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It is evident therefore that the overcomer will enter the New Jerusalem while it is still
in heaven, and will reign and rule over the earth, with that city as the seat of authority,
even as the Satanic counterfeit reigned over people, multitudes, nations and tongues in
the mock Pre-Millennial kingdom of the Beast. When the Millennium closes, and the
Day of God succeeds the Day of the Lord, the earth will then receive this resplendent
city, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of
the earth will bring their glory and honour unto it. What Jerusalem on the earth during
the Millennium partly accomplished (for feigned obedience, and the rise of Gog and
Magog indicate that the influence of Jerusalem was not universally complete), the
Heavenly Jerusalem will. It is this kingdom which is envisaged in I Cor. 15: 24-28
which will ultimately be delivered up to God, even the Father, the goal of the ages be
attained, and "eternity" (for the want of a better word) begins.
No.6.
THE EVE OF THE MILLENNIUM.
pp. 145 - 148
The intense desire for peace on earth and good will toward men which is one of the
deepest yearnings of the individual, but alas is so regularly frustrated by the clash of
national interests, leads the mind of the believer to dwell on such a passage as Isa. 2: 4
with great joy, but seems to have made many turn a blind eye to such a passage as
Joel 3: 9, 10. Let us place them together and consider their import:
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more"
(Isa. 2: 4).
"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all
the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and
your pruninghooks into spears" (Joel 3: 9, 10).
The passage from Isaiah speaks of the Millennial day, when the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, but the passage in Joel
deals with days that precede "the great and terrible day of the Lord" (Joel 2: 31). In both
Joel 2: 30, 31 and 3: 15 the sun shall be turned into darkness, showing that both
chapters deal with the same period, namely the very eve of the Millennium. The special
feature that calls for fuller consideration is this. The call to beat plowshares into swords,
suggests that before this there had been a mock millennium, where the nations of the earth
either by intimidation or deception, or both, had beaten their swords into plowshares, and
concluded that war had ceased in the earth for ever. Many of those who read these lines
have lived through periods of war that were to end war. They have heard of conferences
for disarmament and hoped that they would succeed. Such yearnings are natural and
right, but they may be ill-timed and if so doomed to failure. Two words sum up the
condition aimed at, "peace and safety". Yet we read that at the very time that the day of
the Lord comes as a thief in the night, sudden destruction overtakes those whose slogan
will be these very words "peace and safety", and they shall not escape (I Thess. 5: 2, 3).