(d) That the literal interpretation is generally and naturally connected with the expectation of a gradual and necessary decline of Christ's kingdom upon earth, until Christ comes to bind Satan and to introduce the millennium. This view not only contradicts such passages as Dan. 2:34, 35, and Mat. 13:31, 32, but it begets a passive and hopeless endurance of evil, whereas the Scriptures enjoin a constant and aggressive warfare against it, upon the very ground that God's power shall assure to the church a gradual but constant progress in the face of it, even to the time of the end.
Dan. 2:34, 35—“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth”; Mat. 13:31, 32—“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof.” In both these figures there is no sign of cessation or of backward movement, but rather every indication of continuous advance to complete victory and dominion. The premillennial theory supposes that for the principle of development under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, God will substitute a reign of mere power and violence. J. B. Thomas: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, not like a can of nitro-glycerine.” Leighton Williams: “The kingdom of God is to be realized on earth, not by a cataclysm, apart from effort and will, but through the universal dissemination of the gospel all but lost to the world.” E. G. Robinson: “Second Adventism stultifies the system and scheme of Christianity.” Dr. A. J. Gordon could not deny that the early disciples were mistaken [pg 1013]in expecting the end of the world in their day. So we may be. Scripture does not declare that the end should come in the lifetime of the apostles, and no definite date is set. “After a long time” (Mat. 25:19) and “the falling away come first” (2 Thess. 2:3) are expressions which postpone indefinitely. Yet a just view of Christ's coming as ever possible in the immediate future may make us as faithful as were the original disciples.
The theory also divests Christ of all kingly power until the millennium, or, rather, maintains that the kingdom has not yet been given to him; see Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 1:94—where Luke 19:12—“A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return”—is interpreted as follows: “Subordinate kings went to Rome to receive the investiture to their kingdoms from the Roman Emperor, and then returned to occupy them and reign. So Christ received from his Father, after his ascension, the investiture to his kingdom; but with the intention not to occupy it, till his return at his second coming. In token of this investiture he takes his seat as the Lamb on the divine throne” (Rev. 5:6-8). But this interpretation contradicts Mat. 28:18, 20—“All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth ... lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”See Presb. Rev., 1882:228. On the effects of the premillennial view in weakening Christian endeavor, see J. H. Seelye, Christian Missions, 94-127; per contra, see A. J. Gordon, in Independent, Feb. 1886.
(e) We may therefore best interpret Rev. 20:4-10 as teaching in highly figurative language, not a preliminary resurrection of the body, in the case of departed saints, but a period in the later days of the church militant when, under special influence of the Holy Ghost, the spirit of the martyrs shall appear again, true religion be greatly quickened and revived, and the members of Christ's churches become so conscious of their strength in Christ that they shall, to an extent unknown before, triumph over the powers of evil both within and without. So the spirit of Elijah appeared again in John the Baptist (Mal. 4:5; cf. Mat. 11:13, 14). The fact that only the spirit of sacrifice and faith is to be revived is figuratively indicated in the phrase: “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years should be finished” = the spirit of persecution and unbelief shall be, as it were, laid to sleep. Since resurrection, like the coming of Christ and the judgment, is twofold, first, spiritual (the raising of the soul to spiritual life), and secondly, physical (the raising of the body from the grave), the words in Rev. 20:5—“this is the first resurrection”—seem intended distinctly to preclude the literal interpretation we are combating. In short, we hold that Rev. 20:4-10 does not describe the events commonly called the second advent and resurrection, but rather describes great spiritual changes in the later history of the church, which are typical of, and preliminary to, the second advent and resurrection, and therefore, after the prophetic method, are foretold in language literally applicable only to those final events themselves (cf. Ez. 37:1-14; Luke 15:32).
Mal. 4:5—“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come”; cf. Mat. 11:13, 14—“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to come”; Ez. 37:1-14—the vision of the valley of dry bones = either the political or the religious resuscitation of the Jews; Luke 15:32—“this thy brother was dead, and is alive again”—of the prodigal son. It will help us in our interpretation of Rev. 20:4-10 to notice that death, judgment, the coming of Christ, and the resurrection, are all of two kinds, the first spiritual, and the second literal:
(1) First, a spiritual death (Eph. 2:1—“dead through your trespasses and sins”); and secondly, a physical and literal death, whose culmination is found in the second death (Rev. 20:14—“And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire”).
(2) First, a spiritual judgment (Is. 26:9—“when thy judgments are in the earth”; John 12:31—“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out”; 3:18—“he that believeth not hath been judged already”); and secondly, an outward and literal judgment (Acts 17:31—“hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained”).
(3) First, the spiritual and invisible coming of Christ (Mat. 16:28—“shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom”—at the destruction of Jerusalem; John 14:16, 18—“another Comforter ... I come unto you”—at Pentecost; 14:3—“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself”—at death); and secondly, a visible literal coming (Mat. 25:31—“the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him”).
(4) First, a spiritual resurrection (John 5:25—“The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live”); and secondly, a physical and literal resurrection (John 5:28, 29—“the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment”). The spiritual resurrection foreshadows the bodily resurrection.
This twofoldness of each of the four terms, death, judgment, coming of Christ, resurrection, is so obvious a teaching of Scripture, that the apostle's remark in Rev. 20:5—“This is the first resurrection”—seems distinctly intended to warn the reader against drawing the premillenarian inference, and to make clear the fact that the resurrection spoken of is the first or spiritual resurrection,—an interpretation which is made indubitable by his proceeding, further on, to describe the outward and literal resurrection in verse 13—“And the sea gave up the dead that were in it: and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.” This physical resurrection takes place when “the thousand years” are “finished” (verse 5).