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Chosen no: R-2739 a, from: 1900 Year. |
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Questions And Answers.
THE BEGINNING AND ENDING OF THE MILLENNIUM.
Question.--I understand from Rev. 20:4-6, that Christ will reign one thousand years, and
from verses 2 and 7that Satan will be bound during that period. If Christ began
to reign in 1878, and Satan will not be bound until 1915, the two periods do
not seem to synchronize; and furthermore, both extend beyond the
seventh-thousand year period which, according to our Bible chronology, began in
the Autumn of 1872. How
is this? Can you assist me?
Answer.--The Lord has evidently
arranged for the gradual closing of the Gospel age and opening of the
Millennial age, in such a manner that the one laps upon the other, with some
particular purpose in view; but just what his purposes are he has not been
pleased to inform us: and since this extends into the future we may reasonably
suppose that it is not now "meat in due season for the household of
faith." When the end has been reached and accomplished, we have no doubt
whatever that it will be manifested to all of the Lord's people that his Word
has been accurately fulfilled. Until then a certain amount of faith is required
and expected from those who have so many evidences of the Lord's wisdom and
exactness in the features of his plan already accomplished. "We can trust
him where we cannot trace him." Apparently this matter of when the
thousand-year period should be reckoned as fully beginning and fully ending
will be an open question until the close of the Millennial age. It is our
expectation, from Rev. 20:8,9, that the obscurity of this
question will have something to do with the final test of loyalty and obedience
to God, which will come upon the whole world of mankind who will have enjoyed
the blessings of restitution throughout the Millennial age, and have attained
perfection at its close. The indefiniteness of the end of the period would
appear to be an important feature of their testing. Apparently they will think
the period of Christ's mediatorial reign ended before the Lord's time; and some
of them, impatient of delay, will make a demonstration, and demand of the
earthly representatives of the Kingdom that full dominion be at once restored
to perfect man, according to their understanding of the divine plan and its
times and seasons.
In so doing these will be
demonstrating their own unworthiness to enter the age of perfection which will
follow the Millennium, and will be destroyed in the Second Death. For, while
such an attitude of mind may be forgivable in imperfect men of today, those
perfect beings who shall have had a full restitution and large experience will
be required to exercise a full faith, an unwavering confidence in the wisdom,
love and promises of the Creator. And their failure to manifest implicit faith
and obedience to the divine program after all their experience will be proof
sufficient that they are unworthy of the eternal state. If permitted to go
beyond into the full liberties of sons of God they would always be liable to
sin and its consequences; and God's promise is that there shall be no more
sighing, no more dying, no more crying, no more pain there, the equivalent of a
promise that there shall be no more sin. Hence all who shall not have developed
characters in full accord with, and fully submitted to the divine will, will be
esteemed as having enjoyed all the blessings and privileges divine mercy has to
offer. The fire, the judgment from heaven, will destroy such from among the
people, in the Second Death, as unworthy of Life-eternal.
The Scripture declaration respecting
the saints, the "overcomers" is, "They lived and reigned a
thousand years." The reign of the saints cannot be properly said [R2740 : page 368] to begin before all the
"jewels" have been gathered, nor before "the times of the
Gentiles" end, in 1914. Nor is it said that their reign will be no longer
than a thousand years. After the thousand years' reign Satan shall be loosed
and the above trial shall ensue; but the reign of Christ and the Church will
evidently continue long enough after the thousand years to destroy all found
unworthy in that final test, and to thus complete the work for which this reign
is instituted;--for, as expressed by the Apostle, "He must reign till he
hath put all enemies under his feet....And when all things shall be subdued
unto him [some by conversion and some by destruction], then shall the Son also
himself be subject unto him [the Father]."-- 1 Cor. 15:24-28.
WHO
CONSTITUTE "THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH"?
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Question.--Our Lord commands us to
do good, "especially to the household of faith." Who constitute this
household--only the consecrated saints? Or does it include also the justified
class, some of whom have not yet reached the position of sanctification or
entire consecration? Answer.--We understand that the Church of Christ, as
viewed from the divine standpoint, and as addressed in the Scriptures, includes
only "the sanctified in Christ Jesus;"--those who have taken the step
of justification through faith and, additionally, the second step of
consecration to the Lord.
But "the household of
faith" takes in a much larger number,--all who have faith in the Lord as
their Redeemer from sin and its penalty,--all who are trusting in the precious
blood of Christ, and seeking in any degree to be in harmony with the Lord and
his rules of righteousness. The loving interest and care of all the
"saints" (the consecrated) is to be exercised, not only toward each
other, but also especially toward these members of the household of faith who
are supposed to be under "instruction in righteousness," helping them
forward to take the position of full consecration and become reckonedly dead to
the world, and new creatures in Christ Jesus, risen with him, to walk in
newness of life and to become his joint-heirs in the promised Kingdom.
W.T. R-2739 a : page 368 – 1900 r.