THE RESURRECTION—GOG AND MAGOG

In pursuing the investigation of the twentieth chapter of Revelation, it will be necessary to examine other parts of the Bible where the doctrine of the resurrection is taught, and show the agreement between them and this chapter.APEC 30.1

1. The time when the resurrection will take place. Job 19:25, 27. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself; and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.”APEC 30.2

From this text we learn-1. That the resurrection will be at “the latter day.” 2. That it will be when the “Redeemer stands upon the earth.”APEC 30.3

Again, Isaiah 26:19, 21, we are taught that the resurrection will take place when the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity. From Daniel 12:1, 2, we learn that it will be when Michael, the great Prince, stands up for the deliverance of his people; and when the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, forever and ever. 1 Corinthians 15:52. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised, incorruptible.” From the above texts, we learn that the resurrection of the just, at least, will take place at the end of the world, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to be glorified in his saints.APEC 30.4

2. The order of the resurrection. Daniel 12:2. “Many of them which sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” In this text a marked distinction is kept up between the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. 1. The resurrection is not at first general, but “many shall awake.” 2. The righteous, or those who come forth to everlasting life, will come forth first. This text, therefore, teaches the doctrine of two distinct resurrections.APEC 31.1

The Savior has also taught us, (John 5:28, 29,) that there shall be a “resurrection of life,” at which time they that have done good shall come forth from their graves. There shall also be a “resurrection of damnation;” at which time they that have done evil shall come forth. Paul also taught, (Acts 24:15,) that there should “be a resurrection of the just,” and a resurrection” of the unjust,” (1 Thessalonians 4:16.) He taught that the righteous should “rise first.” 1 Corinthians 15:22, 24, is also a text in point. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end,” etc. In this text, the apostle asserts the resurrection of all who died in Adam, and gives two distinct periods at which they will rise, after the resurrection of Christ, the first fruits. 1. The resurrection of all who “are his at his coming;” implying, that all who are not his will not have part in this resurrection. 2. “Then cometh the end,” when all his enemies are to be destroyed, and the mediatorial character of Christ cease.APEC 31.2

Having thus briefly shown that two distinct resurrections, that of “the just” and “the unjust,” are foretold in the holy Scriptures, and that the former is to take place at the second appearing of Christ, and the latter at a subsequent period; the way is open to enter on the examination of the twentieth chapter of Revelation.APEC 32.1

1. The first scene which there presents itself, is a mighty angel descending from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. “He laid hold of the devil and bound him, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are finished.” There are two marks by which the angel above named is determined to be Jesus Christ. The first is, he has the key of hell, or the bottomless pit. (See Revelation 1:18.) The second is, he has power to bind the devil, and restrain his influence. This also is the peculiar work of Christ.APEC 32.2

2. The next scene is the souls of the martyrs, and finally of all who had not received the mark of the beast, or his image; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is said to be “the first resurrection,” “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” It is difficult to conceive how any doctrine can be more distinctly stated, than that of two resurrections is in this passage. But what construction is to be put on the period named-whether it is to be understood literally, or as a prophetic number representing 360,000 years, or yet as an indefinite period, it is difficult to determine. But the probability is, that it denotes an indefinite period. For as “time will be no longer,” when the seventh trump sounds, duration will be unmeasured; all will be eternity beyond that event.APEC 32.3

But it is still objected, “The Revelator says, ‘they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.’” Again, “They shall be priests of God and of Christ; and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Hence, it is argued, their eternal state of blessedness could not have commenced with the thousand years, for they were only to be priests to God and Christ, and “reign with him a thousand years.” May not the meaning of the above text be, that the righteous shall live and reign with God and Christ, or with Christ in his perfect mediatorial character of God and man, during that period, before the final resurrection and judgment; when he, Christ, shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power, and also have destroyed death, when “the Son himself shall become subject,” and God “be all in all?”APEC 33.1

