XIII

THE MILLENNIUM: WHEN, WHAT AND

I

WHERE?

I

T has been thought best that the previous chap

ters should be supplemented by one on the

Millennium. Considerable has been said on that subject as we have progressed, but nothing in the way of a sustained or continuous treatment such as would interest and instruct a beginner in the study of prophecy.

The word "Millennium" is a combination of two Latin words, mille, a thousand, and annus, a year, and means a thousand years. In its Biblical or theological use, it finds its origin in Revelation 20:1-7, where it is employed six times in speaking of such coming and momentous events as the binding of Satan in the bottomless pit, "that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled," and the resurrection of the saints who shall reign with Christ over the earth during the same period.

However, while this is the only place in Scripture where the "thousand years" is named specifically, yet nevertheless the period itself is identified in many ways throughout the Bible. Indeed, the Flem

ing H. Revell Company once published a goodly. sized volume by the distinguished Bible scholar, Dr. Nathaniel West, entitled, "The Thousand Years in Both Testaments," from whose opening pages we quote the following:

"What we find in the New Testament as its outcome in respect to the ages and the kingdom, has already lain in the bosom of the Old Testament from the beginning. The closing part of the New Testament (Rev. 20:1-7 for example) is but the full flower of which the opening part of the Old Testament was the precious seed, the kingdom, one and the same in essence all the way. Nothing appears in the later revelation that was not hid in the earlier; nothing in John that was not in Moses. Such is the organic and genetic character of revelation and of prophecy, that if 'the thousand years' are not in Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets, they have no right to be in John.'

II

The task would be fascinating to trace from the beginning the prophecies of the Bible which point to that "good time coming" which we call the Millennium.

Take the earliest of all, in Genesis 3:15, where it is promised that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. In a former chapter it was shown that this "Seed" is Jesus Christ, and the "serpent," Satan, the bruising of whose head means the destruction of his power longer to hurt men. This at once parallels the verse in Revelation

which speaks of him as being bound and shut up in the bottomless pit a thousand years. His final doom is not reached even then; but if for a thousand years he is restrained from doing evil in the earth, think what that will mean in the peace and happiness of mankind! This is one of the features of the Millennium.

We pass to that other promise, attached to the call of Abraham in Genesis 12: 3, "in thee all the families of the earth shall be blessed." We saw in former studies the extent to which "all the families of the earth" are already blessed in Abraham, whose Seed is Jesus Christ; but we also saw that this was only a part of that blessing which is yet to be, and which approaches nearer its fulfillment in that same Millennium.

Hastening to the time of David, Abraham's kingly offspring, we listen to the Messiah saying in the second Psalm, "I will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." This points to the same period, and shows us our blessed Lord reigning over the whole earth, with all of the peace and righteousness upon the earth which that implies.

The prophet Isaiah comments upon this reign, saying, "He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth." The blessing extends to the animal creation too, for we

remember the familiar words of the same prophet, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" (11:3-6).

Israel, or the Jew, will be specially favoured at that time, for, as Amos says, "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David [i. e., restore his kingdom], and I will build it as in the days of old. Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; and they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God" (9:11-15).

III

The joyous refrain is continued in the New Testament, and Jesus, in view of His coming crucifixion and death, instructs His disciples concerning selfdenial, saying: "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father and his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." The second

coming of our Lord is thus declared to be one of the features of the Millennium, and naturally the great feature; for, as we have seen previously, it is His coming alone that can introduce that period or make it a possibility. But He is coming to judge His people and to dispense to them the reward of their fidelity, which will make it a happy time for them.

In the Acts, Peter refers to it. He exhorts the unbelieving Jews who crucified their Lord to repent and be converted, that their sins might be blotted out. And then he adds: "That so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus, whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began.” It is the time of the "restoration of all things,” and yet not all things absolutely, but all those things of which the holy prophets have spoken, and which a consensus of their writings shows will be brought to fruition in the Millennium, when Jesus comes again (3:19-21).

Of course, the Epistles hold much of the same thought, but that thrilling revelation through Paul in the eighth of Romans challenges our attention first. He is comforting believers under "the sufferings of this present time," which "are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." And then he uses these words, so often quoted, but so little appreciated in their bearing on millennial conditions: