03.12. Some Unsaved, on Earth, in Natural....
CHAPTER TWELVE Some Unsaved, on Earth, in Natural Bodies, During Millennium
HERE WE ARE come to a rather difficult question. Will there be unsaved people on this earth during the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ? The answer unquestionably is, Yes. Strange as it may seem, during the millennium, that first thousand years of Christ’s reign before the Father comes down and the New Jerusalem from Heaven, this earth will have sinners on it. Several Scriptures prove that this is so. For example, Isa 65:20 says: "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."
"The SINNER being an hundred years old shall be accursed." That Scripture certainly indicates in that time of rejoicing and joy in Jerusalem, yet there will be sinners on the earth. However, if there is yet doubt, turn to Revelation the twentieth chapter. There we are told how Satan will be chained and shut up for a thousand years "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years shall be fulfilled." The blessed reign of peace for a thousand years is described with Christ reigning, and His saints with Him, over the entire earth. Then we are told how Satan will be loosed out of his prison and will deceive the nations again, bringing them even to open rebellion against God. As you read that chapter, you will become convinced that on the earth during the thousand years there will be unsaved sinners, certainly some lost people without resurrection bodies.
Read Rev 20:1-3; Rev 20:7-8.
"And 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 shall be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
"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, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea."
It is clear that Satan will be bound because there will be people on the earth whom he might deceive during the thousand years. I do not believe he would be likely to deceive glorified, perfected Christians. But Satan is chained and shut up in the bottomless pit until the close of the thousand years.
During that time the Scriptures make clear there will be no open rebellion against God. Whatever weakness there is by nature in man’s heart, it will not break out into vicious and open sin. The occasion is lacking. Satan himself, during that thousand years, will be shut up away from mankind. This proves a personal Devil who deceives individuals and leads them to sin. But at the close of the thousand years, we are told that Satan will be released and will deceive the nations again. We are told that Satan shall deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, and so set them against Christ that they will gather armies as the sand of the sea for multitudes against Jerusalem, the Holy City. Then we are told that fire will come down from God out of Heaven and devour them.
It is unthinkable that saved people, made perfect, and with glorified bodies, could be so deceived that they would be brought to fight against Christ in person. Such open and wicked rebellion against Christ, such seeking even to destroy Christ and His kingdom, would prove that those who take part in the rebellion are not glorified Christians, to say the least. This is the act of unsaved sinners in natural bodies. Their end is destruction, and the Scripture tells us that they will be destroyed by fire from God out of Heaven. This again is proof that they are not glorified saints. It seems certain that a glorified saint will never sin. It seems also certain that a glorified body will never be destroyed. When that which is mortal puts on immortality (1Co 15:53) and corruptible put on incorruption, then the body will be as incorruptible and as immortal as the soul, and God will not bring fire down from Heaven and destroy His glorified saints. No, these rebels are unsaved men on the earth who will be kept in strict subjection during the thousand years while Satan is chained. Then when Satan is loosed for a season, he will deceive them and bring them to an open and violent rebellion against God and Christ.
Zec 14:16-18 indicates that there shall be some left of the nations of the earth who will be unsaved, and shows how God will keep them disciplined and in strict obedience during the thousand years.
"And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles." (Zec 14:16-18).
Here we have pictured people, some of whom did not want to go up to Jerusalem "to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles."
During the personal reign of Christ on earth, there will be people who must be punished and disciplined, even when Satan is chained and shut up in the bottomless pit. We might believe that even Christians, if we were then weak as we now are with our unredeemed bodies, might need such measures to force us to go to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. But we cannot believe that would be necessary with glorified saints. Surely these men who refuse to go to Jerusalem to worship Christ are unconverted, mortal people, people in natural bodies. But remember also that these are not people deceived by Satan.
Christians these days are often deceived by the enemy of our souls. But how could a Christian sin if Satan, the Deceiver, were shut away from us completely and were never allowed to mislead us nor suggest an evil thought or deed? I believe that even Adam and Eve would never have sinned but for Satan’s deception and leading. And yet Adam and Eve were not glorified saints in resurrection bodies having been redeemed by the blood of Christ. They were perfect and sinless, having never been lost and so never saved. They were in the image of God, and yet they did not know good and evil before their sin. Surely it is true that with Satan chained in a bottomless pit, those who refuse to obey Christ during the kingdom age will be unsaved people who must be disciplined by drought, according to the verses above.
These same unsaved people will come to active, malicious rebellion when Satan is loosed for a season.
How Will Unsaved Ones Get into the Kingdom of Christ? That subhead asks a hard question. We know certainly that to all the unsaved accountable men and women of this age, we can safely preach, as Jesus did to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," and "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:3; John 3:5).