To illustrate this point, 1 Corinthians 15:22, 28 may very properly be introduced. We are there taught that after the resurrection of the just, “He must reign until the end,” or final resurrection. And after that event, together with the final judgment and punishment of his own and his people’s enemies, and the final destruction of death, the last enemy which shall be destroyed, he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father. And that, “then shall the Son also himself be subject to him who did put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”APEC 33.2

From the above, it is evident some change is to be effected in the character of Christ, after the final conquest of all his enemies. That change is to be from supreme authority to a state of subjection to God, even the Father. But if Christ, as the Son of God, is truly divine, and is one with the Father, co-equal and co-eternal, then in what sense can he become subject in which he was not eternally so? But if the human nature of Christ only is the Son of God, and in him dwelt the Logos, or “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” according to Dr. Clark’s opinion, then indeed there is a sense in which the Son may become subject, and God be all and in all. The object of the incarnation was, the destruction of the works of the devil; and when that object is fully accomplished, the union between the human and divine nature of Christ, if he is only the Son of God in his human nature, may cease. But Christ, as the “Son of God,” and “the son of David,” shall still reign on “the throne of his father David forever,” subject himself only to God.APEC 34.1

If this view of the subject is correct, then what is meant by the saints’ reigning with Christ and God a thousand years, is very plain: that is, during that period, Christ, as perfect God and perfect man, shall reign over the redeemed world. And subsequently to the final judgment, Christ shall only reign as the Son of God, and the Son of David. But in the condition of the righteous there shall be no change; for “blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.”APEC 34.2

But who, it is asked, are Gog and Magog, if none of the wicked are to be left on earth during the thousand years, and none of the righteous are to apostatize at its expiration? And in reply, I ask, what is the meaning of the following text? “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” What is it but asserting that when the thousand years are ended, the rest, that is, the wicked dead, shall live again? But when Satan finds Gog and Magog in the four quarters of the earth, the thousand years will have ended; for Satan is not to go out until they are. Gog and Magog, then, are all the wicked of the earth, in their resurrection bodies, preparatory to their final punishment.APEC 35.1

But at the end of the thousand years, both Satan and his servants will be released from their prison. The devil will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. They will go up on the breadth of the earth, and compass the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But as they will be gathered by deception, the object for which they will assemble will not be gained. Before any battle ensues, fire is to come down from God, out of heaven, and devour them. The final judgment of God, in the midst of their anticipated battle, will be poured on them, and they be swept away as with the besom of destruction.APEC 35.2

But perhaps the question may arise, “Is it not absurd to suppose that, after the wicked are raised from the dead, with all the knowledge they may be supposed to possess of the character of the devil, and the consequences of believing him, that he will have sufficient influence over them again to deceive them?” By no means! We know that men in this life are hardly ever deterred from an evil course by any consequences they may have brought on themselves by their sinful indulgences: on the contrary, they are overcome more easily by the next temptation, than by the first. And can we suppose they will be any more disposed to resist temptation after all the restraints of grace are taken off, than they are in this life? Certainly not.APEC 36.1

We are told, Matthew 24:31, that the Son of Man, at his appearing in glory, “shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Here let it be observed,-1. None but “the elect” of Christ are to be gathered. 2. The angels are the agents employed in this work. So also when, at the voice of the Son of God, the wicked live or come forth, their old master and father is made the agent of gathering them to their final doom. And this he accomplishes, as he did their ruin, by deception.APEC 36.2

After the accomplishment of the work for which the devil “must be loosed for a little season,” he is again to be “taken and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever.”APEC 36.3

I do not know how the scriptural doctrine of two resurrections, that of the “just and unjust,” could be more forcibly illustrated than it is in this chapter. But not one word does it contain about the conversion of the world, or a spiritual reign of Christ for a thousand years. But the souls of all who had not received the mark of the beast or his image were seen, etc., “and they lived.”APEC 37.1