THE surpassing excellence of the eon of the eons
demands that we
give it more attention than we have hitherto. In dealing with the
tabernacle a great deal is said about the holy place, just as we
are told most about the millennium, yet the chief interest finds
its focus in the holy of holies, just as the zenith of eonian
truth is found alone in the eon of the eons. Until we grasp some
of its magnifical grandeur, as compared with the previous eons, we
will fail to feel the force of its name, and think of it merely as
later and better, not the very greatest and grandest and most
glorious of the eonian times. As our view of the eons as a whole
depends partly on our apprehension of its overwhelming
proportions, we will try to discover, if we can, something about
its magnitude, the vast period of time which it takes up, the
innumerable hosts of inhabitants, and the superlative condition of
humanity when death will be absent and God present in the earth.
It is most important for us to orient ourselves in the course
of God's activities. Most of His saints are like a man lost in a
strange city, who knows, indeed, where he would like to go, but
does not know where he is, hence cannot find the way. Were we to
point out on a chart the place in which we find ourselves in the
stream of time, we would need to point to two places to really
give a correct expression to the truth. As a fact we are in the third eon,
in the administration of the secret, before the era of
indignation, and have not yet come to the eons of the eons. But in
the deepest sense we are not there at all, but have skipped over
the time of trouble and the time of restitution, and even the
great white throne, and find ourselves in the new creation, whose
glories are the best illustration of the spiritual position which
we occupy today. This method of graphically locating ourselves on
a chart of the cons may be of the greatest help in showing others
many truths which otherwise may be difficult for them to
apprehend. It puts in the past all such things as the new birth,
repentance and baptism, priesthood, and many other matters. True,
we have no picture of the new heavens, but even the new earth will
help us get past much out-of-date theology, which is considered
the very summit of orthodoxy by sincere believers.
It is a startling fact that most students of the Scriptures
practically ignore the last eon. To them it is only a hazy
"eternal state." Hence its value, in connection with the evangel
of the conciliation, is largely lost. How many, who make much of
the millennium, which will last little more than half the length
of the present administration, take a leap into the dark after it
is over! To them the great white throne is the end. Some even
insist that the Son hands over the kingdom at this time, so little
have they noticed the simple facts as to the last eon, which
contains the throne of the Lambkin. The fact that there will be no
more death on the earth blinds them to the fact that the process
of dying continues, and death is only hindered by the presence of
the tree of life. We should make extraordinary efforts to spread
this knowledge, not for its own sake, but for the sake of the
evangel, which depends upon it for a proper understanding. Paul
had heralded the kingdom. He had known Christ according to the
flesh. This corresponds with the thousand years. But then he
determines to put this all in the past. No longer will he know
anyone according to flesh. If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation.
The old has
passed by. How well this divine figure fits the facts of that
future physical creation!
THE LENGTH OF THE LAST EON
We know that the day of Jehovah will somewhat exceed a
thousand years in duration, but we have no such clear statement
concerning the last eon. At best we can only surmise and give our
opinion. And, indeed, there is no need for accuracy here. All we
wish to do is to learn what we can of its proportionate
duration, in relation to the previous eons. Will it be shorter or
longer than they? Will it be another thousand years, or will it
exceed the millennium in the number of its days? As the other
considerations are somewhat dependent upon this, we will seek to
settle its size first, and then go on to calculate the hearts
which it will hold, and the satisfaction of their souls.
In our Authorized Version we read of the glory of the church,
"throughout all ages, world without end" (Eph.3:21). Behind this
misleading rendering are words which flood the last eon with
light. It ought to read, "for all the generations of the eon of
the eons." The Revisers have this in their margin, except that
they use age in place of eon. So seldom is this eon specially
singled out that, this passage must be considered one of the prime
sources of information concerning it. The principal point is very
striking. In this eon there will be generations. Mankind will
continue to multiply. Time will be marked by recurring births. New
members of the human race will continually be added to it.
