away' and crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, who are likened to the

earth which produces thorns and briars, and is (1) 'rejected', (2) 'nigh

unto' cursing, (3) whose end is to be 'burned' (Heb. 6:6-8).  Adokimos is the

word translated 'castaway' in 1 Corinthians 9:27, meaning 'disqualified' so

far as the 'crown' is concerned.  'Nigh' unto cursing is not the same as

being actually cursed, even as Bethany was 'nigh' unto Jerusalem, but

actually two miles distant.  When a field that is full of weeds is 'burned'

the weeds are destroyed, but the field abides, and is the better for it.

Enough we believe has been brought before the reader to enable him to

see that the book of the Revelation deals with a particular class and

calling, its terms of judgment, although awful, are limited by their

contexts, and taken with the alternative of reigning and overcoming, cannot

be lifted out of these contexts and applied to the believer

of the present dispensation, or to the ungodly and unevangelized world of all

ages.  To be 'nigh' unto cursing, to be 'hurt' of the second death, to have

one's name 'removed' from the book of life, which apparently contains the

names of all overcomers since the death of Abel, to be 'excluded' from the

heavenly city, all pertain to the people of God who find themselves in the

dreadful three years and a half of the domination of the beast, and which

give us a picture of the Millennial reign, that must be retained.  Let us

rejoice that there will be some who will endure that time of terror, and who

will consequently:

'Live and reign with Christ a thousand years'.

While it is true that a Prophet in the Scriptural record did minister

to the immediate needs of his own time, the outstanding character of his

office was the God -given ability to speak of things to come.  Horne says of

'It is a miracle of knowledge, a declaration, or description, or

representation of something future, beyond the power of human sagacity

to foresee, discern or conjecture, and it is the highest evidence that

can be given of supernatural communion with the Deity, and of the truth

of revelation'.

Bishop Hurd has written of Messianic prophecy:

'That prophecy is of a prodigious extent; that it commenced from the

fall of man and reaches to the consummation of all things; that for

many ages it was delivered darkly, to a few persons, and with large

intervals from the date of one prophecy to that of another; but, at

length, became more clear, more frequent, and was uniformly carried on

in the line of one people, separated from the rest of the world, among

other reasons assigned, for this principally, to be the repository of

the divine oracles ... even to the end of time, or, in St. John's

expression, to that period when the mystery of God shall be perfected'

(Rev. 10:7).

When Peter wrote his second epistle, the testimony of prophecy was

being discounted by scoffers who said, 'where is the promise of His coming?'

This he countered by saying, 'no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private