The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

They had been 'turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for
His Son from heaven'; and with a lively and expectant faith they waited.
"But then what about those who were fallen asleep in Christ? It is evident that here is all
their difficulty. He would not have them ignorant concerning those that were asleep, so as
to be sorrowing for them, hopeless as to their share in the blessing of that day. Nay, those
who remained would not go before these sleeping ones; they would rise first, and those
who were alive would then be 'caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air.' This for
Christians now [before the resurrection occurs] is thus the authoritative word of comfort. .
. . For them the old difficulty appears once more [severe tests of faith through persecution
at the hands of the image of the beast], and must be met with a new revelation [contained
in the words "Blessed are those dead who die in the Lord from this time"]. How perfect
and congruous in all its parts is the precious Word of God! And how plainly we have in
what might seem even an obscure or strange expression--'blessed from henceforth,' a
confirmation of the general interpretation of all this part of Revelation."
All of these expositors wrote before 1850 with the exception of the last, who wrote we
believe in the closing years of the nineteenth century. So far as we have been able to
discover, the first one who clearly unfolded this Scripture and proclaimed it in the
"heaven" of the vision, was Mr. Russell. He, and those associated with him in his work,
seem to be represented by the "voice." In this statement of verse 13 we have another
convincing confirmation of the fact that the interpretation given herein of the Lamb
standing on Mount Zion is now meeting its fulfillment. It is a matter of proving the
fulfillment of prophecy by the unfolding of history--"And now I have told you before it
come to pass, that, when it come to pass, ye might believe." We quote Mr. Russell's words:
"Uniformly throughout the Bible except this one instance death is represented as a
dreadful disaster, a terrible enemy, a devouring monster, and the grave as a great prison,
permitted of our loving Heavenly Father, only because men had become sinners and must
be destroyed. . . .
"In view of the general expression of enmity to death, in the Scriptures, the above solitary
text speaking of it as a blessing, is rather peculiar until we notice that the application is
limited by the word 'henceforth' ["this time," Diaglott]. Not always, but henceforth death
may be a blessing. But notice another limitation; it will not henceforth be a blessing to all
mankind, but only to those in the Lord--members in particular of the Body of Christ, the
Little Flock to whom it is the Father's good pleasure to give the Kingdom--to all others
death will continue to be an enemy until its final destruction in the Millennial reign.--
Hosea 13:14.
"Again, it is unusual to speak of those already dead as dying; but the spirit uses this
seemingly incongruous expression, evidently desiring to limit the application of the death
blessing to a certain class, 'Blessed are the dead (dead to the world--crucified with Christ--
'ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God'), who die in the Lord from henceforth.'