A THOUSAND GENERATIONS
How many generations will there be? Some idea of the
number
will enable us to form a rough estimate of its length. The
psalmist speaks of a thousand generations (Psa.105:8). I know
of no good reason why this should not be taken literally. The length of a
generation is not easy to
determine, neither is it vital. It could hardly average under
twenty years. This would give the length of the eons as no less
than twenty thousand years. If we take the generations of Luke's
genealogy as covering four thousand years, we find more than fifty
years for each one. But the earlier links in the chain were very
long, so we will not accept this figure. I have sometimes wondered
if the eons are measured by that long astronomical cycle of nearly
twenty-six thousand years which is formed by the sun as it shifts
its place in crossing the ecliptic, making what is called the
precession of the equinoxes. At one time the sun's annual crossing
of the ecliptic in the spring of the year, making day and night of
equal length, occurred in the sign of Virgo. Now it is in Aries.
At the end of the cycle it will be in Leo. It leads from the
Virgin to the Lion out of Judah's tribe. All of the symbolism
seems to fit this notion. Even the thousand generations may find a
place in this speculation. I do not rely upon it. But these
figures leave little doubt that the last eon will be an enormously
prolonged period of time.
Again we are at a loss when we seek to calculate the length
of time awarded to the preceding four eons. Of the first we know
little indeed. Since Adam we have probably made about six thousand
years of history. The next eon will account for more than a
thousand years. This leaves nineteen thousand for the first and
last eons. The first cannot be counted in the generations, for
there were none. It seems most probable that the last eon will be
longer than all the rest combined. And this agrees with our
spiritual instincts, for God is swift in His judgments, but
prolongs the dispensation of His favors. As we shall see, the last
eon will be one of unexampled earthly blessedness. God's heart
will be able to rest in it. Well may it be stretched out to a
length exceeding all that went before, within the eonian times.
If we allot half of the thousand generations to the
last eon,
a very little consideration will show that the proportionate
population will be beyond an estimate. Even if it should begin
with a single pair, as Adam and Eve started the chain in the
previous eons, it would baffle calculation, for we must remember
that there will be no death, not even serious disease or strife to
diminish the number of earth's denizens. The point we wish to
press is this, that by far the greater part of mankind in the eons
are found in the last of the series, and these know little of the
distress which we experience, for there will be no doom and no
death. Those who stand before the great white throne will be an
enormous assemblage, including all the dead from Adam down, but it
is most likely that their number will be eclipsed by the
population of the earth alone at the end of the eon of the eons.
THE DWELLERS ON THE NEW EARTH
Whence come the dwellers on the new earth? The fact
that they
are called mankind (Rev.21:3) shows that they are the same
individuals as were on the former earth. On the portals of the new
Jerusalem are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the sons
of Israel. This seems ample evidence that all the saints in Israel
will be there. To go back to the millennium, we find that it
begins with four distinct classes. There were the vivified saints,
with whom we are not particularly concerned at this time, because
they do not marry, so there is no increase from them, either in
the day of Jehovah or in the day of God. Besides these, in Israel
are the one hundred forty-four thousand, who will rule, and the
innumerable throng, who come unscathed through the great
affliction. That the former are celibates at the time preceding
the kingdom does not necessarily imply that they remain so. Yet
this is not vital to our theme. There is a vast multitude,
pictured as a faithful woman, who enter the kingdom, just as there
is a company called the bride of the Lambkin in the new earth.
Constituting the fourth
class, in the millennium, are the nations. Many of these find
their death at its close. Yet, at the end of the day of Jehovah,
not counting those who have died in that era and who go to swell
the number to stand before the great white throne, there are still
Israel and the nations, as well as the vivified saints.
The manner in which these are carried over from the former to
the new earth is not given us in the Scriptures, hence has no
importance. Suffice it that the same nation and nations, the same
race of mankind, is found on the new earth as were known before.
There is no new vivification, but those who receive eonian life at
the beginning of the millennium will doubtless be there, including
all the saints of past time outside the celestial allotment. But
these are not our subject at present, as we are concerned only
with the generations of the eon of the eons. Besides these
vivified saints we read of only two classes, the nations
(Rev.21:24) and the new Jerusalem, in which the holy nation will
have its habitation. Among these we may find the generations of
which the psalmist and our own Paul prophesied. Among these there
will be a continual increase, as there will be no death
(Rev.21:4), and even mourning and clamor and misery will all be
in the past.
