02.60. LECTURE No. 60 -- Rev_20:7-10
LECTURE No. 60 -- Revelation 20:7-10 The Great Purpose of This Book Is to Reveal Christ - At the End of the Kingdom Age Satan Must Be Loosed for a Little Season - A Look into the Future During the Kingdom Age - The Pre and Post-Millennial Theories Concerning the Kingdom Age Examined - The Premillennial Position Is the Correct View and Is True to the Word of God - The Kingdom Age Will Be a New Dispensation During Which a New Order Will Be Enforced by Divine Authority - Great Changes Will Occur in Order to Make the Kingdom Age Possible - The Topography of the Earth Will Be Changed and the Curse Will Be Lifted - Universal Peace Will Come to All Nations - What Christ’s Reign Will Be Like
LET us constantly remember that all of the wonderful things recorded in this last Book of the Bible are declared to be, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.” The Great Purpose of This Book The whole purpose of the Book, therefore, is to reveal Christ unto us, not merely as the Saviour of men, but as the exalted Son of God, ruling and reigning in justice and judgment over things in heaven, and upon the earth. Jesus has a right to do this, for after His resurrection from the dead and before His ascension into heaven He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
Understanding this great fundamental truth, the Book of Revelation becomes an intelligent Revelation of divine truth to those who will study it prayerfully and carefully, for it speaks clearly, boldly, and truthfully concerning the Christ of God in His relationship to things in heaven and to things upon earth.
If Jesus has all power in heaven and in earth, and we know that He does have, we are not surprised when this last Book of the Bible speaks of tribulation and judgment, which are to be executed with divine justice against the wicked, whether they be fallen angels of heaven of wicked men upon earth or upon the Antichrist and the false prophet or upon Satan himself! The First Resurrection Our last message, was based upon Revelation 20:4-6, where John said,
“And 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 God and which had not worshipped 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.
“But the rest of the dead 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: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Without repeating what we have stated concerning these verses, we remind you that they bring to our attention, several important things; i. e. that Christ is coming back again to rule and reign over the nations of the earth.
They reveal that in relation to this event, a glorious resurrection of the righteous dead will take place and that those who are resurrected will live and reign with Christ a thousand years.
Advance Lesson
We are now ready to advance in our study by reading what is written in Revelation 20:7-10, where it says,
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, God and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire come down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” A Look into the Future
Certainly, my friends, these words, although they are very brief contain a lot of suggestive truth and they are like an open vista upon some high mountain through which we look out upon the landscape of the future.
We have been much impressed with the number of times the period of one thousand years is mentioned in this one chapter, and yet in spite of this, there is nothing in the chapter which in any way describes this particular period to us to our own satisfaction.
In our lesson text, the fact of the thousand year reign of Christ is stated.
If we desire to know more about it we will have to look elsewhere in the Word of God for our answer. In this respect we shall not be disappointed, however, for there is much in the Word of God which reveals to us the blessedness of that period which is here designated as the “thousand years.”
This period is sometimes spoken of as the “Millennium,” which means “a thousand years.” The word “Millennium” itself does not appear in the lesson text, but since it means a thousand years it is just another way of expressing the same period of time.
Two Theories About the Kingdom Age
First of all permit me to say that generally speaking there are two different theories concerning the Millennium.
Some people have the idea that through the preaching of the Gospel, the whole world will become converted and when this is accomplished, that Jesus will come to rule and reign over the earth. This theory makes the church, which is the body of Christ, which is now being formed through the preaching of the Gospel, responsible for the accomplishment of this superhuman task.
Certainly, my friends, this has not been the case during the last two thousand years. At the rate we are going now in the work of evangelizing the world, it would never become a reality, for the facts in the case are that the heathen people of the world are increasing more rapidly by natural propagation than we are reaching them with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In consequence, as time goes on, the world is becoming more pagan and less Christian. The postmillennial theory, therefore, concerning the second coming of Christ breaks down at every point. The Premillennial Position The premillennial view of the second coming of Christ and of the reign of Christ for a thousand years takes into account the necessity of judgment upon the wicked before ever there can be a peaceful reign of righteousness over the earth.
The premillennial position, therefore, is that conditions upon the earth for the time being will continue to grow worse and worse until Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven for His saints, who will be resurrected or changed while living and raptured away to be with Christ as stated in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Great Tribulation
It is then expected according to the scriptures that a time of great tribulation will come upon the earth, during which God will execute His wrath and His judgments against or upon the wicked of the whole earth as stated and described in the preceding chapters of the Book of Revelation which we have already studied.
