The Millennial Reign Of Christ

by G. Prasher | Category: God's Ways With Men | Jun 1932

The war in connection with Armageddon, with which we have been dealing briefly in a previous article, is the precursor of the time of unrivalled blessing for which this world is waiting.. Instead of the "golden stairway of evolution," which is vain man's idea of attaining thereto, there will be the sword of the LORD'S vengeance, followed by His rod of iron with which He will rule (Revelation 19. 15). Mr. Arthur Mee has written

The League is the only instrument on the earth which can say to the next war, Thou shalt not be."

"The task before us now is to go out into all the world and preach the gospel of the League unto all the nations."

(G.M April 9th and 16th.)

We are glad that he heads these statenments with the words,. "Just an IDEA," because we know from God's Word that the League will prove an ultimate failure, and the earth will never produce an instrument which can abolish war. This honour belongs to One only-the Lord from heaven, Jesus Christ. Thus the Christian waits for His glorious appearing, and can have no confidence in futile, though on the part of many statesmen, honest efforts, we believe, to reach this goal. It was rather interesting that in the same month in which the above statements appeared in the C.N., the Japanese War Minister, General Araki, speaking in Osaka, declared,

"Nothing the League of Nations, the Soviet Union. or anyone

else may do can make Japan deviate from her course."

These strong remarks are but a defiance of the world by one of the League members. Well has Miss C. Pankhurst said "I once thought it was men's laws that were wrong, but now I have discovered it is men's hearts that are wrong." Lady Houston's wonderful letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, wherein she offered �200,000 towards the cost of national defence, is an indication of the uneasy feeling which many in high circles are experiencing as they contemplate the strong drift towards disarmament, the basis of which is, faith in the League. Being relevant to our subject, we give the following extract from her letter: "The Russian Five-Year Plan has only two more years to run, and Russia will then have an army-trained by Germans of thirty million men and women. The vast hordes of China are also receiving military training by German officers-who are hand and glove with Russia-and thus before we know where we are war may be forced upon us." With the Word of God in our hands we know how terribly possible this is. "Peace and safety" will be the shibboleth of the world, when sudden destruction shall come upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape (see 1 Thessalonians 5. 3). 0 that men would heed the divine instruction, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2. 22). As we have seen, the final overthrow of man's rule will be effected swiftly by the coming of the Lord, when He is revealed as Son of Man in judgment; but even prior to His advent, "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars "(Matthew 24.6; with which compare Revelation 6.4, and Daniel 11.13-45.)

GATHER UP FIRST THE TARES.

"As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man," and the work of segregating the wicked from among the righteous will be carried forward with despatch. Things that cause stumbling, and persons that do iniquity will no longer find a refuge in the earth, as the angels of time Son of Man swoop down to give effect to His command. "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left... Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Luke 17. 34-86 A.V.). With lightning rapidity the privacy of the home will be entered, as well as the publicity of the field, and those taken will be taken in the judgment stroke. "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" are words that show clearly how the great supper of God (Revelation 19. 17) is provided for the birds, not from the armies of earth only, but also from the civil populace. "So shall it be in the consummation of the age: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the righteous, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth "(Matthew 13. 49, 50). Gathering up first the tares thus, and binding them in bundles to be burned, contrasts with the coming of the Lord to the air, when those taken will be His own, who will meet Him in clouds in the air.

A TIME FOR MOURNING.

Overflowing joy must fill the hearts of the remnant of Israel as they behold the Lord appear, in power and glory for their deliverance in the hour of their greatest need. Surely they will judge their cutting off an impossibility in the light of the sure word of prophecy; and the arrival of the Messiah will more than fulfil their widest expectations. But speedily a change is apparent in their demeanour. He is near to them, and they to Him. His face is full of glory and of majesty, but His hands have marks-strange marks indeed! Marks that involuntarily turn the mind from glory to suffering and shame. Questions, however, that revolve and burn within, are soon to become vocal. As they look attentively unto Him Whom they have pierced, under that spirit of grace and of supplication that God will pour upon them, their mourning will be in bitterness, as that for a firstborn son (Zechariah 12. 10-14). Yes, after all, their Messiah is Jesus! These marks of Calvary will break their hearts. They may well join our song and sing:

We read our guilt in the blood that was spilt,

And we weep o'er the crimson flow;

But we joy in the grace of the unveiled face

Of a Father here below;

And as children of God redeemed by blood,

We hasten from Egypt away:

We cross the strand to the pleasant land,

And the joys of an endless day.

Like as Joseph's brethren were plunged into the abyss of resurrected guilt before they reached the fair heights of blessing in fellowship with Joseph, so the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will reach millennial glory through the valley of humiliation, and chastening.

SATAN BOUND AND IMPRISONED.

The Dragon, the Old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, are the names applied to the arch-enemy of God and man, when he is seen by John being bound by an angel for a thousand years, and cast into the abyss (Revelation 20. 1-3). As the Dragon he seems to be behind the political movements, and so he gives to the .Beast his power, and his throne, and great authority. The Old Serpent is the same who entered Eden, and has ever since been marked by cunning, crookedness, and deceit. The Devil is a liar from the beginning; and Satan is the adversary of both God and Man, and the accuser of the brethren. The Beast and False Prophet have been cast into the lake of fire, and now that the Dragon is cast into the abyss, we may well think of the words of Revelation 11. 18, "Thy wrath came, and the time... to destroy them that destroy the earth." Not only will the Devil be in prison during the Millennium, but his hosts will also be imprisoned: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the hosts of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison " (Isaiah 24. 21, .22). What will it mean to this earth to be free from the operations of the Devil and his hosts? Man will thus have a test in the most advantageous environment. and even then we know that, at the close, he will prove himself to be what he is-a sinner, and a rebel.

THE VEIL DESTROYED.

One of the greatest blessings that will result from the incarceration of the spiritual hosts of wickedness, and their prince, is that he will no longer blind the minds of the human race. This has been his work during long centuries in order "that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them" (2 Corinthians 4. 3, 4). We read, "The Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart" (Ephesians 4. 17, 18). The LORD of hosts "will destroy (or swallow up) in this mountain the face of the covering that is cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations" (Isaiah 25. 7). In consequence there will be nothing external then to hinder the light and truth of God from shining into the hearts of men. Think of the effect of this upon "all peoples" and "all nations"! The darkness in the understanding so prevalent now, with its accompanying vanity of mind, will vanish like the morning mists before the rising sun. Instead of alienation from time life of God through ignorance, humanity in the main will throb with life divine from the knowledge of God. Thank God, the individual who turns to the Lord to-day has the veil done away, and he gladly sings,

No longer in darkness I'm walking,

The light is now shining on me;

And now unto others I'm telling

How He saved a poor sinner like me.

Rightly are we glad in heart that the gospel has reached so many in our times; yet it is saddening to know that the masses are estranged from God, and that nothing of praise can go up to God from them. But in the "Regeneration,"

Peoples and realms of every tongue

Dwell on His love with sweetest song

And infant voices shall proclaim

Their early blessings on His Name.

I SAW THRONES.

It will be well for us to look more closely into the establishment of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, before dwelling further on the blessing that will accompany it. The Book of Daniel is rich in information here, though we shall be able to refer to but a few passages. Chapter 2. verse 44, says, "The God of heaven" shall set up a kingdom. which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people ; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." Again we read, "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his (the Beast's) dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him" (Daniel 7. 26, 27). These verses show not only the eternal and universal character of the kingdom, but also that the saints of the Most High will be associated with their Lord in the dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven. It is here that the vision of the Patmos Seer seems to fit in-"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them" (Revelation 20. 4). "The saints shall judge the world" (1 Corinthians 6. 2). Every relic of the rule of man's day will be abolished, from the clay to the gold, and an

ADMINISTRATION OF REWARD

will obtain, with the blessed Lord Jesus Christ as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. The like will never have been witnessed on earth before, though in the reigns of David and Solomon the principle is seen, in that men, whose loyalty and capability were proved in the time of the king's rejection, were intrusted with the highest responsibilities in the period of power. "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19. 28). "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him: If we endure, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us : If we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2. 11, 12). To endure involves standing for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. We are exhorted to contend for the faith, not merely for a portion of it. Let us, beloved, in view of these eternal rewards, be diligent unto the fulness of hope, even to the end; that we be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. "He that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron" (Revelation 2. 26, 27). The late Mr. E. Matthew, of beloved memory, used to say, "I think the Apostle Paul will be the Viceroy of India." However feeble this illustration, our departed brother had the right idea; and the honour of labouring to please his Master he did not despise. Let us remember the word, "This honour have all His saints" (Psalm 149. 9). Associated also with the inaugurating of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is the judgment of the living nations of Matthew 25. Righteousness and judgment being the foundation of His throne, He will apportion to them their places according to their merits to those whose conduct towards His needy ones, in tribulation days, was merciful, a place in the kingdom; but dismissal to eternal punishment the sorrowful reward of all who treated His brethren ill.

(To be continued, D.V.)

G. Prasher | Jun 1932
God's Ways With Men