Will There Be A Millennium On This Earth? by James Willoughby

The events here referred to will not take place before the coming of the Son of Man with the clouds of heaven (verse13): "Behold, He cometh with clouds" (Revelation 1:7). And again see Revelation 11:15. The events here referred to will not take place before the time of the sound of the seventh trumpet, which will be "the last trump" and will sound when prophets and saints will be about to receive their rewards (Revelation 8:2; 11:15,17,18), that is, at the coming of our Lord (compare Revelation 11:18 with 1 Corinthians 15:52, Luke 14:14, 2 Timothy 4:8, 1 Peter 5:4, Revelation 22:12).

Accordingly, there is to be on earth a period of remarkable blessedness which never has been, and never shall be before the second coming of our Lord.

1. In no passage is it asserted, or necessarily implied, that all the dead will simultaneously arise.

It is not necessarily implied in John 5:28-29; "The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation;" for in verse 25 we read, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." Whether the coming to life again referred to in verse 25 was the coming to physical life of some dead bodies, as of Lazarus and others, or the coming to spiritual life of many dead souls - souls dead in sins - they most certainly did not in either case all come simultaneously to life; therefore verses 28 and 29 do not necessarily mean that all the dead bodies will come simultaneously to life; for the two passages are parallel. In fact, the latter passage speaks of two resurrections, one of the just and the other of the unjust, but does not, of course, indicate whether they will take place simultaneously or otherwise.

If all the dead were to rise simultaneously there would be no need of the qualifying phrase "of the just." "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection," would have been sufficient. Thus this passage also makes it natural to conclude that there will be two resurrections, one of the just, and the other of the unjust.

3. "The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels; and are children of God, being the children of the resurrection" (Luke 20:34-36).

In this passage the word rendered by "world" means "age," and the phrase, "ek nekron," rendered by "from the dead," means "from among the dead." Accordingly:

(a) there will be a resurrection from among the dead;
(b) only children of God will be accounted worthy of that resurrection, and
(c) only these will be accounted worthy to live in resurrected bodies during the future remarkable age.

Now, the phrase, "ek nekron" (from among the dead) occurs in the New Testament 42 times. In 31 places it refers to our Lord"s resurrection from among the dead. In 3 places it refers to John the Baptist: Herod thought John had risen from among the dead. In 4 places it refers to Lazarus, who rose from among the dead. In other places it refers to other children of God, but in no place does it manifestly refer to children of Satan. If these will rise in the second resurrection and if all who will rise in it will rise simultaneously, then there will be no rising of the wicked from among the dead.

Now, manifestly, since the resurrection spoken of in the last passage quoted will be a resurrection of the just from among the dead there will be another resurrection, namely, of the unjust, from among whom the just will have been already raised.

"And I saw thrones (I beheld till thrones were placed - see Daniel 7:9), and they (i.e., the saints, - see Daniel 7:18,27) sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them (see 1 Corinthians 6:2 and Daniel 7:22); and I saw the souls of them that were (had been) beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God (the apostle here makes special and honourable mention of one class of the saints, namely those who had been beheaded), and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands (in the latter foregoing words he makes special and honourable mention of either another class of the saints, or else a larger class including the beheaded saints and possibly all other persons then in Christ), and they lived (not the "souls," for the word rendered by "souls" is in the feminine gender, whereas in the context the pronouns referring to the persons spoken of in this clause are in the masculine gender) and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Manifestly those who are to live and reign with Christ are those who are to sit upon the thrones, namely, "the saints."

"The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were (should be) finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such (over these) the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." "They lived" means, "Their bodies again lived," for we read, "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were (should be) finished," which manifestly means that their bodies did not again live until the thousand years should be finished, and it would be most unnatural to suppose that in two places so very near each other the word "lived" could have two entirely different meanings.

That all the dead saints will rise at the sound of the last trump is clear: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive ... Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ"s at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).

Accordingly, there will be two resurrections of dead bodies, one of the just, and the other of the unjust, with a millennium lying between. Even if the language in Revelation 20:4-6 were all figurative, which it most certainly is not, could a thousand years mean anything except a thousand years? This millennium leaves room for the remarkable age in which children of God were to be accounted worthy to live in bodies raised to life; it leaves room which we cannot find anywhere else for the remarkable period of blessedness referred to in Isaiah 11:5-10, and for the reign over the earth of Christ and His saints spoken of in Daniel 7 and in Revelation 5:10, and for the radical change in the government of the earth spoken of in Revelation 11:15; and while these passages do not show that Christ, as man, and His saints, will abstain from passing to and fro between heaven and earth during the millennium, they do show that in the said period Christ and His saints will reign over this earth.

* James Willoughby, M.A. was the first principal of the Strict Baptist Bible Institute which began in London in 1923. He served in this capacity until his retirement in 1938.