body), as § 99, 6, 126, d, footnote 7; the others only appear at God's judgment-seat in order to be handed over to death and Hades, ver. 14, as it were to a potentialized death (ó deúτepos Oávaтos: ver. 15; comp. ii. 11, xx. 6). But this is described as a portion in the lake of fire (xxi. 8; comp. xx. 14), which burns with brimstone (xix. 20), and brings with it an endless misery (xiv. 10, 11; comp. xix. 3, xx. 10), by which image (borrowed from Gen. xix. 24) is to be designated not in any way an eternal annihilation (as § 126, b), but a miserable exclusion from blessedness (xxi. 27, xxii. 3, 15), in which is found the unblessedness of an abiding state of death (§ 34, d). With this is introduced definite retribution, which decides men's fate according to their works, which stand recorded in the books of the heavenly Judge (xx. 12, 13; comp. 1 Pet. i. 17; 2 Cor. v. 10).3

(c) The scene of the final consummation is the new world, which God calls into being on the destruction of the old world (xxi. 1, 5; comp. § 129, d). As in the Epistle to the Hebrews (§ 126, d), the perfected kingdom of God appears (i. 9) as the holy city (xxii. 19; comp. iii. 12: wóλis toû Ocoû), the new Jerusalem (xxi. 2, 10); and if the seer beholds it come down from heaven, it is implied in this only, that ideally the final consummation is already prepared with God, long before it is realized at the end of the times (§ 117, d). Therewith also is the Church of the last times of consumma

• This retribution is also sometimes directly connected with the second coming of Christ (ii. 23, xxii. 12), because the earthly and heavenly consummation are not regarded as separated, or, as Matt. x. 32, Christ is named as He who announces the names of those before God's judgment throne (xx. 11) who are worthy of the reward (iii. 5). His works must always follow the dying one in order to go with him before the judgment-seat, and work out his justification (xiv. 13); as justification here self-evidently, as with James (§ 53, c), results on the ground of actual fact. Here also, as generally, this retribution is represented as an equivalent (comp. § 32, b). The true servants receive the corresponding reward (xi. 18, xxii. 12), as even the preservation from the last plagues is traced back to this, that they had kept the word of Christ (iii. 10). Destruction, on the other hand, overtakes the destroyers (xi. 18), as even in the preliminary judgments of God it is measured according to this standard (xiii. 10, xvi. 6), only that the measure of punishment may be even double the amount of sin (xviii. 6), and that for sinful indulgence the corresponding measure of torment is allotted (ver. 7). There is nevertheless even in this judgment in the end only an either-or (§ 32, c, d). One either obtains eternal life or eternal destruction (xvii. 8, 11).

tion designated as the ideal Jerusalem. This point of view rules the whole picture of that city of God, on whose doors stand the names of the twelve patriarchs (xxi. 12), as those of the twelve apostles stand upon its foundation-stones (ver. 14), and whose measure is reckoned according to twelve times a thousand and twelve times twelve (vv. 16, 17). But the believing Israel are not its only citizens, but the Gentiles also walk in its light (xxi. 24), and their glory, as also that of their kings, must minister to the perfected kingdom of God (vv. 24, 26). They are there healed from the deadly sickness of hopelessness in which they once walked (xxii. 2), while believing Israel there beholds what it has always believed. The Church, which bears the name of the New Jerusalem (iii. 12), is now the bride of Messiah (xxi. 9), with whom, at the final consummation, He celebrates His marriage, i.e. His perfect union (xix. 7; comp. § 105, a, footnote 2), at which the great marriage-feast is not awanting (ver. 9). It is very noteworthy that in the earthly completion of the kingdom of Christ this highest union does not take place.

