Spir Dynamics 1128, 900, 129, 8/26/97

DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM

A. The Panorama of the Millennium.

1. The millennium is promised to Israel in the Davidic covenant, 2 Sam 7:8-17, Ps 89:20-37.

2. The millennium is prophesied in Isa 2, 11, 12, 35, 62, 65.

3. The millennium is presented during the First Advent of Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ presented the conditions of the perfect environment that would exist during the millennium in the Sermon on the Mount.

4. The millennium is postponed by the rejection of Christ as the Son of David and the legitimate Messiah. In its place, we have the calling out of the royal family of God—the Church Age believer.

5. The millennium is plagiarized by Satan’s attempt to create perfect environment on the earth, not only during the Church Age, but especially in the Tribulation.

6. The millennium is proclaimed by angelic heralds in Rev 10 and by human heralds in Rev 11.

7. The millennium is provided by the Second Advent of Christ, Rev 11:15-19, Rev 19.

B. General Characteristics of the Millennium that Provide Perfect Environment.

1. Salvation continues to be presented to the new population of the millennium. Evangelism reaches its peak during the millennium. The millennium starts out with believers only who are good parents and establishment oriented. Yet many of their children turn out to be unbelievers. There is a giant population explosion, Ezek 20:34-38; Mt 25:31-46. Unbelievers are removed by the baptism of fire. Therefore, there is the need to repopulate the earth. Human love is intensified to the point of perfection, and this is manifest by the population explosion.

2. Spiritually in the millennium is by the filling of the Spirit and is characterized by ecstatics. There will be optimum spirituality among believers, Isa 65:24; Joel 2:28-29; Zech 14:16-17. Ecstatics are produced by the filling of the Holy Spirit; this is legitimate because Christ is present on earth. By way of contrast, there are no ecstatics during the Church Age since Christ is absent. During the Church Age, the filling of the Spirit is designed to produce the character of the humanity of Christ, compare Eph 5:1 with Gal 6:19, 5:22-23. In the Millennium, the filling of the Holy Spirit has an effect on the body which it does not have at present.

3. Perfect environment exists because Satan is bound and demons are removed.

4. Because Satan and demons are removed, there is no religion in the Millennium. Religion is part of human good and evil. It combines the functions of human good with evil.

5. The baptism of fire removes all unbelievers from the earth at the beginning of the millennium, (Jewish unbelievers) Ezek 20:34-38; (Gentile unbelievers) Mt 25:31-46.

6. Jesus Christ will rule the earth.

a. There is universal peace, Ps 46:9; Isa 2:4; Hos 2:18; Micah 4:3. Therefore, until the Millennium we must be prepared for war.

b. There is universal prosperity, Ps 72:7, 16. Free enterprise will operate worldwide. Competition from motivation and profit will exist, creating a perfect economy.

c. There will be universal knowledge of God, Isa 11:9; Jer 31:31- 34; Heb 8:14, 10:15-17. You have the option of the spiritual life or not.

d. There will be longevity in the human race, Isa 65:20. There will be perfect health, so that people will have capacity for perfect environment (but this is not the same as capacity for life). The only reason people will die is capital punishment. No disease.

e. There will be a perfect world government under the leadership of Christ and the delegation of authority to invisible heroes of the Church Age to rule nations, Isa 11:1-2; Zech 14:9; 2 Tim 2:12; Rev 2:25-28, 3:21, 5:10, 20:4,6.

f. There will be a tremendous population explosion, so that by the end of the millennium there will exist many unbelievers on the earth who have rejected the gospel and who will have joined the Gog revolution of Satan against the rule of Jesus Christ even though there is perfect objectivity in the administration of justice, Isa 11:3-4; Ps 72:12-14.

g. Israel is regathered and restored as a client nation, Isa 5:26-30, 10:19-23, 11:11-16, 14:1-3; 60:4-6, 65:19; Joel 2:16ff; Zech 8:20-23, 10:6-12.

7. There will be perfect environment in nature.

a. Creation is released from the bondage of man’s sinfulness, Rom 8:19-22.

b. Plant and animal life abound, Isa 35:1-7.

c. Animals lose their ferocity, Isa 11:6-9, 65:25.

C. All the unconditional covenants are fulfilled to Israel, Dan 9:24; Zech 8:22-23, 14:9.

D. The Gog Revolution terminates the perfect environment of the Millennium, Rev 20:7-10. Satan is released from prison after one thousand years and immediately starts a revolution to overthrow our Lord’s reign. Satan does not attempt to improve the environment in this revolution; this is simply a power grab. This revolution proves that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problem of the old sin nature and spiritual death. Only those who are regenerate can appreciate perfect environment and the One who provides it. Regeneration is the only solution to man’s problem. The universe is destroyed and a new heaven and earth is created, 2 Pet 3:7-10.

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