The popular fancy that the righteous will spend the millennium upon this globe is as far from the truth as heaven is from earth; for the saints will be in heaven, and not on earth. The world will be uninhabited and unvisited by human beings during that memorable thousand years. The truth of this statement is ably presented by Dr. Wilkinson in this excellent series, which will be concluded in our next issue, under the title, “Satan’s Last Charge.” EDITOR.
OUT from their graves, like Lazarus of old, the righteous will arise at the beginning of the millennium, in response to the call of Christ. Many of these have, by His grace, been snatched from the service of Satan, like brands from the burning. Deep had been their attachment to the Saviour, and great had been His love for them. While He has ministered in glory by the throne of God, He has never forgotten them,
"For the heart that is truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to its close,
As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets;
The same look that she gave when he rose."
Blessed and holy is he who takes part in the first resurrection. While the wicked dead sleep on for a thousand years, for a thousand years these resurrected righteous ones will live and reign with Christ. Their characters are fixed before His coming. They need no Judgment, for they have passed their sins beforehand into judgment. As far as lay within their power, they have settled everything with God before, and made everything right with their fellow men. There is in their bosom nothing that would lead them to hurt or destroy, and they are accounted worthy of the promise of the Saviour, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
The millennium answers forever the contention of the unbeliever that it makes no difference whether we serve God or do not serve Him. While the wicked sleep on unlamented, ungathered, and unvisited, for a thousand years, the righteous are the companions of Christ. The splendor of His coming falls upon them, and raises them to the spot light.
Through a Star-Studded Corridor
As on a glorious float they make their way from earth to the throne of God. Unfallen worlds, if we may so say, come out to shower them with felicitations as the mighty throng pass by. Jupiter with its bands, Saturn with its mighty rings, Uranus, Neptune, and the stars, worlds yet unrevealed to the telescope, beauties and glories accessible neither to the telescope nor to the human eye, greet the redeemed at every turn as they fly through the regions of infinite space.
It is no dark, cold, unpleasant journey they take. Everywhere there is splendor, there is glory; and the presence of the Redeemer Himself lights up the chasms of the stellar deeps. Herculean walls of splendor, glowing with a pearly light—a light that knows neither night nor shadow, and studded through and through with some of the greatest suns that shine and wheel in God’s great universe—form for them a majestic corridor as they sweep on to the immortal throne. Just as the bee, amid trees and plants, will move for miles and miles, with unerring rapidity, to its honey-filled hive, so shall the redeemed fly with incredible velocity through regions never conceived of in the wildest flights of imagination. Friend, where will you be? Will you sleep, throughout those thousand years, in an unlamented grave upon this desolate earth, or will you be found with the Saviour on His triumphal journey to the mansions in our Father’s house?
Witnesses Throughout Eternity
It was on the earth that the battle of redemption was fought. Here the great rebel tried to seduce humanity into being his followers. With a cruel hate, with a refinement and subtlety of oppression, which none but those who have been redeemed by the Saviour’s grace could understand, he sought to malign the character of God.
No other world has witnessed such a terrific strife. Though, as astronomers tell us, this earth may lie on the very edge of the Milky Way, and the Milky Way itself may be a stellar band which surrounds God’s great universe, yet only after the throne of God does this earth stand forth, as the most important of a hundred million spheres.
The testimony of the redeemed, whose position is declared to be next to the throne of God, will be shot through and through with infinite power. The throne of God needs the redeemed as much as the redeemed need the throne of God. Their testimony will be of infinite value throughout the eternal ages. This is doubtless what is meant when the Revelator presents before us the throne of God, and then adds: “Round about the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment. . . . And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices.” Rev. 4: 4, 5.
No Monotonous Round of Song
As we read on a little further, we hear again the triumphal song of these four and twenty elders, as they sing: “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Rev. 5: 9, 10.
Another fact shows how important is the earth to God’s throne. We read that “in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast [or living creature] was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.” Rev. 4: 6, 7.
Of course, we know that the translation “beast” is not correct, both from the Greek, where the word really means living creature, and secondly from the fact that in the next verse these living creatures are said to sing, “Holy, holy, holy,” before the throne of God. Their song is not a monotonous round; but from the depths of their superior intelligence, each new manifestation of God’s creative power calls forth a new outburst of rapture.
The Cortège of Infinity’s Throne
But is it not remarkable that the terms used for comparison or symbol are the names of earthly creatures? Was it because of these four living creatures around the throne that God created on this earth a lion, a calf, a man, and an eagle? Or were they used in describing the cortège of Infinity’s throne, simply to show that the principles manifested in terrestrial life represent unfathomable depths in the great controversy between Christ and Satan?
We need not wait until, as some students of astronomy predict, the earth will be removed from the edge of the Milky Way close up to that world which is heaven, to see how closely knit are the activities of the eternal throne with this planet called the earth.
Moreover, do not the Scriptures also teach us that the Redeemer’s capital city, the New Jerusalem, will be located upon this earth, and here will be His kingly courts? And as the Son shall be subject to the Father in all things, yet of all creatures the most closely related to Him, so likewise shall not the earth be subject to the direction of heaven, but be to it the most closely attached of these hundred million spheres?
Men to Judge Angels
Throughout the thousand years, the saints, with the angels, will pass upon the cases of the wicked. For God Himself never sends forth an arbitrary judgment. Even when He commanded the great tree of Nebuchadnezzar (Continued on page 7)660
Passing a Hundred Million Worlds
(Continued from page 3) to be cut down, in tears Daniel informed Babylon's mightiest monarch that "this matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones." Dan. 4: 17. Myriad in numbers, angels and redeemed will judge not only the wicked dead, but also fallen angels. As says the apostle Paul, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Cor. 6: 3. Many dark chapters in earth's history will be opened up to them; and things which were too mysterious to be understood or known by human philosophy or human intelligence, shall come to light.
Thus the plan of redemption will be unfolding; and their time occupied with this, and with being introduced to God's great universe, the glories of the thousand years will make the resurrected righteous feel that at the price of surrender and suffering on earth, they purchased heaven cheap enough.
