The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write--from this time blessed are those dead,
who die in the Lord; Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their
works follow after them."--Rev. 14:13.
It is interesting and instructive, as confirming the principle of prophetic interpretation,
namely that history unveils prophecy, to note how the earlier commentators labored to
overcome the difficulties connected with the interpretation and application of this "voice
from heaven." They understood that a great blessing would come to all those who died in
the Lord, but were unable to see what special blessing would come to those who died in
the Lord at the time of the vision's fulfillment. Mr. Barnes, who wrote in 1850, thus
comments on the words, "from henceforth":
"This word has given no little perplexity to expositors, and it has been variously rendered.
Some have connected it with the word blessed--'blessed henceforth are the dead who die in
the Lord'; that is, they will be ever-onward blessed; some with the word die, referring to
the time when the Apostle was writing--'blessed are they who after this time die in the
Lord,' designing to comfort those who were exposed to death, and who would die as
martyrs; some as referring to the times contemplated in these visions--'blessed will they be
who shall die in those future times.' Witsius understands this as meaning that from the
time of their death they would be blessed, as if it had been said, immediately after their
dissolution they would be blessed. Doddridge renders it, 'henceforth blessed are the dead.'
The language is evidently not to be construed as implying that they who had died in the
faith before were not happy, but that in the times of trial and persecution that were to
come, they were to be regarded as peculiarly blessed who should escape from these
sorrows by a Christian death."
Mr. Barnes, in summing up his understanding of the text, fails, as we should expect,
writing at that early time, before the parousia, to solve the difficulty. We quote his
conclusions:
"The design, therefore, of the verse is to impart consolation and support to those who
would be exposed to a martyred death, and to those who, in times of persecution, would
see their friends exposed to such a death."
Mr. Elliott offers the following:
"After this a voice from heaven was heard by St. John to follow, saying, 'Write, Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth,' etc. In which voice the words from
henceforth blessed, or, as they may be rendered, from time near at hand, referred to, I conceive,
and indicated the near approach of the grand epoch of blessedness predicated in Scripture
of departed saints: I mean the blessedness of their reward and joy at Christ's coming. . . .
Where then the distinctiveness of the vision? [Mr. Elliott means here, the distinction
between those who died formerly and those at this time.] For, although doubtless another
notice, just previously given, did intimate that it is to be eminently an era of trial both to
the faith and the patience of Christ's true saints, and one to show very notably whether
they will keep, as their one rule of action, 'the commands of God,' and of doctrine, 'the