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It is utterly impossible to read into any of these passages the hope of the church of the
mystery. The Thessalonians knew nothing of such a company, but were clearly told that
they belonged to that part of God's purpose connected with the rise of the man of sin.
Matt. 24: and I & II Thess. are intimately connected. Michael stands for Israel.
Years after he had written I Thess. 4: 16 Paul could say, "For the hope of Israel I am
bound with this chain" (Acts 28: 20). The hope entertained throughout the period
covered by the Acts is this hope of Israel.
"Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake."--This is a simple yet full
statement, for it includes the whole doctrine of the state of the dead, and the nature of the
resurrection. Death is called a "sleep", a term that belongs to both Old and New
Testaments, and is found in both the Gospels and the Epistles. This sleep is "in the dust
of the earth", a statement void of meaning if the dead are at the same time fully awake in
Paradise. Resurrection is the awakening of the sleeper, as in Eph. 5: 14. Comment of
these questions would be quite unnecessary if unscriptural doctrines arising out of the
idea of the natural immortality of the soul had not darkened the truth of God.
The margin of The Companion Bible draws attention to the need for care in handling
the verse we are considering. Dr. Tregelles gives the following translation, which he
justifies:--
"And many from among the sleepers of the dust of the earth shall awake; these shall
be unto everlasting life; but those (the rest of the sleepers, who do no awake at this time)
shall be unto shame and everlasting contempt."
"It is clearly not a general resurrection; it is `many from among'; and it is only by
taking the words in this sense, that we gain any information as to what becomes of those
who continue to sleep in the dust of the earth."
The word translated here "contempt" is found again in Isa. 66: 24, where it is
translated "abhorring":--
"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to
worship before Me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses
of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall
their fire be quenched: and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
These two prophecies are parallel; Dan. 12: 2 is to be explained in the light of
Isa. 66: 24 and vice versa.
Reverting to the great tribulation of Dan. 12: 1, we observe that:--
"At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the
book."
If we turn to I and II Thessalonians we shall not only read of the man of sin and his
destruction, and of that resurrection which is associated with the Lord's coming and the
Archangel, but we shall also see the parallel to the deliverance of Dan. 12: 1:--