QUES. 13. – Some people here say that the millennium is near, and that they shall live on the earth a 1,000 years. lam not clear on that subject. I know we are "a heavenly people," but can't say positively that we shall not live on the earth during that time.
ANS. – The people you speak of confound Israel's hope with that of the Church. The word of God makes them entirely distinct. Those you speak of probably do not know the one from the other, but they are entirely different.
Israel's blessings were to be upon earth in their past history, as they will also be in the future, when God shall turn back a remnant of them to see their crime in crucifying their Messiah, and they will repent in dust and ashes. Isa. 10:20-23 and Zech., chap. 13 – and many other passages – speak of this. Isa., chap. 11, is wholly taken up with the restoration and blessing of Israel upon the earth – with such blessings as they have never known before.
The Church's hope and blessings are elsewhere, and different altogether. The Church comes into existence and is revealed only in the New Testament. The epistles addressed to the Church state positively that our blessings are in "the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3) where the Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus, is now glorified (vers. 20-23). "In my Father's house are many mansions," He said, " I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also " (John 14 :2, 3). Clearly, that is not upon earth, but in heaven. The Church's place is with Christ, where He is note. Therefore it is written, " Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20) ; and our dwelling-place is the heavenly Jerusalem, symbolically described in Rev., chaps. 21 – 22:5.
It is true the heavenly saints accompany the Lord when He appears in glory (Col. 3:4), "With His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel" (2 Thess. 1:7, 8); but this being executed and the righteous kingdom established upon earth, the heavenly saints' abode is ever with Christ on high.