History and Doctrine of the Millennium

A DISCURSION

The millennium is the hope of this world, and the vision of the world to come; the sabbath, not of time and sense, but the sabbath which remains for the holy people beyond the waters of Jordan. It is a period in which the resurrection children reign with Christ on heavenly thrones; and it is not the reign of the natural seed of Abraham in this world. Its period must embrace the descent of the New Jerusalem, “the beloved city,” for that is the name of the saints’ camp, ¹ which the enemy surround; and it must embrace the perdition of the beast and false prophet, (which is not their mortal remains, but their true followers and supporters;) for when, in the end of the thousand years, Satan is cast into the lake of fire, he finds them already there; and so follows them to perdition. ² And these are not cut off until the Lord comes in the end of the world, as we have seen in our first and second synchronisms. HDM 66.3

Again, the strong man armed keeps his house, until a stronger than he comes, and seizes, binds, and confines him; then he spoils not only his goods, but his old rookery of sin and of death, at one blow, and slays his ministers; and in the new city, which he will bring with him, he will give all his saints a place, whose glory it is that they have not worshipped the beast nor his image. Of course their reign is not contemporary with the beast, but subsequent to his destruction: following the last trumpet, and all trumpets; the last vial, and all vials; the fall of Babylon and the battle of Armageddon, in which all flesh appears to be slain, and the wicked to be sent to his own place. In this connection, the millennium succeeds, when the kingdom which smote the royal image, and dashed its plastic metals to primitive dust, itself becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth: and in that mountain nothing shall be found to hurt or to destroy, saith the Lord. ¹ HDM 66.4

It is in the destruction of Babylon, under the blast of the seventh trumpet, that the kingdom of this world is taken and overthrown by our Lord; and while the angelic host rejoice and sing, “Hallelujah; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth;” they add also, Let us rejoice and be glad, and give glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride hath made herself ready. ² The New Jerusalem is that bride. She is prepared before the binding of Satan, even when Babylon falls: unless Satan is bound before that event occurs. The beloved city is the Lamb’s wife; the same which in Isaiah the Lord says he will rejoice in and exult over. ³ “Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever.” ⁵ “For the Lord delighteth in thee, end thy land shall be married: for as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy god rejoice over thee.—Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” HDM 67.1

Delightful as this theme is, and full of rich interest, regard for your patience commands me to draw to a close; and I confess my obedience is the more cheerful, for that if what I have said does not carry conviction to your mind and joy to your heart, nothing I can say will. The particular millennium seen by John, Revelation 20., is neither of this world, nor in this world; but is in the resurrection of the dead; and so, likewise, is the general millennium, the seventh day of eternal rest, which remains for the holy people in the land of promise, which land God sware unto Abraham to give it forever to him, and to his seed, which is Christ. All people and ages and nations, from Adam in Eden to this era of Babylon the great, have cherished the gospel, and the hope of this future bliss, not for their posterity, but for themselves. Divine revelation has unfolded it to every successive age of mankind, as their own, if they would take hold of it by faith, to be enjoyed hereafter, in the restitution of all things, which are spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began. Upon no other theme have they all with united voice spoken in harmonious accents of joyful hope and praise; but upon this they have descanted with untiring repetitions, describing its peace and holiness, its perfect beauty and fertility and thrilling joys, and chief over all its everlasting King of glory, majesty, power, and authority. Of no other than this have all the prophets testified; and of this they have testified by promises, by visions, by dreams, by types, by allegories, by metaphors, by parables, by many symbols dark and obscure, and by the open gospel, proclaiming, with angel’s voice, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come;” ¹ and repeating in plain terms, “that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now it suffereth violence, and those who are resolved to have it, take it by force: but not so in the millennium; no force is able to take it, after the Son of man has once risen up and shut to the door. To knock then will be wholly in vain. To call and cry aloud will be of no avail: Depart, (from within, will be heard;) I never knew you. To assault with all Gog’s host and Satan’s rage will not move one of the pearly gates on its golden hinges, to open for admission to the impenitent, faithless, aspiring soul. Faith alone has the knowledge of the way, and the key of the gate; and faith is a grace peculiar to time; it belongs not to the millennium. HDM 67.2

