It is an axiom of all rational thought that "a thing cannot both BE, and NOT BE at the

same time". "In that day" includes too many opposite events to allow us to think of the

Millennium as a period of unsullied glory and perfect peace from the beginning of the

thousand years to the end. What does fit all that is said, is that Israel will be a nation

"born at once" (Isa. 66: 8), whereas gross darkness will still envelop most of the nations.

Nevertheless, light and truth shall radiate from Zion as a blessed centre, until at last the

knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. God's ordination

at the beginning was that "the evening and the morning" should constitute a day. A

thousand years in his sight are like a day that is past, and the Millennial day may conform

to the same pattern. The Millennial reign begins with an "evening". When the Lord

comes the second time to inaugurate that reign, He comes to MAKE WAR at the first

(Rev. 19: 11). There is not a word to warrant the idea that at the stroke of the clock, the

moment the thousand years commence, all will be peace. The Lord will reign in Zion in

the midst of enemies. The nations will learn slowly the law of the Lord from Jerusalem,

and only as the thousand years (the day of the Lord) come to their close, and the Day of

God succeeds, when all delegated authority shall be under the feet of the Son of God,

will that kingdom be at length perfected and ready for the Day of the Age, the goal of all

purpose and prophecy, that God may be all in all (I Cor. 15: 28).

It is right for us to look eagerly for that blessed consummation, but it is also right to be

on our guard, lest over eagerness should lay us open to the deception of the Devil, and we

be found pointing the Lord's people to a travesty of truth, with all its accompanying

misery and disillusionment. We make no claim to a complete understanding of the

teaching of prophecy, but what we do claim to have done is to insist that all that is

written, and not selected passages, is the only safe foundation upon which to build

whether for our individual salvation, or for a true appreciation of the Millennial reign and

the ultimate goal of the ages.

Why a "lake" of fire? Of the commentators we have consulted, none make any

reference to this particular word, its meaning and the reason for its use. The Greek word

translated "lake" is limne. Parkhurst says that the word indicates a lake of standing

water, as opposed to a running stream, and is so called from lian menein "remaining very

quiet"; so the Latin, stagnum, a pool. Schrevelius reads limne, a port, harbour, haven,

station, refuge, accusative limena; as if lian menei, because there the ships rest in safety;

hence limenarches, a harbour master.  Limne occurs in the LXX in  Psa. 107: 30

"haven"; Psa. 107: 35, 114: 8 "a standing water"; Song of Sol. "fish pool" (7: 4).

The word occurs in the N.T. ten times and is always translated "lake". Apart from the

five references in the Revelation, the remainder occur in Luke 5: 1, 2; 8: 22, 23, 33,

the lake of Gennesaret, elsewhere called the Sea of Galilee, and the sea and lake of

Tiberias, and in the O.T., the sea of Chinnereth.