August 30, 1900
The Present Truth, vol. 16
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August 30, 1900
“The Millennium” The Present Truth 16, 35, p. 548.
The word “millennium” is composed of two Latin words, mille, “a thousand,” and annus, “a year,” and signifies “a thousand years.” Any period of a thousand years is a millennium; but that period of a thousand years designated and understood universally as “the millennium” is a certain thousand years mentioned and measured off in the Scriptures.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.1
The particular scripture which defines the thousand years—the millennium—is Revelation 20:1-7. The connection in which this thousand years is set is such that from it can be certainly known, not the date of its beginning, but the event that marks its beginning. Also the connection in which it is set is such that from it can be certainly known what the character of that millennium is to be.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.2
In that scripture it is said that Satan is to be bound and shut up for a thousand years, and that the saints live and reign with Christ a thousand years. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [living of the saints] 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.”PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.3
By these words we know that the event that marks the beginning of the millennium is “the first resurrection,“—the resurrection of the “blessed and holy,“—the resurrection of “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 this resurrection of the saints, this “first resurrection,” is at the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; for it is written: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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 Thessalonians 4:15-17.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.4
And again: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.5
And again: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.6
There are many other scriptures to the same purpose, but these are enough to settle it as the truth of God that the second coming of Christ marks the beginning of the millennium, because the second coming of Christ brings the resurrection of the just, of the blessed and holy; and this resurrection, the first one, marks the beginning of the thousand years—the millennium.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.7
Here, then, at the beginning of the millennium, is the resurrection of all the righteous dead; the translation of all the righteous living; and these all are caught away from the earth. They meet the Lord, not on the earth, but “in the air;” and as all the resurrected and translated ones hitherto have done, they ascend to heaven with Christ their Lord, where they reign with him upon the thrones of judgment for a thousand years. Thus the righteous.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.8
What, then, of the wicked at the beginning of the thousand years, and during the thousand years? What occurs to them at the coming of the Lord? Read: “You who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8. They call for the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them “from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Revelation 6:14-17. They are slain by the “armies which were in heaven,” but which follow “Him upon white horses,” and by the “sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” Revelation 19:11-21. As it is written in another place: “The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall mightily roar upon His habitation; He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” Jeremiah 25:30-33.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.9
Now, since it is the truth of the word of God that the resurrection of the righteous—the first resurrection—marks the beginning of the millennium; since that resurrection is caused by the second coming of the Lord; and since at his coming all the righteous, dead and living, are taken away from the earth, and all the wicked upon the earth are slain, it is certain that the earth is at that point left desolate. And as the saints do not return to the earth for a thousand years, and the wicked dead do not live again until the thousand years are finished, it is certain that the earth is left desolate during that thousand years. And that is to say that, during the millennium, this earth is to be utterly desolate.PTUK August 30, 1900, page 548.10