3. What does "Millennium" mean and with what time is it identified?

4. Will "The Day of the Lord" come before, during, or after the Millennium?

5. What three events precede "The Day of the Lord"?

6. When does that "Day" begin?

7. What is meant by "the return of the Lord Himself in glory"?

8. What follows this return?

9. Have you read the Scriptures indicated?

10. What events take place in the course of the judgments on the nations?

11. What is a necessary preliminary to the Millennium, and why?

12. What parallel is suggested here?

13. What is established in the earth during the Millennium?

14. Identify this "kingdom" in other Scriptures.

15. Where are its physical blessings more particularly revealed, and why?

16. Have you read Psalm 72 and Isaiah 11?

17. Will there be sin in the earth during the Millennium? 18. What distinction do you see between righteousness "reigning" and righteousness "dwelling" in the earth?

19. Who are the persons in the second resurrection? 20. How do some interpret Isaiah 65:20–22?

21. How is the word "dead" in Revelation 20 to be understood?

22. With what does the "second resurrection

the “second death,” synchronize?

or rather

23. What startling fact does this bring forward?

24. When does God have His final conflict with man in the flesh?

25. What event follows?

26. Why the word "must" in Revelation 20:3?

27. What is the next great event in "The Day of the Lord"?

28. Who are judged here and on what basis are they judged?

29. What name is given to that which follows this judgment?

30. What proves that the second death is not annihilation?

81. What is the warning for the unsaved?

XII

DOES THE BIBLE TEACH A GENERAL

JUDGMENT?

I

OME questions raised by the previous chapter when it appeared in the serial form, related to the interpretation of various passages in the book of Revelation culminating in its teaching concerning the last judgment. Most of them were too lacking in general interest to warrant attention in any special way; but an exception is made of one which asks whether Revelation 17:8 refers to a "limited atonement." The passage reads, "And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world."

The thought of the atonement is not to be excluded from these words, but it is not in the foreground. The subject of the whole verse is the "beast," the Antichrist, the secular despot, possibly an incarnation of Satan, who will ascend out of the abyss and later go into perdition, and who will rule over the earth during the period of the tribulation still ahead. For further information about him, see Chapter VIII. "They that dwell on the earth shall wonder after him," or, as Revelation 13:3 says, "all the world

wondered after the beast." And no wonder they wondered, when we are told in another Scripture (2 Thess. 2:4) that "he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God," and in still another (Rev. 13:2-17), that there is a false prophet with him who "deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by reason of the miracles which he had power to do." "Wonder" in this case means not simple astonishment, but a surrender of will and judgment, bringing the one who wonders under the sway and spell of the one who is wondered at.

Yet as the verse states, this will not be true of all. In Elijah's time there was an elect remnant who bowed not the knee to Baal (Rom. 11:1-5), and so will it be in the great tribulation. Although the Church will have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, as we believe the Scriptures teach (1 Thess. 4:17), yet there will be an elect remnant on the earth, both of Jews and Gentiles-converted it may be by the very event of the Church's translation-who will prefer death to allegiance to this son of perdition. (Read Rev. 6:9-11; 7: 14; 13: 15-17.) These are described by contrast, in the question presented to us, as those whose names were "written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world."

What troubles the inquirer is that some names were written there while others were not, and only the first are saved, while the others presumably are lost. His is a doctrinal or theological question that hardly comes within the range of this work, which cannot properly discuss such matters as a limited or an unlimited atonement. But this much may

be said, doubtless without controversy: (1) that the book and the writing of the names are figures of speech, indicating God's foreknowledge of the saved and the lost; (2) that His foreknowledge is not necessarily identical with His foreordination of some to eternal life and some to eternal death; (3) that the atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient for the sin of the world (John 1:29); (4) that all may be saved who are willing to be saved (Rev. 22:17).

II

This leads to the question of the final judgment referred to in Revelation 20: 11-15, where the words recur: "Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." This was dealt with in the last chapter on "The Day of the Lord, When It Comes and What It Means," where it was said that it is erroneously called the "general" judgment. By the "general" judgment is commonly understood a judgment of all mankind at one time and one place and on precisely the same basis, which does not appear to be the Bible teaching on that subject.

But, says the inquirer, what about Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5: 10, and Matthew 25:31-46? These passages will be quoted later, but in the meantime let us reflect that the day of judgment, as presented in the Bible, is not a day of twenty-four hours merely, but one covering a great length of time. "The Day of the Lord," mentioned before, is equivalent to the day of judgment, and it covers at least a