From the first mention of the tree of life in Paradise, the eating of which would make immortal, the idea of a continued existence has had a place in Jewish theology. Many passages might be quoted to show this belief. See the Mosaic injunctions against necromancy, or the invocation of the dead, Deu. 18:9-12; I Sam. 28; Ps. 106:28 and other passages. Moses wrote that God "took" Enoch (Gen. 5:22,24), because he had lived a pious life. David speaks of his child in another life when he says, "I will go to him, but he shall not return to me," (see II Sam. 12:23), Job says (Job 19:26 and 27) that he "will see God for himself and not another" in the future life. Ecclesiastes, which doubtless echoed faithfully the theology of that day, shows very clearly the belief in a spiritual life (Ecc 12:7); see also the allusions in the Psalms (the Jewish Psalter) to expectations of reward and punishment after death (Ps. 17:15, 49:15,16, 73-24,26,28). These and other passages which might be quoted, make it certain that the ancient Jews did believe in a future life; but it is equally certain that they had only dim and uncertain views on the subject, and that the full knowledge was not attained by any race or nation on earth until Christ himself came to "bring life and immortality to light." (II Tim. 1:10)
Although before the dawn of Christianity there were nations who undoubtedly had glimpses of immortality, it was not until Christ came, "bringing life and immortality to life" (II Tim. 1:10), that the world began to realize the glorious future which was assured to those that love God and follow obediently the teachings of his Son. The Hindus, Egyptians, Chinese, Persians, and even the American Indians, Polynesians, Australian aborigines and Greenlanders believed in a future life, but all more or less dimly. The ancient Greeks had a clearer conception of immortality, which was well defined by Socrates in his last speech. There are hints of the same belief in the Jewish teachings also, although they are indefinite (see Gen. 5:22,24, 37:35 and other passages). Jesus lifted the veil. Some, today, deny the inherent immortality of the soul, while admitting that it is conferred as the "gift of God" upon those who are accepted. The Church of Christ today, however, teaches immortality --- a future life of bliss or of woe, to be decided at the judgment. The duty of Christians is, as Paul urges, to strive to "win the prize" and so to begin to live eternally, here and now, in the realization of God's pardon and acceptance promised through his Son.
Damnation, or condemnation, does not always imply the final loss of the soul. Thus the passage in Rom. 13:2 clearly means condemnation from the rulers, "who are a terror to evil-doers." I Cor. 11:29 means that the offender would be exposed to severe temporal judgments from God and to the censure of good men. Rom. 14:23 means that such a one is condemned already by the Word and by his own conscience. The final loss of the soul of the impenitent, however, is clearly taught in many passages, including Rom. 6:23; Matt 25:41; Jas. 1:15; Matt 10:28; II Thess. 1:9; Matt 25:30; Luke 16:23,26.
He will not be as one who lived a purely selfish life, because he will not suffer those reproaches of conscience, which may be expected to torture the selfish man. If, however, he has heard the Gospel and rejected it we do not see how he can expect recognition of, or reward from God on account of his good deeds. Christ said emphatically, "no one cometh unto the Father but by me." If, therefore, a man rejects Christ and takes his stand on his own merits, he plainly intimates that he considers his way better than God's way. He makes Christ's life and death, so far as he is concerned, unnecessary. If a man who is bringing a suit in a court wilfully and contemptuously ignores the rules of the court, he is not likely to be heard, no matter what are the merits of his case. So a man who rejects Christ puts himself out of court We are not to judge, however, in such cases.
Spiritual, or "second death," implies "everlasting punishment" (Rev. 21:8)--the utter lack of all spiritual hope of restoration or reclamation. It means entire separation from God. Death, in the destructive sense, applies to the entire man and every part of his nature. We speak even now of men as "spiritually dead" while they yet live in the body, just as we speak of men who may be already in the grave, as "spiritually alive," and who shall never die. Spiritual death may begin even in this life. Death, therefore, need not imply extinction and annihilation. One commentator writes: "The proper life of the spirit lies in the harmony and subjection of its powers and disposition to the nature and will of God; its death in contrariety and enmity to him. This involves the disruption of a holy and dutiful relation with the Father of spirits, and by inevitable consequence a deprivation of the fruits of his love and favor on which life and blessedness depend. The whole man shall go away forever from the glory and joy of God's presence."
