The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. ¹⁵ And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 5:9-11

And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

It is easy, in making nice, adaptable, retractable, simplistic programs for the D-day, that celestial Normanby, that spiritual rebuke, that coming in judgment, that arraignment of evil, that dire and direct conquest of the powers of evil, now so potently manifest, then so mockable in their puny resistance to their Maker, to forget something. What is that ?

It is the personal realities of of the Redeemer, the One noted in Isaiah 59 who comes into evil's very pit, and covers its case, who as in Revelation 19 comes as the Word of God and abases the mockers, the spiritual revolutionaries, as in Micah 7 , who makes plain His ways as in Isaiah 2 and Micah, who subverts the subverters and ends the day of patience with the Gospel in the night in which no man can work. It is the time of His work, for He comes as heralded, and with all the assurance with which He came at the first, to bring salvation to those not so occupied with themselves and their thoughts, that they refuse to notice.

It may seem nice as the millenium ends, as stated in Revelation  20:4-11 (see ), instead of reading this, simply to end the millenium before it begins, cut it out, and have judgment without "all these delays" - as in II Peter 3:9.

It is not just that this cancels part of the word of God, without call, but through contrivance, but that it is better not to use someone else's name for your own philosophical postulations, as if this deletion of the Millenium where in some related to what God said, and not to its flat and daring not to say distortive contradiction. How many times does God have to speak before the ears of many will open, and not only the irreligious, but even those of the very religious, who can often see so far that they seem to see right through the word of God as if it were not there, and to summarise what is absent, when it remains untouched except by their mouths and their imagination. It is almost like some sort not only of eisegesis, but ice-egesis.

GOD IS PERSONAL AND WHAT HE DOES IS ULTIMATELY PERSONAL

WHETHER OR NOT HE USES PROGRAMS

OR MACHINERY OR INVENTION

Does one not notice the extremely shrivelling character of the divine dismissal of the illicit contenders who try to take over the kingdoms and rule on the earth, rejecting Jesus the Christ with a fancy hand, as if they were militant Moslems or firing atheists or monstrous propagandists of their donated and delegated powers, obtained from God and now used against Him ? The word "mock" is prominent, not from the mouth of the upstarts, as in Psalm 2, but from the mouth of the Lord, who scorns their incompetent spiritual bravado and ignorant efforts to bring outage to the line of the Almighty in His own universe.

Moreover when the Almighty sends His Son into this world, He does not allow this worldlings to take over, but warns the 'judges' who try to put God in His place (Psalm 2), and the Messiah out of His, of the results to come when they are done, and He is not! Has any not heard of the "wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. 6:16, 14:10), of the warnings from God even to some spurious 'churches' which are presented in their pollutions and befoulings! In a Welfare State, you might perhaps as a failed student, seek to see a psychiatrist rather than a banker; but he cannot make coin nor invent a heart which responds. It is only God who can do that, past all palliatives. It is when that student finds no resources for ambition or morality or work or application or illumination from his or her Maker, that the case becomes parallel.

It is to be observed that in Ezekiel 38, where we are beholding a predicted invasion of Israel by an Assembly of nations, including one from the far north of Israel, that as that nation plans (38:10), evil and messes with morality, preparing grasping with avarice, that (38:18-19) something other than the clicking of a program might be seen. The Lord declares: "And it will come to pass at the same time that Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, that My fury will show in My face, for in My jealousy*  and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken, 'Surely in that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.' "

*zealous watchfulness: this term has a constant metaphorical ring as in Ezekiel 16,20,
and the substance of Hosea, where it is using amorous terms to exhibit spiritual unfaithfulness.

The LORD is neither abstracted like some Aristotelian epicentre, nor unaware of the rejection and mockery of either His Christ or Israel, the latter of the two alone in any measure worthy of anything remotely deserving any such Gentile response. As to that, it comes rather as an intrusion into the work of God in disciplining Israel (cf. Micah 5:1-4), and appears as an increasingly hypocritical cult, which kills off Christ as far as it nowadays can, even within churches, especially in cultures, and in many, extends the hatred to Israel, so redolent in history with prophecy concerning Him. As to Israel, a growing segment acts this way, seething against it commercially, militarily or nationally, in hatreds furious and pretences spurious. If these attentions are not always genocidal enough in aspiration against Israel, but only sometimes, such as the present, yet they are even more widespread in being and, acrid in mordant in purpose, annihilative of the national thrust to be of Israel, as if a child were set on crumpling paper, thoughtlessly, in a destructive mode.