Parallel of Ezekiel’s Prophecy with the events of the Millennium. HDM 68.1

I should have done, but something is here not to be overlooked, in a subject unfathomable as the mystery of the millennium. No view yet taken of it explicates the doctrine from palpable objections to my limited understanding; however, I cheerfully submit to the holy word in this matter, as in the matter of the divine decrees, and of man’s free agency. Great truths are often incapable of being embraced together in the same human view, being only seen in opposite positions; but not therefore annihilating, or counteracting one another. Both stand in their infinite proportions suited together perfectly, notwithstanding their contradiction apparent to our limited powers of vision, which apparent contradiction is owing to our infirmity, and by no means to the want of consistency in divine revelation. HDM 68.2

The twentieth chapter of Revelation of all others is least capable of self-interpretation; it requires to be illustrated by corresponding prophecies. The previous pages have been directed to this object, especially in the five preceding synchronisms; and with one more effort of this sort I will close; an effort deserving a discourse to itself, instead of a place at the heel of this. HDM 69.1

Ezekiel begins his prophecy with an account of the departure of the glory of God from Jerusalem, and he concludes with a promise of the return of that glory in the new dispensation. HDM 69.2

The sixteenth chapter descants on Jerusalem’s wickedness, punishment, and merciful restoration, together with her elder sister, Samaria and her daughters, and her younger sister, Sodom and her daughters, which may only be in the new earth. Chapters thirty and thirty-one foretell the utter overthrow of Egypt and Assyria, “Pharaoh and all his multitude.” The thirty-second repeats the calamity of Pharaoh, and adds to it, of Ashur, Elam, Meshech, and Tubal, Edom, and the Zidonians by name, and of the princes of the north without name. These are all “slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, saith the Lord God.” ¹ HDM 69.3

Observe here, that Gog is of the land of Magog, and is chief prince of “Meshech and Tubal,” ² and that “Pharaoh” is understood by the wise to be a name of the Dragon, the old serpent, familiar to the prophets. HDM 69.4

The thirty-third chapter is addressed to the watchmen of Israel, with denunciations against the land. The thirty-fourth reproves the shepherds of Israel, and promises that the Lord himself will search out of all nations, and gather upon the mountains of Israel his scattered flock. “There shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel; and I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.” ³ HDM 69.5

As these mountains and flocks and mercies belong to the millennium, so do the judgments detailed in chapters 30, 31, 32, belong to the introduction of the millennium, and correspond to the overthrow of the beast and false prophet in the harvest of the earth, when all the nations by name are counted to the slaughter and consigned to the pit: “even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword.” ¹ HDM 70.1

Ezekiel thirty-five begins the subject anew with the destruction of Edom, ² which is made a perpetual desolation, never to return. ³ This is the present evil world. Chapter thirty-six is a counter prophecy to the mountains of Israel, promising to them, and to the hills and rivers and valleys, “Ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come,” (verse 8,) in the resurrection. “They shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more hence-forth bereave them:” verse 12. O house of Israel, “I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land:” verse 24. “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good:” verse 31. To this end their recovery must be “life from the dead.” HDM 70.2

Chapter 37. explains the millennial resurrection literally of “the whole house of Israel,” v. 11, which, if it do not include us, “Our hope is lost; we are cut for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them: Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live; and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”-v. 11-15. HDM 70.3

The ancient commentators, Sts. Irenæus, Chrysostom, and Jerome understood this of a literal resurrection of the faithful; and if it fails to teach that, no language can teach, it: even the resurrection of Jesus might be turned into a figure as easy; for it is written that his grave was opened, and he came forth out of his grave, and lived and returned into his own land. If this proof of the resurrection be taken from the Old Testament, every other may, by a similar rule; and the Sadducees may be justified by the law and the prophets, and the Pharisees condemned. HDM 70.4

The prophet proceeds to declare the purpose of God, to unite Judah and Ephraim into one nation: “and David, my servant, shall be king over them,” v. 24; “their prince forever,” v. 25. “And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore,” v. 28. HDM 71.1

This is the eternal state subsequent to the resurrection: for it is both impossible for David to reign on earth again without rising from the dead, and also for any condition of things in this world to continue forever; seeing that the true Witness testifies of this heaven and earth that they shall pass away, and all things belonging to them are transitory. HDM 71.2

After this description of the resurrection of “the whole house of Israel,” and of their union under David in one everlasting kingdom, which seems to accord and synchronize with the first resurrection, ¹ the prophet proceeds, in chapters 38. and 39, to speak of the coming of Gog and all his bands, from Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, or Phut, Gomer, and Togarmah, against the mountains of Israel, “as a cloud to cover the land.” The Lord will then appear in his anger, so that all men and things shall shake at his presence, and he will rain upon Gog, “and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone.” ² The thirty-ninth chapter only carries out the doctrine and particulars of the preceding; leaving the reader in no doubt that this Gog and his destruction are the same which are so similarly described in Revelation 20., and no elsewhere expressly named in the Bible. HDM 71.3

