The Coming of the Lord by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 27, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 35.

The Coming of the Lord

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L.A. PHIPPENY

THE MILLENNIUM.

On Earth.

POPULARLY the millennium is referred to as earth’s golden age, the age in which right principles will triumph in the affairs of men, when the arts and the sciences shall flourish in their perfection, when war shall be abolished, when peace and prosperity shall cover land and sea, and the world rejoice in the universal brotherhood of man.

By some it is held that at the beginning of this time the dead will be raised to life and the wicked given a second probation; that the devil and his angels will be banished to some place where they cannot tempt individuals to sin, and that under these favorable conditions the resurrected saints and living saints will go forth to convert the world. It is held that this is the only course for Justice to pursue, in view of the fact that many in all ages must have perished who have never heard the Gospel story or known of the way of salvation. Then those who finally reject salvation will be destroyed.

This theory does not harmonize with the testimony of Scripture. The resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked are two distinct events, and take place a thousand years apart. “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” is the record left by John as he viewed the saints in heaven immediately after the second coming of Christ. We have learned that the second advent occurs very soon after the cessation of the investigative judgment work in the sanctuary in heaven; that when that work ceases probation for all will forever end, the plagues will fall, the righteous dead will be raised to life, and the wicked living will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. The beginning of the thousand years is clearly defined and located by the events which take place at that time. These were considered in the preceding article.

It is a mistaken conception of God’s provision for saving men that leads any one to insist that there must be a second probation for sinners. God has made ample provision, even for the heathen. Righteousness is the same the world over, and in all ages, and the heathen in whose conscience is written the law of God will be saved if the voice of conscience is heeded in his life, even tho he may never have heard the name of Jesus Christ. No one will be lost who would not have been lost had apparently greater opportunities been his for perfecting character. The righteous need no second probation, and if granted sinners, it would be wasted by them as was the first probation. The doctrine of a second probation for sinners is exceedingly pernicious, as its tendency is to quiet the fears of the ungodly and those who wish to enjoy the pleasures of sin in this life. If there is to be a future probation for sinners, why not live as one pleases now? The experience of the present will enable one at that time to mend his ways! He will “come out all right at the end”! This is the logic of the doctrine as viewed by the worldly-minded. It is a fatal delusion.

The beginning of the millennium is the beginning of the day of the Lord. For six thousand years the drama of sin and righteousness has been enacting on the stage of earth, in six millenniums of intense activity between the spiritual forces of good and evil, while the sin-cursed ground has groaned under its terrible burden. And now the millennium of rest has come, the antitype of the seventh year, when the land enjoyed her long Sabbath. A thousand years of rest! The earth will be at rest; sinners will be at rest; saints will be at rest! But what a scene will be presented on the earth,—desolation, destruction, chaos! A picture of that time was presented to the prophet Jeremiah, and described by him in the following vivid language:—

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heaven were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, the whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.” Jer. 4:23-27.

The prophet saw no man for the reason that the wicked were slain at the second coming of Christ, and the righteous had been transported to heaven. Isaiah, viewing the scene in the visions of the Lord, saw thorns and brambles in the palaces of earth, and nettles and brambles in her fortresses. Here and there great fires were seen and the smoke was observed to “go up forever,”—that is, until the end of the age of desolations. Life was seen to exist, for it is said that the wild beast of the desert shall meet with the wild beast of the island. And there were seen the cormorant and bittern, the owl and the raven; “there shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read; No one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate.” These four-footed and feathered dwellers of earth are to possess the land “forever, from generation to generation,” with no one to molest or make afraid; for “they shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.” Isa. 34:8-17. In the next article we may note a suggestion as to the reason why many beasts and birds live in the earth during the thousand years.

Not a Full End.

Note the last words quoted above from Jeremiah: “Yet will I not make a full end.” Here is a promise of a change in the desolated condition of the earth. A like promise, referring to the wicked dead, is made by the Lord through Isaiah: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the hosts of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall be visited.” Isa. 24:21, 22. The grave is their prison; but after many days shall they be visited.

When are the “many days” ended?—At the end of the thousand years, when the “rest

of the dead” mentioned by John are raised to life. The rest of the dead referred to are the wicked. The thousand years are therefore the “many days” of Isaiah’s prophecy. Then the wicked will be resurrected, but not for the purpose of receiving a second probation. They come forth to receive the final instalment of their reward, which in this instance is punishment for sins committed, as will be noted further on in these studies. So much for the condition of the wicked during the thousand years, and of the earth during this period.