It is increasingly the apparent tenor work of any who would cause to cower or simply overwhelm  the land which the United Nations grabbed back from being a homeland for the Jews granted by the League of Nation, and still seek to suffocate it. Is it through the Gulf of Aqaba, through suitable Suez Canal action, in the past ? seven-fold joint invasion ? removal of UN protection as with Nasser ? A solid, squalid hatred looks for and often gains support from those who favour the massive opponents of the existence of Israel. It is as  if neither reason nor justice awakes, and in view of the incessant murders and rockets from given soil, and touting assaults in journalism, you find instead of contrition for this multi-national distortion of the deadly dynamics of the neighbours of Israel  rather a favouring of the repetitive invaders of the land, the would-be invaders, and has-been invaders, the cultural invaders and the national replacement returnees.

 But He does not disdain to vindicate as well as indicate the chosen vessels of His action, let alone the Second Member of the Trinity whom, as in Isaiah 28:15, He sent to perform the critical work of mercy, essential to the life of man, that sacrificial work of apparent weakness to enable man to draw on His own strength. Judas sums up in his end, his spilling bowels in guilty and self-abhorrent death it appears, which comes wherever mercy is humanly disdained and justice is boorishly faced, as if man could face anything without the liaison with the gracious pardon of His Maker.

Some attack Him with barbed words, malevolent mockery, ignorant much-speak, gloating assumptions that are like a pierced and shaven coconut, but with as much pride as if they had recently created the moon, or the laws of nature; and seem to imagine that the payments due for perverting the minds of others are somehow to be met, not by moral brass but moral brazenness, not by payment but by more of the same. One is reminded of the ABC in Australia, when having horrified the Government, if not with an earlier treachery, then with giving at least the appearance of a propaganda flirt in the midst of murderers, proceeded to do it over again, saying it was there anyway and available.

Does this mean that if you do not salute your General, that at once showing this degrading disrespect, then the correct step is to repeat it at once, since the visual of the first rebellion is already on disk ? This may provide a parallel, if multiplied assessment has the fact, for the omission of the personal side of responsibility, the resultant phases of breach, such as of contract. For man however, it is not mere contract, but covenant which is not only available but required. It is paid for, just as the contracts have been; money or its spiritual equivalent does pass hands. Christ redeemed not with money but blood, not with the results of toil but with the personal expediture of life. Ignoring it by repeating rebellion or leering or sneering or sheering the gift of life, has results not only in justice, but in seeking it out, ensuring its presence is baneful, snapping the fingers in derision if not raising the eyebrows in sheer mockery.

Far from it. Consider the parables, for example, as in Matthew 22:1-4, and the shame and execution of the superior guest at the regal party.  Look at the more intrinsic humiliation in Matthew 12:43ff.! Ponder more also the reality of what is done, as in Matthew 23:37ff., and Luke 19:42ff., where Christ is found weeping ? Why ? It is not because He is vindictive but through the hard thump to come when you are falling from on high with no parachute, while scorning one at the same time! HOW OFTEN He announces, in tenderness, mercy and concern He would have gathered back to its senses and proper spiritual site, like a hen recalling her chickens. Alas! they were not willing, despite His ardent and active willingness, and so "your house is left to you desolate." There is no place to hide, or come, or dwell or be.

The thing is far more  horrendous than at first appears.

God is personal to the point of a profundity of pity almost but not entirely unimaginable (for we are made 'in His image'), and ignoring this is double dangerous. It may in one aspect be compared to electricity: it is a wonder if you use it as directed, and can destroy your entire body readily if you are blasé, or blinded by belligerence, soaked in the sop of the psyche misled, reeling from rebellion to suppress of conscience in an undivine roller-coaster, or whatever convinces you that you are divine enough and need no god!