When life ceases, the body as an individual organization is said to be dead; that is to say, death is the cessation of organic life. Matter, however, is indestructible; when it loses one form it appears in another. The matter of which the body is composed does not perish on the death of an organized being; it undergoes various changes which are known by the names of decay and putrefaction and which are the preparation for its becoming subservient to new forms of life. What becomes of the mind or thinking principle in man, otherwise the soul, is altogether a matter of religious faith or philosophic conjecture on which science has been unable to throw the slightest light. But it should not be forgotten that "there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body" (I Cor. 15:44). God has revealed the truth in the Bible, and particularly in the historic fact of Christ's resurrection, that the soul which is in harmony with himself will live forever. For the Scripture teaching concerning the resurrection of the body read I Cor. 15, which has been recognized from the earliest Christian times as the expression of the Christian's faith about the future life. Note particularly verses 35-44 and 50-54.
See this whole subject fully set forth in I Cor. 15 th chapter. A vast amount of philosophic conjecture has been expended and many books have been written about it; but the fact remains that nowhere is it more clearly and comprehensively stated than in this chapter. The belief in the resurrection of the human body has apparently been fortified by the well-known passage in Job. 19:26, which in the old version was mistranslated, but is corrected in the Revised to read "yet without my flesh shall I see God." All the evidences go to show that while the body to be raised shall be such as to preserve identity, it will be a purified, changed and spiritualized body, with the grosser material elements removed or so transformed as to render them fit for heaven and immortality. It shall become a glorified body like unto that of Christ. (See I Cor. 15:49; Rom. 6:9; Phil. 3:21.) The bodies of those who are alive at the last day will undergo a similar miraculous purifying transformation without death (see II Cor. 5:4; I Thess. 4:15; Phil. 3:21).
There is no passage that asserts it explicitly. There are, however, passages from which the inference is made. One of these is the assurance of Christ to the dying thief on the cross (Luke 23:43), "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Another is the Parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), in which Dives is represented as being in torment and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, while the five brothers of Dives were still alive on the earth. A third passage is Philippians 1:23, in which Paul says he desires to depart and be with Christ, implying that his death would give him that felicity, but he prefers to abide in the flesh because he can do good in the world. From these passages and a few others the deduction is made that there is no interval between death and the eternal state; but some eminent Christians now and in past times have thought that there is an interval long or short, and some that it lasts till the resurrection. In Matt 22:31,32; Mark 12:26, and Luke 20:37,38, Christ insists that the righteous who are called "dead" are still alive. The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Christ at the transfiguration was an actual demonstration of this fact. Even at the very beginning of the Bible (Gen. 5:24), there is the implication that Enoch continued in another life the walk with God which he had begun in this. And Heb. 12:1, including all the faith heroes mentioned in the eleventh chapter, states that they are alive and conscious now, witnessing the conflicts of the saints still on earth. Many books have been written concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection. Catholics have the doctrine of purgatory, but the early Christians held no such belief. They believed that there was a judgment immediately after death and a final judgment later, and that in the intermediate state (not "place"), every believer's soul would find a foretaste of the greater joys to come. Some non-Catholic authorities have held that the soul after leaving the body remains inert until the resurrection. The best authorities, however, hold that it retains its active powers, and is assigned to a condition which is suited to its degree of spiritual development until the final change. Dr. Tuck points out that Hades, the abode of the departed, was regarded by the Hebrews as divided into two sections: one for the good; the other for the wicked. "Both together made up the abode of the dead"; one Paradise, the other Gehenna. Paradise was to the Jewish theologians a state of future bliss with lower and higher stages; yet it is not the final stage. See also II Cor. 12:4; I Pet. 3:19; II Cor. 5:6-8. On the other hand, there are passages that are capable of a different construction. See Job 7:21; Dan. 12:2; I Cor. 15:51; I Thess. 4:14. In these passages, it is probable that "sleep" may refer to the body and not to the spirit.
