Dr. Thomas—Dear Sir: —Believing that you are qualified by research, and that your knowledge of the Word of God—a knowledge resulting from profound investigation—renders you capable of giving a fair exposition of the more intricate sentences of the Bible; besides, judging from your past actions that you will by no means prevaricate about the truth, or hesitate a moment after having investigated the subject, to give your opinion, even if such opinion should conflict with what you have previously contended for: —these things being believed, your views on the following question are most respectfully, but earnestly solicited: —Will the wicked, when they are resurrected—Revelation 20: 12, be animate or inanimate?

That they will be lifeless is zealously contended for by some, and I would say, that the zeal manifested in trying to establish their lifelessness from the Bible, is absolute infatuation; for the whole tenor of the Scriptures goes to abundantly prove the contrary. In Revelation 20: 5, we read, "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Now, that life (that is, animal life) is manifestly implied in this verse, even a mere smatterer in philology, it is conceived, would not attempt to deny.

Your view of this matter will very much oblige your humble servant,

AN INQUIRER.

January 31, 1854.

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The design of resurrection is, not only to reorganise the dead, but to reorganise and make them alive again; and the reason why they are to be thus reushered into life is, that they may stand before the tribunal of Christ, and give account of themselves to God—Romans 14: 10-12, that they may receive the things in body accordingly, be they good or bad—2 Corinthians 5: 10. These testimonies stand side by side with Revelation 20: 12. The dead referred to must of course become living, or they cannot give an account of themselves, or receive recompense good or bad. If those spoken of in the fifth verse lived not again until the thousand years were finished, it follows that when that time expires, they will live again, but with a terminable life.

The tenth verse of the chapter, cited by "Inquirer," completes the prediction of the destruction of the postmillennial Gog and Magog power, styled "the Devil," which will be exterminated on the same territories, and by similar means, as "the Powers," represented by "the Beast and the False Prophet," were a thousand years before—Revelation 19: 20; 14: 10. The eleventh verse presents a new scene. Its description carries us back to the beginning of the Millennium, when the "Great White Throne," the throne of David, is established, "the earth and the heaven," or present Gentile constitution of the world, having "fled away," and the glory of Jehovah pervading the earth as the waters do the sea. Jesus reigns upon this throne until he has put down all enemies under his feet, when the last enemy, Death, shall be destroyed; an idea which is symbolically described as the casting of Death and Invisibility into the Lake of Fire—verse 14—1 Corinthians 15: 25-26. The prophecy then embraced in Revelation 20: 11-15, is descriptive of resurrection matters, pertaining to the beginning and ending of the thousand years. The dead who are raised are those who stand related to the opened books—persons who have died under times of knowledge, and whose works, therefore, will be adjudged as good or bad, according to the light revealed from heaven, as it is written in John 3: 19. They all live again who rise; but all mankind are not raised, because all mankind have not lived under times of knowledge, or in relation to the books.

Divine knowledge classifies mankind. One class is composed of those who have lived under times of ignorance, which God winks at—Acts 17: 30. This is comprehensive of those whose ignorance is involuntary and helpless. They are born and die under the sentence pronounced upon Adam: "Out of the ground thou wast taken, and unto dust shalt thou return." This is the end of their beginning. "They remain in the congregation of the dead," being helplessly sinners by constitution.

A second class includes those to whom God sends the light, but who shut their eyes against it, loving darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. These are not only sinners by constitution, but wicked sinners, who refuse to come under a constitution of righteousness to God. These are "the rest of the dead who live not again till the thousand years are finished." At the end of that period they rise, and, commingled with the Gog and Magog rebels, are with them "tormented day and night to the ages of the ages," eis tous aionas ton aionon, in the postmillennial "lake of fire" which "devours" those adversaries.

The third class of the dead is comprehensive of those who when previously living came under a constitution of righteousness, and are therefore "saints." Sinners who have intelligently obeyed the gospel of the kingdom, by so doing become saints. Thus they begin to do well, and for a patient continuance in well-doing they receive glory, honour, incorruptibility, and life at the first resurrection as the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. These are "the just," who rise to the life of the Age, and possess the Kingdom.

The fourth class includes those saints who did run well, but did not continue in well-doing; way-side, stony-ground, and thorn-choked professors. These are "the unjust," who with "the just" rise at Christ’s coming, but to the shame and contempt of the Age—Daniel 12: 2. They are driven by the decree of the King into the territories of the Beast and False Prophet, and Kings of the Earth, styled "the Devil and his angels"—Matthew 25: 41; where they are tormented with fire and brimstone, in the premillennial lake of fire—Revelation 19: 20, in the presence of the Holy Angels, (the saints,) and of the Lamb—2 Thessalonians 1: 7-10, (the Lord Jesus); who give them no rest day nor night to ages of ages, eis aionas aionon—Revelation 14: 10-11, that is, till the destruction of those dominions is completed, which ensues before the thousand years begins. If these things are understood, there is no scope for such a dispute as is implied in the question of "An Inquirer."

March 6^th, 1854 EDITOR.

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