Chapter 60. to the end of the prophecy of Ezekiel enters into a particular description of the New Jerusalem, in language suited to the Mosaic dispensation, but manifestly intending that same which the Apocalypse describes coming down out of heaven, in the new creation which God will make, whose waters are waters of life, whose trees are the tree of life, whose inhabitants are the chosen people, whose temple is built of living stones, whose sacrifices are a pure offering of praise on the altar of the heart, whose form is four square, and whose walls are salvation, and her gates praise. “The Lamb is the light thereof;” and “the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there;” Immanuel; “the tabernacle of God is with men.” “This is the city the patriarchs eyed from afar, while as pilgrims they traced the thorny road; this is the Jerusalem which Paul declares is free, which is above, and is the mother of us all.” ¹ HDM 71.4

The coincidence of these two prophets, Ezekiel and St. John, is remarkable in the description of a dreadful overthrow of the nations, followed by a resurrection of the holy people, against whose mountains Gog, an enemy of a fearful name, comes like a cloud; and deliverance is wrought by fire from heaven, to the destruction of the innumerable host. Then follows the particular description of the holy, heavenly land, and the royal metropolis, named after her King forever, as the bride takes the name of the Bridegroom. HDM 72.1

This parallelism of Ezekiel’s prophecies and the Apocalypse, and these synchronisms of Daniel, Paul, and John, constitute the materials of Jacob’s ladder, “set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” ² The portion which rests on the solid earth, we can feel and handle; but the top is a dizzy height, which angels, not mortals, may climb and comprehend. “Behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.—I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” ³ Heaven is represented with a wall around; and that implies an enemy without. The battlements and gates are of impregnable mould; they look toward the enemies’ land. What though he come like a cloud? He comes never again; but he forever perishes, outside of the beloved city. “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem!” “Fear not, for thou shall not be put to shame: for thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.” ⁵ “For the Lord will comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein; thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” HDM 72.2

Of the present discourse, this is the sum:- HDM 72.3

From the fall of man and of the whole creation under the curse of sin and the dominion of death, until the times of the anapsyxis, or resuscitation from the presence of the Lord, when he shall send Jesus Christ, who is now preached to us, and shall make all things new in the resurrection of the dead, the Holy Spirit has unceasingly testified of the coming of the great day of the Lord, and of his kingdom, with great power and glory; when Jesus will not only change these vile bodies like unto his own glorious body; but also these heavens, and earth, bestowing on them an atmosphere of blessedness, and a soil of fatness, with a salubrity that knows of no sickness, and a joy which knows of no pang, separation, sighing, or sorrow any more. For this value the fathers, Adam, Abraham, and David, received the promises. They did not dream of having them fulfilled in this land of death, in which they dwelt as sojourners and travellers; but they expected the redemption of the Lord’s pledges in the resurrection of the dead, and in the heavenly land of immortal life. HDM 72.4

In this light they, together with the prophets, foresaw Christ’s day and were glad. In this light the prophets de scribed the New Jerusalem, and the righteous nation, and their everlasting King on the throne of his father David, in his endless kingdom over all God blessed forever. In this explicit manner the holy gospel describes the kingdom of heaven, and the angelic nature of those who are found worthy to attain that world, and the resurrection of the dead, through Jesus our Nobleman that is gone to receive a kingdom and to return. In this manner, and coming in this kingdom, the apostles preached “Jesus and the resurrection,” through all the world. In this faith the primitive church for three centuries steadfastly looked for his coming. In this faith Luther and Melancthon and the great reformers of the sixteenth century expected the coming of the Lord, while they grappled in mortal agonies with the gigantic power of the Latin hierarchy. In this manner, and in this kingdom, all our creeds and standards of faith confess the hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus; and all believers daily pray that he will come, and will not tarry: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” And when the hopes and prayers of all ages of the holy people, from Adam to this day, are answered and fulfilled, then will be the anticipated millennium: “The dispensation of the fulness of times,” heaven in earth, when creation will no longer sigh and groan and travail in pain together, as it does now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God; but creation itself will attain with us, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, redemption of the body from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of that eternal world, where “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” ¹ HDM 73.1