(d) The contrast to the Seúтepos Oávaros, the blessedness of the perfected, consists, in the first place, of life in the emphatic sense ((wń simply, as § 40, d; 50, c), for which they

• That here, too, any restoration of the Jewish state is not thought of, xxi. 22 shows, according to which the city needs no temple. But here also (as note a) the whole Church consists of God's servants, who serve God as priests (λæτpsúu : vii. 15, xxii. 3; comp. § 123, d), and wear His name (xxii. 4); these are what Israel should have been, but never was, in the fullest sense, His own people and His Son (xxi. 3, 7). The perfected Church sings the song of Moses and the Messiah (xv. 3); for the Old Testament and the New Testament salvation of the people of God is, in its essence, one, only the latter is the completion of the former. 5 It does not follow from this that the Gentiles, even at the time of the consummation, are only Christians of an inferior grade (Baur, p. 212; Schenkel, pp. 104, 311), since, according to xxi. 27, even their names stand in the book of life, and they must therefore have the full right of citizenship in the city of God; and the distinction of christianized nations from the true Israel, consisting of converted individuals (Gebhardt, p. 317 f. [E. T. 300]), is a pure invention that does not in the least help, since, even according to Gebhardt, the nations are converted even in the thousand years' kingdom. Of any conversion of the Gentiles in the future world (comp. Messner, p. 375) there can be no idea after the general judgment and the commencement of absolute completeness; and since one must not, with Lechler, p. 205, change the idea of in into that of nations connected with the city of God, so the participation of the Gentiles in the final consummation is only set forth in the colours of Old Testament prophecy (Isa. lx. 3, 11; Ps. lxxii. 10; comp. xv. 4, and even iii. 9).

6

stand recorded in the book of life (xxi. 27, after Dan. xii. 1), and which they receive at the same time with the acknowledgment of their spotless purity and holiness, since here, as generally (§ 65, d), life is the correlative of righteousness. In virtue of this perfected holiness, the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem live in the perfect fellowship of God. They behold God's face (xxii. 4; comp. § 34, b; 99, b; 126, d). God Himself dwells in their midst (xxi. 3, vii. 15, xxii. 3); the city needs no temple, because God and His Messiah dwell directly amongst its citizens (xxi. 22), because the whole city is His temple (vii. 15), in which individuals exist as pillars (iii. 12). There is therefore no longer any opposition to be thought of in the new world between heaven and earth, as in the present world. If, finally, over all there is ascribed to the heavenly consummation a participation in the divine glory (§ 50, c; 126, d), then this latter is represented under the image of the morning star (ii. 28), and of the royal dignity (xxii. 5), which the perfected receive. The whole heavenly Jerusalem has God's dóğa (xxi. 11), which is represented so, that the whole city consists of gold and precious stones and pearls (vv. 18-21). The city needs no sun and no moon, no lamps and no light, because in the splendour of the divine glory there is eternal day there (xxi. 23, 25, xxii. 5). In the possession of this glory they enjoy untroubled blessedness, because no sorrow and no want can ever disturb them more (xxi. 4, vii. 16, 17).7

• Participation in the Cań is figuratively represented by the tree of life, which grows in the New Jerusalem (xxii. 2, xiv. 19) as it once grew in Paradise (ii. 7; comp. Gen. ii. 9); by the water of life, which there flows in streams from the throne of God and of the Messiah (xxii. 1; comp. xxi. 6, xxii. 17), and to whose streams Messiah as their Shepherd leads them (vii. 17); by the hidden manna (ii. 17), which imparts the powers of the eternal life; by the crown of life (iii. 11, ii. 10; comp. § 57, d), which they as conquerors (vi. 2) carry off. Their holiness, on the other hand, is represented by the white garments with which the perfected are clothed (comp. xix. 8), because they have not defiled their garments on the earth, and are worthy of this acknowledgment (iii. 4, 5, iv. 4), or because they have come out of the battle of life conquerors (vi. 11, vii. 9), as also by the white stone, which designates them by the name known to them alone, as the perfectly righteous (ii. 17). All these images belong to the plain representation of the final consummation in the vision, without its being regarded on that account as in any way sensuous (comp. Baur, p. 209), as elsewhere in the New Testament.

'In view of this consummation the true Christians are said to be blessed (i. 8,

CHAPTER VII.

THE CONFLICT OF THE PRESENT.

§ 133. God and His Enemy.

In the archetypal holy place of heaven is Jehovah enthroned the ever living, the holy and the Almighty, the just and the glorious, surrounded by the representatives of creation and redemption (a). In a broader sense the innumerable multitude of angels belong to this archetypal Church of God, who are the servants of God in nature, and instruments of His revelation (b). As God's enemy, Satan appears, who first seduced a portion of the angels, and since as a seducer has ruled the whole world, but by the exaltation of Messiah he has been in principle conquered (c). Henceforward he contends with the Church of God, partly by persecution and partly by seduction, till the world-historical struggle between God and Satan ends with his complete destruction (d).

