Prophecy

Life in the Millennium, No. 2

PR09-02

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1971)

We are looking at life in the millennium. This is the second in that segment. The millennium is that 1,000-year period when Jesus Christ will be ruling upon this earth. As we talk about the millennium, it is important to remember that it is going to involve the same earth; the same nations; the same cars; the same houses; the same jobs; the same schools; the same family; the same technology; the same money; the same stores; and, so on, that you and I know today. It is life on this earth as it is today constituted. It is life as you're going to move into it then. There will be certain basic changes and certain basic alignments. There will be a two-fold type of humanity on the earth. Some will be in resurrected glorified bodies like that of the Lord's. Some will be in the same kind of bodies that you and I have now.

The Old Testament has a vast array of Scriptures that deal with a world-wide kingdom on the earth ruled by Jesus Christ for 1,000 years from Jerusalem. We can't begin to enter into those Scriptures. We're going to delve into it a little more deeply here, primarily to show you that some of the things that we look forward to as the earth's golden age, which can only be realized in that period, are not figments of our imagination. There are a lot of these things that the world would like to see produced today.

We have legislation and we have world efforts to produce the very things that Jesus Christ is going to bring about in the millennium. Because we understand that this is coming, we will be preserved from the foolishness of trying to pursue what man cannot produce until Christ returns. Man cannot produce the perfect environment that he's looking for, and the perfect social relationships, and the equity and justice that we all desire. He can't possibly produce that until Jesus Christ returns. We are not going to resolve the poverty situation. I don't care how many poverty programs we run. The same goes for everything else that we'd like to improve in society, including the lawlessness, the problems of housing, and one thing and another. You can't resolve these things. We may make every effort possible but they will not be resolved until Jesus Christ is here.

However, there is a great body of Scripture in the Old Testament that predicts this condition upon the earth. This reign follows that seven-year tribulation period that we have looked at. It is a period which requires certain obstacles to be removed. We looked at those last time. First of all, Jesus Christ returns to this earth. The church returns with Him. All of the Jews who survive the tribulation period are taken out into the desert, and they are judged to determine who are believers. The unbelievers are put to death. The believers are brought into the millennial kingdom (Ezekiel 20:34-38). Likewise, the gentiles are brought under judgment on the basis of how they treated the believers in the tribulation in sharing with them, as fellow believers, that which they had, particularly the Jewish believers, and thus evidencing the genuineness of their salvation. They will be divided as sheep and goats--believers and unbelievers. The unbelievers will be put to death. The believing gentiles will be brought into the millennial kingdom (Matthew 25:31-46).

Then one other thing that will be done will be that Satan will be bound. All of the demons will be removed from their operation on the earth (Revelation 21:1-3). In the millennial kingdom, Jesus Christ will produce a perfect environment so that there will be very little temptation from what we call "the world" today--the world system. Satan will be removed with his demons so there will be no temptation from him. That only leaves one source of temptation, and that will be the mean streak which resides in every human being--the old sin nature.

Features of the Millennium

We have already looked at some of the features of the millennial kingdom. We noted that it would be a rule of Jesus Christ over the entire earth. We noted that His government would be absolute in authority and power--a government of perfect righteousness and justice. It would have Jerusalem as its world capital. The whole world will know about God. Various agents will be used in the Lord's reign. The temple will be rebuilt with the worship practices resumed as memorials to Jesus Christ. There will be universal peace enforced, and there will be a new type of spirituality--a spirituality of ecstatics.

Influences in the Millennium

There are certain implications to this reign of Christ. We want to look at these in a little more detail. These will be a variety of influences that will be brought to bear.
  1. Morality

    Number one: There will be moral influences. Isaiah condemned, in his day, the perversion of standards of right and wrong. In Isaiah 5:20, he described the condition that existed of people who were twisting what was right and what was wrong. Isaiah 5:20: "Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Today the absolute standards of right and wrong are scoffed at while perversions are dignified. What most people determine is what decides what is right and wrong. This is certainly reflected in such things as the movie advertisements. Just run your eyes over them, and you can get a little inkling just by the ads as to what the thing is all about, and you will see the perversion of standards of our society.

