Chapter XX (3)

13. _And the sea gave up the dead which were in it._ All that had been buried in the depths of ocean. This number in the aggregate will be great. If we include all who were swept off by the flood, and all who have perished by shipwreck, and all who have been killed in naval battles and buried in the sea, and all who have been swept away by inundations of the ocean, and all who have peacefully died at sea, as sailors, or in the pursuits of commerce or benevolence, the number in the aggregate will be immense――a number so vast that it was proper to notice them particularly in the account of the general resurrection and the last judgment. ¶ _And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them._ That is, _all_ the dead came, from all regions where they were scattered――on the land and in the ocean――in this world and in the invisible world. “Death and hell” are here personified, and are represented as having dominion over the dead, and as now _delivering_ up, or _surrendering_ those who were held under them. On the meaning of the words here used, see Notes on ch. i. 18; vi. 8. Comp. Notes on Mat. x. 23; Job x. 21, 22; Is. xiv. 9. This whole representation is entirely inconsistent with the supposition that a large part of the dead had been already raised up at the beginning of the millennial period, and had been permitted, in their glorified bodies, to reign with Christ. ¶ _And they were judged_, &c. All these were judged――the righteous and the wicked; those buried at sea, and those buried on the land; the small and the great; the dead, in whatever world they may have been.

14 And [631]death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.

14. _And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire._ Death and Hades (_hell_) are here personified, as they are in the previous verse. The declaration is equivalent to the statement in 1 Co. xv. 26: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is _death_.” See Notes on that passage. The idea is, that death, considered as the separation of soul and body, with {440} all the attendant woes, will exist no more. The righteous will live for ever, and the wicked will linger on in a state never to be terminated by death. The reign of Death and Hades, as such, would come to an end, and a new order of things would commence where _this_ would be unknown. There might be that which would be properly called death, but it would not be death in this form; the soul would live for ever, but it would not be in that condition represented by the word ᾅδης――_hades_. There would be _death_ still, but a “second death differs from the first, in the fact that it is not a separation of the soul and body, but a state of _continual agony_ like that which the first death inflicts――like that in intensity, but not in kind” (Professor Stuart). ¶ _This is the second death._ That is, this whole process here described――the condemnation, and the final death and ruin of those whose names are “not found written in the book of life”――properly constitutes the second death. This proves that when it is said that “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire,” it cannot be meant that all punishment will cease for ever, and that all will be saved, for the writer goes on to describe what he calls “the second death” as still existing. See ver. 15. John describes this as the second death, not because it in all respects resembles the first death, but because it has so many points of resemblance that it may be properly called _death_. Death, in any form, is the penalty of law; it is attended with pain; it cuts off from hope, from friends, from enjoyment; it subjects him who dies to a much-dreaded condition, and in all these respects it was proper to call the final condition of the wicked _death_――though it would still be true that the soul would live. There is no evidence that John meant to affirm that the second death would imply an extinction of _existence_. Death never does that; the word does not naturally and properly convey that idea.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was
[632]cast into the lake of fire.

15. _And whosoever._ All persons, of all ranks, ages, and conditions. No word could be more comprehensive than this. The single condition here stated, as being that which would save _any_ from being cast into the lake of fire, is, that they are “found written in the book of life.” All besides these, princes, kings, nobles, philosophers, statesmen, conquerors; rich men and poor men; the bond and the free; the young and the aged; the gay, the vain, the proud, and the sober; the modest and the humble, will be doomed to the lake of fire. Unlike in all other things, they will be alike in the only thing on which their eternal destiny will depend――that they have not _so_ lived that their names have become recorded in the book of life. As they will also be destitute of true religion, there will be a propriety that they shall share the same doom in the future world. ¶ _Written in the book of life._ See Notes on ch. iii. 5. ¶ _Was cast into the lake of fire._ See Notes on Mat. xxv. 41. That is, they will be doomed to a punishment which will be well represented by their lingering in a sea of fire for ever. This is the termination of the judgment――the winding up of the affairs of men. The vision of John here rests for a moment on the doom of the wicked, and then turns to a more full contemplation of the happy lot of the righteous, as detailed in the two closing chapters of the book.

§ e.――_Condition of things referred to in ver. 11‒15._

(1) There will be a general resurrection of the dead――of the righteous and the wicked. This is implied by the statement that the “dead, small and great,” were seen to stand before God; that “the sea gave up the dead which were in it;” that “Death and Hades gave up their dead.” All were there whose names were or were not written in the book of life.

(2) There will be a solemn and impartial judgment. How long a time this will occupy is not said, and is not necessary to be known――for time is of no consequence where there is an eternity of devotion――but it _is_ said that they will be all judged “according to their works”――that is, strictly according to their character. They will receive no arbitrary doom; they will have no sentence which will not be just. See Mat. xxv. 31‒46.

(3) This will be the _final_ judgment. After this, the affairs of the race will be put on a different footing. This will be the end of the present arrangements; {441} the end of the present dispensations; the end of human probation. The great question to be determined in regard to our world will have been settled; what the plan of redemption was intended to accomplish on the earth will have been accomplished; the agency of the Divine Spirit in converting sinners will have come to an end; and the means of grace, as such, will be employed no more. There is not here or elsewhere an intimation that beyond this period any of these things will exist, or that the work of redemption, as such, will extend into the world beyond the judgment. As there is no intimation that the condition of the righteous will be changed, so there is none that the condition of the wicked will be; as there is no hint that the righteous will ever be exposed to temptation, or to the danger of falling into sin, so there is none that the offers of salvation will ever again be made to the wicked. On the contrary, the whole representation is, that all beyond this will be fixed and unchangeable for ever. See Notes on ch. xxii. 11.

(4) The wicked will be destroyed, in what may be properly called the _second_ death. As remarked in the Notes, this does not mean that this death will in all respects resemble the first death, but there will be so many points of resemblance that it will be proper to call it _death_. It does not mean that they will be _annihilated_, for _death_ never implies that. The meaning is, that this will be a cutting off from what is properly called _life_, from hope, from happiness, and from peace, and a subjection to pain and agony, which it will be proper to call _death_――death in the most fearful form; death that will continue for ever. No statements in the Bible are more clear than those which are made on this point; no affirmation of the eternal punishment of the wicked _could be_ more explicit than those which occur in the sacred Scriptures. See Notes on Mat. xxv. 46, and 2 Th. i. 9.

(5) This will be the end of the woes and calamities produced in the kingdom of God by sin. The reign of Satan and of Death, so far as the Redeemer’s kingdom is concerned, will be at an end, and henceforward the church will be safe from all the arts and efforts of its foes. Religion will be triumphant, and the affairs of the universe be reduced to permanent order.

(6) The preparation is thus made for the final triumph of the righteous――the state to which all things tend. The writer of this book has conducted the prospective history through all the times of persecution which awaited the church, and stated the principal forms of error which would prevail, and foretold the conflicts through which the church would pass, and described its eventful history to the millennial period, and to the final triumph of truth and righteousness; and now nothing remains to complete the plan of the work but to give a rapid sketch of the final condition of the redeemed. This is done in the two following chapters, and with this the work is ended.