The Approach of the Millennium
By E. W. Catlin
Does Christ Come Before or After? — Will It Be a Time of World Peace? — The New Jerusalem at the End of the Period
SUPPER being ended, the disciples are grouped around Jesus. As He continues His instruction, He informs these men that He is about to leave them. All their fond hopes are now blighted, and their countenances reveal the dark cloud of wo that has suddenly settled down over them. He seeks to dispel their gloom with a description of the Father's house, and the mansions He intends to prepare for them, then the promise to return to take them to be with Him where He is. He requests that they exercise the same confidential trust in Him as in the Father. For "this same Jesus" shall come again. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17. THEY LIVED AND REIGNED A THOUSAND YEARS
The prophet John saw in heaven, through vision, "the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. 20: 4. Jesus returns to take them to heaven, to be with Him for a thousand years. When He shall appear with the angelic host to gather the glorified saints to Himself, in harmony with His promise, the wicked of earth will gaze upon the glory and brightness of Him whose very presence consumes darkness and creates everlasting day; and though kings, and great men, rich men, and chief captains, mighty and free men, they will hide themselves "in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains," and say, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6: 14-17. While making this agonized request, they are stricken down in death, for the brightness of His coming consumes their unprofitable lives. 2 Thess. 2: 8. UNTIL THE YEARS WERE FINISHED
The prophet again speaks, saying: "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." Rev. 20: 5. These scriptures reveal the righteous living with Jesus in heaven, and the wicked in the sleep of death, during the millennium. THE WHOLE LAND SHALL BE DESOLATE
The intelligences of heaven gaze upon the earth during these fast-occurring events, and behold the fulfilment of prophecy; for the "seer" has said: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and perverteth the face thereof, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." Isa. 24: 1, 3, margin. "I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was101no man, and all the birds of the heavens 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: 24-27. This chain of varied circumstances encircles the path of the enemy, and binds the devil, holding him captive in this devastated earth, "till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Rev. 20: 1-3. At the expiration of the thousand years, when the millennium is ended, the Lord comes, and all the saints with Him. Zech. 14: 5. "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley." Verse 4. The holy city, New Jerusalem, descends from God out of heaven, and is established in that valley. Rev. 21: 2. "And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited." "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." Zech. 14: 11, 9. SATAN MARSHALS HIS FORCES
During that eventful period, Satan will marshal his forces—the wicked who have been raised in the second resurrection—and will encompass the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Rev. 20: 7-9), and thus seek to take by force the reward and the home of the saints. To the very last, Satan is absorbed in wicked, evil designing against God and His children, but the end of such vile work is at hand, for fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. "And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem." Zech. 14: 12. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. 4: 1. With pride we may speak of the coronation of kings, and with rapture gaze upon the glittering tinsel; but all this—the product of human conception—will pale to insignificance before the coronation of the real King, who has conquered every foe in the universe of God, and given everlasting life and immortality to His humble followers.