delegated authority shall be under the feet of the Son of God, will that

kingdom be at length perfected and ready for the day of the Age, the goal of

all purpose and prophecy, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

It is right for us to look eagerly for that blessed consummation, but

it is also right to be on our guard, lest overeagerness should lay us open to

the deception of the Devil, and we be found pointing the Lord's people to a

travesty of truth, with all its accompanying misery and disillusionment.  We

make no claim to a complete understanding of the teaching of prophecy, but

what we do claim to have done is to insist that all that is written, and not

selected passages, is the only safe foundation upon which to build, whether

for our individual salvation, or for a true appreciation of the Millennial

reign or of the ultimate goal of the ages.

Why a 'lake' of fire?  Of the commentators we have consulted, none make

any reference to this particular word, to its meaning or to the reason for

its use.  The Greek word translated 'lake' is limne.  Parkhurst says that the

word indicates a lake of standing water, as opposed to a running stream, and

is so called from lian menein, 'remaining very quiet', so the Latin stagnum,

a pool.  Schrevelius reads limne, a port, harbour, haven, station, refuge,

accusative limena; as if lian menei, because there the ships rest in safety;

hence limenarches, harbour master.  Limne occurs in the LXX in Psalm 107:30,

'haven', Psalm 107:35; 114:8, 'a standing water', Song of Solomon,

'fishpools'.  The word occurs in the New Testament ten times and is always

translated 'lake'.  Apart from the five references in the Revelation, the

remainder occur in Luke's Gospel, 5:1,2; 8:22,23,33, the lake Gennesaret,

elsewhere called the Sea of Galilee, and the sea and lake of Tiberias, and in

the Old Testament the sea of Chinnereth.

In Luke 8:22,23,33 'the lake' is associated with the storm that

threatened the lives of the disciples, and which the Saviour 'rebuked', and

the place where the swine possessed of demons were choked.  In every place, a

lake of water is intended, which makes it strange that a 'lake of standing

water, a haven, and a harbour' should burn with 'fire and brimstone'!  There

is only one other set of references that may have some bearing, and these are

found in the Apocrypha.  Difficult as it may be for us to understand, at the

sounding of the sixth trumpet, four angels are let loose, which had been

bound in the great River Euphrates (Rev. 9:14).  How could 'angels' be held

by a 'river'?  In the article entitled The Bottomless Pit (page 12), we show

the connection that exists in Scripture between 'the abyss', 'the sea' and

'the deep' of Genesis 1:2.  That connection must be kept in mind here.  In

the second book of the Maccabees, 12:3 -9 we have the following record:

'The men of Joppe also did such an ungodly deed: they prayed the Jews

that dwelt among them to go with their wives and children into the

boats which they had prepared, as though they had meant them no hurt.

Who accepted of it according to the common decree of the city, as being

desirous to live in peace, and suspecting nothing: but when they were

gone forth into the deep, they drowned no less than two hundred of

'When Judas heard of this cruelty done unto his countrymen, he

commanded those that were with him to make them ready.  And calling

upon God the righteous Judge, he came against those murderers of his