'Call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the

Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God' (1 Kings

An examination of Psalm 97 is illuminating in this context:

'The Lord reigneth'.

While the earth is called to rejoice.

A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about

Him.  So there will be such enemies in the Millennium which will

be set up at His coming.

The hills will melt like wax at His Presence.

This fiery judgment is related to the worship of graven images.

The words of Psalm 97:7, 'Worship Him, all ye gods' and cited in

Hebrews 1:6:

'And when He again bringeth in the firstborn into the world He saith,

And let all the angels of God worship Him' (R.V.).

It should be noted that the 'world' here is the Greek oikoumene and

this leads us to Hebrews 2:5:

'For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world

(oikoumene) to come, whereof we speak'.

Here once again we reach the crucial point.  The rebellion at the end

of the Millennium, which is cut short by fire from heaven, is of the same

character as those that have preceded it, a definite, idolatrous rejection of

the supremacy of 'The Lamb'.  The first example (Lev. 10:2) and the last

(Rev. 20:9) are much alike in their wording:

Rev. 20:9.

Pur apo tou theou ... kai katephagen autous

(Textus Receptus).

Lev. 10:2 (LXX).

Pur para kuriou, kai katephagen autous.

The words, 'the camp of the saints' are followed by 'and the beloved city',

but these two descriptions may refer to the same thing, the conjunction kai

being sometimes translated 'even'.  'Even he is of the eighth' (Rev. 17:11).

'Even as she rewarded you' (Rev. 18:6).  The 'camp' or 'army' of the saints

would have defended the beloved city, even as the camp of Israel in the

wilderness defended the Tabernacle and its holy vessels.  Again we ask, if

these things are so, then the Millennium is a period of blessing for Israel,

but is by no means a period of universal peace.  That comes in the succeeding

'Day of God'.

The words of repentant David: 'Wash me, and I shall be whiter than

snow' (Psa. 51:7), have seized the mind, and entered into the preaching of

the gospel during all times.  In the book of the Revelation, the only gospel

that is preached (so far as the record goes) contains no reference to Christ,

His finished work or to faith (Rev. 14:6,7) and if preached today would merit

the anathema of Galatians 1:8.  While righteousness appears in different

forms (dikaios, dikaiosune, dikaioo and dikaioma), they refer either to

judgment (Rev. 15:3,4; 16:5,7; 19:2), war (Rev. 19:11) or to the personal