Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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(...continued)
earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey YHWH your
God...”
Deuteronomy 28:15-68, “However, if you do not obey YHWH your God, and do not
carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will
come upon you and overtake you...”
Deuteronomy 30:15, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and
destruction...” (See the entire chapter.)
We agree with Newport in his comment that "When taken seriously, this final note evaporates
all theories of universalism. God's mercy is vast beyond comprehension, but His mercy
is not limitless. He will never reject any who come to Him for mercy, nor will He force Himself
on any who choose to live without Him.” (P. 304)
That is, the author of Revelation in this present passage offers no hope to those who
choose to live as if God is dead.
But this is not all that the Bible says concerning such people, and we are reminded of
what British theologians have called “the greater hope,” based on such biblical passages as
Ezekiel 16:53-63, which offers hope to Sodom and her daughters who have perished in fiery
destruction, and to the terribly apostate prostitute Israel as well; and 1 Peter 3:18-20, which
offers hope to those spirits in prison who were destroyed in Noah’s flood. What do you think?
Can these biblical teachings be “held together in tension,” or must one be held to the exclusion
of the other?
Hough states, "The man of Patmos is firmly convinced that those who have suffered
most must receive conspicuous reward. He is also convinced that there must be a triumph of
Christ in this very world which has seen so many moral tragedies. So he pictures the thousand
years of splendor when these faithful dead are recalled to sit on thrones with the regnant
Christ. The very world which had spurned the saints is to be ruled by them. This sense of
what may be called a victory of good in history has haunted the imagination of earnest men
century after century...
"It is the essential characteristic of the thousand years of the triumph of goodness and
of the good in Revelation that every moral value is firmly maintained. Those who have been
treated with miserable and bitter injustice on the field of history are brought back for triumph
where they had experienced only defeat..." (P. 606)
Is this the Bible’s final answer to Job’s agonizing questions concerning God’s justice?
Is there finally no solution to Job’s dilemma apart from seeing history as a whole, as the
visions of Revelation do, and that view brief human life-spans in the light of eternity, where
God’s justice and His eternal purpose are victorious? What do you think?
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