1. "The Time of the Dead"

"The time of the Dead" is at "the Time of the End" -- at the expiration of Daniel’s 1335 days. This appears from the words, "Blessed he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days. But go thou till the end; and thou shalt rest, and arise to thine inheritance at the end of the days" (xii. 12,13). To wait and come to these days, is to wait during their course, and to come to their end. Daniel has been thus waiting, but has not yet come to their end. During the time he has been waiting he has been resting, or "sleeping in the dust of the earth" (verse 2). So long as he is there he knows nothing, and can inherit nothing; for "the dead know not anything", and can therefore be neither happy nor miserable. He expected nothing until he should "awake for a living one of the Olahm." He was told that this should be at the end of the 1335 days, in the words, "thou shalt arise to thine inheritance at the end of the days." These can only be the 1335 days whose end terminates Daniel’s rest in the dust of the earth. He is to arise to his inheritance, because the inheritance promised is neither in the dust, nor in the sky, but a land from which he was expelled by the Chaldeans, and to which he never returned. He will arise from the dust of Persia, where he has been resting since "the third year of Cyrus," B.C. 540; and appearing before "Messiah the Prince," of whom he wrote, and being approved, as doubtless he will be, he will be strengthened, and henceforth be prepared to "speak with the enemy in the gate," who at present occupies the land.

"The time of the dead," then, is at the epoch which terminates the 1335 years. This being so, there will, of course, be no more trampling of the Holy City by the Gentiles after their expiration. But the Saints were to be prevailed against "for a time, times, and the dividing of a time," or 1260 years; and the Holy City was to be trampled "forty and two months," which are also 1260 years. This is true; and therefore it is evident that these two differently expressed, but identical, periods both terminate synchronously with the 1335. The end of these brings us to "the end" -- the end of "the time, times, and dividing of a time;" the end of the forty and two months; the end of the 1335 years; and to the beginning of "the time of the end," which continues to the end of Micah’s forty years.

The beginning of "the Time of the End" is "the time of the dead." The work of this time will take time; but how much time it will consume the testimony does not reveal. The Lord Jesus Christ who is "the resurrection and the life," as well as "the truth and the way," descends to Mount Sinai while the present Sixth Vial is continuing to pour out. "Behold!" says he, "I come as a thief." He comes before "the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable" are gathered into the region termed "in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." How long before is not revealed; but between his thief-like advent and the Armageddon-gathering is "the time of the dead" and when his work is finished with his dead ones, "He gathers the kings together" -- he operates upon a situation already created by the Frog Power; and brings on the catastrophe, which that power is not capable of accomplishing.

But, how many months or years the work of setting in order his own Melchizedec Household will consume I know not. It will take time. The Lord is never in a hurry. He is always deliberate and dignified. If He pleased, He could flash everything into order; and all his enemies into destruction. But He has not acted in this way in the past; and it is clear from the word that He does not intend to act flashingly in the future. There is no question about His ability so to do. He can do what He wills; and He has revealed His will, and from that revelation, it is evident that He will be deliberate in all his movements.

In the work of "the time of the dead" every individual saint who has died since Abel in all countries of the earth, has first to be awakened from his sleep of death, and made to stand bodily upon his feet. After this, they are to be gathered together from all parts to the general convention, which brings them into the presence of Christ. In this gathering, the few living saints that may remain have to be visited by his messengers, and to be caused to report themselves to the King; for one who well knew what he spoke, says, "we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ." Now to accomplish all this will consume time; but it will, doubtless, consume more time in disposing of the business of the Court. For every one gathered to that grand assize will be called upon to give an account of himself. Of this there can be no doubt, for Paul says again, "everyone of us (saints) shall give account of himself to the Deity." This relation of experiences will consume time; and one would conclude no little time. Some will doubtless be very brief, having little to say, while others will be even "speechless;" but some will have a longer account to give, as in the case of Paul and others like him. Then there will be the verdicts with all their attendant circumstances; for after the accounts given, come the personal recompenses; for they appear at the tribunal that they may "receive in body the things according to that they have done whether good or bad." For what a man sows in body he must reap in body -- "he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Saints who have sown to the flesh, and there have been many such, will, in this "time of the dead," be left in the body recently created from the dust; and of that body they will reap corruption that will utterly and finally destroy it. "This is the Second Death." But Saints, who have sown to the Spirit, in "denying themselves of all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and in living soberly, righteously, and godly in the world," will also in this "time of the dead" not be left in the body recently elaborated from the dust. That body will reap of the Spirit incorruptibility in being quickened in the twinkling of an eye, by which it will become Spirit-body, and so conformed to the body of Jesus Christ. This is what Daniel terms "strengthening."

Thus, in "the time of the dead," there will be a judicial separation of just saints from unjust saints. A sinner becomes a saint by believing and obeying the truth; and he continues a just saint if he continues in well-doing; but, he becomes an unjust saint if he do not so continue. Now, the appearing at the tribunal of Christ by all the saints of these two classes is, that the just may be separated from the unjust; and that the unjust may be driven from the presence of judicial majesty into the darkness of the outer world, where they may ignominiously partake in the vengeance which is to "devour the adversaries." This explains the phrase in that text "the time of the dead to be judged." The judicial separation completed on this basis, and the unworthy expelled from the Royal Presence, those who remain are "the called, and chosen, and faithful" (xvii. 14). They are the 144,000, having the Lamb’s Father’s name indelibly written in their foreheads; they are "the redeemed from the earth;" the undefiled virgins; the First-fruits unto the Deity, and to the Lamb; the guiltless and faultless before the throne (xiv. 1-5). These are the saints, who have the honor of executing the judgment written against the kings, priests, and aristocrats of the Great City. They are all like to Jesus, who is their Head; and "equal to the angels." They constitute the Household, of which He is the High Priest, or Pontiff-King, after the order of Melchizedec. To manifest this household, or Divine Family, with all the attributes of Deity, is the great and interesting preliminary work for which "the time of the dead" affords sufficient scope. -- The house being thus put in order and strengthened, the constituent members thereof are prepared to "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth;" which is equivalent to the phrase "whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went" (Ezek. i. 20). They go with him in all his warlike expeditions, and royal progresses and visitations. They are one and indivisible, and inseparably knit together in all the bonds of love, power, and devotion; being "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. v. 30).
 
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