In dealing with spiritual things, one must guard against materialistic conceptions of the after life which prevailed previous to the Messianic advent. Only as associated with the physical and material is spirit cognizant of time and place. Jesus had to use these forms of speech in order to make his teachings comprehensible to the people; but on many occasions he strove to raise and enlighten their minds to a clearer spiritual understanding. God is Spirit, incomprehensible, indescribable. God is in heaven, yet God is everywhere, hence heaven is everywhere. See Matt. 6:33; Luke 17:20,21; Luke 23:43 and other passages. From these it must be evident that by the term "heaven" is meant a state or condition of existence Resurrection and final judgment were taught in Egypt centuries before the days of Moses; were in a modified form incorporated in the teachings of the Hebrews, and so passed down into the doctrines of the Christian Church. They are an appanage of the belief in immortality, and mark the boundary to which the human mind can soar. But when we come to question the why and wherefore, we are seeking a deeper revelation of God's purposes than he has been pleased to give us. John 3:13 must not be separated from its preceding verse. No one can explain or throw light on spiritual conditions without having first entered into such spirituality for himself or herself, neither can such teaching or explanation be understood or accepted by any who themselves have not so entered. This is why materialistic ideas of a future state still so universally prevail. See Eph. 4:9,10.
One who does should pray for more faith, and keep the fact constantly in mind that he who has promised cannot lie. Professor David Smith expresses this attitude very clearly and convincingly. He says: "If we were truly Christian, we would be less concerned about this question of the hereafter, for we would have a larger and braver trust in God. There is nothing more calming than recognition of the fact that it is not God that condemns, but sin. God is our Saviour, and his thoughts towards every creature of his hand are thoughts of good, and not of evil. If any perish, it is in spite of him. He is the Father of us all; and when I think what has been shown us of his heart by his eternal Son, our Brother and Lord, Jesus Christ, I am not afraid of anything that he may do, and I am well content to leave my future in his hands. He will do for every child of his undying affection the best that love can devise. Why should we fret or fear? God knows, and he is our Father."
It is impossible to answer with any degree of authority. God alone knows who are lost or saved. One factor, however, that may tend to a solution of it is, that we are assured that there will come a time when the whole world will acknowledge Christ's sway. As the population of the world increases from year to year, we may assume that at that time, whenever it occurs, there will be more people on earth than at any preceding period in the world's history, which will materially add to the total number who are saved. The question is not one that is of profit. Christ did not encourage speculation on the subject. When the question was put to him he would not answer it, but gave the questioner practical advice. (See Luke 13:23)
We find the assurance of heavenly recognition in a number of passages both in the Old Testament and New Testament David said of his dead son: "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (II Sam. 12:23). See also the parable of Dives and Lazarus, which teaches recognition. See Matt. 17:3; Luke 16:23; Rom. 14:12; Eph. 3:15; Phil. 3:20; I Thess. 4:13-18; Heb. 12:1; Heb. 13:17; Rev. 6:9,10; Matt. 8:11. These and other passages indicate the preservation of identity. We have no reason to doubt that the redeemed will know each other, that pure friendship begun on earth will there be perfected, that we shall know the saints and our own dear ones. Heaven is the Christian's fatherland, where we shall see our friends and know them.
Of heaven itself and the blessedness in the life to come, we know only what is revealed in the Scriptures, and it is not possible, from such limited knowledge, to form any adequate conception. The Bible describes the happiness of heaven in general terms. See Rom. 8:18,22; II Cor. 4:17,18. It is described as a kingdom (Matt. 25:1); as a place of rest; as a place where knowledge will go on to perfection, and as a state in which the saints will dwell together. It will be a place of complete felicity, where the enjoyment will be heightened by friendly intercourse. It is further described as having a city with everlasting foundations; a place of innumerable homes (see John 14:2); a place where we shall meet our loved ones and our children [(see II Sam. 12:23; Luke 16:25). John in Rev. 22 tells us of the "pure river of water of life" and "the tree of life with its abundance of fruits." Beyond these little is disclosed; but we have enough to assure us that it is a place of great happiness (see I Cor. 2:9); of blessed reunions where there are eternal youth and strength and where sorrow, sighing, pain and the afflictions that wound us in this life are unknown.
