IT WILL BE MORE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS IN LENGTH
By R. F. Cottrell
The Day of the Lord. No. 3.
IT WILL BE MORE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS IN LENGTH.
We learn from Rev. xx, 4, 5, that a thousand years will intervene between the first and second resurrections. The first resurrection takes place at the second advent of Christ. 1 Cor. xv, 22, 23. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his order; Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." Verse 52. "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living] shall be changed." 1 Thess. iv, 16. "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." The testimony is explicit that those that are Christ's will be raised at his coming. The first resurrection includes all that are Christ's; for the expression is general, and there is no exception. "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." The blessed and the holy have part in the first resurrection. All the wicked sleep a thousand years after this—to the second resurrection. We have seen that the day of the Lord—the great day of his wrath—commences before the advent. That six of the seven vials, in which is filled up the wrath of God, are poured out before Christ's coming; for, after the sixth vial, it is announced, "Behold, I come as a thief." Consequently, the day of the Lord begins before the advent and first resurrection. Now if it can be shown that the day of the Lord extends beyond the second resurrection, or even to that event, our proposition will be proved, namely, that the day of the Lord is more than a thousand years long. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Pet. iii, 10. Some have quoted the eighth verse of this chapter to prove that the day of the Lord would be just one thousand years in duration. But the text affirms no such thing. It merely states that what we deem a long period is not regarded so by the Lord. That he will not fail to fulfill his promise, though it may seem a long time to us, before it is accomplished. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." This text says nothing of the day of the Lord. But the verse I have quoted above, verse 10, does; and I have cited it to prove that the day of the Lord extends beyond the thousand years of Rev. xx. The earth shall quake at the second advent, and mountains and islands shall be removed out of their places. But there is no testimony to prove that the earth and the elements shall melt with fervent heat at that time. The text affirms that this shall take place in the day of the Lord. When will this take place? We pass over the thousand years, and come to the second resurrection. The vast multitudes of the wicked stand again upon the earth. Now Satan is loosed for a little season, and, seeing those revived who had been the subjects of his deception in their first life, he goes forth to deceive them once more. This countless host that cover the breadth of the earth, deceived and led by that ancient rebel leader who first broke peace in Heaven, by seceding from the government of the Almighty, compass the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire comes down from God out of Heaven and devours them. Thus they die a second time; and hence it is said, "This is the second death." A death without the hope of a resurrection. "A night that hath no more beyond it, and no star." This is their final and utter perdition. Now let us hear Peter again. "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Verse 7. Both the judgment and the perdition of ungodly men are recorded in Rev. xx. The "dead small and great" whose judgment is there recorded, are no other than all the wicked of earth. The saints—all the blessed and holy—receive their judgment and enter upon their reward a thousand years before. At the time of the second resurrection, they have "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Hence they are not among the dead that here stand in review before God. It is to this sense of the final destruction of the wicked that Malachi refers, as a day that shall burn as an oven; when all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be burned up. All the wicked cannot be burned up before the second resurrection. But all this takes place in the day of the Lord; consequently the day of the Lord extends beyond the thousand years, covers the little season of Satan's last deception and the time of the final perdition of ungodly men, when the earth and elements shall melt with fervent heat. Thus the proposition is sustained, that the day of the Lord is more than a thousand years in duration beginning before, and not ending till after, the thousand years of Rev. xx. R. F. COTTRELL.