Our Day Part 51

That this earth, purified by the fires of the last judgment, and renewed, becomes the eternal home of the saved.

1. Events at the Beginning of the Thousand Years

The key to the time is furnished by the declaration that the millennium begins with--

The Resurrection of the Just

Speaking of the risen saints, the Scripture says:

"They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead [the wicked] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." Rev. 20:4-6.

There are to be two resurrections. The apostle Paul said that this was the teaching of all Scripture: "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts 24:15. The first resurrection, that of the just, marks the beginning of the thousand years.

Christ's Second Coming

When is this first resurrection, in the order of events in this "day of the Lord"? It is at the second advent of Christ. One scripture, out of many, will suffice to state it:

"The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of G.o.d: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." 1 Thess. 4:16.

As the Saviour comes in glory, with all the holy angels, the graves are opened, and His voice awakens His children who sleep in the dust.

"He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.

The time of Christ's second coming, therefore, is the beginning of the millennium.

The Righteous Taken to Heaven

The living righteous are translated, and, together with the risen saints, are taken to heaven, as the apostle says:

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17.

This was the Saviour's promise:

"In My Father's house are many mansions.... 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." John 14:2, 3.

The Destruction of the Wicked

At Christ's second coming the wicked are slain. The unbelieving left without shelter in that day, cannot endure the presence of such glory as will burst upon the world:

"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not G.o.d, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1:7, 8.

The Binding of Satan

With the saints in heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's wiles, and with the wicked dead, not to live again till the thousand years are finished, Satan is "bound"--confined by divine power to this earth, which becomes his prison house, there being neither saint nor sinner upon whom to ply his arts of deception. No prisoner was ever more effectually chained.

The symbolical language of the prophet pictures the scene:

"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Rev. 20:1-3.

These are the events that mark the beginning of the thousand years: Christ's second coming, the resurrection of the just, the ascent of all the redeemed to the city of G.o.d, the death of the wicked, and, in consequence, the binding of Satan.

2. Events During the Thousand Years

In Heaven

Scene after scene of glory is spread before us in the visions the prophets were given of the redeemed in the city of G.o.d. The prophet John says:

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great mult.i.tude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.... Therefore are they before the throne of G.o.d, and serve Him day and night in His temple." Rev. 7:9-15.

They "serve" in the temple of the Lord, the prophet says; while the poet sings:

"Whence came the armies of the sky, John saw in vision bright?

Whence came their crowns, their robes, their palms, Too pure for mortal sight?

"From desert waste, and cities full, From dungeons dark, they've come, And now they claim their mansion fair, They've found their long-sought home."

One service in which the saved have part during the thousand years is the work of judgment that still remains, preparatory to the final visitation of sin and the destruction of Satan and all his works. The prophet saw this work going forward in the heavenly courts, the redeemed a.s.sociated with Christ in the service:

"I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of G.o.d, and which had not wors.h.i.+ped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. 20:4.

It was to this work of judging the wicked and the evil angels, that the apostle Paul referred in the counsel to the Corinthians: "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Cor. 6:2, 3.

On Earth

While in heaven above the saved are with Christ and the holy angels before the throne, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, it is to be remembered that on earth all is desolation and emptiness. The wicked have been slain by the glory of Christ's coming. By the quaking of the earth the cities of the nations have fallen in ruin, islands have been removed, and mountains cast into the depths of the sea. The condition of the earth during this time of desolation is thus described by the prophet:

"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer.

4:23-26.

"Without form, and void," said the prophet. This is the same phrase that is used in the opening verses of Genesis to describe the chaotic state of the earth in the beginning. At the beginning of creation week the earth was in a state of emptiness and chaos--an "abyss," as it is called in the Greek translation of Genesis. Again, during this thousand-year period, the earth is an "abyss," or a desolate waste.

"Abyss" is the meaning of the word translated "bottomless pit" in the text telling of the binding of Satan by the mighty angel of G.o.d:

"He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit." Rev. 20:2, 3. The Revised Version says, "And cast him into the abyss."

Confined to this pit or abyss of desolation, as a prisoner in a prison house, with none to tempt, the author of sin has a thousand years in which to view the ruin that sin has wrought in the earth that once left its Maker's hand beautiful and perfect, unmarred by any curse.

3. Events at the End of the Thousand Years

At the end of the millennium, this earth becomes the scene of events that close the great controversy between Christ and Satan.