A life without occupation is inconceivable. One of the great equipments for such occupation will be the enjoyment of perpetual youth--implying strength for service. Unquestionably it will be a life of intense activity--a busy place, with high avocations suited to the varied degrees of skill and to the endowments of the redeemed. Throughout the Scriptures, all evidences point to the conclusion that it is to be a life of activity, progress and spiritual development on the highest lines, when we have the assurance that God is himself a ceaseless worker (see John 5:17). Besides, in Heb. 1:14, it is clearly intimated that the redeemed will be actively engaged in carrying on the Lord's work, by a ministry to those who need help and consolation. They serve God continually (Rev. 7:15), and doubtless in a great variety of ways. "There is not the least reason to suppose," writes an able commentator, "mat God will abolish this variety (of talent and abilities) in the future world; it will rather continue there, in all its extent We must suppose that there will be, even in the heavenly world, a diversity of tastes, of labors, and of employments, and that to one person this, to another that field, in the boundless kingdom of truth and of useful occupation, will be assigned for his cultivation, according to his peculiar powers, qualifications, and tastes." This is the view now generally accepted by the Christian Church throughout the world.
A similar question was put to Christ (Matt. 22:23-30). You will see how he answered it. We know very little of the conditions of life in the spirit. We cannot easily conceive of life apart from the body, yet it is obvious that there is such life. Christ's answer to his questioners appears to imply that the material relationships of life are left behind, and that while we shall recognize one another, there will be such a purification and elevation of being that all idea of marriage will be lost in the sublimity of spiritual life. In Luke 20:27-40, Jesus was questioned on a similar topic and was replying to questions about the resurrection. Marriage was ordained to perpetuate the human family; but as there will be no breaches by death in the future state, the ordinance will cease and man will be like the angels in his immortal nature. This immortality, however, referred only to "those who shall be counted worthy." (Luk. 20:35)
It is difficult, in view of the very little we know about heaven and the life of those admitted there, to conceive of their feelings and condition. All that we do know indicates a condition of happiness; that is certain. It may be that in the presence of God righteousness becomes so paramount a consideration, and sin is seen to be so dreadful and heinous a thing that the redeemed and purified soul shrinks from it as utterly loathsome, even when it exists in persons be loved in his earthly life. Pure souls may seem nearer to one in heaven than impure souls, though they may have had an earthly relationship. Christ being told that his mother and brethren desired to speak to him, said (Matt. 12:50): "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father the same is my brother and sister and mother," as much as to say that spiritual likeness counted for more with him than physical relationship. Redeemed souls, in becoming like him, therefore, may not suffer such poignant sorrow as to us now seems inevitable.
There are several passages in the Bible which make clear statements on this subject. See Job 19:26,27; Isaiah 33:17; Matt. 5:8; Luke 1:19; Jude 1:24; I John 3:2; Rev. 5:8,11, and others.
There are several passages that would seem to indicate the probability of degrees. Daniel's famous passage relative to the soul-winners who will "shine as the stars forever" (Dan 12:3) is one; Paul implies a similar diversity when he speaks of one star differing from another in glory; so did Jesus in his reply to the two disciples for whom it was asked that they should sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom. The parable of the talents also bears a kindred interpretation.