    One of the judges of the movie rating system yesterday on television said that what the movies were making reflected the standards of our society, and people who objected to what was being produced by the motion picture industry are simply objecting to what our society now accepts. So as the old sin nature rises in maximum control of a maximum number of people, the greater the situation ethics ideal will be accepted. That's where we are today. What is true, and what isn't true? What is right? What isn't right? Who decides what people think? There are no absolute standards.

    That's why it's difficult to tell a young person, "I want you to be good." If you tell a kid who has no spiritual training and background, "Now, I want you to be good," he'll look at you and he'll contort his eyebrows a little bit. He'll be puzzled because he doesn't understand what you're talking about, "Be good," because there is no such there's no such thing as good. These are relative matters. Maybe in this situation he shouldn't do this thing because it would be bad, but in this other situation he can do that thing even though it's the same thing. It's all relative.

    Bible Doctrine

    Alright, the moral values in the millennium are going to be based upon a divine standard. Morality has been given, to begin with, for the preservation of the human race. So it applies to believers and unbelievers. The code of ethics, such as summarized in the Ten Commandments, applies to believers and unbelievers because God gave this to preserve humanity. There will be a widespread instruction in the millennium in Bible doctrine. It will be part of the school curriculum, and people will learn the truth about God. Can you imagine what it will be like to go to school? What you do every day is that you learn Bible doctrine. Can you imagine going to a school where you learn Bible doctrine every day on the high school level, even on the college level, as well as the elementary level? Isaiah 54:13 says, "And all your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children." Young people will come to a knowledge of themselves into a position of peace because they have been taught a knowledge of the Word of God.

    Isaiah 30:20: "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers shall not be removed into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way. Walk in it when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.'" One of the reasons we tell parents that they ought to send their children to a Christian school is because there is a voice behind them that is saying, "Turn this way. Turn that way. Stay away from this. Don't do that. This is the thing to do. That is the thing to do." There is a hand of righteousness restraining and guiding. In the millennium, this will be a common practice throughout society. People will know what is right and they will know what is wrong.

    Evaluation

    Furthermore, there will be an accurate appraisal of everybody's moral worth. The things, the ideas, and the people of the millennium will be evaluated accurately. There is a lot of mis-evaluation today. Malachi 3:18 says, "Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serves God and him that does not serve Him." In that day, wicked men are not going to be called great men because they have great talents, or because they have accomplished something. They have won a war. They have written a tremendous novel. They have erected a monument. They have built a building. Wicked men are not going to be called great because they have some ability. They are going to be evaluated on a different basis.

    Isaiah 32:5 says, "The vile person shall be no more called noble nor the scoundrel said to be bountiful." There will be an accurate appraisal. The con artist is not going to get away with anything. Isn't that great? The con artist will not be able to kid anybody. He won't be able to get away with anything. Every wrongdoing will be automatically known at headquarters in Jerusalem, and it will be automatically and immediately dealt with. Because it will be an absolute moral climate, truth will reign supreme in this kingdom. There will be rulers who do not deal as they do today. Today the rulers deal on the basis of deception. They feel that they have to use a certain amount of falsehood in order to execute God's purposes for society. But in that day, rulers will not be using falsehood as a deliberate instrument of policy. Isaiah 42:3 says that Jesus Christ is going to bring forth justice in truth.

    No Deception

    There will be no deceptive advertising. People will listen to TV in the millennium, and they will know that every ad they hear is really true. Not a bit of falsehood will be permitted through any medium of communication. Just think what this is going to do to the newsmen who will not be able to slant and distort what is not to their liking in what is taking place through the news events of our of the society of that day. There will be a direct relationship between moral character and personal well-being.
  2. Society

    Alright, there is a secondary impact that will be felt here in the millennium. That is that there will be social effects. For one thing, violence will be restrained in this period. War will cease completely between nations (Psalm 46:9). Military science and training will no longer be needed. Consequently, there will be no place for military service. Micah 4:3 says, "And He shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off. 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 anymore." The war colleges will be closed. Why do we have military now? Do we need the military now? Anybody who is antiwar and anti-military is disoriented to the Word of God.