THEREFORE, the idea that the millenium, statedly to come at a certain point opening up  rule on earth, as in Revelation 5:9-11 and 20, Psalm 73, and many other scriptural sites, must be suppressed, or must not come, or must be deemed to be now in strictness contrariety to present outages of morals and outrages of iniquities, national lusts and endless wars and rumours of wars, appears to have appeal to certain contemporary scribes. Thus, there is another way of trying to accommodate it in sub-standard accommodation. Some appear drawn to the concept of have a SORT of millenium (one so bad that one would not want to be near it, by choice, in sight or in sound of it), and jam it into the period before Christ returns, such as NOW. Thus you interpret plus as minus and degradation as elevation.

In fact, the Bible, even Christ Himself, is found saying that there is going to be an horrendous period of agitation and fouling, of vile misplaced rigours and vigours and injustice, of evils run amok and degradation mixed with natural disasters, and that "IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days," (His word), Christ is to return in power and glory. Sun will be darkened and "the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heaven." Christ sends His angels and statedly takes His people with whom He comes (I Thessalonians 3:13). Immediately after the flush of evil is the advent of Christ as Lord, and yet a preceding period  comes as a millenium! What gap however is there between the worst and the Lord's own coming ? Immediately ? Whether in the Old Testament in Daniel 7, or in the New, it suffers nothing in between.

Then all Christians, His elect, are to be gathered together in this sweeping, terminal to the age action, taking them from every direction (24:31). "Immediately" after the height of the horrors on earth, does this occur. This transcendence and divine congregation of the elect, in the day where judgment thrust in its sword, thus allows for no continued mixing, or triumph of the church before His return, overcoming by itself in order to hand the palm it secured to Him. THAT is parallel to self-salvation, and becomes premature international triumph; for it is CHRIST who alone saves, who as Creator made, and who as Triumphant Victor personally secures this result! Just so in Matthew 25, the virgins with their lamps await the bridegroom, and there is alliance of this waiting until HE ACTUALLY COMES in the awaited event and ceremonies! Thirdly, it is the topic of an admonition, not to be caught napping when CHRIST comes to end this Age, for against such the doors of grace, for their lack of faith, are found closed (Matthew 25). This being so, then, the faithful servant should be careful, for the unfaithful may find himself discovered in wickedness and thus be appointed to his portion among the hypocrites (Matthew 24:50-51). Here is the site of "weeping and gnashing of teeth," not of a felicitous millenium, qualitatively as far off as possible.

As likewise in Daniel 7:21-22, where in just the same way, the demonic dynamic of the beast is fully occupied in its spectacular heights UNTIL the Ancient of Days acts, and so Christ, appointed in heaven (cf. Acts 3:19ff.),  is adorned with rule over all, as with the beauty of splendour in all-conquering power and presence on the earth. HE COMES, and HE ACTS and as in the creation, IT IS SO. The divine judgments at once begin to flow from the heavenly court, focussing Jesus Christ, whose advent makes the victorious difference. How extensive are the preparations, how unbending the divine exhibition, as on the cross, in free offer, so now under His rule as in Isaiah 11, as all that the sour, the squalid, the cynical, the feisty, the long-surrendered to sin, the potent possessors of mankind. The Messiah comes, and complacency among the wicked goes; He  comes with His entourage of power and majesty, and the corrupters of morals, the proponents of perversity of mind, body or spirit, the rebels, are appalled (cf. Psalm 2, 72), for their power base is discovered, covered up, imprisoned; and the deceiver of the nations himself is divested of his power (Revelation 20:1-3).

This then is as in Revelation the long awaited coming, as likewise in I Thessalonians 3:13, and there is no room for a millenium to be junked into the space between before and after the time word, "immediately." There is a  growing evil of lawlessness and then at once the advent in power and total change in the presence of the Lord Himself, where He rules and challenges, defeats and declares and puts everything into place in righteousness, favouring the meek, redeeming the lost, yet in personal meekness, equipped with a heart favouring gentleness, equity, and providing what this world so readily distorts in abuse of power, almost a an undivine right.