In the passage in Rom. 5:18 the sin of Adam and the merits of Christ are pronounced as co-extensive; the words in both cases are practically identical: "Judgment came upon all men" and "the free gift came upon all men." If the whole human race be included in the condemnation for original sin, then the whole race must also be included in the justification through Christ's sacrifice. Children dying in infancy, before the age of understanding or moral responsibility, are all partakers of this inclusive justification. Were it otherwise, a very large proportion of the human race would have no share in this "free gift," but would be condemned for sin which they never committed, which is contrary to the divine characteristics of love and justice, contrary to the apostolic teachings, and contrary to the spirit and language of the Master himself, who said of the innocent children: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." This is the general attitude of theology today on this matter. Faith always presupposes knowledge and power to exercise it, and as a little, child has neither, it has no moral responsibility. Even so stern a theologian as Calvin held practically this view. Any other conception of God would make him a Moloch instead of a loving Father.
The only pertinent passage we recall is the incident of David and his infant child (II Sam. 12:23), in which he expressed the belief that he would go to him. Evidently he expected joy in meeting the child and expected recognition. Christ made an enigmatical remark about the angels of children (Matt. 18:10), as if implying that children had angels as their guardians in heaven. Then, too, he took a child and set him before his disciples with the words: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:14). In the spiritual state, when the body is left behind, there is no question of growth. It is a matter of development. What condition then is so favorable to a beautiful development as the atmosphere of heaven? That must be a very beautiful nature, which never having sinned, has grown up in heaven in such society as exists there. There is no reason to suppose that the future life will be other than one of progress, and this would imply progress in growth in every direction. We can only conjecture, however, what that growth will mean in the spiritual world.
The greatest minds in religion and philosophy have discussed the fate of the un-evangelized heathen. Justin Martyr and Clement held that they were called justified and saved by their philosophy and their virtuous lives under natural law. Zwingle contended that the heathen who had never been evangelized would be forgiven through the merits of Christ, although they had never heard of him. Christ himself said (Matt 11:20-24) that the wicked but ignorant people of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah (who lived long before the Gospel age) would be more tolerantly dealt with than those who had heard the Gospel and rejected it Paul (Rom. 2:14,26,27) shows that those not having either the law or the Gospel "may be a law unto themselves." We cannot therefore assert that the heathen who died in ignorance of Christ are beyond the reach of the Divine mercy, although we may not know in what form that mercy may be extended. In every age and every land God had his witnesses in the person of good men and women, whose upright lives, even under, natural law, were a blessing to those around them. Who shall say that such are not acceptable to him? (See Acts 10:35.) The whole question of heathen salvation is one concerning which no one has a right to dogmatize. It should be left in God's hands. John Wesley wrote on this subject: "We have no authority from the Word of God to judge 'those that are without," and he also wrote, toward the close of his ministry, "He that feareth God and worketh righteousness according to the light he has, is acceptable to God." (See Rom. 4:9.) God, who will judge all, will not judge unjustly. Every person will be judged according to the light he has had. There is no explicit statement as to the condition of the heathen who died without hearing the Gospel, and there was no reason why God should tell us what he does in respect to them. As, however, we are told that there is no way of attaining eternal life except through Christ, there is abundant and urgent reason for the church to make earnest effort to carry the Gospel to those who have not heard it. The heathen are in God's hand; it would be presumption on our part to say what he will do with them. It is sufficient for us to know that it is our duty to preach the word of salvation "to every creature." We can see no way in which salvation can come to those who died without the Gospel; but that does not prove that, in the infinite resources of God's compassion, there is no way.
