The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"The promise here made would be all that was necessary to sustain them in their trials.
Nothing more is necessary to make the burdens of life tolerable than an assurance that
when we reach the end of our earthly journey we have arrived at the end of our suffering
and that beyond the grave there is no power that can harm us. . . . Religion, therefore, does
not come to us with any promise that we shall not die. But it comes with the assurance that
we shall be sustained in the dying hour; that the Redeemer will accompany us through the
dark valley; that the condition of death to us will be a calm and quiet slumber in the hope
of the resurrection; that we shall be raised up again, with bodies incorruptible and
undecaying; and that beyond the grave we shall not fear death in any form. What more is
needful to enable us to bear with patience the trials of life, and to look upon death when it
does come disarmed of its sting (1 Cor. 15:55-57) with calmness and peace?"
Those of the "Synagogue of Satan"
Persecution, and that unto death, was not the only trial that these believers of the Smyrna
period had to endure. The words of Christ, "I know the blasphemy of them which say they
are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan," plainly teach this. The term
"Jews" here is applied by some to persons who professed the Jewish faith or religion, but
were mere professors of this religion, and not true Jews. It is applied by others to Jews
who were bitterly opposed to Christianity in any form. The claim is made that from two
sources the troubles of Christians come: from the blaspheming Jews, and from intolerant
Pagans--both actuated by the Devil. When Polycarp was martyred, whom some regard as
the angel of the literal Church here addressed, the Jews joined with the heathen in
clamoring for the good bishop's destruction, and were most forward in bringing the fuel
for the fire which consumed him.
These interpretations, however, do not seem to us to be the thought contained in the text.
What appears to be a more satisfactory explanation of the statement "which say they are
Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan" is that during this time, large numbers
began to identify themselves with the Christian profession and were really false
professors, hypocrites, claiming to be spiritual Israelites in the sense referred to by St.
Paul--Gentiles grafted into the stock of Israel--and thereby becoming Israelites, "Jews." All
such false professors would, of course, simply be "tares," claiming to be Christians but
were not--a class similar in character to those Judaizing teachers referred to by St. Paul in
his letter to the Galatian Church, who were causing some believers, who had experienced
the blessing of liberty in Christ, to return again to the bondage of the law. Understanding
that the adversaries spoken of in the text refer to a class within the professing Church,
similar to the Judaizers of St. Paul's day, we discover in them the formal outward root of
decline, leading to apostasy, as in Ephesus we see the internal principle of the same, in the
loss of first love. With the loss of first love, a profession of Christ is generally kept up and
that profession seeks to satisfy itself with forms and ceremonies.
While this state of things has not in the past nor is it at the present time called Judaism, yet
when the significance of the term is looked at closely, it will be seen that it describes the
condition that was developing at that time and is existing all around us today in the great