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THE COMING MILLENNIUM

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 25, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 45.

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THE COMING MILLENNIUM

By Allen Moon

The Wicked Resurrected at Its Close—This Earth to Have a New Creation—The Beautiful New Jerusalem to Come Down from Heaven to Remain on the Newly Created Earth
By ALLEN MOON
In a study last week, we learned from the word of God that during the thousand years, the saints will be in heaven. Revelation, chapter 20, is the only scripture in which we find mention of that period. The wicked, destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming, will not be raised until the end of the one thousand years. The earth will be without form, and void, and darkness will be upon the face of the deep, as it was in the chaotic beginning of its creation—a fit place for the abode of Satan for the thousand years.
Satan, the author of sin, has marred the beauty of God’s creation, and has brought the curse upon everything that pertains to this earth. Even the Garden of Eden was removed. When the Redeemer ascended to heaven after His resurrection, Satan and his angels were cast out of heaven into the earth (see Revelation 12), which is the only world whose inhabitants had yielded to his deceptions. Here he might finish his work of iniquity as a spectacle and object-lesson to the universe. Here his punishment will begin during the thousand years, to be completed at its close. Here, in the midst of the darkness which sin has wrought, Satan will be left to meditate upon his course, which has brought ruin to mankind, and has marred the perfection of God’s universe.
Of the events to follow immediately the thousand-year period, the prophet Isaiah has given a very definite and cheering statement from the mouth of God, as follows:
“For, behold, I create new heavens [atmospheric] and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” Isa. 65:17, 18.
Out of chaos and out of darkness God will bring the new creation without the curse, “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.” The Saviour of mankind said:
“In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.
The prophet above quoted said, “Behold, I create Jerusalem” (a place of peace); and the beloved John is permitted to say:
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Rev. 21:1, 2.
The city is prepared in heaven, according to the Saviour’s promise; and when the new earth without the curse appears, the city with its mansions fair comes down to earth to be the capital of the abode of the saints.
The saints likewise come to earth with the city, for John says again:
“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Rev. 21:3.
“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.” Verse 24.
John the revelator was indeed permitted a view of the future abode of the saints; and the Lord has still further revealed to His people the condition of the new earth, for we read:
“For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” Isa. 51:3.
Of Jerusalem and the earth, the Lord instructed His servant to say:
“Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.” “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” Isa. 62:4, 5; 65:21, 22.
This, then, is not in the time of the millennium, but in eternity; not in the state of mortality, but immortality. The Lord, by His promise—“Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands”—says they shall eternally enjoy the work of their hands.
We have traced the events connected with the saints until we find them in the new-earth state, and have left Satan in the bottomless pit, and the wicked in death. Let us see what, according to Scripture, becomes of those found in rebellion.
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” Rev. 20:7–10.
Many hundreds of years before John’s day, the Lord had instructed His prophet to write regarding Satan, as follows:
“Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” Eze. 28:18, 19.
How ignominious is the end of the deceiver and leader of the wicked hosts of earth, and how tragic the end of all who continue to follow his deception!
Some inquiry may be made as to the nations which Satan at once proceeds to deceive when he is released at the end of the thousand-year period. They are evidently the resurrected nations; for after John had spoken of the resurrection of the righteous at the beginning of that period, he said:
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20:5.
Paul also bears this testimony:
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” 1 Cor. 15:22, 23.
In God’s great plan it is provided that all the seed of Adam shall have a resurrection, unconditionally, from the death which was the result of Adam’s sin; but not so in the case of the second death. There is no promise of life to the finally impenitent.
In conclusion, the millennium of the Bible is not a period of the reign of righteousness on earth, but that which marks the end of the reign of sin by the death of all sinners living on the earth at the second advent, and the beginning of the reign of righteousness with the saints in heaven. At the close of this period, the reign of righteousness is transferred, with the saints, to the earth, which is to be made new, without the presence of the deceiver or the deceived. Thus this word shall be literally fulfilled:
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 25:8.