    God says that the old sin nature needs two controls. It needs an internal control and it needs an external controls. The old sin nature threatens the national entity. Therefore, God has provided military capacity in order to execute judgment upon the old sin nature that would destroy a nation. God has provided police enforcement and civil authority to deal with the internal old sin nature that would destroy freedom. In the millennium, violence, both internal and external, will be stopped. The lusts of the old sin nature will not be able to impose themselves on other people. There will be no need for a capacity of a nation for massive retaliation in order to maintain its peace because no nation is going to be threatened. It will be an era of widespread peace which will be rigidly maintained. In Isaiah 9:6-7, we have described Jesus Christ who is to be born as a child; come as a Son; and, He is to be the Prince of Peace: "Of the increase of His government and of peace there should be no end, upon the throne of David, upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with justice and with righteousness, from henceforth, even forever."

    A passage like this shows you how inane it is for the amillennialist to come along and say, "Well, the kingdom is in our hearts," or "The kingdom is in heaven." No, the throne of David is on earth. The kingdom is on earth, and it will have the social effect of worldwide peace which God will maintain. You can't have any thorough social reforms until war is resolved. However, with the termination of warfare, just think of all the money that is going to be freed. Just think of all the natural resources which will be freed for peaceful use. Just think of the talents of people which are now devoted to warfare which will be devoted to peaceful means. The people, the radicals even, who seek these goals and these ideals in our age are not seeking a wrong thing. They're just trying to seek it without the key personality to execute it. You can't do it without Jesus Christ here. However, that's exactly what He's going to do. Vast sums that are now spent on armaments are going to be freed for social needs. Science will be free to pursue technology of peace. Think of what they'll do with atomic energy in every conceivable field.

    Safety

    Nobody will have to worry about personal attacks. A person in the millennium will not have to worry about walking down any street of any major city and being mugged or be worried about somebody coming up to rob him. No one will get away with pulling off robberies or threatening anybody. Lawlessness as we have it today is a sign of our abandonment of the principles of the Word of God. So we have law enforcement agencies to try to cope with it. Capital punishment is what God has given law enforcement agencies in order to restrain the old sin nature.

    Peace

    Micah 4:4 says that it's going to be a time when everybody will dwell in peace: "But they shall sit, every man, under his vine or under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken it." You have to think about this awhile in order to get the impact of what the Word of God is saying about a world absolutely free of any open violence.

    Economic Justice

    Another social improvement will be that economic justice will be provided. First of all here will be the matter of violence taken care of. Then there will be economic justice. Man's efforts at meeting human needs today have resulted in a lot of inequities. The individual can be callously sacrificed as the price of social progress. Economic experiments are exercised with an abandonment for the infinite value of the human personality. Millions of people have been sacrificed in socialist countries in order to try to improve humanity's lot, only frequently to discard the theory that they were operating on as being false, and trying something else and sacrificing another million. Even if our administrators knew how to exercise true social justice, they don't have the capacity, the wisdom, or the information to enforce the remedies. There will be absolutely no poverty in the millennium.

    Plenty

    There will be an economic condition that will leave none in need. Isaiah 65:21: "And they shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree are the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." This verse tells us several things. This verse tells us that people will be operating on a free enterprise capitalistic system. Private ownership will be there. What they work for, they will have. They will get the fair returns of the products of their labor. Somebody else will not get it. Furthermore, and we'll touch on this a little later, you notice that it says that their life will be like the life of a tree, indicating long life. In the millennium, there will be no poverty. Those who do the work are going to enjoy the benefits of their efforts (Amos 9:14).

