MAN UPON HIS TRIAL TO SEE WHETHER HE HAS ANY. RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR GOD.
(Concluded from page 98.)
God next resumes His dealings with the earth ; and time, according to His computation of it, begins again to run, and the last week of Daniel's seventy prophetic weeks, (sixty-nine of which were fulfilled when Messiah was cut off and had nothing, 1:e., did not receive His kingdom-Dan. 9:26-margin), will find its accomplishment. The Holy Ghost, who now indwells the Church as the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16), will have departed-the Church being caught up to meet the Lord; and "He that now letteth" (1:e., the Holy Ghost, who hinders the manifestation of Antichrist) "will be taken out of the way:then shall that ' wicked one' be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth." Christ-rejecters and Christ-neglecters will be given to strong delusion that they should believe in Antichrist; that they all might be judged that, believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:7,12). This will be the time of unparalleled judgment when God's wrath is poured out on a guilty world (Rev. 5:-16:). But even then God gives a testimony, sending forth the " everlasting gospel" (not as now, the gospel of the grace of God), saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him . . . and worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and fountains of waters" (Rev. 14:6, 7). Then, too, there will be a testimony from the Jewish remnant to the fact that the King is coming-the "gospel of the kingdom" according to Matt. 24:14; and, (as the Lord expressly says in answer to the disciples' questions, "When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the age?") "then shall the end come."
Then shall appear the King of kings and Lord of lords, while Satan instigates the kings of the earth to resist His claims at the great battle of Armageddon, but only for their destruction (Rev. 19:11, 21). Then, too, shall be the national judgment foretold, in Matt. 25:32, when the King shall judge the quick-the living nations (the dead are judged after the millennial reign, at the great white throne, Rev. 20:12), according as they have accepted or rejected the gospel of the coming King preached by the Jewish remnant, whom the Lord hence calls His "brethren."
Then shall Satan be bound and cast into the bottomless pit, and Christ shall reign over the earth a thousand years while we shall reign aver it with Him (Rev. 20:1-6).
MAN IN THE KINGDOM. THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM OF CHRIST
This is spoken of as the "age to come" in Heb. 6:, 5; Heb. 2:5 ; and Matt. 12:32, but in each case is in our English version wrongly translated "world." It is marked by God's renewal of His dealings with His earthly people Israel after the removal of the heavenly people, the Church, and is characterized by the presence of Christ on earth, whereas as we have seen, the present period is characterized by the absence of Christ and the presence of the Holy Ghost. It is in this age that all the promises made by God to Abraham and David (which Israel had forfeited on the ground of responsibility, shall be fulfilled according, not to responsibility, but sovereign grace. The middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, which had been broken down by God, (both in this present age being baptized into one body, Eph. 2:14), will also be restored; and all the Gentiles will flock to Jerusalem, which will again become God's center of worship, where Christ the Son of David the true Solomon, will reign with undisputed sway, Satan being bound in the bottomless pit (Isa. 60:, 61:, 62:). The earth shall enjoy universal blessing then; "there shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days . . . the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isa. 65:20, 25).
MAN'S LAST TEST.
But man is to be subjected to yet one final test. Will his heart be changed after one thousand years of Christ's personal rule, during which Satan has been bound, and powerless to tempt? Scripture answers No ; for the moment that Christ's millennial reign is over and Satan loosed (Rev. 20:7-10), he gathers together the nations from the four quarters of the earth to battle, and their animosity is directed against the earthly saints, those who have been truly regenerate during Christ's reign. But directly they have compassed the saints about, and these last have proved their saintship by standing this separating test, God intervenes, and Divine judgment overtakes Satan and his votaries. He is then cast into the lake of fire, to be tormented forever; the great white throne is set up, and the wicked dead (all that have had no part in the first resurrection, or have not been regenerated during Christ's reign, verse 6), stand before it to be judged according to their works, and all whose names are not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire.
THE ETERNAL STATE.
" Then the end, when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when He shall have put down all rule and authority and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet; . . . and when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." This done, the eternal state commences; there are new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, and John beholds the Church, the heavenly saints, the holy Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb, descending out of heaven from God, having His glory. Meanwhile the nations of those that are saved on earth walk in the light of it, and there enters not into it aught that defileth-for there God is all in all.
" He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus."
John Fort.