“And
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow
them.” (Rev. 14:13).
Often
has the question come to my mind, Is this speaking of literal death
or death to sin? Now I have some scripture than speak of death to sin
and the rest in salvation. We’ll begin with Psalm 116.
“Precious
in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” (Psa.
116:15).
This
verse is sometimes expressed at a Protestant funeral or memorial
service, referring to the dead loved one. But, look at its context.
At the introduction, which sets the course of the whole psalm, it
speaks, rather, of a spiritual battle going on in the psalmist.
“I
love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Because
He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as
long as I live.
The
sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon
me: I found trouble and sorrow.
Then
called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech Thee, deliver
my soul.” (Psa. 116:1-4).
The
cause of his crying out to God was for deliverance from the trouble
and sorrow in his soul. The psalmist is not praising God from the
grave because there is no communication with the dead. This is
because in a dead brain there is no spirit or mind. Hence there is no
thought process and no conscience. We are made in the image of the
Father and Son through a special process of Their creating a brain
that can house a reception center for the Spirit of the Father
through the Spirit of His Son. That center, in the human frontal
lobe, is called our spirit. There the Father’s Spirit, through His
Son’s Spirit can mate with ours, and our spirit can mate with the
Father’s through His Son’s, the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead. “If
the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
[then] He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” “I
in them, and Thou in Me.” (Rom. 8:11;
John 17:23).
The
death that the psalmist experienced felt like literal dying and death
as he went about his daily duties, but pangs of death were only a
simile used to best describe the destitution and depression brought
upon his soul by separation from the living God.
“I
am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that
hath no strength:
Free
among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom Thou
rememberest no more: and they are cut off from Thy hand.”
(Psa. 88:4,5).
This psalm did not intend to be literal, as the simile “like” (Vs. 5), gives away. The Hebrews knew that the dead know not anything. See Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6. There is no life, no soul, no spirit, when the body physically expires. The rhetorical answers to the following two texts was an obvious, No.
“Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Selah.
Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or Thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (Psa. 88:9-12).
“The waters wear the stones: washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and Thou destroyest the hope of man.
Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” (Job 14:19-22)
So,
the psalmist expresses his joy to the Deliverer from his sorrows and
depression and spiritual darkness. He is thankful for the compassion
of his God upon his unworthy soul for hastily concluding that because
some had lied to him, then the whole world was liars.
“I
believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
I
said in my haste, All men are liars.” (Psa.
116:10,11).
“Gracious
is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
The
LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me.
Return
unto Thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with
Thee.
For
Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling.
I
will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psa.
116:5-9).
Jesus
was merciful and gave power to redirect his thoughts to godliness
when He saw the repentance in the psalmist. “Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord!”
“What
shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward me?
I
will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
I
will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His
people.
Precious
in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” (Psa.
116:12-15).
The
death was his new dead disposition toward sinning, which is
salvation. Now the bliss of heaven fills him. Freed from the grip of
unwanted animosity, and living in the Spirit of righteousness, the
psalmist had only the deepest gratitude to his Deliverer from sin and
there remained a fervent determination to be faithful to His
character in the face of all future temptations.
“O
LORD, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine
handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds.
I
will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon
the name of the LORD.
I
will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His
people,
In
the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.
Praise ye the LORD.” (Psa. 116:16-19).
So,
from the opening Revelation 14:13 verse, it is evident that the
144,000 will have such a victory over the beast, that God deems the
beast to be the source of all abominations that blanket the earth in
the end. None cause is imputed to the remnant. As he had done to the
imperious whore of the Old Covenant, “that upon
you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the
blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias,
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matt.
23:35), in the end likewise He says to Babylon, the great
whore of the New Covenant:
“And
upon her forehead was
a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
“And in her was found the blood of
prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”
(Rev.
17:5; 18:24).
No
doubt, in both cases, He is speaking directly to Satan, the vicious,
supra-vindictive, scarlet colored dragon.
The
144,000 obtain the victory over the beast, as representatives of all
the redeemed from the captive race of Adam. They have laid down their
lives for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of an unsaved world. But
they could only have done so by Jesus’ help. His invitation
continually wafted upon their hearts, “Come unto
Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matt.
11:28,29). Now they give themselves to Him, such as the
psalmist did, “O LORD, truly I am Thy servant; I
am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my
bonds.” (Psa. 116:16). And
they follow the Lamb everywhere He leads in
the Latter Rain.
The
world’s idolatry behind them through the infinite patience of God,
they continue to surrender their whole heart to the interceding Son.
They are dead to sin; they have given their will to God for Him to do
with them as He pleases. “Blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”
And in their determination and new willpower from Jesus, their sins
are blotted out and they enjoy the unique experience of being sealed
from sin and temptation. They have passed through their own
Gethsemane. They can say with Paul,
“What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God
forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know
ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into His death?
Therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we
shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:
Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For
he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Rom. 6:1-7).
This
victory over sin is unlike any other victory since Adam left the
garden. But their victory’s precedent was set in the apostolic
church as the first bookend of the new dispensation, from which we
can take a likeness of the future great tribulation and the time of
Jacob’s trouble. Many people today have no faith that their
character can naturally be without flaw in God’s sight. But this is
what He promises. Through Christ’s justifying and sanctifying work in them they hear the blessed words from their Father, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.
“And
in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before
the throne of God…. Here are they that keep the commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus”; here are they “which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev.
14:5,12; 12:17).
Contrary
to popular fantasy, the 144,000 will not be superhuman Christians who
never did anything wrong. That’s not why they will be without blame
before God. They will be enabled to stand before God and endure the
great tribulation at the end only because of the mercies and patience
of God toward their past unfaithfulness. They will arrive at perfect
obedience only because of the failures they see in their past. As
seen in the Revelation 11 two witnesses who the beast’s voracious
locusts made spiritual warfare against during the fifth trumpet and
who the beast killed spiritually in the sixth trumpet, their last end
is still full of hope because of their forefathers’ and their
prophet’s sakes.
“And
when they shall have finished their [1,260 year] testimony, the beast
that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit [in 1849] shall make war
against them [until 1915], and shall overcome them [by 1999], and
kill them.
And
their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was
crucified.
And
they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see
their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their
dead bodies to be put in graves.
And
they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make
merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two
prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.” (Rev. 11:7-10).
“And
after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into
them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them
which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying
unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud;
and their enemies beheld them.” (Rev. 11:11,12).
The
144,000 ascension to heaven in a cloud is not the second advent of
Christ, but their resurrection to new life after being forgiven of
their many failures to uphold the standards of Christ’s kingdom.
But through all the humiliation from His discipline upon them during
the previous first time of trouble, when the atheistic, rebellious
world have the upper hand on them because they departed from the God
of their pioneer forefathers, they are purified and their allegiance
to Jesus is solidified. Like it was in David’s time of external
difficulties, their dependence on Jesus, and His law and prophets,
churned out a generation that could be worthy of God’s blessings
upon them, instead of His curses.
“Who
shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His
holy place?
He
that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his
soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He
shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the
God of his salvation.
This
is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob.
Selah.” (Psa. 24:3-6).
The
same generation occurred again in the days of the apostles, and
because of the same condemnation of God’s Law that resulted in the
same loyalty to the Law and prophets.
“Wherefore
then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till
the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was
ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator….
But
the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
But
before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith
which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore
the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might
be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:19,22-24).
The
final revival won’t be by the birth of a super race of Adventist
Christians. But, the revival will come by the same means that we have
seen happen all through the ages after gross departures from the word
of God and from the straight testimonies from Jesus—a firm but
merciful, disciplining, but divinely permitted, subjugation, a deep
humiliation and repentance from God’s remnant, their immediate
restoration to divine favor realized by the witness of God’s
Spirit, their new love of the Law and the prophets (including the
prophet of these last days, Ellen G. White) and their determined
sanctification by the combined human-divine union of spirit-Spirit. A
remnant previously lacking faith and transgressing the Law,
resurrected into a holy priesthood and peculiar generation, and
dwelling, as it were, in heaven, is what we saw in our precedent, the
apostolic church.
“But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
(by grace ye are saved;)
And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-6).
“Giving
thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in [glory]:
Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of His dear Son:
In
whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins.” (Col. 1:12-14).
Forgiveness
of their former, ugly unfaithfulness and sitting in heavenly places
with their Saviour is why we see the 144,000 standing in the heavenly
sanctuary with the Lamb of God.
“And
I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an
hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written
in their foreheads.
And
I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the
voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping
with their harps:
And
they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the
four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the
hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the
earth.” (Rev. 14:1-3).
That
first scene of the 144,000 comes before the great tribulation, and
the next chapter shows them after that tribulation, singing an even
newer song that no man can sing. Their first song was in preparation
for the great time of trouble, such as never was, and their last song
will be after that great tribulation.
“And
I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had
gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his
mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass,
having the harps of God.
And
they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the
Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty;
just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.
Who
shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art
holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy
judgments are made manifest.” (Rev. 15:2-4).
In
a magnificent picture of the most perfected new birth born out of the
greatest pangs ever experienced by humankind, we see nothing more
than the pangs of death known by the psalmist.
“I
believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
I
said in my haste, All men are liars.” (Psa. 116:10,11).
“And
you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Eph.
2:1-3).
“But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
(by grace ye are saved;) ” (Eph. 2:4,5).
“Gracious
is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
The
LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me.
Return
unto Thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with
Thee.
For
Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling.
I
will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psa.
116:5-9).
&simid=608032726356934994&FORM=IRPRST&ck=BFA8AE06789D69FAFFA02B77FDCBBA3A&selectedIndex=218&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0){kind=link}