At the close of the tribulation period, it is expected, according to the scriptures that Christ will come again with His saints to rule and reign in righteousness over the nations of the earth who will be spared during the terrible time of tribulation. The Correct View
It is our conviction that the premillennial view is the correct one, for the scriptures are very plain upon this subject.
Both history and the scriptures themselves prove the falsity of the postmillennial position, while history and the Word of God, including the important subject of prophecy, prove the correctness of the premillennial return of Christ before the Millennium can be ushered in.
In other words, God does not expect us who are Christians and who belong to the body of Christ to bring in the Millennium by our own efforts and by our own good works.
No, indeed. Such a superhuman task requires a work of judgment as well as a work of grace. It requires also the personal presence and the divine authority of Christ Himself, who will be supported in His work at that time by the redeemed saints of every age. The Kingdom Age a New Dispensation May God help us, therefore, to get a correct understanding of this important subject.
The postmillennial theory, we feel, is merely false optimism based upon the traditions of men rather than upon the Word of God. The premillennial theory, however, is not based upon the traditions of men but upon the word of God.
First of all, let us recognize that the one thousand years is to be, in reality, a new dispensation, which will be much different from the age of grace in which we now live. As a matter of convenience for Bible study, the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, is divided into seven different dispensations, which are named as follows:
- Innocence, which lasted from the creation of man to the fall of man;
- Conscience, which lasted from the fall of man to the flood;
- Human Government, which lasted from the flood to the dispersion at the tower of Babel;
- Promise, which lasted from Abraham to the bondage of the Children of Israel and to their deliverance by the hand of Moses;
- Law, which lasted from Moses to the crucifixion of Christ;
- Grace, which is the dispensation in which we are now living, which is expected to last from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ in His revelation at the close of the tribulation period;
- Then will follow the Kingdom age of one thousand years of peace, which is mentioned suggestively in our lesson text today in Revelation 20:7-9.
At the close of the Kingdom age we are told in 1 Corinthians 15:24, that Jesus will deliver up the kingdom unto God when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power, for it says that “He must reign until He has put all enemies under his feet.”
The thousand years, therefore, is an entirely new dispensation which cannot and will not come until the church, which is the body of Christ has been completed and caught away to be with Christ and not until the wicked of the earth have been judged and cast away. The Millennium cannot come until Antichrist and the false prophet have been cast into the lake of fire and Satan himself shall have been cast into the bottomless pit. Last of all, the Millennium cannot come until Jesus comes with His saints to rule and to reign.
Great Changes Will Occur When this new dispensation finally comes, we may expect great and mighty changes to occur. It will certainly be a time of regeneration for the whole earth. Great changes will even take place in the material creation, which will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of; the children of God.
From what we have learned thus far in our studies of the Revelation, we know that just preceding the ushering in of the Millennium, great and mighty changes will take place in the earth until, even the topography of the earth will be changed. There will also be great changes in the atmospheric heavens, all of which will be for the betterment of conditions and which will make the earth more fruitful, thus increasing its possibilities as a habitation for man.
This is confirmed in Isaiah 4:2, where it says,
“In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” The Curse Will Be Lifted
We know from what is stated in Genesis 3:17-19, that when man first sinned, a curse was placed upon the ground for man’s sake, for God said,
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.”
During the one thousand years, spoken of as the Millennium, we know the curse will be lifted, so that the earth will no longer bring forth thorns and thistles. This is confirmed in Isaiah 55:12-13, where it says,
“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
There Will Be Peace in the Animal Kingdom
We know also that because of man’s sin, enmity among the animal kingdom resulted, but in Isaiah 11:6-9, we have a wonderful prophecy that this shall be done away with. It says,
“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. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The Earth Will Bring Forth Her Increase In addition to these wonderful promises in Isaiah 30:23-26, it also says,
“Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.”
Peace Will Come to All Nations
Also in Isaiah 2:1-5, we have a wonderful promise for the last days, it says,
“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
Thus, my friends, we see that the time is coming when the terrible wars which are now raging throughout the earth will cease. What a glorious time that will be! This is further confirmed in Psalms 46:9, where the Psalmist said,
“He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.”
Indeed, my friends, what a blessed contemplation to know that peace is coming and that it will be lasting peace, so that the sufferings and the agonies of war will no longer prey upon the hearts, minds and bodies of men, as they are doing today.
Let us realize that such conditions cannot and will not come until He who is the Prince of peace, even the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to rule and to reign. The True Character of Christ’s Reign The character of His reign is prophetically foretold in Isaiah 11:1-5, where it says,
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.”
When we understand these things, we cannot doubt for one moment the words of Isaiah 9:6-7, where the Prophet said,
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be under his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
According to our lesson text, at the close of the one thousand years, Satan must be loosed for a little season.
~ end of lecture 60 ~