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and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall
be utterly wasted' (Isa. 59:20; 60:1,2,3,12). Again we read in the prophecy
of Joel:
'Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain:
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord
cometh, for it is nigh at hand ... The Lord also shall roar out of Zion
... and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the
hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel ... for
the Lord dwelleth in Zion' (Joel 2:1; 3:16,21).
The Millennium opens (1) with the Lord reigning in Zion, or (2) it does
not. If it does, then the Millennium cannot be a kingdom of universal peace;
to say so denies the testimony of Scripture. When the Lord reigns in Zion it
is in the midst of enemies. Wrath is to be feared. Rule will be severe -- a
rod of Iron. Nations are in danger of perishing and so are kings, and the
nation and the kingdom that refuse to serve Israel shall perish, 'Yea, those
nations shall be utterly wasted' (Isa. 60:12). This will be the day when
Israel shall be named 'The Priests of the Lord' and 'Ministers of our God',
the day when those that mourn 'in Zion' shall have beauty for ashes (Isa.
61:3,6).
So we could continue. We must either believe that when the Lord reigns
in Zion, it will be on an earth where enemies still exist, or we can believe
one or other of the theories with which the Millennial kingdom has been
invested, but it is impossible to believe both.
The Last Test
The Millennium is man's last opportunity and test. Here, when sin is
restrained and the Devil bound, man still proves utterly unable to stand, and
the Millennium is the last of a series that commenced with Eden, and which
continued under patriarchal rule, the dominion of law, and the reign of
David, even to the advent of the Son of Man in His humiliation on earth.
Right Division Obtains Here
We have evidently placed in the Millennium, prophecies that belong to a
succeeding age, and not to the reign of the overcomer. A day follows the
Millennium when the heavenly Jerusalem descends to the earth, to be the
jewelled centre of a new earth, and Peter tells us that the day of God
follows the day of the Lord.
A further reference to Revelation 20:4 -6 may be found in an article in
The Berean Expositor Vol. 14, pages 97 to 101. This article is reproduced on
pages 116 to 121 of this book, as being part of Millennial Studies No. 19, 'A
few notes on the Millennium'.