Not in all its aspects. God has not revealed definitely what kind of place the abode of the lost is, but merely that it is a place of weeping, gnashing of teeth and intense suffering, typified by burning. The idea is not inconsistent with what we know of sin here. We know the kind of a life a young man will lead in his premature old age if he gives himself to vice in his youth. However loving his father may be, he cannot save the lad from physical suffering if he persists in evil courses. He can only warn him, and God does that with his children. We have no ground given us for expecting that God will give another opportunity, although he may do so, for there are no limits to his mercy; but it is an awful risk to run. Our duty is to accept the opportunity that is offered now and not to speculate on the possibility of there being another. The terms of the offer read to us like those of a final offer. We cannot conceive of God being inconsistent. The punishment of the impenitent seems to be not so much an infliction by God, as the result of choice on the part of the sufferer. You may have seen a boy at school, in spite of all warnings and all advice, neglect his lessons and give his time to play and idleness. Can he blame his teacher or his parents, if at the end of his school life he is ignorant and is unfit for a profession? If a young man voluntarily associates with men of foul life and coarse manners and acquires their habits, do you blame a refined lady if she excludes him from her home? If a child who has been warned against touching a hot stove and has had the consequences explained to him, avails himself of a brief absence of his mother to lay his hand on the glowing metal, he must not blame his mother when he suffers. If he is so badly burned that he loses his hand, he goes through life maimed because of that momentary act. We do not blame the mother, or charge her with being inconsistent All her love cannot save him from the consequences of his own perversity. When a man deliberately chooses sin after being warned of the consequences, and refuses the offer of pardon and regeneration, what is to be expected as. to his future? Still, we are not to judge others, and above all we should not attempt to set limits to the Divine mercy.
The well-known passage "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth" (Phil. 2:10), has been construed by some to imply that there may be repentance after death. It rather implies a confession of Christ's supremacy and triumph. We can imagine a man dying impenitent, realizing afterwards how foolish as well as how wicked he has been. You remember that in the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:27,28), the rich man was so convinced of his folly that he begged for his brothers to be warned, lest they, too, should be lost. James, too (2:19), says that the devils believe and tremble. It is not so much a question of whether there is repentance after death, as whether repentance avails then. It is not for us to limit the mercy of God, but there is nothing in the Bible to encourage the hope of there being an opportunity of gaining salvation after death. Any man postponing repentance till then, runs an appalling risk against which he is emphatically warned. That there is no chance for repentance after death cannot be absolutely proved, but the trend of Bible teaching is in that direction. The passage (Ecc. 11:3), "If the tree fall toward the north," etc., is often quoted in proof, but the inference is not decisive. So also is Rev. 22:11, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still," etc, which is more to the purpose, but not absolute proof. Another passage implying the hopelessness of the lost is Luke 16:26, "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot," etc. The burden of proof, however, seems to be on those who contend that mere is opportunity of repentance after death. Where there are such momentous issues at stake, a man must have very positive assurance of there being the opportunity before he decides to run the risk, and he does not appear to us to have any ground at all.
Jesus' answer to the appeal of the penitent thief on the cross "gave him what he needed most--the assurance of rest and peace. The word 'paradise' meant to him repose and shelter, the greatest contrast possible to the thirst and agony and shame of the hours upon the cross." Paul speaks of degrees of heavenly-exaltation (II Cor. 12:3), and the religious teaching-of the Jews of that day taught this. The promise spoken by the Saviour, however we may interpret it, conveyed to the penitent the assurance that his future place would be one best fitted for him, and beyond this it is useless to speculate.
Paul evidently looked forward to such a condition when he said that he was willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord (II Cor. 5:8). He refers to the subject again in I Thess. 4:14, when he speaks of Christ bringing with him before the resurrection them who sleep in him. John saw (Rev. 6:10) the souls of the martyrs under the altar, clearly without their bodies. The parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) implies that the resurrection had not taken place when Dives made his petition to Abraham, inasmuch as the five brothers were still living. The corrected translation of the well-known passage in Job 19:26, makes it read, "Yet without my flesh shall I see God." These are a few of the passages directly implying the doctrine, though there are teachers, very sincere in their belief, who put another construction on the passages, and others making them harmonize with the doctrine that the soul has no separate existence.
There are some Christians who do not look for a personal reign of Christ on the earth. Those who do so, base their belief chiefly on such passages as Rev. 20:4-6, "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Isaiah 2:3, which describes the extent of Christ's dominion. Isaiah 11:9, which describes the change of disposition in the animal creation. Zech. 14:16-21, which predicts the supremacy and purity of his reign and Heb. 8:10,11, promising the universal acceptance of Christianity. Besides these, there are the promises to Abraham of the possession by his descendants of an area they have never yet possessed, and those that Christ would occupy the throne of David. The Scriptures do not give clear or definite accounts of the conditions of life in the millennium,, but we infer that it will be a time of extraordinary conversion, and that great multitudes will be born again in a day. (See Micah 4:2; Is. 2:2-4.) See Rev. 20:4,5. The apostle appears to teach (I Cor. 15:35-52) that a new spiritual body will be given in place of the one that has turned to dust.