MORTALITY AND THE TREE OF LIFE
We must remember, however, that mankind will still be
linked
with Adam, death will still be transmitted and those born will be
mortals, whose life will be a process of dying. How then can there
be no more death? This is fended by a special provision, which is
one of the features of this eon. In the garden of Eden was the
tree of life (Gen.3:22). Had Adam had access to it he could have
prolonged his life indefinitely. Hence he was driven out, and
cherubim were set to guard the way to the tree of life. It is
evident from this that a tree of life can counteract the effects of
mortality. It imparts life, which is the
opposite of the death which operates in us. God did not wish Adam
to live. In the last eon He does wish the sons of mankind to
live. So He provides a tree of life in the very center of the
paradise to come, and it will be the portion of all the conquerors
in Ephesus (Rev.2:7), as well as all Israel who attain that era.
In the new earth there will be far more. There will be the river
of water of life, resplendent as crystal, issuing out of the
throne of God and the Lambkin. Not only will its vitalizing flood
check the deadly virus of Adamic death, but there will be the tree
of life, in vast numbers apparently, on either side of it, and
Israel will be partakers of its monthly fruit, while the nations
will be cured by its leaves.
In this way dying will be counteracted and death entirely
banished, for the life of the tree, in its fruits and leaves, will
counterbalance the death process in the sons of Adam. It is
evident that this is far short of vivification yet far beyond the
miserable mortality which has been the portion of all during the
present eon. There will be a slight experience of evil to humble
them in the midst of the glories with which they will be
surrounded. Even in the present eon the fruits and leaves of
certain trees are conducive to health and longevity. Citrus
fruits, the lemon, the orange, and the grapefruit have made a name
for themselves for their medicinal value. So also have the leaves
of the mate tree, in South America. They are much used to
counteract the evil effects of overmuch meat in the diet. But
these are feeble intimations of the tree of life. What is needed
is not mere corrective medicine, but a real elixir containing the
essence of vitality. It would seem that the trees draw this
life-giving fluid from the river of life, whose crystal tide flows
from the throne of God and the Lambkin. How significant! God is
the source of all life, but the life eonian comes alone by the
channel of the sacrificial Lambkin. This life is not a reward from God,
for works, but a gracious
gift which comes to mankind through the death of His Son.
NO MORE DOOM
God is the great Placer. The element -the- in Greek
denotes PLACE, and Theos, the name of God, from which we get
Theology, and many other like words, denotes the One Who places.
This may have been a translation, originally, of the Hebrew
Aleim, from the root al, DISPOSE, for it denotes practically
the same, the Disposer. Even unbelievers have the proverb, "Man
proposes: God disposes," which gives an excellent idea of the
basic idea of deity. In this same family, PLACE, are two very
interesting words, one of which deals with God's placing or
disposing. This is kata-the-ma, DOWN-PLACE-effect, doom. The
element kata, DOWN, Sometimes has the idea of adverseness, as
DOWN-JUST, convict; DOWN-ABLE, tyrannize; DOWN-JUDGE, condemn;
DOWN-TALK, speak against; DOWN-EXECRATE, curse. So here it seems
to have almost the literal sense of the elements, place in a
downward position. The potter has the right to make a vessel for
dishonor. The clay has no right to object. If God wishes to
display His indignation and make His power known He has the right
to make appropriate vessels of indignation suited to destruction
(Rom.9:22,23). This He does during the eons which precede the
great white throne judgment. In the last eon, however, God has
made known His indignation against sin. His power has been fully
displayed. As the great Potter He finds no more call for vessels
of indignation. All are vessels of mercy adapted to display His
glory. There is no more doom.
The fact that God no more dooms His creatures to display His
inevitable yet dreadful indignation, nor, as He did with Pharaoh,
places them in positions of power that He may display His own,
gives the eon of the eons a character radically diverse from all
before it, even the much lauded millennium. It is a fearful mistake to
suppose that
God's present activities are normal, or that they will be eternal.
