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Chapter 64
The Millennium
How did the Saviour say it would be in the days of the Son of man (or when the Son of man would be revealed)?
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man." Luke 17:26. Read also verses 27-30, and Matt. 24:37-39.
How was it in the days of Noah?
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Gen. 6:5.
How did Paul characterize the last days?
"This know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." 2 Tim. 3:1.
What will make those times perilous?
"For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. 3:2-5.
But will not this state of things grow better before the Lord comes?
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." 2 Tim. 3:13.
NOTE: "Even to the end of time there will still be occasion for the same complaint; the world will grow no better, no, not when it is drawing toward its period. Bad it is, and bad it will be, and worst of all just before Christ's coming." --Matthew Henry, on Luke 18:8.
Will it be easy for those living at this time to serve the Lord?
"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12.
NOTE: "As it was formerly, so it is now, and so it will be to the end of time; he that is born after the flesh, the natural man, does and will persecute him that is born after the Spirit, the regenerate man. Notwithstanding some may live in more peaceful times than others, yet all Christians in all ages will suffer persecution." --Memoirs and Sermons of Whitefield.
According to the parable of the wheat and the tares, how long are the good and the bad to remain together?
"The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;" "the enemy that sowed them is the Devil." "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." Matt. 13:38, 39, 30.
When does the harvest come?
"The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." Matt. 13:39.
NOTE: Thus it is plain that the wicked (tares) live with the righteous (wheat) till the end of the world. There is, then, no time before Christ's coming for a sinless state, in which all men shall give glory to God.
When shall the "man of sin" (2 Thess. 2:3), also called "that Wicked," cease his iniquity?
"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." 2 Thess. 2:8.
NOTE: "Probably no such time shall ever appear, in which evil shall be wholly banished from the earth, till after the day of judgment, when, the earth having been burnt up, a new heaven and a new earth shall be produced out of the ruins of the old, but the mighty power of God; righteousness alone shall dwell inthem." --Dr. A. Clarke, on Rev. 20:2.
How long is the "little horn" (Dan. 7:25) to make war with the saints?
"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." Dan. 7:21, 22.
How many classes of people will there be on the earth when the Lord comes?
"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5:2-4.
What will those who are in darkness say when they hear about the Lord's coming?
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creations." 2 Peter 3:3, 4.
What will be popularly taught in the last days?
"But in the last days... many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; . . . and He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Micah 4:1-3.
What does the Lord say will be the actual condition of the world just before the end?
"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong." Joel 3:9, 10.
NOTE: We are all aware of the staggering annual amounts paid for war in the world today, while the amounts paid for missions is negligible. This puts an undue burden upon the wage earner, before providing for his own needs.
But are not the heathen to be given to the Lord for an inheritance?
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Ps. 2:8.
What will the Lord do with them?
"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. 2:9.
NOTE: Remarkably, it is seen that the number of believers in Christ (combining Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants) reach only to a little more than one fourth of the world's population. And this after more than nineteen centuries of Christianity.
When does the Lord thus rule the wicked nations in wrath?
"And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and lord of lords." Rev. 19:15, 16.
Then instead of looking for the conversion of the world, what should be the hope of the church?
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus 2:13. See also 2 Tim. 4:6-8; 1 Thess. 4:14-18; 1 Peter 5:4.
NOTE: The word millennium is made up of two Latin words -- mille, a thousand, and annus, a year -- and means a thousand years. The only place in the bible where a definite thousand years is mentioned is in Rev. 20:1-9.
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