The Saints During the Millennium
Where are the saints during the 1000 years?
John iii, 33. "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you." verse 36. "Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards." John xiv, 2-4.— "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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Verse 12. 'I go unto my Father.' Matt. vi, 9. Our Father which art in heaven: 2 Cor. v, 1. We have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Verse 4. Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Or, †1 Cor. xv, 54. "Death swallowed up in victory." "When this mortal shall put on immortality." 1 Thess. iv, 16, 17. "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 be451caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." These passages show positively that the Lord, when he comes again, will not meet his resurrected or living saints on the earth. Neither can it be shown in the Bible, in my opinion, that our Lord will come at this time any nearer earth than the clouds in heaven. Acts i, 9-11. "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Matt. xxiv, 30. "And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Rev. xiv, 14. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man." Under the third angel's message, [Rev. xiv, 12] is the patience of the saints, and they that keep the commandments of God, &c. Rev. xxii, 12. And behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. Verse 14. Blessed are they that do (or keep) his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, (Chap. ii, 7; 2 Cor. xii, 1-4. Paradise in third heaven,) and may enter in through the gates into the city. Now it is generally believed that the City, New Jerusalem, will not come down from heaven until after the 1000 years; but this entering into the City above is connected with the coming of Christ to mete out rewards; and that, in heaven. Matt. v, 12; Luke vi, 23. Col. iii, 1-4. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Heb. iv, 10, 11, 14. For he (Christ) that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same manner of unbelief. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, that [Heb. vi, 18] we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail; whither the forerunner, (one who goes before another) is for us entered, even Jesus, &c. This conveys the idea to my mind that if the forerunner has entered the temple in heaven, that we shall follow him hereafter, as he promised Peter, when he should come again. Let us see if this is not so. Rev. xi, 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. This took place in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he began to sound [Rev. x, 7; xi, 15;] which took place in 1844. Rev. xv, 8. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. Then they will. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.—Rev. vii, 15. This temple and throne is in heaven. Some, I know, think that Rev. xx, 4, teaches that the resurrected saints will live and reign with Christ, a thousand years on the earth, but it says nothing of their reigning on the earth, in this chapter; neither do they reign as kings in this 1000 years, but as priests to minister or officiate with Christ in judgment at this time. 2 Pet. iii, 8; 1 Cor. vi, 2. Saints shall judge the world. But we are referred to another chapter [v, 10] where it says, And hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
J. B. FRISBIE.
Battle Creek, Mich., Nov. 2d, 1853.152 Again, Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Deut. v. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.—For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day, on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Heb. iv, 4. Here is a blessed promise. Isa. lvi. Blessed is he that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it; and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Verse 4. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant, even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. The promise is, also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant, even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Chap. lviii, 13. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words," then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. In Isa. lviii, 21, 22, 27, the Lord strictly enjoins the Sabbath, and tells his people what he would bring upon them if they refused to obey. In Eze. xx, the Lord, through the Prophet, complains bitterly of the idolatry of his people, and of their polluting the Sabbath. He there tells them what he gave them his Sabbath for. In verse 12, he says, "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbath to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." We plainly see that the Lord in reproving his people for the neglect of the observance of the Sabbath—does not call it their Sabbath, but his Sabbath. I cannot recollect of any passage of Holy Writ that says the Sabbath should cease to be kept or observed as a day of rest, holy unto the Lord, or that the first day of the week should take its place. I am of the opinion that men changed the day without any reference to divine authority. I believe the apostles always kept the Sabbath-day. Acts xiii, 42. The Gentiles besought the apostles to preach to them the next Sabbath. Verse 44. And the next Sabbath-day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Acts xvii speaks of Paul's going in unto the Jews, and for three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. This, I apprehend, does not mean the first day of the week. Luke iv, 16, tells us, that Jesus (as his custom was) went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day and stood up for to read. And Jesus himself said he is Lord of the Sabbath. I might cite many more passages from the New Testament concerning the Sabbath, which is proof to me that the apostles kept it, and did not do it away as some suppose. They speak of the first day, and tell us what they did upon that day. The disciples met together to break bread. Acts xx, 7. They were to lay by in store as God had prospered them. 1 Cor. xvi, 2.—This was a collection for the needy; it was not to be done on the seventh day, but the first day of the week. The Sabbath was classed with the commandments, written on tables of stone; and I cannot believe that it was ever the design of God to change or abolish the law of the Sabbath; if it had been so, we should not have been left in the dark respecting it. Again, if the Sabbath was done away, as some assert, then, of course, the other nine commandments must also be done away; because it is classed with them; and if so, then, there is no moral obligation. But the objector is ready to exclaim, The nine are not done away! No, indeed! neither is the Sabbath; for it is just as much a part of the moral law, as the other nine are. In reading the sacred Scriptures, I have not learned that the Sabbath was classed with the hand-writing of ordinances, which Paul said was against us; which Jesus took out of the way, by nailing them to the cross. "If ye would enter into life, keep the commandments."
MARY A. WALDORF.
Conotton, Ohio, Oct. 27th, 1853.