The Appearing in Glory.
The marriage supper being over, and all things ready, the blessed Lord, as the last Adam, with His heavenly Eve, the glorified saints and the angelic hosts, prepare for the appealing in glory, and for taking possession of the earth. But before accompanying them thither, it may be well to notice what has taken place there since the rapture of the saints, and what things in general have come to.
When the true Church shall have left the scene, the merely nominal part, left behind, shall be at once and forever rejected by Christ. (Rev. 3:16.) Then the Spirit of God began to work in the Jewish remnant, and they, as the missionaries of the new testimony, preached “the everlasting gospel to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue, and people.” The judgment of the living nations in Matt. 25 discriminates as to the results of this testimony; and Rev. 7 shows us the saved multitudes of both Jews and Gentiles by means of “the everlasting gospel.” But while the love of God was thus active, and the power of the Spirit thus manifested, Satan was exerting all his power and bringing up all his forces to corrupt the whole earth, and dispute its possession with the Lord’s Anointed.
Rejected professors, “because they receive not the love of the truth that they might he saved,” shall be given up to strong delusion, that they might believe a lie—awful doom—they are now at the mercy of Satan. Antichrist and the false prophet—the one the head of the civil power, and the other of the ecclesiastical—fill the whole scene of the Roman earth with their blasphemies. Outside, the nations are angry and mustering their hosts for battle. The dragon and his angels are overthrown by Michael and his angels, and their place is found no more in heaven, or in heavenly places. Satan and his angels, being cast down to the earth and knowing their time is short, concentrate all their evil there. And such will be his power, that when God ceases to hinder his working—as He will do for a time—men will fall down and worship the beast, and the dragon that gave him his power. Human sin, in the person of Antichrist, who is also idled with Satan, rises to its greatest height, and all is ripe for judgment. But let us now return to our heavenly company.
The Lord is coming: He is on His way. Look up, my soul, what seest thou? Heaven is open: “And behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” But mark, He does not come alone, the armies of heaven follow Him. “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” This, we must remember, is a vision which the prophet saw, and not a question of real horses. It is the symbol of the Lord appearing in power and great glory. He comes to put down all the wickedness of man and of Satan on the earth. “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” The Antichrist, the kings of the earth, and all associated with them shall be utterly overthrown. Isa. 11; 2 Thess. 2; Rev. 19.
THE MILLENNIUM.
It may be well to pause here for a moment, before speaking of the millennium, and meditate on this solemn scene. Hast thou given it much thought, my soul? In a moment, suddenly, when the world is intoxicated with pleasure, and saying” Peace and safety,” the heavens open. The once rejected Jesus of Nazareth comes forth: He is clothed in light and majesty; His breastplate is righteousness; His sword is girded on His thigh: His eyes are as a flame of fire; and on His head are many crowns. Saints and angels follow in His train, and celebrate His praise. But what of the godless world below? “Every eye shall see him;” and every heart shall be struck with astonishment; the instruments of daily occupation shall drop from every hand, and all the world, with eyes uplifted, shall stand still. But there is no hope for the rejecters of Jesus now. Their death-knell is rung; the Lord’s hand has laid hold on judgment; “He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Amongst the many lessons which thou mayest learn from these approaching judgments, there is one especially I pray thee to remember: Let the solemn realities of thy Lord’s coming and kingdom be so mirrored on thy soul as to move thee to increased earnestness, yea. to burning zeal, in preaching the gospel, and in all thy work with precious souls. True, thou wilt be with the Lord thyself, but forget not those who are in danger of being left behind through the deceitfulness of sin. But to return.
We have seen the heavenlies cleared of Satan and his angels; the earth cleared of its wicked kings; the beast and the false prophet cast into the lake of fire; and now we have the binding of Satan. (Rev. 20) Victory is complete! the hidden source of all the evil is bound in the abyss for a thousand years. The blessed Lord takes the kingdom. “The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” This is the millennium—Christ openly, manifestly governing, and Satan bound. These are the two grand features of that blessed period, and by which it is distinguished from all former dispensations.
