "their torment is in ver. 11 represented as synchronous with
their worship: they who worship the beast have no rest." The scholarship
of which is not profound: as I suppose the word simply to mean "the
worshippers," without any distinction of whether the worship were in the
present or the past, and moreover if "have no rest" proves the worship and the
unrest to be synchronous, then "shall be tormented must show the reverse as to
the torment.
But Mr. Dobney concludes farther from the omission of the
saints as spectators along with the "angels and the Lamb" "that the vengeance
denounced is inflicted here on earth, and in the time state," which must last,
therefore, as the torment lasts, for the ages of ages! And again, "that in
subsequent chapters we have the fulfilment of these very threatenings
exhibited; which fulfilment indisputably takes place here and now." Certainly
the fulfilment is found in ch. xx., and we have been looking at it already, but
he who can believe that the torment of individuals here and now can be "for
ages of ages "must be very anxious to believe it. We need scarcely follow him
there.
Nevertheless, Mr. Hudson also agrees that the passage "refers
properly to- the scenes of time, and not to the final judgment;" his first
argument being that there is "no allusion to the resurrection or to the opening
of the books"! "And the very expression who worship the beast and his
image, seems (!) to refer to the earthly conduct and condition of idolatrous
people. The passage proves an earthly immortality, if it proves any." I need
not waste time upon these arguments.
Mr. Constables remarks do
not call for much attention either. "Elliot," he tells us, "has no hesitation
in referring Rev. xiv. 10, 11, together with the kindred passage in xix. 3, to
a temporal judgment, viz., the swallowing up by volcanic fire of the territory
of Rome in Italy." As to which our readers are, we think, in a position to
judge for themselves. But Mr. Constable does not himself insist upon this; he
will take the passages in their usual application, but only insist on their
being images of "death and destruction," for which we have had his arguments
under the previous texts.
Mr. Minton too unites this with the passages
in Rev. xx., there being only one argument exclusively relating to it, and that
is its inconsistency .(understood in the orthodox way) with 2 Thess. i. 9. "The
torment is said to take place in the presence of the Lamb. But in 2
Thess. i. 9, those who are found in opposition to Christ at His coming, are
punished with everlasting destruction from (away from) the presence of
the Lord. They are gathered out of His kingdom and cast into
outer darkness, away from the manifested presence of Christ during the
millennial age."
But the "from" in Thessalonians does not mean "away
from." We have already examined the passage, which Mr. Hudson rightly compares
with Acts iii. 19 to prove this. If it did, it by no means follows that the
torment is always in the presence of the Lamb or of the holy angels, but that
the judgment will be executed under their eye. They will be witnesses, but it
does not say eternal witnesses.
Gen. Goodwyn is also one of those who
believe that the ages of ages expire before even the millennium, that they are
in fact commensurate with the pouring out of the vials in the 16th chapter!
"The wrath of God," he says, "the cause of their torment, is never spoken of in
connection with the final judgment of the wicked, nor has it any reference to
hell and its fire." It seems he has never read the apostle Pauls words
about "indignation and WRATH upon every soul of man that doeth evil. . . in the
day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (Rom. ii. 8, 16).
It is, on the contrary," he adds, "identified here with the seven vials that
will be poured out upon the earth, previous to the advent of the
Lord in glory (2 Thess. i. 9) which are called the vials of the wrath of
God. " How identified he does not further say, and it is hard to
understand; for "previous to the advent of the Lord" seems as much opposed to
"in the presence of the Lamb," as do "the ages of ages" to the very short
period comparatively of the pouring out of the vials. The series of mistakes
founded upon these fundamental ones we scarcely need examine.
Finally
Mr. Roberts, in his "Man Mortal," objects to the orthodox view, in a very
similar way: -
"1. [The orthodox] wrath of God is a wrath
always operating in hell from generation to generation, whereas the wrath of
the Apocalypse is a wrath that comes at a particular juncture of
affairs on earth, when the dead are raised."
On the contrary, the "judgment
of hell." in the true sense, - of Gehenna, has not yet come for any one; and
its coming at a particular juncture is not in opposition to its abiding when it
does come.
"2. [The orthodox] sufferers of hell-fire are immortal souls,
while the apocalyptic drinkers of the wine of the wrath of God are
men, with foreheads and hands."
This is
utterly false, as Mr. Roberts must know, for we all believe that God will
"destroy both body and soul in hell," and in point of fact it is only those in
the body that go into it.
"3. [The orthodox] hell-fire is endured in hell,
in banishment from the presence of Christ and the angels while the apocalyptic
torment in fire and brimstone is inflicted in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb."
This is the old confusion between their
being witnesses and eternal witnesses, which we have before remarked upon.
"4., [The orthodox] hell is away from earth, in some distant transpatial region
without solid standing ground, whereas the scene of Rev. xiv. is enacted in the
presence of the Lamb, after the Lamb has come to Mount Zion," etc.
The
passage in Rev. xiv. says not one word about the locality of hell at all, but
merely threatens the worshippers of the beast that they shall endure it. It is
never said to be on earth.
This closes the arguments as to these
passages, the strength of which is only the more brought out by all such
efforts to evade their force. The simplest interpretation still approves itself
the only consistent one, after repeated examinations and criticism by those who
lack neither will nor mental capacity, but who fail here utterly and
hopelessly, because in conflict with the word of One who cannot lie nor change,
nor mock with needless mystery the souls of the simplest among those who "read
or hear the words of the book of this prophecy," and whom He pronounces
"blessed," if they "keep the things which are written therein." It is learned
men who have unwittingly devised entanglements for the feet of these simple
ones, until they have learned to stand in doubt of that which they own to be
Gods word, because of the interpretations which have been put upon it. If
the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven and all His holy angels with Him
may mean the taking of a Jewish city, no wonder that they need a learned man to
tell them so. And if this is the Scripture mode of speech, no wonder if it
should be thought "highly wrought and mysterious inflated and exaggerated
rather: and if this be its common mode, who would seek out (as expecting to
make aught of them) the "hieroglyphs of Patmos"?
It will be a matter of
the greatest thankfulness to me, if (apart from the subject of special interest
to us now) any shall learn by the long discussion which we have gone through,
how true and trustworthy is the word of God; how little it "reflects the
ignorance of a dark age"; how ignorant rather is the learning which would
belittle it. "Heaven and earth shall pass away" - and the voice is that of the
Lord and Maker of heaven and earth - "but my words shall not pass away."
We must now return to look at a text designedly left to the present,
although its fitter place might seem to be long before, inasmuch as it is the
judgment of the nations at the coming of the Lord.
Go To Chapter Thirty-Six
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