terpretation is also capable of application to actually existing conditions in the world. The period of the thou­sand years I would apply until shortly before His Second Coming on the clouds of heaven. That the vision of our passage follows that of the Second Coming of Christ in ch. 19 cannot be adduced as an objection against this view, for the simple reason that the order of the book of Revelation is not chronological but idealogical. Re­peatedly the book follows the development of the world to the very end from a certain viewpoint, in order then to resume the drawing of the same picture from a differ­ent viewpoint. Cf. ch. 6:12-16; 11:15-19; 14:17-20; 16:17-21; 18; 19:11-21. In our chapter we have the same phenomenon, now from the viewpoint of the history and end of Gog and Magog. The nations of Gog and Ma­gog, that live on the four corners of the earth, I would identify as those nations, that in the New Dispensation never played a part in the history of the world, but that are waking up in our very day. I refer to the numeri­cally overwhelmingly strong heathen world, to the mul­titudes of China and Japan, the millions upon millions in India, the followers of Confucius and Buddha, of Islam-ism and Brahmism; the hordes of Africa and of the islands of the sea. What it would mean if these nations were permitted to unite and marshall their tremendous forces against the nominally Christian world, may easily be surmised. The Church would have no place in the world, no room for development. But the devil is bound in this respect. In the old dispensation he might repeat­edly deceive the nations to come against Israel. Egypt and Assyria, Babylonia and Persia, Greece, and Rome, had a controlling influence in the history of the world. In the new dispensation, however, this relation is ex­actly the opposite. The Christian nations are historical powers, and Go? and Magog were hitherto apparently sound asleep. The Prince of this world is restrained from employing these forces against the Church, the be­loved city, the camp of the saints.

2. But the vision changes its scene. For, John tells us that he "saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given unto them." This part of the picture evidently represents a people that reign. For, this is the meaning of their sitting on thrones as well as the statement that judgment was given unto them, for to judge is a function of royalty, implies authority to rule. The ques­tion, however is: who are these royal people? Directly the text does not inform us who they are, nor where we must look for their thrones. But in the latter part of vs. 4 John plainly describes these same people as he continues: "and I saw the souls of them that were be­headed for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his im­age, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ the thousand years." That the thousand years refer to the same period as that in which the devil is bound with respect to Gog and Magog, is self-evident. In that entire period these people reign with Christ. And they are saints in glory before the resurrection of the body, for the expression: "souls of them that were beheaded" per­mits of no other interpretation. The Chiliast denies this in order to be able to save his theory of an earthly mil­lennium and of a separate resurrection of the saints, but the denial is without support in Scripture. It is rather strange that he, who always would insist on a literal in­terpretation of Holy Writ, in this case looks about for a figurative explanation, yet so he does. It is essential to his theory of the millennium that these "souls of them that were beheaded" should be transformed into resur­rected saints in their glorified bodies. If he does not succeed in this, his interpretation of the passage must needs be regarded as false. Hence, he argues that in this expression we have an illustration of the figure call­ed "synecdoche," according to which a part must be taken for the whole. As we speak of so many sails, meaning ships; as we speak of a hundred head, meaning cattle; so Scripture speaks of souls, signifying persons. All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt were three score and ten. In the ark few, that is eight, souls were saved. On the day of Pentecost about three thousand souls were added to the Church. And there were in all two hundred threescore and sixteen souls with Paul in the ship. Gen. 46:27; I Peter 3:20; Acts 2:41; 27:37. Hence, the Chiliast argues, we must interpret the ex­pression "the souls of them that were beheaded" in the same figurative way as refering to resurrected persons.

There are two objections against this mode of inter­pretation that prove it false beyond a shadow of doubt. The first objection is, that whenever the above mention­ed figure is employed, whether in our daily language and secular literature or in Holy Writ, uniformly a numeral is used in connection with it. We can speak of a hundred head, and of fifty sails, but we do not merely speak of heads and of sails. And in all the instances quoted the Bible follows the same rule. Seventy souls came with Jacob into Egypt; eight souls were in the ark; three thou­sand souls were added to the church; two hundred and seventy six souls were in the ship. But in Rev. 20:4 we simply read: "and I saw souls". John does not employ the figure in this instance. And the second objection is in the addition: "of them that were beheaded". What a strange way of referring to persons in the body, whether corruptible or resurrected, it would be to speak of the "souls of them that were beheaded"! The Chiliast must admit this. He must relinquish the attempt to save his theory of the earthly millennium by thus imposing his interpretation upon the simple and plain words of Scrip­ture.

And surely the statement in vs. 5, that "this is the first resurrection" does not change matters at all. The Chili­ast, indeed, adduces this clause in support of his conten-

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