THE MILLENNIUM
[p. 471] THE MILLENNIUM
Revelation 19: 11 - 21; Revelation 20: 1 - 6
This passage shows that the second advent of our Lord will introduce the millennium and also furnishes proof that before the Lord comes thus publicly, He will have taken us from the earth. For before He comes forth in this majestic character, the marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven. The church — as the bride, the Lamb’s wife — is in heaven before the public advent of the Lord; afterwards the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. This is the attire of the bride, as is explained in verse 8: “The fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”. The moment that Christ is manifested in glory to the world, we shall be manifested with Him: “When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory” (Colossians 3: 4).
After the warrior judgment of Revelation 19: 15 - 21, the sessional judgment of those then living upon the earth will take place, described in Matthew 25: 31 - 46.
In order to understand this scene it is necessary to recite briefly the events which will take place after the church is taken out of the world. As soon as the church is caught up, God will resume His dealings with His ancient and earthly people — the Jews. They will be convinced of the fact that the despised and rejected Nazarene was indeed the Messiah of the prophetic word, and a number of them will repent deeply of their individual and national rejection of Him. They will learn from the Scriptures that Christ, who suffered here on earth, is coming again to reign. Then this remnant of repentant Jews will go forth to the benighted millions of heathendom preaching the gospel of the coming kingdom. Christendom — those nations and people by whom the grace of God has been rejected — will be given up to strong [p. 472] delusion (spiritism, etc.), that they may all be judged because they received not the love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2: 10 - 12). But to countless millions who have never heard the gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of the kingdom will be carried; the same gospel which John the baptist preached: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh”.
All the heathen nations will hear this gospel of the kingdom in the interval between the rapture of the church and the appearing of Christ to judge and reign over the earth. And then when He comes, as Matthew 25 tells us, all the nations will be gathered before Him, and their weal or woe will depend on how they have received these Jewish evangelists of the kingdom, whom the Lord calls “my brethren”, as indeed they were and are, after the flesh. Those who have received their testimony and befriended them will be called to inherit the glory of that earthly kingdom which God has had in prospect from the foundation of the world. Those nations and people who had refused the message, and would not receive the messengers, will then be consigned to everlasting fire. From Joel 3 we learn that this judgment will take place in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and Zechariah 14 informs us that the Lord will stand upon the mount of Olives, and the mount will open out until a very great valley shall be formed, and there He will “enter into judgment with” the nations.
The whole earth will be purged by judgment, and thus prepared for the millennium. When the judgments of God are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isaiah 26: 9). The ten tribes of Israel, long lost, will be found and brought back to Canaan by the Lord, according to Jeremiah 23: 5 - 8: “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as king and act wisely, and shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our [p. 473] Righteousness. Therefore behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up and who led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land”. (See also chapter 16: 14, 15.)
Satan will be bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years (Revelation 20: 1 - 3). The obstinately wicked will be cut off, and the remainder will humble themselves before Christ and own Him as King. Then the wondrous prophecy of Isaiah 11: 6 - 9 will have its fulfilment: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatted beast together, and a little child shall lead them ... . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea”. Then there shall be peace on earth, for the Lord “shall judge among the nations, ... and they shall forge their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-knives: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2: 4).
In that happy time, all kings shall fall down before the King of kings; all nations shall serve Him. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth, and the whole earth will be filled with His glory. He will reign in glory where He died in shame.
And, remember, He will not reign alone. We shall reign with Him. “If we endure, we shall also reign together” (2 Timothy 2: 12). We “shall reign over the earth” (Revelation 5: 10). “They lived and reigned with the Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20: 4). Thus we shall be to the praise of His glory in the dispensation of the fulness of times, when the counsels and purposes of God the Father, carried into effect by the Son on the ground of redemption, will be displayed in the millennial “age to come”.
Then, when the thousand years are expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, and permitted to go forth for a short season in the world (Revelation 20: 7). He will deceive many. A number even as the sand of the sea will prefer the leadership of Satan to the rule of Christ, just as men are doing now. He will gather them together to fight against the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but it will be to their own destruction. The fire of God will come down upon them and devour them (Revelation 20: 9), and then will come the end of the world.
The great white throne will be set up; the wicked, unconverted dead will be raised. The sea will give up its dead; and death and hell will yield up their prisoners to stand at the bar of the last grand assize. Those who have been for ages awaiting their final sentence will be brought forth to hear the words of doom which will appoint their everlasting portion in the lake of fire. “The heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements, burning with heat, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it shall be burnt up” (2 Peter 3: 10).
Then in Revelation 21 we read of a new heaven and a new earth, into which the new Jerusalem, the glorified church, will descend. No trace of sin will ever be found in that new creation: righteousness will dwell there, and God will be all in all. The wisdom of God rejoiced, by anticipation, in the habitable part of His earth, and found its delights with the sons of men (Proverbs 8: 31). In eternity this will have its complete fulfilment in a scene where everything is based upon redemption, and where no failure can ever come. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall not exist any more, nor grief, nor cry, nor distress shall exist any more, for the former things have passed away”
([p. 475] Revelation 21: 3, 4).
Christians, this is our destiny — to be part of the display of the glory of God, and this in the blissful company of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, and to whom we owe everything, for ever and ever!