What a mighty change! what an immense relief to this groaning earth! Satan and his evil angels banished from the abodes of men: Christ reigning, and His risen saints associated with Him on the throne His heavenly and earthly glory. Then shall come creation’s day of boundless blessedness so constantly spoken of in the Old Testament. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. The mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk and honey. The wild beasts of the field shall become gentle and harmless as the lamb, and warfare and strife shall cease from amongst the children of men. Thus will God reverse the history of man; He will heal his sorrow, relieve his misery; crown him with health, peace, and plenty, and spread joy throughout the restored creation, according to His estimate of the cross of His beloved Son. In that day it will be seen and acknowledged, that the cross of the Lord Jesus is the foundation of the wide spread scene of millennial glory and blessing.
There are three ways in which Christ will fully reveal and glorify God—grace, government, and glory. The first He did in His humiliation; the second He will do in the millennium; and the third throughout eternity. Thus the millennium will be the revelation of God in government for a thousand years. All language fails to speak of what its blessedness must be. Satan no longer free to tempt men. and the goodness of God displayed in blessing men; the heavens above, Israel and the Gentiles below, the earth, the sea, the lower creation—all brought under the government of Christ—all embraced in His wide dominions; and all to the glory and praise of God by Him.
But nothing can be more humiliating to man than what we find at the end of the millennium. God will then show that a thousand years of glory will not convert the human soul without His saving grace. The moment Satan is again free and exercises his power, the unconverted portion of the Gentile nations are deceived by him. He gathers them together in rebellion; but fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them utterly.
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE.
We have now come to the last and closing scene in the history of man—the clay of judgment. All is solemn—most solemn—eternally solemn for all who stand before that throne. “And I saw,” says John, “a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” There need be no difficulty on the reader’s part in distinguishing this last sessional judgment from the Lord’s coming and the first resurrection. When the Lord comes. He comes from heaven to earth; and the earth, as we have seen, is universally blessed under Him. But that is not the case here. There is no earth to come to: both heaven and earth are fled away, and there is no place found for them. It is the resurrection and judgment of the wicked dead at the close of the millennium. All are judged according to their works: the book of life is searched in vain for a single name that stands before the great white throne; all are condemned, and cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
But before parting, and parting forever, with so many of thy poor fellow creatures, be exhorted, Ο my soul, to pause, to reflect, to weigh up in faith’s balances, the last sight of those countenances of agony, and the final sentence of the Judge. Remember, thou shalt see those faces no more forever.
At the commencement of the millennium the saints are seen sitting upon thrones in association with Christ. “ They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4.) This was their time of public reward for service done to Christ during His absence. “The time is come,” says the seer, “that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great.” (Rev. 11:18.) But on the great white throne Christ is seen alone. While it was a question of governing the millennial earth, the saints governed with Him; but now it is a question of eternal judgment, and in this He acts alone. Nevertheless, they will be with Him, according to that all-precious word, “Forever with the Lord.”
And thus shall it be: all that ever lived in this world, for the first and last time, shall stand face to face—the righteous with the Lord, the wicked standing before Him. What a sight! what a moment! What a difference now between the two companies! the one in bodies of glory and shining in the image of Christ; the other in the naked realities of their sad condition. Stripped of every false covering, each one must see his sins in the light of divine holiness and righteousness. All must be there. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” The depths, the unseen world, are forced to deliver up their miserable prisoners, that they may hear from the lips of the once-rejected Jesus their final sentence. The heavens and the earth are fled away, and nothing is to be seen but the great white throne of dazzling brightness, and the glorious majesty of Him who sits upon it. But all are now gathered, and time is no longer. The guilt and anguish of the heart are seen in all faces; and the awful sentence, uttered amidst the dreadful silence of that solemn scene, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, will send back the wicked into the depths of woe, woe unutterable. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” But the glory and beauty of the Savior, Jesus, whom they despised in time, and the myriads of happy saints who surround Him and who shall be forever with Him, can never, never, be forgotten.
Thus closes the history of man, and the events of time. Eternity begins. The wicked lost, the righteous saved; and all the ways of God forever vindicated. His love creates new heavens and earth as the future dwelling place of His children; and God comes down to dwell among them. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall he his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Rev. 21:1-7.