Certainly the unsaved people who have rejected Christ as Saviour during all past ages of the world will be shut out of this kingdom of Christ. Of that there can be no doubt. If the sinners without a new birth cannot even see the kingdom of God, much less enter it, then how will it happen that there shall be unsaved people on the earth during the millennial reign of Christ? That is a difficult question, but we must try to find what the Scripture has to say about it and not go beyond what is written.
First, it seems likely that these unsaved people, in natural bodies, will not be born from the Christians in glorified bodies. Remember that the Sadducees came to Jesus with the story of seven men, brothers, who successively had one woman as wife, and asked whose wife she would be in the resurrection. They thought this would prove there was no resurrection. But Jesus answered them, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Mat 22:29-30).
Evidently then in the resurrection saved people will not marry nor have husbands and wives. With no marriage, we have no reason to believe there will be children born from these glorified saints. Any children born during the millennial age would proceed from others in natural bodies. Who are these unsaved people, in natural bodies, on the earth during the first thousand years of Christ’s personal reign?
Zec 14:16, noticed above, gives us a hint. "And it shall come to pass," that verse tells us, "that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem" are to go up to worship the Lord and keep the Feast of Tabernacles; and if they do not keep that appointed feast in Jerusalem annually, they will be punished with drought.
Evidently, then, these mentioned are remnants of the nations who will be on the earth in the Great Tribulation time. "Every one that is left of all the nations" must mean that some individuals out of all these nations are gathered over into the kingdom in their natural bodies and there given a chance to trust in Christ and be saved.
We would suppose that if they should trust in Christ and be saved, they would be given resurrection bodies. Certainly many Jews will so trust in Christ and be saved after Christ returns in person to Palestine. The Lord has not revealed many details along this line, so let us learn what we can and be content. If it were good for us to know more, the Bible would tell us more.
Some Unsaved Left on Earth After the Judgment of the Living Nations
Zec 14:1-21tells how the armies of the nations, under the leadership of the Antichrist, will be gathered against Jerusalem in the day when Christ returns visibly, bodily, to the earth to establish His kingdom. That battle of Armageddon, in the vale of Megiddon outside of Jerusalem, will bring to a close the reign of the Antichrist and so likewise will close the Great Tribulation period and the times of the Gentiles. That will be the end, forever, of the Gentile kingdoms of this earth, and Christ will establish the throne of David, and it shall fill the whole earth. In Rev 19:11-21 that return of Christ in glory is pictured and the great battle of Armageddon against "the beast," that is, the Antichrist or world dictator; and we are told how this wicked ruler and his false prophets will be cast alive into Hell, and how the remainder of his army of millions will be put to death and their bodies devoured by the fowls of the air. But when the army of the Antichrist is disposed of, or the armies of all the nations under the rule of the Antichrist, there yet remains a civilian population of the earth to deal with.
Mat 25:31-46 tells us how Christ will assemble the nations of the earth together before Him for a judgment. That passage is not long, and if you who read it get in mind carefully the setting, that this is a judgment of living people on this earth at the beginning of the reign of Christ, you can understand it and be blessed by it. This is not the last judgment of the unsaved dead, with bodies brought out of the graves and spirits brought out of Hell, for that judgment is at the close of the thousand years as told in Rev 20:11-15. No, this judgment in Mat 25:1-46 is a thousand years earlier, the judgment of the living Gentiles of the earth, the civilian population left alive after the battle of Armageddon. Christ will sit on the throne of His glory at Jerusalem and pass judgment on them as told in the following verses:
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Mat 25:31-46).
Notice there are sheep and goats and brethren present at that judgment.
- The brethren are Jews, the blood kin of the Lord Jesus, who was born of Mary, a Jewess of the tribe of Judah.
- The sheep are Gentiles who will befriend the Jews during the Great Tribulation.
- The goats are Gentiles who favored the Antichrist.
Now from these Gentile nations in some way there shall be some left to go into the millennial kingdom, for Zec 14:16 refers to "every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem." Will some of these Gentiles who befriended the Jews and lived godly lives be unsaved Gentiles who never trusted Christ? I do not think so. Will little children of these Gentile nations, unaccountable infants, be carried over into the kingdom in natural bodies? It seems very likely.