That will  be SHOWN as an undivine wrong, not in song alone, but with divine dynamic, so that the hypocrites will no more disadorn this earth, with their clout and injustice and theft whether of power or of reputation! This allows the period spoken of in Isaiah 65, Psalm 73, when righteousness rules, rather than the height of iniquity. The millenium is the day of His power (as in Psalm 110, 72, Revelation 20),   and to remove it one way or another, is to act as if to divest Christ the Lord, who alone is Saviour, working His will as in Revelation 20, and in His own name and presence as in Revelation 19.

Ignoring this, then,  is merely one more way to excise the millenium, cut it out, put it where there is no room, mysticise it, ignore the necessity of following what is written. Even symbols are not a way of ignoring what they portend, and in this case, Christ Himself is no symbol; for the only symbolism one can find here is what is applied to His Person. You cannot even do that with Bernard Shaw, for he is too well-known to become a mere symbol. How much less can you symbolise God when He indicates precisely what He is going to do, in whom, in what sequence, why and how! A salesman may read the raised eyebrow of a buyer, but will a man or woman not read the mouth of God as He narrates His intentions and gives corresponding warning, only to repeat it! (Luke 19:12-27).

But before we leave this sub-topic, let us realise it to the full. God is PERSONAL NOT ONLY in judgment, though this is also just and righteous, He is tender to the uttermost point of solicitude, and when on His name the call is made, His gracious tenderheartedness becomes the basis and depth of all and any Fatherhood, as for example you see in Jeremiah 31:18-20.

"I have heard Ephraim bemoáning himself:

'You have chastised me, and I was chastised.

Like an untrained bull,

Restore me and I will return,

For You are the Lord my God.

"Surely after my turning, I repented;

And after I was instructed,

struck myself on the thigh.

I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated,

Because I bore the reproach of my youth.

Is Ephraim My dear son ?

Is he a pleasant child ?

For though I spoke against him,

I earnestly remember him still:

Therefore My heart yearns for him:

I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord."

HOW MANY TIMES ?

While God is a marvel of faithfulness, man is not so. Well does one remember the account of a Presbytery which was examining a young student to see if he showed himself ready to be licensed to preach in that denomination. Having announced Genesis poetical, he was declined. The matter was taken to the national Assembly, which overturned the disallowance, and so accepted such a designation of what must be one of the precise accounts in all historical literature, with the furnishings of evidence as to its meaning, that you could get from so long ago. This led on to an aggressively ignorant assault on this part of Genesis, the denomination, despite being committed to NOTHING being taught with Church authority that was not either stated or demonstrable from the Bible. Since it is indubitably not provable from the scripture, odd-ball ideas which were announced by the denomination, this violated its Constitution, its historical basis and its famous emphasis. Indeed, so appalling was this breach of all agreement, of underlying bonding, that one found it necessary, after failing to have any confirmation of faithfulness and truth on repeated application, to leave the denomination, lest one be attached to its breach before the Lord, while one remained attached to it. The refutation of its apostasising stand was published on the Web at this Chapter.

Similarly, one has heard a case of a student seeking Presbytery's approval for a ministry, who apparently objecting to being asked to affirm the virgin birth of Christ, protested that it was mentioned only once in the Bible. Despite this is far from the truth, it led to one's Presbyter's exclamation, one is told: How many times does this young man need to be told by God before he will listen! or some such form of words.

The millenium now ... how often is it stated, implied, exhibited, made singularly manifest in the Bible!

One could start with Revelation 20:4, proceeding to Psalm 45, 72, Isaiah 2, 9, 11, 32, 65, 72, Micah 4, Jeremiah 23, Joel 3, Deuteronomy 32, Micah 7, I Thessalonians 3:13 and end with Zechariah 14 (on which follow this link). One could dwell in Isaiah 65 of the continuation of sin even in a select and transformed environment, on the gracious divine use of Jerusalem, the site of the grave accorded to the grace of God in the Person of His Sent Saviour, in a righteous rule, as in Isaiah 11, which contains the endeavours of the wicked one (abruptly put in place as in Revelation 22:4-6, where the millenium by name is expressly set for those beheaded and for those who have not received the mark of the beast, which thing stained man from the first demarcating him, in a spiritual sense after his befoulment by the devil.

