23. The Kingdom Age
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE KINGDOM AGE
“The Lord God shall give unto Him (Jesus), 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 1:32-33).
The God of heaven will set up a kingdom. It will come suddenly, when the “Stone cut out without hands” will smite the Gentile nations. There is no gradual conversion of the world and no process of evolution to make things perfect.
Jesus Christ will smite the nations and will judge them. Then He will set up His kingdom on the earth.
It will be a literal, tangible, visible kingdom.
It will be the first and only universal kingdom.
It will take the place of all governments and nations.
“The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ" (Revelation 11:15).
Christ will reign in person on the earth on the throne of His Father, David. His kingdom will be eternal. He will be assisted by the saints of the first resurrection. The seat of Christ’s government will be at Jerusalem. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth" (Php 2:10).
Israel will be saved and will become the head of the nations.
This millennium age extends from the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the setting up of the “Great White Throne" There will be 1000 years of rest and blessing under the direct supervision of Christ as King. It will be a period of glorious expansion, of universal prosperity. The earth will yield her increase.
However, the innate evil of man’s nature will still remain. There will be professors and possessors, unchanged hearts and changed hearts. People will yield to the King in obedience during the millennium age, but evil will be present in the hearts of men although Satan will be absent. Sin, when it shows itself, will be immediately suppressed. This millennial kingdom, therefore, will not be a perfect kingdom, although there will be great blessing and prosperity. God’s curse upon the physical universe will be removed (Isaiah 55:13). Sin will still be in evidence, as revealed by the revolt of the people led by Satan at the close of the age. Sin and death must be destroyed.
Satan will be loosed, after being chained in the bottomless pit for the millennium age, a period of 1000 years. He will lead a revolt against God. People will have to make their choice between God and Satan.
“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 corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sands of the sea; and they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city"
The names Gog and Magog must not be confused with Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38:1-23; Ezekiel 39:1-29.
The prophecy of Ezekiel takes place before the millennium,
The scene in Revelation 20:7-8 is fulfilled after the 1000 year reign.
Men will flock in multitudes to Satan in revolt against God. The result will be that all of the rebels will be destroyed by fire from heaven, and Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Then the Great White Throne will be set up for the judgment of sinners only. The wicked dead will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death. Both death, the fruit of sin, and Hell, the abode of lost souls and spirits, which were brought into existence by Satan, will be destroyed. The lost who were in Hades will be sent to their eternal abode in the Lake of Fire.
The millennium follows an unparalleled period of confusion and tribulation. It ends with a universal revolt and war which will be quickly stopped by fire from heaven (Revelation 20:9).