And now there come into view again those spiritual forces who are directly and chiefly responsible for this fearful condition—Satan and his evil angels. During the great controversy between good and evil we have recognized them as the adversaries of truth and righteousness, working in and through humanity. But now the conflict is ended, and Lucifer, the ambitious, proud rebel, may also cease from his labors for a thousand years. This is the time and the occasion of the words: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.” Rev. 20:1-3.

In ancient times Satan had the power to appear in heaven in the presence of God in the councils of the sons of God. Having overcome Adam, the first ruler of the earth, he represented himself there as governor of this world. Job 1 and 2. The inhabitants of other worlds were not free from his visits, his aspersions against God, and his temptations. But when Christ died on the cross, when the character of Satan was unmasked before the universe, when salvation for believers was everlastingly assured, the enemy thenceforth devoted his entire energies to this earth, where he had set up his kingdom of darkness. Rev. 12:10, 12. And when all his prisoners are at last gathered and shut up in their graves, the power to leave the scene of his evil working will be taken away, and he will be compelled to remain on the earth, bound as it were in the abysm of destruction for which he is responsible, and prevented by the seal of death on his subjects from further deception for a thousand years. His own end is reserved until later.

Here he may roam at will, with his angels, viewing his work. I can well believe that the thousand years of enforced inactivity for Satan and his angels will be to them a veritable hell. During six thousand years, at least, they have been intensely active in opposing the forces of righteousness. Now they must rest, and their active minds will suffer keenest torture in meditation and in reviewing the whole history of sin and its consequences. For a thousand years they will look forward to the time when their own lives, which began, perhaps, well-nigh countless ages ago amid the pleasures of heaven, will, because of transgression, go out forever.

In Heaven.

Unto himself the Saviour will take the redeemed,—to the city of God, the New Jerusalem, to the throne of the Father. From earth to heaven,—what a journey! And then heaven itself for a thousand years! What will the saints do in heaven? A few things are directly revealed in the Word. A host of other things are suggested in thought and meditation; and still the imagination can picture only feebly the pleasures and occupations of that truly golden age; for the term may be applied appropriately to the millennium in heaven.

I think one of the first things the saints will do will be to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God, and drink of the water of life’s river. During the ages of sin on the earth, the race has been deteriorating; but in that land of eternal vigor the lost strength will be regained, and the dwarfed and enfeebled ones of later ages will grow to the original stature of man. Even so the Lord indicates through Malachi: “Ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” The children, also, raised to immortality, will grow to manhood and womanhood under perfect conditions. For a thousand years heaven will be a training-school, with angel teachers,—and Christ himself the Master,—where the former inhabitants of one of God’s worlds will have opportunity at its perfection to learn the essentials of society as God has ordained it, preparatory to assuming an exalted position in the scheme of the universe.

Then there is to be an exceedingly important work in which the redeemed will be engaged during the thousand years. This work is the judgment of the wicked dead. This is not the judgment which decides for or against eternal life. That judgment is in the past. This is for the purpose of deciding upon the measure of guilt, and the degree of punishment for the unrighteous. In this judgment the records of all lives will be examined faithfully, and exact dues determined for every sinful soul. In this important work the saints assist as judges. They will be eminently qualified, for as the names come in review, there will be present and available those of every year in every century and every nation of earth who is familiar with the case before the court. In conjunction with the angel witnesses and the written record, these determine the measure of guilt and of punishment.

Not only will the world be thus judged, but also Satan and his angels. “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” 1 Cor. 6:2, 3. John describes the scene as follows: “And I saw thrones, and they [the redeemed] sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them . . . and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Rev. 20:4. The thrones are thrones or seats of judgment. And thus the saints reign with Christ in the final judgment of sinners and wicked angels.

A thousand years of the society, the beauty, the peace, the inestimable privileges and opportunities, the everlasting joy of heaven! And more than all else, the presence of Christ the Saviour in his majesty, and the presence of the Father of light and of life! Who would miss it? But this is only the beginning of endless joy.

[The subject heading of the next article in the series is “The Third Advent.”]