One could consider the utter devastation, humiliation, defeat and ruin of those seeking to overthrow God, as in Micah 7, who had been in the business it seeks of deprecation, degradation, spoliation and devastation of God, not surprisingly, without success and were replaced in rule on the earth. The arrival of the Lord with ALL His saints is likewise to be found in Thessalonians, His glorious beauty of holiness in recognised glory on the earth in Psalm 45, God as God indeed, and so addressed the Messiah, in the midst of the royal majesty, glory and attributes, trappings, power and its display. Just so, in Psalm 72, the redemption, the justice, the mercy, the concern for the poor.  In the days of this, the Messiah, now ruling as in Psalm 2, 110, with justice awaiting discordant judges, "the righteous shall flourish," and "all the kings shall fall down before Him." This would be about as far as possible from the current situation, where it is hard to find one king who consistently does this, but if there be any, such linger far from being conspicuous, while devilries all but innumerable try to sanctify themselves while building new atomic bombs, making new death patches of thousands of human beings while in pursuit of glory or revenge or hatred or paranoia, with new barbarities the incredible basis for entry into some kind of divine approval, in some other place, far indeed from this one!

Isaiah 11, another millenial passage to be noted here, speaks of the son of David being present in majesty upon the earth, ruling with rigour and wisdom. He will "decide with equity for the poor of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth," while, to remove the last vestiges of writhing 'interpretation', the environment contributes too, the particular definition of who the King is, mingled with the parallel exhibit, for "the lion shall lie down with the lamb." Although it appears true that one such case has recently been found, yet it is far from characterisable at this point, a very different status quo being in operation.

WHY IS SUCH A PERIOD AS THE MILLENIUM SO STRESSED ?

In any endeavour of mere man to answer this question, what might appear impossible or even presumptuous is readily resolved by the simple devise of seeing what indications the LORD gives in His word, and seeking to formulate these in summary form. Understanding, after all, is not as in some politico-religious regimes, anathema, since the truth is so awful that to state it concerning such lore might be deed an act against the State! On the contrary, when the Lord is involved, He loves to induce, produce understanding and commends it (Ephesians 1:17-18, Psalm 14:2.

THE FIRST

One such reason for, admirable element in, the Millenium is the vindication of Jesus Christ.

Unhallowed by minions who became murderers, despatched after the most enormous outpouring of divine benignance ever seen, surrounded with miracles ineffaceable, virtually innumerable, personal in level, or physical or mental and spiritual, giving to mankind the grandeur of grace, free of sovereign rights, dressed in humility, what did He inherit ?

Isaiah 53, Psalm 16, 22 reveal it prophetically; the Gospels historically in precise accord, which none has ever been able to breach or logically impeach, whatever the approach, but rather reason demands, as in SMR: He inherited the cross of animated hatred, and many are those, as He predicted, who now seek to provide for His followers various other forms of death and torture.

Hence with the tender mercies of some 2000 years for man to repent  - and he HAS repented in the thousands if not millions, it is well that there now be found the savour and principles of righteousness, the blessed sovereignty of personal meekness, the wonderful loveliness of what the people often look for, whether in king or empire, and at last fail to find, the rule of what is functionally gracious, kind in heart, wise in discretion, peaceful in disposition, unwilling to harbour gross deception under a guise of uprightness (Isaiah 11:3-4), to expose deception, to know deviancy of any kind and see through it. It is well that the One whom nothing will overturn (cf. Ezekiel 21:26-27, Daniel 7:14) will as in Isaiah 9, so that being the Messiah, the throne of His peace will endure forever, whether in millenium of expression in the very midst of the environment of man-mangled follies, now purged and used as a demonstration platform, or when it is itself thrust away as in II Peter 3, for a new heavens and a new earth; for the old passes away like a garment (cf. Isaiah 51:6).

