9. on the breadth of the earth--so as completely to overspread
it. Perhaps we ought to translate, ". . . of the [holy]
land."
the camp of the saints and the beloved city--the camp of the
saints encircling the beloved city, Jerusalem
(Ecclesiasticus 24:11).
Contrast "hateful" in Babylon
(Re 18:2;
De 32:15,
Septuagint). Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog and Magog
(Eze 38:1-39:29)
refers to the attack made by Antichrist on Israel before the
millennium: but this attack is made after the millennium, so
that "Gog and Magog" are mystical names representing the final
adversaries led by Satan in person. Ezekiel's Gog and Magog come from
the north, but those here come "from the four corners of the
earth." Gog is by some connected with a Hebrew root,
"covered."
from God--so B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and
ANDREAS. But A omits the words. Even during the
millennium there is a separation between heaven and earth, transfigured
humanity and humanity in the flesh. Hence it is possible that an
apostasy should take place at its close. In the judgment on this
apostasy the world of nature is destroyed and renewed, as the world of
history was before the millennial kingdom; it is only then that the new
heaven and new earth are realized in final perfection. The
millennial new heaven and earth are but a foretaste of this
everlasting state when the upper and lower congregations shall be no
longer separate, though connected as in the millennium, and when new
Jerusalem shall descend from God out of heaven. The inherited
sinfulness of our nature shall be the only influence during the
millennium to prevent the power of the transfigured Church saving all
souls. When this time of grace shall end, no other shall succeed. For
what can move him in whom the visible glory of the Church, while the
influence of evil is restrained, evokes no longing for communion with
the Church's King? As the history of the world of nations ended with
the manifestation of the Church in visible glory, so that of mankind in
general shall end with the great separation of the just from the wicked
(Re 20:12)
[AUBERLEN].
JFB.
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