“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7).
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29-30).
This one who is coming with clouds and with power and great glory, immediately after the tribulation, has made the following declarations concerning His coming—
“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Revelation 3:11).
“Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:7).
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12).
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20).
As the age draws to a close, and as the tribulation settles down upon the earth, judgment after judgment will fall with increasing rapidity. The temporary peace ushered in by the white horse rider of Revelation, chapter 6, will be taken from the earth by the red horse rider, who will be followed immediately by one riding upon a black horse, representing famine, and then will come the pale horse and his rider with death and hell following. The great earthquake, which shall shake both earth and heaven, will be followed by blackness and darkness when the sun shall become as sackcloth, the moon as blood, the stars fall, and the heavens depart as a scroll when it is rolled together. These terrible judgments following each other in rapid succession will cause the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, to hide themselves in the dens of the rocks and the mountains and cry for the mountains and rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne. In this hour of the terrible wrath of the Lamb it will be necessary for deliverance to come quickly or else all flesh will be destroyed.
This, the darkest hour of the world’s history, will come just before the sudden return of the Lord of glory to usher in the millennium of peace, righteousness, and prosperity such as the world has never known. He will come quickly. It will be necessary that He come quickly. The tribulation saint who will have to hold fast to obtain his crown could never hold out until the crowning day unless He did come quickly.
The church members of Revelation 2:25 and 3:11 are admonished to hold fast. In these verses the angel says, “That which ye have already hold fast till I come.” The rewards which they are to hold out for will be given when He comes quickly bringing His rewards with Him according to Revelation 22:12.
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” This is the imperative declaration of our Lord concerning the yet future day of His earthly glory. The prophet Isaiah saw this day and said, “With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth” (Isaiah 11:4). This prophecy will be fulfilled along with the sayings of the angels on the day of His birth—”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
These prophecies were made almost two thousand years ago, yet there has never been peace on earth, and good will toward men, and the meek have not yet inherited the earth. God doesn’t say that these things will be experienced during this age of Grace. We need not look for them until the return of the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The Lion Shall Eat Straw Like the Ox
Often times we meet sincere brethren in Christ who are striving to bring in the kingdom. They understand that the work of the church is to make the world a better place in which to live and improve the conditions on the earth until it is good enough for Christ to come back and claim. They hope to eventually rid the world of war. Their program calls for such social reform as will eventually rid the human heart of greed, malice, hatred, and unholy ambitions and desires.
These dear brethren may be thoroughly sincere, but they are sincerely wrong. Either their objective is wrong or else the Word of God is wrong, and the Word of God cannot be wrong. For argument sake, suppose the human race should be developed and made ready for the second coming of the Lord; we would still have the problem of changing the appetite of the lion. Prophecy declares a complete change of the nature of the wild beast, the poisonous asp, and the venomous cockatrice. We quote Isaiah 11:6-8, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.”
The Desert Shall Bloom as the Rose
All creation is waiting for redemption from the curse of sin. The thorn, the brier, and the barren desert remind us that the curse is still evident. Prophecy says that the time will come when “the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 55:12-13).
Isaiah speaks again along the same line in chapter 35, verses 1 and 2. “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.”
Handmaidens Shall Prophesy
A part of God’s judgment pronounced upon the woman for her behaviour in the garden of Eden is found in the words of Genesis 3:16, “And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Undoubtedly she is numbered with the rest of creation which “groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” under the rule of fallen man (Romans 8:22). In unchristianized lands she must take her place as a servant and burden bearer for the man. Along with the removal of the thorns and the briers her load will be lifted. This time cannot come throughout the world until Christ returns to lift the curse of sin.
Paul speaks to the church of our present dispensation through his message to Timothy, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:11-12). After the church which is Christ’s body has been completed and glorified, after the tribulation period has been endured, and when the Spirit of God is poured out upon all flesh at the opening of the millennium, then Acts 2:18 and Joel 2:28 will be fulfilled. We quote Acts 2:17-18, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” The dark days of the tribulation will precede this “great and notable day of the Lord” (Acts 2:20), but during that millennial day “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). The curse will be lifted and creation will be delivered when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords returns.
The Millennium (1000 Years)
Satan shall be bound a thousand years—”And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.”
Satan shall be sealed in the pit till the thousand years are fulfilled—And He “cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
The tribulation saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years—”And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
The wicked dead shall not be raised until the thousand years are finished—”But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”
Those of the first resurrection shall reign with Christ a thousand years—”Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Satan shall be loosed when the thousand years are expired—”And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
The above quotations are taken from Revelation, chapter 20, verses 1 to 9. A careful study of this passage of Scripture reveals the fact that Christ is going to reign on this earth for a thousand years. Six times over in these nine verses we have the expression, “A thousand years.” It means a literal thousand years and cannot be scripturally interpreted otherwise. In 2 Peter 3:8we are told “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. There is no past and no future with him. He lives in the eternal present. A day is as a thousand years with Him; and a thousand years with Him is but as a day. Time is measured by days and years, but eternity cannot be measured. Let us remember that these verses quoted from Revelation, chapter 20, have to do with the earth and the people of the earth. They deal with things in the realm of time and not in the realm of eternity.
He Shall Be King Over All the Earth
“And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9). This prophecy is in perfect keeping with the words of the Holy Spirit through John as recorded in Revelation 11:15-17. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.”
The Sword and the Plowshares
When the Lord returns to set up His kingdom on the earth, He will find the world in convulsions. Immediately before His coming the proclamation will go out to the Gentiles of the entire world, “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: let the weak say, I am strong. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great” (Joel 3:9, 10, 12, 13).
In this terrible day of trouble, which is surely coming upon the earth, Michael will stand up for the people of Israel and they shall be delivered, every one that is found written in the Book (Daniel 12:1). The deliverer, in that day, will be the Lord who, “shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; 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” (Joel 3:16). At that time, He will establish His government above all the governments of the world, “And all nations shall flow unto it.” And, “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and 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” (Isaiah 2:1-4).
In the closing days of the age, just before the coming of the Lord, the people will have no need of plowshares and pruninghooks so they shall beat them into swords and spears. Immediately after His coming and the setting up of His kingdom, they will have no need for swords and spears so they shall beat them into plowshares and pruninghooks. Such will be the change among world governments and world leaders when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords returns.