    Welfare

    Welfare will go to those who are genuinely in need, but parasites are going to be eliminated. Psalm 72 describes the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Psalm 72:12-13 says, "For He shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also; and, him that has no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy." Anybody who is in genuine need is going to be taken care of properly in the millennium. Labor will acquire a new dignity which is what communism is vainly trying to do. Nobody will be permitted to take advantage of somebody who is less capable. Psalm 72:4: "He shall judge the poor of the people. He shall save the children of the needy, and He shall break in pieces the oppressor." Now a lot of poor people are taken advantage of in our society today. No one will get away with that in the millennium. In the administration of social benefits, there will be neither legalistic indifference nor sentimental laxness. Labor and management conflicts will cease. Jesus Christ, as the King, will not permit the selfishness that is involved in labor management contentions today.

    Prosperity

    It will be an era that we can only describe as universal prosperity. Joel 2:21: "Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree bears her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, you Children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and My people shall never be ashamed. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed." This will be universal prosperity, just exactly what socialism, Satan's counterfeit, is trying to do today.
  3. Ecology

    There will be an ecological resolving too. Ecology will be respected. Civilization has everywhere had destructive effects upon the earth. Natural resources are wasted in the hands of a few. Beauty in nature is replaced by ugliness. Cities are left to become slums, and industry pollutes the atmosphere and the streams. When you think about it, it is rather shocking to think that here's an industry. It's owned by a family. It has a board of directors and stockholders. And here's a piece of nature that that industry, in the process of producing its product, destroys a piece of the earth's surface. It destroys a piece of beauty. It pollutes a stream. It takes a lake like Lake Erie and completely destroys it, and makes it a dead lake. And you stop and say, "Wait a minute. Who has the right to come into God's creation and assume a lordly role over a piece of it like that to its utter destruction?" Well, that's going to stop.

    There will be a great restoration and a balance brought into the ecology of that day. There'll be urban renewal projects. Isaiah 61:4 and Psalm 72:16 tell us how there will be improvements in the cities. They will be building and they will be restoring the destruction that has taken place previously. Psalm 72:16: "There shall be a handful of grain in the earth upon the top of the mountains. The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the cities shall flourish like grass of the earth." The city is going to be a pleasant place to live again.

  4. Agriculture

    The curse that is now on the earth will be removed, the curse which came with Adam's sin (Romans 8:20-21). Thorns and briers are going to become fruitful fields (Isaiah 32:13-15). Crops will bear in fruitfulness compared to the finest that Israel has ever experienced (Isaiah 35:1-2). We're told that rainfall will come in proper amounts in the right places and at the right time, so that there will be abundant supplies of food. Isaiah 30:23: "Then shall He give the rain for your seed, with which you shall sow the ground, and bread of the increase of the earth, it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan." Rainfall will be adequate.
  5. Population

    Population explosion will be no problem whatsoever because the food supply is going to be ample. The distribution will be such that no one will ever experience hunger (Ezekiel 36:29-30). We are often told that tonight half of the world's population will go to bed hungry. That it will never be said in the millennium.
  6. Weather

    Weather will be controlled so as to have its destructive effects removed. I heard quite a report on the radio yesterday about plans that are made in our day to bring about weather control. The weather people now think that they have solved the problem on how to be able to get rain when and where they want it and in controlled quantities. As a matter of fact, the reporter observed that it could even be used as a weapon of war, to just flood somebody else's country once they get their techniques down good.
  7. Water

    Well, the waste places are going to become fertile. There will be a widespread appearance of sources of water--new sources of water. Most of the places in the world today would be fertile if they just had an adequate amount of water. All you have to do is drive in the western United States and sometime come up over one of those hills down below which is a town that is operated on irrigation. You're driving through this brown wasteland, and you come up over the hill, and wham! There is a little green emerald gem lying down there in the valley because irrigation has supplied water, and the ground produces. Well, Isaiah 30:25, Isaiah 35:6-7, and Isaiah 41:18 describe how new sources of water will arise all over the world. There will be one tremendous miraculous immense stream coming out of Jerusalem itself from the temple. It is described in Ezekiel 47:1-12. Rich vegetation surrounds this stream, and fish in the water. So there's going to be a supernatural restoration of fertility to the ground.
  8. Marriage and Family