There is little positive Scriptural authority for the popular conception of the angelic form as endowed with wings. The "angels" of the Bible, who visited men, seem to have appeared in the human form, and were often accepted and entertained as men until, through the utterance of some remarkable prophecy or the manifestation of some supernatural quality, their spiritual nature was disclosed. The fact that they were "messengers" of God, may have supplied basis for the idea that they have wings as a means of swift and ethereal progression. The winged cherubim and seraphim seem to belong to a higher order of celestial beings than those designated "angels," since they are always represented as standing in the immediate presence of God in heaven or guarding his dwelling-place on earth. The golden cherubim watching over the mercy-seat in the ark of the covenant were four winged, so were those mighty figures under whose outstretched pinions the ark was placed in Solomon's Temple. Four-winged were the "living creatures" of Ezekiel's dream, "who every one went straight forward whither the spirit was to go." Six-winged were the seraphim of Isaiah's vision, who stood above the "Throne of the Lord," crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts"--almost the same song which later the four-winged "beasts" of Revelation cried day and night before the Throne.
Rev. 21 gives a vivid description of the "new heaven and new earth." It has been a fruitful subject of comment, some holding that the earth, having been cursed by sin, will be redeemed, regenerated, purified, and transformed by the "second Adam" and made a fit dwelling-place for the righteous, where the law of love shall prevail and God shall be all in all. The "new heaven" is interpreted to mean the firmament above us. Thus the "new creation" is interpreted to mean the restoration of the physical universe as the final abode of glorified, deathless and sinless humanity. Others hold that the teaching is clear that the present earth is to be literally destroyed, and that the promise of a new heaven and a new earth will be fulfilled, as he hath said: "Behold I make all things new."
While the whole book of Revelation is of that literary character which may be described as mystical, dealing extensively in types and metaphors, there are occasional passages in which the writer descends to simpler language for the purpose of more clearly conveying his meaning. The half hour of silence in heaven at the breaking of the last seal is not to be reckoned by minutes and seconds, but is purely a figure of speech. It is meant to convey to the mind a long, solemn pause by way of introduction to the joys and activities of the eternal Sabbath rest of God's people, which begins with the reading of the sealed book. The preceding chapters have run through the course of Divine action, where everything unites in a solemn hush for the final act. In the ancient Jewish temple, the instrumental music and singing, which formed the first part of the service, were hushed immediately before the offering of the incense, so this pause immediately precedes the adoration of the blessed spirits and the angels and the imminent unfolding of God's judgment See similar figurative expressions in Rev. 17:12, 18:10,19.
There are three passages from which an inference may be drawn, in the absence of an explicit statement in the Bible. The first of these is Christ's assurance to the penitent thief (Luke 23:43): "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." We are not sure what Paradise meant, but it was evidently a place of conscious existence, if it was not heaven itself. A second passage is contained in the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Some allowance must be made for the form of picture teaching Christ used, but he certainly described the rich man as being conscious and being able to see, hear, speak and feel at a time when his brothers were alive upon earth. This indicated a conscious existence for the soul prior to the resurrection. The third passage is Paul's expression of a desire for death (Phil. 1:23). He wished "to depart and to be with Christ." It is not likely that he would have had such a wish if he expected to sleep until the resurrection. So active and energetic a man would have wished to live and work for Christ rather than to lie unconscious in the grave. He clearly expected that as soon as he died he would be with Christ. These are a few of the statements from which the inference is drawn that man goes immediately after death to his reward and does not wait for the resurrection. It is not clear that Paul expected a resurrection of the body at all. He expected to receive a new body (I Cor. 15:37) --- not the body that was laid in the grave.
