THE MILLENNIUM
THE MILLENNIUM
you will see clearly by reading Revelation 19: 11 to Revelation 20: 6, and at the same time you will find 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. Then we are told that 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, and is thus explained in verse 8: “the fine linen is the righteousness of saints”. This entirely agrees with Colossians 3: 4, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. The moment that Christ is manifested in glory to the world we shall be manifested with Him.
Then after the warrior judgment of Revelation 19: 15 - 21, will take place the sessional judgment of those then living upon the earth, 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 [p. 34] has once been to suffer, 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 delusion (Spiritualism, etc.), that they may all be damned because they received not the truth in the love of it, 2 Thessalonians 2: 10 - 12. But to the 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 ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. 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 plead with the nations. Many important details are necessarily omitted from this brief sketch, but those who wish to enquire more fully into these subjects may do so to profit.
The whole earth will be purged by judgment, and thus prepared for the millennium. When the judgments [p. 35] 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 16: 14; Jeremiah 23: 5 - 8. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led 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”.
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 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 fatling 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 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Then there shall be peace on earth, for the Lord shall judge among the nations, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, Isaiah 2: 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 [p. 36] 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 suffer, we shall also reign with Him, 2 Timothy 2: 12. We shall reign over the earth, Revelation 5: 10. “They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years”, Revelation 20: 4 - 6. Thus shall we be to the praise of His glory in the dispensation of the fulness of times, when all 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”.