    Also, marriage, and along with it family, is going to get considerable attention in the millennium. Both are degraded today. People exchange partners. Parents can reproduce, but that doesn't always ensure that you have parents who are capable of rearing children, especially when they get to be teenagers. If you're in the ministry, this is one of the things that plagues you more perhaps than anything else--the frustration of seeing what parents do in the face of their kids that they've reproduced, and their incapacity to deal with them on an eyeball-to-eyeball basis.

    Weddings are going to be a source of joy. They're going to be a particular source of joy. Why do you think weddings will be such a joy? Jeremiah 33:10-11 tells what a great joy weddings are going to be in the millennium. One of the things that is going to make them such a joy is that there isn't going to be any divorce, and they're going to know when they get married that there's no divorce. Those who grow old in the family will be treated with respect and have ample care. Zechariah 8 speaks about the elderly taking their ease in the streets. Children will be cared for (Zechariah 8:5). They will not be treated as teenage adults.

    It will be a great era when the right man is going to find his right woman. Just think. There are great organizations today who can computerize a mate for you. Some of you people who are getting desperate, you can go downtown, and for a fee they'll computerize you, and out will come a card with somebody's name on it and say, "This is a good person for you." Well, they're going to do that in the millennium. You're going to get somebody that you're interested in, and you're going to ask them to check with headquarters in Jerusalem, to check with the Lord whether this is the one. Just think how simple it will be. Just think of all the trouble that's going to be saved--all the trying out and exploring and fooling around trying to make up your mind. It's going to be great--the right man married to the right woman.

  9. Wellness

    Another area that's going to be dealt with is this matter of physical needs and disease. We still live in a world of physical suffering and death. Most of us are shielded from the grim context of reality. I wonder what it is like for all these nurses we have here at Berean who are in touch with this all the time, and the vision that they have of human suffering. We spend millions on research. We spend millions on insurance, and yet we are helpless in the face of any number of incurable diseases. Somebody is born deformed and we can't do a thing about it. In the millennium, all of this is going to be different. Please remember that life will continue. There will be procreation. There will be birth. There will be rearing of families, and there will be problems.

    However, in the millennium, all disease will be removed. Nobody will get sick. Furthermore, any deformity that there is will be taken care of. This will be by the ministry of healing of the King himself. Isaiah 33:34 says, "And the inhabitants shall not say, 'I am sick.' The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities." Isaiah 35:5-6: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert." There will be no illness; there will be no deformity; and, there will be no disease that will not be dealt with and removed by the King. There will be no more rehabilitation centers. There won't be any lighthouses for the blind. There won't be any places for stricken and incapacitated people because their problems are going to be removed, and they are going to be healed.

    It's going to be the greatest universal health program the world can even conceive of. It will be undoubtedly achieved in part by prevention. People are going to be taught what to eat and what not to eat. Farmers are going to be taught how to grow things and how not to grow things. And industry is going to be taught how to process and how not to process foods. There's going to be a great deal of prevention that's going to keep the human structure operating, but there will be cures when they're necessary.

  10. Life Expectancy

    Well, with physical ills under control, what do you think is going to happen to the population? It's going to extend considerably. Isaiah 65:22, "For like the days of a tree are the days of my people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. A tree is a good example of ring after ring after a ring, and it goes on and on. And God says that life is going to be expanded.

    If you were living in the Middle Ages, do you know what your average lifespan expectancy was? If you were one of these tremendous bold knights riding to conquer somebody for some reason for your fair lady, what was your life expectancy? 35 was the average age of death in the Middle Ages. When you reached 35, you were gone. You were over the hill. You were done for. Can you imagine how many people died at much younger ages? By the way, concerning those bold and tremendous knights, have you ever seen any of their armor? It would be very difficult for most Americans to get into the armor of an average knight. Some of our junior high kids could get into it because the average height of a knight was 5 feet 5 inches tall. So, the next time you read about Lancelot, you might have a little different image of this handsome character rattling around in his metal suit. But knighthood suffered from the malnutrition of the day.