His creatures could never love or adore a God Who damned His own
workmanship with a ruthless hand. This leads us to a consideration
of the second word, katathematizoo, DOWN-PLACEize. It is the
same in meaning as doom, only it is a verb. The third time that
Peter renounced His Lord he did so with the characteristic
vehemence of the oriental, damning and swearing that he was not
acquainted with Him (Matt.26:74). Usually easterners call down
upon their victim a great variety of evils, merely to satiate
their feeling of hate. With an entirely different motive, God does
this, not merely in word, but in deed. He damns some of His
creatures, or dooms them, to undergo evils, in order to display
His attributes. In the judgment any apparent wrong will be fully
righted, so that none of His creatures will ever hold it against
Him. This activity of His does not enter the last eon.
When we consider the untold hosts of His creatures in the
concluding eon on the earth, as well as the countless company in
other confines of the universe, all of whom will be spectators of
the tragedy of the eons, especially the middle three, and compare
their number with the small fraction who are upon the center of
the stage during these eons, even though their sum seems large to
us, they dwindle down to insignificance, and we find ourselves
viewing the evil of the eons much as Paul looked upon our personal
experience. Even when we endure a long life of suffering, we may
speak of it as a "momentary, light affliction" which produces for
us a "transcendently transcendent eonian burden of glory" (2
Cor.4:17). This expression also carries with it the implication
that the last eon is of untold length and glory, for the preceding
one is too short and too thoroughly characterized by evil, on the
earth, to warrant these superlative expressions.
NO MORE NIGHT
Although it is not faith to "spiritualize" the
blessings on the new earth, there can be little doubt that their literal
fulfillment will be significant of the spiritual realities which will
accompany them. Thus we read that night will be no more (Rev.22:5). That
this is literal is evident from the fact that lamps will not be needed,
nor even sunlight. Just how the Lord will illuminate them is not
explained. Yet the appearance of heavenly visitants, endowed with
superabundant vitality, when allowed to shine forth, has been luminous.
Our Lord hid His glory, except when He was seen on the mount of
transfiguration, or when Saul saw Him on the way to Damascus. Then the
light was blinding in its intensity. The glory of God shone about the
messenger who announced the birth of the Saviour to the shepherds (Luke
2:9). Even today many fishes carry with them a means of illumination in
the dark depths of the sea. So that it is quite possible that the bold
figure of the apostle, "you are light in the Lord" (Eph.5:8) may not only
become fact in our case, among the celestials, but may also be true of the
dwellers on the earth in the eons of the eons.
The illumination seems to apply particularly to His
slaves, that is, His servants in Israel, who, as the passage provides,
will reign for the eons of the eons. The nations will walk by the light of
the holy Jerusalem (Rev.21:24). Undoubtedly this luminous exterior will
correspond with an enlightened heart and mind. All will know God then,
especially His slaves, for, it is significantly added, they will offer Him
the service which is His due (Rev.22:3). He is their Light and their
illumination in a sense far deeper than the visible brilliance of their
frames, for this is the great requisite preliminary to becoming their All.
Life is needed before men can have light, and light goes before love. So
He will reveal Himself in the eon of the eons, not by the dark contrasts
of sin and Satan, but by the increasing life, the brightening light, the
positive lavishing of His love. The superabundant life and the unlimited
light of this final eon approach the glories of the consummation with its
supreme revelation of God's boundless love.
In view of all these glories, let us give a much larger
place in our thoughts and meditations on God's activities to the final,
finishing eon. Let us not view the others without giving it its
proportionate place. It will mellow our conceptions of God's dealings
during the eonian times. Its life and light will do much to relieve the
death and darkness of these somber, sin-shadowed days. The eonian times
will average much higher in earthly bliss if we add to the dark, dismal,
dreadful days in which we live, and the much more terrible times that lie
ahead, the long, life-filled, light-flooded, love-lavished eon which is
the last, the longest and the most excellent.