God is personal, and this is personal vindication; Christ became weak that we might become strong, and instead they murdered Him, while Gentiles now specialise in their peremptory distortions, contortions and wiles, never satisfied with the changes they make, or the exchanges of folly in place of the peace made available, the purity its base and the strength of God, its sustenance. But if you dismiss its source, you lack its product!

THE SECOND

There is also the vindication of God's call of Israel a a vehicle of display and a focus in explicit terms of the divine provision. If Israel failed often and in much, yet it DID provide the Bible, selling in its millions, leading perhaps many millions to know God, delight in the experience of His presence and His meaning to the life which He only has made. Thus nature (the merely physical part) does not write, and DNA is written; while nothing does not make  matter, or anything else! God very simply is not an option; for logical thought He is necessary. In calling man into being, and Israel being assigned an exhibitive task (Isaiah 43:21), despite its foretold failures and Christ's foretold resurrection through which the Gospel has come, the objective is carried forth despite the most horrendous procedures from the sinful heart of man, of whatever race. What God promised, history has premised. It refuses to drop out the foretold return of Israel after vastly disastrous time of  utter destruction of the Temple and exile of Israel; it cannot turn to destroy the renewed nation, though all the earth should gather against it.

They become an incorrigible existent, refusing annihilation, whether at the hand of the Egyptian Pharaoh of the Exodus, of ancient Assyria or modern Iran, whether in terms of the unconscionable betrayal by President Obama, now seeking some sort of alliance with the genocide-broadcasting Iran, now being groomed for a share in another joint conflict, largely at the behest of the USA. Having earlier assured Israel of fundamental support, it is  this same President Obama, through whom this same Israel now suffers the dangers of US camaraderie with its chief enemy! It has a familiar look, reminding one in its negativity, of the hugely retentive USSR who after World War II had no great desire to lose such talent. Before that, of course was the paranoid Hitler, aspiring to the depths in his own way, sacrificing the Jews before their restoration, as if it could never occur; but God thought otherwise, and has given blazingly clear attestation of His intention for over thousands of years. as in Isaiah 11, 59, 66, Micah 7, Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 2, 110, Jeremiah23 abd  31:25ff., Zechariah 12-14, Joel 3, Ezekiel 37-39, Isaiah 51:21-23, Habakkuk 3,

When all this is over as in Micah 7, so will the millenial presence of Jesus Christ forestall betrayals, plans that help confusion but do not deliver those assured of help, those who help but stop too slowly at the brink of disaster. Here IS the help, here is the understanding, purity and power, visible on earth, manifest in operation, rebuking as goodness does rebuke twistiness, untruth, betrayal or heartlessness, all of which faces not only Israel, but many a nation from another. Israel is a paramount example, in the very confines of divine characterisation, prediction and undertaking; and the most conspicuous will remain so, not because of greatness, but of its having been selected for the incarnation, by God, and for crucifixion by man also. There are the vast tides of life, ready for inspection; and you will not need to hunt.

Moreover as in Micah 4 and Isaiah 2, although Israel has lost its Old Covenant place of leadership (as clearly assigned in Isaiah 30), it has not lost its site for the saving operation of God in this world, nor has Jerusalem lost its site as the place of His purging for sin, and overpowering not only of thousands of diseases, releasing those stricken, but of His knowledge, as it is written in Isaiah 53: "By His knowledge will He justify many."

It will show HIS faithfulness (so graphically presented in Ezekiel 36:22), on a long scale, and leaving the false rulings of sin, and  Lord Hategood and all the rest, outside the place of power and ready for exposure to the uttermost, show the admirable leadership of the Lord, while on the contrary,  it leaves out the scenario of evil. Now is a cleansed earth, where life is abundant and peace no less. The abundant culminations of sin as shown in Revelation 13,17-18, for example and Matthew 24, Luke 21, which rose like a tsunami in the earth, will now meet consummation in sanctity, curse swallowed up in the presence of the Saviour Himself, and the realities of life on display as none but Christ have shown them, among all men who ever were; and He shows what He knows, for the God who made us, shines on us and instead of spiritual squalor from spiritual and anti-spiritual opportunists alike, we shall see a spiritual supremacy as visible to the eye, as sonorous to the ear, as comforting to the heart, as the ocean flexing its power with refreshing colour and glorious beauty, for those who appreciate it now.

