and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them” (Isaiah 65:20-23). It will be a time when the whole of creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption (Romans 8 :21, 22)—a time when the sons of God shall be manifested with the Son of God (Romans 8:19, 23)—a time when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14; Hebrews 8:11). This is no incident nor accident, but the purpose of God. This kingdom, ordained from the beginning, is no post-creation after-thought of God but a pre-creation thought in His mind from all eternity. Ordained from the beginning, this reign of Jesus on this earth is the green, flower-scented oasis in the desert of time. This kingly administration of Jesus will be personal, and not just spiritual. Dr. Len G. Broughton says: “ Language can not be made any plainer than that which is used descriptive of Christ’s second coming and the establishment of His kingdom. If His second coming is spiritual, and the kingdom which He is coming to establish is likewise spiritual, then the same law of interpretation will make His first coming spiritual. Oh, what a calamity this would be! It would rob the manger of its poetry and pathos. It would stop the song of the angel chorus on the morning of His birth. It would annul the matchless teaching, by precept and example, of our blessed Lord. It would climb the slopes of Calvary and hide away the blood of the covenant. It would pass over as a myth the story of the sepulchre, and frown with scorn upon the glories of Olivet. If the second coming of Jesus is spiritual the sublimest picture con tained in the gallery of inspired truth is destroyed, that picture of the disciples assembled together on the day of His ascension when the invisible chariot of God, let down from heaven, caught up the Saviour, and bore Him away to His far away home in the glory.” When Jesus comes, the pattern prayer of the saints, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” will be heard. Jesus, the rejected, will seize the reins of government and rule in beneficent power and victory. Isaiah declared: “ Then the moon shall be con founded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously” (Isaiah 24:23). Micah said: “ And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” (Micah 4 :2 ). David, in his Messianic Psalm, said: “ In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:7, 8). Nature and grace alike proclaim a glorified Messiah coming again from heaven, in His almightiness, as indispensable to complete their appointed courses. Na ture calls for Him thus to rectify her unwilling disorder, to repair her shattered structures, to restore her op pressed energies, to vindicate the voice of conscience long despised, to verify her sublime testimony to the Creator as long questioned and overlooked. His coming again is as certain as that God’s honor is at stake in every promise He makes. His glorious coming again, with all its attendant circumstances and its effect upon the church, is the sublime motive for evangelistic and missionary activity—not the dreams of ignorant fana tics, not the creation of speculation in theology. It is a divinely revealed truth. , „ — Courtesy the Watchman-Examiner TH I KING'S BUSINKSS
the last trump” (I Corinthians 15:52). We take twelve thousand photos in one second by means of the kineto- scope camera. By means of radio the human voice is speeded around the world seven times in one second. Our airplanes cover great distances— crossing oceans and continents in just a little while. But how slow all this is when compared with the quick and instantaneous return to earth of Jesus. The taking of Christians out of the world will usher in the great tribulation. After the rapture of the living Christians and the resurrection of the dead Christians the unrighteous dead and the unrighteous living are left. The unrighteous dead shall sleep on in their graves until the thousand years of the reign of Christ is past. Immediately following the rapture of the saints at the first is the period of the great tribulation. The Devil is in absolute control. The Holy Spirit’s day has passed. And concerning those days, Matthew writes: “ For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21, 22). This tribulation will make the world famine seem as a feast, the world’s worst wars seem as children’s parties. But when Christ and His bride are united in the air then Christ will come to earth and the Devil is cast into the bottomless pit. Millennium The word “ millennium” is not a scriptural word, but it expresses a scriptural fact. It comes from the Latin word mill and annus signifying one thousand years. For justification in using it, we read: “ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6). The millennium has to do with the establishment of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. It is the time when “ the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.” It will be a time when all nations shall dwell under the blessing of God. “ In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance” (Isaiah 19:23-25). It will be a time when nations learn war no more, but will beat their swords into plowshares. “ And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plow shares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2 :4 ). It is a time when the world will have an administra tion of righteousness. “ Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment” (Isaiah 32:1). It is a time when life will be lengthened and when death will be exceptional. “ There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant,
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