STRONGHOLD OF TRUTH
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Thess. 4). He is coming, as we often say and sing, when every member of His body has been saved, and when that body has been completed. He is coming, not to the earth, but into the air for His people. And then He will come with His people. I am not concerned with details, but I ask you to notice the glory of this future when He will come with His saints, and will reign over the earth, ushering in what we believe to be the :Millen nium-that wonderful time of which the Old Testament is so full. If we want to know about the lVIillennium, it is unnecessary to concentrate upon Rev. 20. vVe can look at Isa. 4, 9, 11, 25, 35, 65, 66. If we are not con vinced about the Millennium from these passages, then nothing will convince us. We must be particularly careful in reading Isa. xi. to !xvi. Our older Bibles have headings descriptive of the Church. "The Church afflicted." But when we look in the chapter there is nothing about the Church at all. It is Israel. The Church is probably not referred to in that section at all from xi. to !xvi. As some one has said, we have taken to ourselves all the blessings, and left to the Jews all the curses. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to introduce a reign of peace, quiet and rest, such as we tind in these passages, and we cannot spiritualize them without making them absolutely meaningless. They mean what they say, and refer to some future time, and not one that has ever yet been realized through the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ has been given the throne: "The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke i. 32-33). In Psalm ii. is another picture, and in Psalm lxxii. there is yet another. The Old Testament is full of the glory to be seen when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be on His throne. Christ in the glory of His Advent, first coming for His people, and then coming with His people. And we can put into this section the three hun-
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