beginning (Gen. 2:9), but it reveals that it will still be a possibility.  It

indicates that the final step has been reached before the 'end', when the

last enemy, death, shall be destroyed, which 'end' will bring about the last

great correspondence of Scripture, and Genesis 1:1 will find its echo in the

words 'that God may be all in all'.

When the apostle reached about half way through the epistle to the

Hebrews, he stopped at the end of chapter 7 to say:

'Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum' (Heb. 8:1).

He had admitted earlier that there were some things to say concerning

Melchisedec that were 'hard to be understood' (Heb. 5:11); in this case the

difficulty was caused by the fact that his hearers were 'dull of hearing'.

In our case, the position must be reversed.  We do not write, as he did, by

inspiration of God, and we do not for the moment believe that our readers are

in any way dull of hearing.  We have endeavoured as grace is given to be

careful to avoid ambiguity, to give chapter and verse, to demonstrate by

fairly full quotation the interpretations suggested, and to avoid mere text

quotation that ignores the context.  Even so, we have no right to believe

that everyone has followed in every detail so closely that a r,sum, would not

be useful, as the same apostle said in another context, 'to write the same

things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe' (Phil.

3:1).  Here then is a summary:

There is no sacredness about the word Millennium.  It simply means 'a

thousand' and is used of that portion of the future reign of Christ that

lasts 1,000 years.

There is one portion of the Scriptures only that speaks positively

concerning the Millennial reign, and that portion consisting of ten verses

only, namely Revelation 20:1 -10.

While making this statement we by no means deny that such passages as

Isaiah 11:6 -9 do belong to this Millennial day, but if they do, they are

seen to be such only by inference.

We do not deny that there will be a Pre -Millennial kingdom, but we see

that this will be the kingdom of the Beast of Revelation 13:18, and is

foreshadowed by the reign of Saul before that of David.

The outstanding features of the Millennium as revealed in Revelation

20:1 -10 are as follows:

The Devil will be shut up in the bottomless pit, and this

together with Daniel 9:24, 'finishes'.  'To make an end'

indicates that evil will be 'restrained' throughout the period.

(See Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9, page 213).

The bottomless pit is in Greek abussos 'the abyss' and the LXX

links this with 'the deep' of Genesis 1:2.

The 'overcomer' who is addressed in Revelation 2 and 3 is the

slender thread upon which the visions of the Apocalypse are

threaded, and the Only Ones specifically mentioned in Revelation