Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter

by J. Miller | Category: Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter | Oct 1967

We come now to Revelation 20. The first three verses tell us what happens to the Devil after the great battle between him, the beast, the false prophet, and their armies, and the Lord at His coming to earth. An angel comes down from heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He lays hold on the Devil and binds him for a thousand years, the time of the Lord's reign on the earth, the Millennium. The Devil is cast into the abyss, which is sealed over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years are finished. After the thousand years he is to be loosed for a little time. For all that long time, when his mighty intellect will be churning his thoughts continually, there is no change in his attitude. No repentance has been granted to him and he wishes none. Such is the fearful character of sin.

Neither the Devil nor any one less than he can break the bonds of sin and set the sinner free, no one else than the Lord Jesus who suffered for sin, the just for the unjust (1 Peter 3.18).

"He breaks the power of cancelled sin,

He sets the prisoners free;

His blood can make the foulest clean,

His blood availed for me."

The Lord, when He was speaking of the world being convicted of sin and judgement, said, "of judgement, because the prince of this world hath been judged" (John 16.11). The time is not far off when he will be cast down from heaven, and he has but a short time of liberty after that (Revelation l2.7-9,l2).

In Revelation 20.4, we read of the beginning of the Lord's millennial reign. Firstly, John tells us that he saw thrones set, and they that sat upon them, and judgement was given to them. This calls to mind what is said in Daniel 1.18, "But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever". This is repeated in verse 22, and again in verse 27. In the New Testament we are told, "if we endure, we shall also reign with Him: if we shall deny Him, He also will deny us" (2 Timothy 2.12).

I have no doubt that saints from other dispensations will also reign with Him, but as John does not define who they are that sit on thrones, and as Daniel mentions only saints collectively without being told whence they came, it is well for us to be satisfied with what is written. After Gentile dominion of the earth, it is the saints under the Lord who will have the dominion and kingdom on the earth. Then John tells us that he "saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image", and that they lived, that is, that they lived again, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection." This is the first of two resurrections, this one at the beginning of the Millennium, and the other following the Millennium, even the resurrection at the time of the judgement of the Great White Throne (20.11-15). But we wish to say here that there is the resurrection of the saints called "the dead in Christ" (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18), of all that are fallen asleep in Christ (1 Corinthians 15.18), and with which this chapter (15) deals in particular. The fact of the resurrection of Christ left no doubt in

Paul's mind of the resurrection of the saints, nor indeed of all resurrection, both of the just and the unjust, "For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15.21,22). As Adam is the cause of death to all, so Christ is the cause of the resurrection to all the dead. Whatever men may do with the body, burn it or bury it (the scriptural way to deal with the human body at death is to bury it), or in whatever way the material of the human body may be treated, the Lord, who is the Creator of the human body, will raise it again. We can believe what the Scriptures say on the matter of resurrection, though we do not know the process of resurrection; that is known to Him who is infinite in knowledge.

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no power." This statement was ever a difficulty to me in the light of Daniel 12.2, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." How some could rise to shame and everlasting contempt in a resurrection in which all are blessed and holy was an insuperable difficulty to me, until I read what Dr. S. P. Tregelles says on this verse:

"The true rendering of this verse is, I believe, 'And many from amongst the sleepers of the dust of the earth shall awake; these shall be unto everlasting life; and those (the rest of the sleepers, those who do not awake at this time) shall be unto shame and everlasting contempt.'... This was the explanation which I believed to be correct, merely from the study of the Hebrew Bible; and this was greatly confirmed when I found that on grammatical grounds simply the same view was taken by the best Jewish commentators, for instance, Saadiah Gaon and Aben Ezra."

Dr. Tregelles's view is supported by other Hebraists. One can understand how this view agrees with what is said about those who rise in the first resurrection, that they are all blessed and holy, and that "they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years".