THE THIRD

Thus we have a many sided victory made manifest on the very site of crushing, Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:6, Micah 4); we have pardon in the very place of cursing, grace in the very arena of odious barbarity; and it is all the more potent in impact, in that it replaces at a stroke, the woeful wandering of man, now becoming almost chronically concerned at the condition of his much abused earth, and now more clearly, at the position of much abused children, mistaught in fairy-tale self-making universe, until minds often unmade by propaganda, their hearts drugged with befouled imagination, the myths of the twenty first century like lice, lavish their foulness. Some may even believe the myths, before they even can feel drawn to becoming grenade assistants, their bodies the flung-flesh source for anti-human bombs. We see something of this transition in Isaiah 26:21. 65 as in 59, 11 and Zechariah 6:12, 9:6-7. These are logically and psychologically to be expected as KINDS of irresponsibility, in a moral free universe where morals do not however in fact die because of delusion, and truth is not incinerated by bombs, where false teaching does not re-create the universe, where wickedness cannot by a name change, change its nature. The same is true of marriage.

Re-defining things will not alter them, unless it be God who does, for at HIS word, they were and came into being, had their form, format, function, material dimensions to match their verbal specifications, whether innate laws of spatial and chronometric kind, or internal applications of law, in the case of life, even the many-fold levels of contrivance and order, which constitute the unseen work force, the undinning dynamic, from which our bodies spring, clad in words, covered with flesh, one former the programmer for generations, the latter the programmed, while the spirit of man by which his researches and analyses proceed, his esprit de corps in another sense than the usual one, namely the spirit for his own body, which being governed where it is not programmed, can imagine and act whether in pogroms or in programs of its own invention. There is the programmatic difference in body, between doing what you are told, and telling what you will do, and consigning it, just as you were consigned.

What a victory it is over death itself, the uttermost in humiliation for man, prior to judgment, secured by the unprogrammed Prince of Life (Acts 3:14-15), who voluntarily came on His piteous mission, even from within the Trinity (Psalm 40, John 6:38), so paying for the banishment of judgment on those who received Him, and offering this boon to all (I John 2:1-2). Thus does Paul exult as I Corinthians 15 ends its spectacle of glory! If you want to ponder your problems, the way to light is free; or to have faith in the Maker of your life, though not of your errors, the Redeemer, then that too is open! He has held back nothing, given all pardon through all power even to death; communicates His very life, relays the remedy of the resurrection (Romans 10:9, Ephesians 1:19), the scope of His desire as in Colossians 1:19ff., its intensity as in Romans 5, its cost as in John 3, its result as in John 3:19, and its reaching all who in His love may be reached as in Romans 8:29ff., Ephesians 1, Matthew 23:37ff. with Hebrews 13:8, Psalm 102:26ff.. As love (I John 4), He is pure, sand in nothing contravenes His character; and this includes non-tyranny over the truth, for He IS the truth, and His is failure to find NONE who in His purity of seeking before time began, may be found!

When this eternal life surges at the coming of Christ, into expression that is corporeal, as was the case with the resurrected Christ, yes and more than this, and the whole earth reflects the heritage and the holiness given by God, then is His work more than memorialised; for it is made manifest as the streets and clear as the skies, as declarative, even to the deaf and the blind of heart, as is the sun to the eyes. Here is a millstone to the heart without faith, a confrontation to the mind without truth, the refutation of many a wilful complaint, in the brilliance of visible reality, sustained, not contained, conceived in heaven, wrought on earth. Now in the millenium when it comes, there is a splendour of continuation, an exhibit of revelation, a status of a declared sovereignty in its milieu, an assemblage of visible blessings, a tutorial which has become a lecture, a lecture functioning not only in the word of power through prayer, but in purpose in  principle and government in this world, by grace (Isaiah 9:7, Psalm 72).

