THE MILLENNIUM

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The Millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ immediately following the Great Tribulation. Millennium is not a Scriptural word, but it is a Scriptural truth.

A. The Fact of the Millennium.

1. The Lord Has Decreed It (Ps. 2).

2. Christ Taught It (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).

3. The Scriptures Teach It (Is. 2, 11).

4. The Psalmist Described It (Ps. 72).

5. The Angels Declared It (Luke 1).

6. The Transfiguration Pictures It (Matt. 16:28; 17:1).

7. A Gospel Outlines It (Mark 6:45-56).

8. The Apostles Preached It (Acts 2, 3).

9. Nature Longs For It. (Rom. 8).

B. The Description of the Millennium.

1. The Thousand Years (Rev. 21:1-7).

2. The Age to Come (Eph. 1:21).

3. The Day of the LORD (Rev. 6:12-17; Joel 2:10, 11,30, 31; Hag. 2:6,7; Matt. 24; Zech. 14:1-5).

4. In That Day (Is. 4:2; 2:11, 17, 20, 21; 11:11).

5. The Restitution of All Things. “(The Lord] shall send Jesus Christ. . . . whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20, 21). Some use this verse as meaning the restitution of Christ-rejecting sinners, and even the Devil. But notice that the above verse says, “which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets.” The prophets say nothing of the restitution of the Devil and sinners.

a. Israel to the Promised Land (Is. 11:10-12).

b. Repentance of the Nations to Jehovah (Zech. 12: 10-14).

c. The Removal of the Band of Iniquity (Zech. 3:9).

d. Restoration of Rain (Joel 2:23-29).

e. Re-engraving of Jehovah’s Law (Jer. 31:28-37).

f. Redistribution of the Land (Ezek. 48).

g. Reconstruction of Jerusalem (Is. 62; Ezek. 40).

h. Restitution From Bondage of Fear (Is. 14:1-3; Jer. 33:14-16).

i. Restitution of Jehovah’s Love (Zeph. 3:16-20).

6. The Regeneration of All Things (Matt. 19:18; Is. 32).

7. The Falling Stone (Dan. 2).

C. The Types of the Millennium.

1. The Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25).

2. The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23).

3. The Sabbath. It is that rest to come.

4. The Kingdom of Israel Under Solomon’s Reign. This was an absolute reign of peace.

1. The Church, “It is a faithful saying:

For if we be dead with him we also shall live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us” (II Tim. 2:11, 12). Wherever the Lord shall be, there we shall be with Him (I Thess. 4:17). We shall reign, and we shall judge over angels and the world. I Corinthians 6:2, 3 says, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world. . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?”

2. Satan.

Satan shall be sealed and bound for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7). The Antichrist is cast into the lake of fire before that (Rev. 19:20).

3. Israel.

She shall become the head of all nations again, and will not remain the tail as she is today (Is. 2:1-4; 11:3, 4; 61:5; Zech. 8:23; Deut. 28:13).

4. The Nations of the World.

All nations will have to come up to Jerusalem year by year and worship Jehovah there. If they do not keep the yearly Feast of Tabernacles, God will cause no rain to fall upon that nation (Zech. 14:16; Is. 2).

5. Mankind.

a. Spiritual Condition.

Some have been led to think that there will be no sin during the Millennium, but there will be. Human nature has never changed from one dispensation to another. There will be universal adoration of Christ (Heb. 8:11; 2:14; Phil. 2:10, 11), but it will be feigned obedience upon the part of many. For example, many in prison obey their warden, not because they love him, but because they must. Where will these sinners come from, as the Millennium begins with only born-again believers? They will be born of saved parents who came out of the Tribulation alive.

b. Physical Condition.

Human life will be lengthened. Some will be able to live throughout the Millennium. There shall be death during this reign of Christ, also — death, not to the believer, but to the unbeliever. No babes or children shall die. When the sinner becomes one hundred years old and still rejects Christ, he shall be cut off by death. “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed [cut off]” (Is. 65:20).

c. Moral Condition.

This will not be a period of absolute perfection. However, sin will not be allowed to raise its head. Christ shall rule with a rod of iron (Ps. 46:9; Is. 2:4). Sin, nevertheless, will be committed in the hearts of men.

6. Creation.

a. Physical.

When Adam fell, the earth was cursed (Rom. 8:18-23). Man has accomplished wonders with his irrigation systems, and the like, but look what God will do! “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Is. 35:1). See also Isaiah 55:13. Creation shall be restored completely; no more earthquakes; no more storms, famines and pestilences (Joel 2).

b. Animal Creation.

Before man sinned, God had put the fear of man in the animals. They ate the grass of the fields. During the Millennium they shall revert back to the same order which He had intended for them (Is. 11:6-9). “And a little child shall lead them” (Is. 11:6) means that a child, during the Millennium, shall literally lead animals around. It is not speaking about children leading sinners to the Lord.

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