When the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed from his prison in the abyss (see 20.3, where it says that after the thousand years he must be loosed for a little time), "and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea". This is what is referred to in Ezekiel 38 and 39. We are told that they come in their hordes in the latter years into the land that is brought back from the sword, Gog will say, "I will go up to the land of un-walled villages; I will go to them that are at quiet, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates: to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn thine hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and against the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods... and thou shalt come up against My people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring thee against My land, that the nations may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, 0 Gog, before their eyes" (Ezekiel 38.11,12,16). The land of Israel is far from a land at rest, a land of un-walled villages, and without bars and gates, prior to the coming of the beast and his armies. At that time there will be the great tribulation, and fleeing into the wilderness from those dire persecutions, but the words of Ezekiel tell of God's land in quietness that had been brought back from the sword. It was a land of plenty, of cattle and goods, and this the covetous heart of Gog will be after. Satan will be allowed to deceive these nations, and they will be in a state to be deceived having set their hearts on the wealth that will come to Israel in the Millennium. The wealth of the Solomonic reign was great, but that of Israel in the thousand-year reign will be greater. It is evident from Revelation 20.9 that the first objects of attack will be the camp (or fortress) of the saints, and the beloved city, that is, Jerusalem. These they will encircle, thinking that when these are in their power the land, in its wealth, in its un-walled villages, will be an easy prey. But they little realize that the Lord is a Man of war and that He will defend His saints and His people. So we are told by John, and it is corroborated by Ezekiel, that fire will come down from heaven and devour them. God knows well that Gog and Magog will drift far in mind and heart from Him as the years of the Millennium pass by, and it may be that they will drift to the four corners of the earth as far as possible from the Lord, and then, as deceived by Satan, set out in vast array to gratify their lust.

This will be the last act of deception that Satan will make, he who has access to the hearts of men to sow his deadly seeds. The Lord Jesus shortly before His death on the Cross said, "The prince of this world hath been judged" (John 16.11), and now the sentence is carried out.

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever" (verse 10).

What a descent from being the anointed cherub that covereth, who was set upon the holy mountain of God, who was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, who was perfect in his way until unrighteousness was found in him! He sinned and was cast as profane out of the mountain of God (Ezekiel 28.11-19). Now he is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, but not to be there alone, for alas! many will be there who have been deceived by him. Let those who have been delivered from him and are on their way to heaven praise God continually.

We come now to what I may call a gap, between the destruction of Gog and Magog and the Great White Throne judgement. I have asked myself the question many, many times, How does this world end? What becomes of the vast number of people that inhabit the earth at the close of the Millennium? Though I have been reading and meditating in the Scriptures for considerably over sixty years, I have not yet found the answer to my question. Some of my readers may know, and if they do I shall be glad to hear.

The judgement of the Great White Throne is the judgement of all the dead, both those who are in the place of torment in Hades, and those who are on the other side of the gulf in Hades which the Lord called Paradise to the repentant robber who was crucified by His side (Luke 23.39-43). In speaking to the Pharisees, who were lovers of money and who scoffed at Him, He told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, who both died. The former went to the place of fiery torment in Hades, but the poor man was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, so called by the Jews, called Paradise by the Lord. To that place the Lord went, and also all that repented and sought God's mercy before the death and resurrection of the Lord (Luke 16.14-31; Acts 2.25-31).

The resurrection at the time of the Great White Throne judgement is the same as that of which the Lord spake in John 5.28,29, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgement." Though men do not naturally fear God (Romans 3.18), yet repentance towards God was ever a possibility with men to whom the gospel concerning the Saviour had not come. "Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20.21) are now joined in the message of the gospel. Peter explained to Cornelius, and those whom he had gathered into his house to hear his message, how God treated men who had not had the gospel put to them. "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him" (Acts 10.34,35). Cornelius and the rest believed in Christ and received the forgiveness of sins as Peter preached the gospel to them. The words of Paul in Romans 2 agree with the few words that Peter spoke to Cornelius and the rest, particularly verses 5-11, "God; who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life... glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: for there is no respect of persons with God."

I believe that at the Great White Throne there will be those who will come from that part of Hades called Paradise and Abraham's bosom, as well as those who come from the place of fiery torment in Hades. Those who come from Paradise will find their names in the Lamb's book of life. [Raised earlier will be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets, and many others (Matthew 8.11; Luke 13.28-30; Ephesians 4.8-10). These will be accounted worthy to attain to that age (that is the age of the Messiah), and the resurrection from (out of) the dead (Luke 20.35). They will be in the first resurrection of Revelation 20.5,6]. Those who come from the place of torment will, when their eternal sentence is pronounced, be cast into the lake of fire. The consequence of dying in sin without repentance will be awful beyond words. At the time of the Great White Throne judgement, others who had not heard the message of life through faith in Christ, but who had responded to what is revealed of God in creation, will be raised (brought from Paradise) to the Great White Throne and will be awarded eternal life.

J. Miller | Oct 1967
Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter