"In the world to come," says the Sahar, fol. 81, "the blessed God will vivify the dead and raise them from their dust, so that they shall be no more an earthly structure."

Thus "Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance ... sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God," Heb. 11:8-10. While he dwelt in that land, God "gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to _him_ for a possession, and to his seed after him," Acts 7:5. This was also true of all those "who died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,"--desiring "a better country, that is, a heavenly" (Heb. 11:13-16), "not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection" (v. 35), "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect," v. 40.

A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse — Part 187

When the promises are thus made good to Israel, all who are of the faith of Abraham will participate in the same promises. For "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law ... that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," Gal. 3:13, 14, 29. So the Saviour said to the Jews: "Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom [unregenerate Jews] shall be cast into outer darkness," Matt. 8:11, 12. And then, as the Saviour said to the twelve: "Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Matt. 19:28.

A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse — Part 187

"The rest of the dead," who live not again till the thousand years are ended, must be the wicked dead; for, the righteous being raised, no other dead ones remain. They include all the wicked, who have died in all ages, and "the remnant" who "are slain with the sword" (19:21), when the kingdom is cleansed from all things that offend.

A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse — Part 187