THE FOURTH

The millenium gives centre stage to the godly, true perspective to the godless, unwavering implementation to the rebuke of those who in the end, would fail through disfaith as in Revelation 20:9ff., so that as soon as Satan was unbound, his initial terms of imprisonment complete, his millenium of humiliation over, there is assault on God, one of greatly revealing character, showing this, that there is much beyond circumstance which can and often does seduce the spirit of man. This is now illustrated categorically.

To that we plan to come, but in the interim, how LONG is this blessed period ?

HOW LONG THE MILLENIUM ?

Is the millenium necessarily 1000 of our current years in duration ?

Not at all. II Peter 3:9 shows that in terms of the patience of the Lord, His watchful love to rescue, a thousand years is as a day, while Revelation 11 shows symbolism of another kind, in this that Rev. 11:2 has "42 months" = entire Gentile period (currently around 2000 years) as also standing for the brief  and climacteric reign of the beast, as noted in Revelation 13:4-5. Here the same 42 months is applied to a force-ridden period in which a special all-oppressive power or beast climaxes his  control over all tribes and nations (cf. Rev. 13:15-17).

In the latter, themes thrust into the depictions and symbols are given  specialised significance. Times are thus unlike the Danielic, which is based on history which has already been quantified, each 'seven' in review of the past becoming now a seventy, but here the size of the 7 is unspecified.

Here there is no such constraint, and the use of the umber  'seven' , not a week of history, allows any quantity to be assigned to the symbol, 1.2 or 1200 or whatever. The context is thus set in a symbolic fashion, apparently signifying significance and a type of dramatic impact or pivotal time; but in terms of Jesus' words in Acts 1:6-8 and Matthew 24:36ff., this is not an arithmetical route to estimating the time of His return. The actual time of Christ's return, as a distinct purpose and test, is statedly and deliberately hidden. Having fulfilled the precise date for His death as predicted in Daniel 9 (The Christian Prescription Ch.2), He is on the contrary, now concerned not even to provide more than a general index, though it has a number of details, for His coming for His people and for due judgment. It is a stated statistical procedure.

How long then is the millenium in actual years ? The very name suggests no mean flit of time, and the description of the functions of that time (cf. Psalm 72, Isaiah 65) and the fame of the name of the Lord as He then rules the earth in godly manner, provide ground for its being pregnant with much that develops. In short, it will be time long enough to display with due sense of stability and develop response in the breadth of the earth, so that it will bear the  vastly impactive character ascribed to it. That is the crucial point. All this will be seen, observable, verifiable, manifest, confirmed and given massive and due response by the people.

When we consider the rebellion that occurs at the end of the millenium (Revelation 20:7ff.), there is apart from all else, a special lesson to be learnt.

A SPECIAL LESSON

It is summed up in the words of Isaiah 26:10:

"Let grace be shown to the wicked,
yet he will not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly."

Good and evil are ultimately options, not prescribed by circumstances, but folded to the heart of those who love them. Again fake and the spurious is thought or the desire, in the realm of the wicked, readily related to the desire to take over goodness and godliness, so that these subserve another purpose. Many come so far as to seek to reign in malignity, whether in their own conceit, over wife or child, employe or State, whether as an aspiring part, say a union, or gang, or a collective debasement, as at Sodom, which God destroyed.

Even the great British Empire failed, for even a national church is not run by Christians, unless the people as one whole are such, which is yet to be found, and when national  spiritual buoyancy is depressed, for cultural, moral or spiritual reason, then the concept of a church not in concord, but in contrast to Christ, pursuing whether in things marital or martial some other line, or another Lord who 'says' other things (cf. Luke 6:46), then the error is made manifest. There is to be and has been no spiritual, stable, moral and godly empire, none to desire, as an historical fact, nor will there be till the return of Jesus Christ. Ezekiel 21:27 advises of this fact, as a prediction; history teaches it as a confirmation. It is as to Jesus Christ that we find the unique reality, as the life in the trinity: "The LORD ... never fails," Zephaniah 3:5. Nor does His  word submit to seduction (Matthew 5:17-19), nor He to failure (Isaiah 42:1-6) in His vast saving mission, whatever the cost (Philippians 2).