(a) As in the Epistle to the Hebrews (§ 120, a), so here also heaven is God's dwelling-place (xiii. 6), or in it is the archetypal holy place (xiv. 17, xv. 5), with its altar of burntofferings (vi. 9, xiv. 18) and altar of incense (viii. 3, ix. 13), with its holiest and the ark therein (xi. 19), in which the unapproachable glory of God at times appears (xv. 8), as it did once in the tabernacle (Lev. xvi. 2). According to a somewhat different idea, God's throne stands in heaven (iv. 2). He who sits upon the throne is designated Jehovah over all, whose name is rewritten in many ways (ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος : i. 8, iv. 8 ; comp. xi. 17, xvi. 5 ; τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος: xxi. 6 ; comp. i. 8), the living God (vii. 2), ordinarily as the eternally living One (ô Lâv eis ToÙS aiŵvas Tŵv aiwvwv: iv. 9, 10, x. 6, xv. 7). Like Isa. vi. 3,

xiv. 13, xvi. 15, xix. 9, xxii. 7, 14; comp. xx. 6). All this blessedness is given to the conqueror as his abiding possession (xxi. 7: xλnpovoμsiv; comp. § 34, a; 50, c; 126, a, footnote 1), which, since the Christian is in this connection designated as God's Son, may be also considered as his inheritance (§ 97, c; 124, a).

to Him, the thrice holy One, praise is offered (iv. 8; comp. vi. 10: ὁ δεσπότης, ὁ ἅγιος καὶ ὁ ἀληθινός), and similarly He is called the All-holy (μóvos oσios), as He who shows Himself in all His righteous judgments (xvi. 5, 7) and His righteous acts (xv. 3, 4). The predicate kúpios ô eòs ó πAνTOKрáτwρ designates His omnipotence (iv. 8, xi. 17, xv. 3, xvi. 7, xix. 6, xxi. 22; comp. xúριos μŵv: iv. 11, xi. 15; ó còs ȧ πаνтокрáтwρ: i. 8, xvi. 14, xix. 15); His glory is symbolized by the glorious description of His throne (iv. 3), and celebrated in the ever-recurring doxologies (iv. 11, v. 13, vii. 12, xix. 1). After the manner of the New Testament, God is repeatedly praised as the Creator (iv. 11, x. 6, xiv. 7, xv. 3), as it is He who new created the old world (xxi. 5, xx. 11). All creation brings to Him its song of praise (v. 13), and the four living creatures, which, as creation's representatives, stand about the throne (iv. 6, v. 6, 11, vii. 11), and are at all times ready for His praise or His service (iv. 6-8), say to it Amen (v. 14, xix. 4), or they sing to Him their own song of praise (iv. 9). In them creation itself forms the first circle of the archetypal Church of God who stand gathered about His throne. But higher than the work of creation stands the work of salvation, which Israel experienced, and the Church of believers have experienced (xv. 3), or the founding of the Church of God, in which salvation is realized. Its representatives are the twenty-four elders, who sit on twenty-four thrones about the throne of God (iv. 4, xi. 16), in the number of whom the unity of the Old and New Testament Church of God (§ 130, c), by the union of the number of the patriarchs, who form the original stock of

1 It is quite contrary to the form of expression in the Apocalypse to distinguish in idea, with Hahn, p. 102, and Gebhardt, p. 28 [E. T. 26] (ies of reverence for His holy constitution of the world), between dyes and res. Both designate quite in the Old Testament sense (§ 45, d, footnote 6) God's elevation as removed from all creaturely uncleanness. Ritschl, ii. p. 118, is needlessly at pains here to turn away the reference of righteousness to the avenging of sin, which is as clear as day, xix. 2, 11. For even if dixiμara (xv. 4), as the wider idea, includes the recovery of the rights of the pious (xviii. 20), yet these are not regarded as "positive saving manifestations," but as righteous acts, in which God exercises righteous retribution to both sides. But the aanval doí and xpíos (xv. 3, xvi. 7, xix. 2) are not such as correspond to His promises and threatenings (Gebhardt, p. 29 [E. T. 28]), but modes of action and judgments as they ought to be.