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The Coming of Christ
there is thus no time for a millennium before the Lord returns. As to the passage from Peter, it is obviously no more sub versive of one of these theories than of the other. No one can possibly review the picture, which the Apostle draws in his two epistles, of the apostasy and skepticism and godlessness already prevailing and surely deepening as “the day of the Lord” draws near, and find any place for a previous millen nium before “that day.” The predictions of fiery judgments and consequent “new heavens and new earth” must be read in connection with Isaiah 65 and 66, from which Peter is quoting. It will then be seen that these expressions are in-so- far figurative that the earth still continues with its life, its nations, its progress, after these judgments are over. Terrific convulsions, and governmental, social and cosmic changes, only introduce a new and better age. So, too, “the day of the Lord” is a familiar phrase, and as we read Zech. 14 we see that while, in that day, the Lord comes amidst appalling portents, His coming and the day itself are followed by a scene of great blessedness on this same earth; the Nile is still flowing in its course and the nations are going up to Jerusalem to worship. (Note also that in 2 Pet. 3:10 the most ancient manuscripts do not read “burned up” but “discovered.”) There are other positive statements of Scripture which in timate that the millennium follows the coming of Christ. According to Daniel, it is after the Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven that He is given “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him, . . . and the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,” are “given to the people of the saints of the Most High; . . . and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (Dan. 7:13, 14, 27). According to the Psalms, the appearing of the Lord, in flaming fire upon His adversaries, prepares the way for the establish ment of His glorious kingdom, as “He comes to rule the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity” (Psa. 96, 97,
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