    Modern research has today, of course, gone back to a biblical level, so we have an average life span around 80 years, but that's nothing. That's absolutely nothing with what's going to be in the millennium. Isaiah 65:20 says, "There shall be no more in it an infant of days, nor an old man that does not fill his days. For the child shall die 100 years old." If somebody dies at 100 years old, they're going to treat it like we react to some child dying today. Do you realize what that means? People are going to go back to the conditions following the Garden of Eden where people will live for hundreds of years. It will be rare for somebody to die without several hundred years of age behind them. As a matter of fact, it seems, Isaiah 65:20 says, "And the sinner, being 100 years old, shall be accursed." Anybody who does die at a lower age does so because he's been executed, and that's why he has come under death.

  11. Protection

    There will also be protection from daily hazards. You and I live in a world that's filled with the dangers of nature. Some of you are worried whether you can drive home tonight without getting hit by somebody. Psalm 90:10 says, "There shall no evil befall thee. Neither shall any plague come near your dwelling for He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep you in all your ways." People will be protected in travel.
  12. Tame Animals

    People will also be protected from animals. The ferocity of animals will be removed. Isaiah 11 is one of many passages that tell us that animals will no longer be bestial in the millennium. Isaiah 11:6: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. 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; the young ones shall lie down together; and, the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den (the spitting adder). And they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the water covers the sea."

    If you've ever wanted to play with a lion or a great big Smoky Mountain black bear, just hang around a while. In the millennium, you'll be able to do it. You'll be able to walk through the woods, and here's this bear in your way, and you can just give him a swift kick, and he'll purr right off. There will be no ferocity in the world of animals. The daily environment of nature is going to be under the supernatural control of Jesus Christ.

  13. Politics

    There will be certain political conditions too that we ought to notice. The leaders today are downright inane because they lack divine viewpoint, and they're driven by accommodation to reelection. Today's leaders do certain things that they know they better do or they're not going to get elected. But in the millennium, Jesus Christ is going to rule the world as an international authority. There will be no one who will be above Him. There will be no Supreme Court to appeal to. There will be no one who can undermine what He decides. Zechariah 14:9 says, "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day, there shall be one Lord and His name one." Men propose and try such arrangements today. Let's get one world. Let's get a strong ruler. The trouble is that the old sin nature is forever cranking out human good as well as sin. So you can't trust anybody to be a ruler. As the political axiom goes, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." So you can't trust anybody because of the old sin nature.

    However, what if you had a benevolent world ruler such as Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of lords? Well, obviously that's the answer to all internal and international disputes. What's going to happen to the nations who resist Jesus Christ? As children are born into this millennial kingdom there will be those who resist the King. Isaiah 60:12: "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve You shall perish. Yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." The Scripture indicates that the way they will perish is that food production will be withheld from them. The blessings of the kingdom will be withheld from that particular area. They will either subject themselves to the authority of the King, or they will die.

  14. Geography

    There will be great geographic and topographical changes in Palestine at the return of Jesus Christ. There will be a centralized authority set up in Jerusalem as the world's capital (Jeremiah's 3:17). At the high point of the confrontation of the nations at Armageddon, Jesus will return to this earth. He will descend to the Mount of Olives, and we're told when His feet touch the Mount of Olives, from whence he ascended, that the mount will be split in half. There will be a great split east and west, so that part of the Mount of Olives will move north and part will move south. There will be a great valley left between. This valley apparently at the time will be the escape route for those who find themselves caught up in the warfare of Armageddon that is building up between Christ and the nations.

    This change in Jerusalem goes even more extensive. Following the Armageddon thing, we have indicated in Zechariah 14:10 that Jerusalem itself will be elevated, along with the surrounding countryside. The hills will be leveled off, and the territory on which Jerusalem stands will be greatly expanded. This will fit with what we are told of the millennial temple, and the temple grounds which will be much more extensive than today.

