called a Brother be ... an idolater' (1 Cor. 5:11), neither did he feel it

unnecessary to say, 'neither be ye idolaters as were some of them' (who did

not overcome like Caleb and Joshua) (1 Cor. 10:7).  See 1 Corinthians 9:24

where this passage is introduced, not with salvation, but with prize and

crown, and with the possibility of being a 'castaway' or 'disapproved'.

The worship of the image of the Beast (Rev. 13:15) when resisted led to

the martyrdom and the crown of those who reign during the thousand years

(Rev. 20:4).  Finally 'all liars' is extended in Revelation 21:27 as

'whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie' and in Revelation 22:15 is

further expanded to 'whosoever loveth and maketh a lie'.  'The lie' is of the

Devil, it is 'his own' (John 8:44).  'The lie' is associated with the Man of

Sin and the working of Satan, together with those who received not the love

of the Truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:9 -12).  In the

Church, those who posed as apostles were found 'liars' (Rev. 2:2), and the

liar is definitely associated with antichristian denial (1 John 2:22).  This

list of dreadful sins are all related to the time of stress which comes upon

the world under the domination of the Beast and the False Prophet.  To lean

towards that blasphemous teaching, to submit rather than suffer, becomes an

act of treachery on a field of battle, and the treatment of all such

offenders must be drastic in the extreme.

There remains to be considered one more feature, and one that may

cause considerable feeling; that is the bringing into the realm of the Church

(Rev. 2 -3) the possibility of ending up in the Lake of Fire.  Traditional

theology in the past has entertained few qualms as it contemplated the

countless millions of unevangelized heathen being consigned to that dreadful

place, but it may be the nearer approach will stimulate a keener interest.

The Lake of Fire is implicit in the two references to the churches, the

second death, and the Book of Life already considered (Rev. 2:11; 3:5).  In

the first place, this dreadful doom was not prepared for the sons of men, it

was 'prepared for the Devil and his angels' (Matt. 25:41) and in the

Revelation, the first to enter are The Beast, the False Prophet and the Devil

(Rev. 19:20; 20:10).

In times of peace, the punishment for some act directed against a

government might be several years' imprisonment, but the selfsame act in time

of war might be punishable by death.  Into the churches of Revelation 2 and 3

we can perceive the infiltration of the fifth columnists, false apostles,

liars, Nicolaitanes, the blasphemy of those pretending to be Jews, but who

are of the synagogue of Satan; Satan's throne, the doctrine of Balaam, the

woman Jezebel, the threat to 'kill her children with death', the depths of

Satan, a name to live yet dead.  These constitute the associations of some of

those who, having sold themselves to Satan, received the mark of the Beast,

and so will be counted worthy of 'tasting' the same fate as that infernal

trinity, the Beast, the False Prophet and the Devil.  The Psalms, many of

which are prophetic, are full of complaints and prayers concerning the enemy,

the deceitful man, the persecutor, the betrayer.

Where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the believing remnant of Israel,

and of 'all Israel' that will ultimately be saved come in this period and

sphere, must be gathered from other Scriptures.  Abraham, we know from

Hebrews 11, will find his place in the heavenly Jerusalem but this does not

descend to the earth until the thousand years are finished.  The one positive

teaching of Revelation 20:1 -6 is that the martyrs of the final three and a

half years of Gentile dominion shall 'reign' and be 'priests' of God and of