created a rejoicing and her people a joy, it is then that the wolf and the lamb shall feed

together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and (yet, at the selfsame time) dust

shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,

saith the Lord (Isa. 65: 18, 19, 25).

The reference to the serpent here suggests that the perfect kingdom has not yet arrived,

and in line with this, in the midst of this section which speaks of "Millennial" blessedness

when "as the days of a tree" shall be the days of His elect (Isa. 65: 22), we learn that a

"child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be

accursed" (Isa. 65: 20). While the age of Methuselah is proverbial, and the age of many

of the patriarchs of Genesis chapters 1: to 11: approached to the 1,000-year limit, not one

ever reached it. "The days of a tree" may mean a thousand years, and for any one in that

day to die at a hundred years of age would be like a child dying. The fact, however, that

it can be contemplated that a "sinner" should "die" at a hundred years of age or be

"accursed" (however difficult may be the true exposition of Isa. 65: 20), makes one

thing certain, it comes before the descent of the New Jerusalem to the earth, for then there

will be "no more" sin, death or curse. This together with the reference to the SERPENT

in verse 25, makes it evident that during the "Millennial" kingdom there will be some

who will be punished for their sin, even as there will be a multitude as numerous as the

sand of the sea, that shall be devoured by fire that comes down from God out of heaven at

the close (Rev. 20: 8, 9). Gog and Magog must have been ready; it only took "a little

season" to gather them. We must look to the "eighth day" beyond the Millennial Sabbath

for the perfect kingdom. The subject before us is of sufficient consequence to call for a

summing up before examining some most extraordinary items that await us in Rev. 20:

(1)

Positive teaching concerning the Millennium is limited to ten verses in Rev. 20:

All else is a matter of inference, legitimate possibly, but to be treated with

necessary reserve.

(2)

The term "the Millennium" is not a Scriptural title for the period covered by

Rev. 20: 1-10, for the word is simply Latin for 1,000 years and that is the

number of years covered by this prophecy, and expressed six times over, in

verses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The term however must not be invested with

meanings and characteristics that belie or ignore what is written in Rev. 20:

(3)

It is correct to speak of this period as a "kingdom", for the overcomers not only

"live" but "reign" with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20: 4, 6). The Greek

word for kingdom is basileia, the Greek word for reign is basileuo. (See

article KINGDOM in An Alphabetical Analysis, part 2, p. 227).

(4)

Strictly speaking the overcomer (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 26; 3: 5, 12, 21; 12: 11;

15: 2 and 21: 7) is the thread that links all the prodigious events of this

Prophecy together, and unites both passages under Rev. 3: 21 thus: