We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

The Resurrection of Condemnation

We continue once again with our look at the Millennium and the Judgement to come.

THE WORLD MUST BE CONQUERED

Some of them are very degraded; they will need much help before they will be worthy of life, so that it could be properly said that God’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven. That will shall not be perfectly done until He will have conquered the world, then this statement of Revelation declares, “Every creature in heaven and earth heard I, saying ‘Blessing and glory and honor unto Him that sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Further down in the chapter we read of the great white throne — the throne of purity and righteousness and equity, equitable judgment — and of the opening of the books, the Books of Scriptures, “and the dead shall be judged out of the things written in the books” — the dead world, dead in the sense that God does not recognize them as having right to life, dead in the sense that they have not the Son, who has the eternal life, and whom they must have in order to possess it. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”— (1 John 5:12)

These dead are to be judged — NOT WHILE IN THE GRAVE, but while on trial before the judgment throne, Christ and the church. This reminds us of the Lord’s own statement, “My word shall judge them in the last day.” That will be the only standard of judgment then.

The parable of the sheep and the goats is another which refers to the millennial age. The introduction shows that it does not belong to the gospel age at all, but to the millennial age. “When the Son of man shall come in His glory” — He has not come in His glory yet — “ and all the holy angels with Him, then shall the Son of man sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations.”

In what sense?

In the sense that you and I stand before the great Judge every day in our trial — we are under His observation. Then the parable goes on to show a division. The judgment day will be the thousand years, and during that time some will be taking their places at the right, and some at the left, and at the close of the day all the sheep of the whole world will be gathered at the right hand, and all the goats of mankind will be gathered at the left hand, and the Lord’s decision for reward or punishment will follow.

But where is the church during that judgment of the world?

We answer in the Lord’s words, “They shall sit with Me in My throne.”

TROUBLE WILL PRECEDE LAST DAY

The judgment work shall be preceded by a great time of trouble, as declared by Daniel — “God will take the kingdom and give it to the saints of the Most High.” Although the kingdom shall ultimately be one of peace and blessing, the usurping prince now in control must be overthrown, and with him all the social institutions which he has projected and established, and in this work “there shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation,” declares the prophet, and our Lord confirms that word and adds, “No, nor ever shall be.”

Peter speaks of this time in figurative language, declaring, “The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. The elements shall melt with fervent heat.”

This highly figurative language expresses a similar thought to that which we sometimes use, when speaking of some great financial, political or social disturbance, and exclaim, “It is getting very hot!”

But that the words are not to be literally understood, let me quote you the prophet Zephaniah, “Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms, that I may pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger, for the whole earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy“— that’s the kind of fire.

As further evidence that this fire is not a literal fire as our Adventist friends suggest, a fire which purges the world of all life for a thousand years note that immediately after the Lord pours out all his indignation upon the world He states, “Then shall I turn to the people a pure language that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.”

If the world had been purged of all life as our Adventist friends suggest there would be no people for the Lord to turn to.

In Revelation 11:18 it states, “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come (the great time of trouble), and the time of the dead (the dead world of mankind), that they should be judged (put on trial, tested), and Thy servants the prophets (The Ancient Worthies, “Princes in all the earth” Psa 45:16, resurrected to take their place as the earthly representatives of the kingdom.), and the saints (in the First Resurrection), and them that fear Thy name small and great (the “sheep” class resurrected during the millennial age), and should destroy (at the end of the trial or testing time) those who destroy the earth, (the “goat” class).”

This is at the end of this age (the gospel age), when the Lord takes to Himself His great power and begins His reign. He has had the power ever since He rose from the dead, when He said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth,” but it is one thing to have the power, and quite another thing to use it. In Acts 3:19-21, the times of refreshing are spoken of as coming at the times of restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, and which are to be ministered by Christ whom the heaven is retaining until that glorious time, when He shall come again.

In Luke 27: 29, the Lord referred to Sodom and Gomorrah as destroyed by God’s wrath, because of wickedness, but the Lord also declares in Matthew 11: 23, that “it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment” than for Capernaum. In other words, that it will be a tolerable time for Capernaum, and a more tolerable time for Sodom — because of greater responsibility on the part of the former. The Sodomites are to have a chance, and you can read at your leisure concerning their opportunity in Ezekiel 16:48-63.

In our next post we will take one more look at the Millennium and the Judgement to come.