Certainly we know that God would not slay little children and send them to Hell if they were unaccountable. On the other hand, the Scripture does not expressly say that such little children will be changed and transformed, being given glorified bodies. Therefore I believe it likely that such little children might grow up in the glorious kingdom age without open rebellion, and yet without a change of heart, and still in their natural bodies. Such people in natural bodies would grow to maturity, would marry and have children. Thus it would not be difficult to account for the multitude as the sand of the sea which would rebel against Christ at the close of the thousand years when Satan is loosed out of his prison for a little season to deceive the nations again (Rev 20:7-9).
Two things are certainly clear.
First, unsaved people who reject Christ as Saviour are plainly told that they cannot enter the kingdom of God. If Nicodemus must be born again before he could even see that kingdom, the same is true about all other accountable sinners. There is not the slightest room for any unbeliever to expect that God will take him into the kingdom on earth without a change of heart.
Second, There Will Be Natural Bodies on Earth During the Reign of Christ
Isa 11:8 clearly tells us that there will be sucking children on the earth during the millennial reign of Christ. Of whom will these children be born, and whose breasts will they suck? The inference here is that babies will be born and nurse at their mother’s breasts during the reign of Christ. But if resurrected people neither marry nor are given in marriage, then these children must be born of unsaved parents, in natural bodies.
Isa 65:20 must mean no babies will die as so many now do, at just a few days of age, but that natural-born children, during the millennium, will die an hundred years old. But if people die at all during that happy time, they must be people in natural bodies, not the resurrected and glorified saints.
Read that verse again and you will see it must be the picture of unsaved people, in natural bodies, on the earth during the millennium.
"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."
Under ideal conditions, mankind will fail again. The history of the human race is a story of failure. Adam and Eve, made perfect in a perfect Garden of Eden, listened to the tempter and fell into sin. With them fell in crushing ruin the whole unborn human race. The Millennium-The Last Probation for the Human Race
Outside the Garden of Eden, God made a new covenant that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head; and I believe Adam and Eve put their faith in that coming Saviour, were forgiven and saved. But the first child ever born, Cain, became a murderer; and from that time forth the whole race degenerated until it repented God that He had made man; and He blotted out all the race but eight souls in a terrible flood.
After the flood God made a covenant with Noah, and Noah, coming out of the ark, built an altar and offered sacrifice to God. But next he planted a vineyard, and next we see him lying drunk and naked. Soon the whole race was building the tower of Babel, and God scattered them to all the earth by the confusion of tongues. In the midst of idolatry everywhere, God called Abraham and made a new start, with a new race, Israel. But the history of Israel is a history of wickedness and idolatry. They were carried captive to Assyria and Babylon in punishment. When a remnant was brought back to Palestine, and in due time the Saviour came, Israel first rejected and then crucified the Lord of glory. Forty years later God had the city destroyed by the army of Titus, until not one stone of the temple was left upon another; and the long foretold dispersion of Israel to every nation under Heaven took place. But God had chosen a little handful of Galilean followers, and these started to carry the gospel to all the world. Empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they made a marvelous beginning, and there were never days on this earth, I suppose, like those early days of New Testament churches; revivals, power, rejoicing, and spreading of the gospel. But too soon the fires began to cool. The gospel seed became a tree of denominationalism and human organization, and in the tree, the foul birds of wickedness and modernism come to make their nests. In the three measures of meal, a woman hid leaven until the whole was leavened. Paul was inspired to write Timothy that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse" (2Ti 3:13), and that "in the last days perilous times shall come" (2Ti 3:1). In Rev 3:1-22, the last period of the church age is pictured as one where God’s people are neither cold nor hot and nauseate God by their indifference until He spews them out of His mouth. During the church age, as during all other ages, mankind has failed God. But in the coming kingdom of Christ on earth, God will set out a thousand years for the last time when mankind will be proved. The Saviour Himself will rule the whole earth. His saints will rule with Him. Even Satan will be chained in the bottomless pit until not a sinner will be deceived as to the facts concerning Christ and righteousness. It will be a new Garden of Eden on the earth. And mankind, that is, unregenerate mankind, mankind after the flesh, will fail again under those conditions as he has under every other condition. Does not God know that sinful mankind will fail, even under the best of circumstances? Yes, He knows, but He wants all the redeemed to know it, all the doomed in Hell to know it, all the angels to know it, and all the demons to know it throughout the millions of years of eternity!
One thing must stand out in every dealing of God with man, and that is this: salvation is wholly of Christ!
Man never did, and man never will, earn the favor of God. God seems determined to prove to every created being His great mercy toward mankind. A review of these facts ought to help you to see the truth of Eph 2:4-9, which says:
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Knowing that God wishes to show His mercy and to be publicly justified in the sight of all creation in His dealing with men, we can understand how He will allow unsaved people to be tested on the earth during the millennial reign of Christ.