  15. Jerusalem

    We're told that the wealth of the nations will flow into Jerusalem by taxation (Isaiah 60:6-6, 16-17). Jerusalem will be the gem of the nations, elevated above all the nations of the world. She'll be the leading nation. She'll be regathered; disciplined from her world-wide dispersion; and, she'll become a blessing to the nations as she is a burden today. Palestine lies now at the center of all the continents. She'll be at the crossroads of all travel.
  16. Settled Grievances

    Then there will be old national grievances that are going to be settled by Jesus Christ as part of this political picture. New nations today are formed by crimes. A criminal group can take over a nation, and if they last long enough, then the nations of the world say, "OK, we'll recognize you." Our president has visited China. Someone has pointed out that the leaders of China have killed more Christians than Hitler did Jews. Yet, we are now welcoming them as civilized peoples in the Commonwealth of Nations. These people who are pacifists have no problem with urging us to accept bloody tyrants such as those who head up communist countries while discouraging us to resist their violence, and accusing us of being bloodthirsty in the process. God is not going to act on political expediency. There are a lot of nations that are probably going to have their situation changed that arrived at their power in a questionable way.
  17. Spirituality

    The spiritual climate is going to be something unique. Jesus Christ is going to be the Priest King. He will be both a political and ecclesiastical leader. Today he shares His throne with the Father in heaven. Then he will be on his own throne in the millennium. Israel will be the source of all enlightenment to the nations (Zechariah 8:23). There will be no division between what is secular and what is spiritual. The Jews will be prepared by their pastor-teachers to be worldwide evangelists and missionaries, and to be teachers of Bible doctrine everywhere (Jeremiah 23:4).

    Worship

    Jerusalem will be the religious center of the world. The nations of the world will look to Jerusalem to be instructed. They will go there for worship. There will be a union of church and state. We despise that today, but in the millennium, that's going to be the best arrangement possible. However, there will be no religious freedom. There will be no freedom for false religions. All that is false will be stamped out. The separation between religious and secular is necessary now, again because of the old sin nature. But men are permitted to rebel against God with their man-made religions now, but they won't then. Many of them will grudgingly submit until Satan is released for his last rebellion.

    The Temple

    The temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem, a magnificent center of worship (Haggai 2:6-9). The organization of this ritual is outlined in detail in Ezekiel 40-48. No structure such as is described here has ever been built by the Jews. This temple, we are told, receives the Shekinah glory, the presence of God himself. This was not true of the second or third temples, so we know this is still future. Animal sacrifices are resumed, but as a memorial to the King who has come; Who now sits there; and, Who has sacrificed for the nations of the world.
So you could go on and on. This is a fascinating area. You can read through your Old Testament and you constantly come across these passages that describe what the world's golden age is going to be like. It's all the things we hope for today, none of which can be accomplished until Jesus Christ Himself is here. When He comes, the earth is going to have everything you can think of today that you think would really be beautiful, and that would make life tremendous. It's going to be then.

I remind you again that the millennium is not people floating around on clouds listening to band concerts with harpists and whatnot. The millennium is people driving down the street in their cars. The millennium is people running around the lake on their boats. The millennium is people flying around the countryside in their airplanes. The millennium is going out camping. The millennium is applying to Oklahoma City for the summer camps, and everything else. It is life as we know it, but without all the ugliness; without all the disaster; and, without man's old sin nature being able to run the show. That's what's coming--where God runs things instead of man.

Now you say, "That's wonderful. Just think of all those beautiful children born in a climate of perfect environment." Well, it's some of those beautiful children who rise up when Satan is released, and they say, "Satan, we'll go with you. If there's anything we'd like to do, we'd like to throw that King off his throne in Jerusalem." Now you think over as many reasons as you can think of why a kid born and reared in perfect environment would want to get rid of the King who makes it all possible.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1971

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