What Is The Purpose Of The Millennium?

What did God have in mind? Why did He design the plan THIS way – why a millennium? Why not a century – or a decade?

God’s plan has been to give man 6000 years to govern himself, followed by 1000 years of God governing them directly. This much the church has always understood. But what is the purpose of that thousand years? What is that designed to do – or to prove?

We know that God has given mankind six thousand years to rule himself; the first idea that jumps out is that the next thousand years must be for a contrast. To show the difference, between man ruling himself, and God ruling him directly. It makes sense, but can we prove that from the Bible?

Isaiah 19:16-19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it. And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.

This has never happed. This prophecy was never fulfilled. It is yet in the future, but before a time when everyone is converted. This can only mean the millennium.

Jeremiah 33:14-18 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness. For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

This describes the time when Christ returns to rule in power. This obviously, also hasn’t happed yet. But – it describes a time when the Levitical priesthood is continually offering sacrifices.

Again, I point out, that this must happen before everyone is converted, for there is no need for sacrifice when conversion is present, and yet this won’t happen before the return of Christ. Therefore, it can only be saying that in the millennium, the Levitical priesthood will be restored. Now why would God restore a system that, by His own admission, was flawed? (See Hebrews 8, etc)

I think that’s a very good question. And to answer it, we will have to digress and answer another one; why does God do anything? To bring new members into His family. So how does restoring the Levitical system further that end? What will it accomplish?

The Levitical system will distance them from Christ, after all, by replacing His perfect sacrifice with a shadow. It will lead them back into the “weak and beggarly elements”. In short, God is going to force Israel, and it appears, the whole world, to do what Paul berated the Galatians for doing…

Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

So why would God “turn them again” unto “weak and beggarly elements”? What purpose could that possibly serve? And yet God must have a purpose – and a good one, at that!

Of course, He does. And that purpose stems from the fact that God, in order to judge a man, must first remove all excuse from him. As long as you can point to God and say “Oh yeah, well, YOU try living as a man for a while!” and He has to admit that yes, He doesn’t have that experience… it’s not really fair for Him to condemn you is it? Of course not.

And as long as you can point to the Devil and say “Well, sure, but if HE hadn’t been around, I’d have been a solid citizen – you should have seen what I’d have done with the Earth without HIM hanging around!”, and God has to admit that you might well have done just that… well, God’s position would be rather weak, and any good judge has to have the facts on his side. And so God will go out of His way to make sure He can back up his judgments with PROOF that His judgments are fair. You must be WITHOUT EXCUSE for your sins, before He can kill you for committing them!

So with this in mind, let’s set up a hypothetical situation. Let’s say a man, an Israelite, from say 800 B.C., comes up for judgment before God’s throne. Let’s say he was an average, undistinguished citizen, one whose accomplishments didn’t earn him a place in the first resurrection, and who also had had a rather mediocre life, living as he did in the declining years of a God-forsaken kingdom. Or rather, the declining years of a divinely cursed kingdom.

And so this man comes before God for judgment. God explains to him what he did wrong, and asks him what he has to say for himself. What will he say? He might say “Well, you try living as a man!”, but then he will be informed that Christ did, and did quite a nice job of it too. So that argument will be disarmed. What next?

Perhaps he will say “the Devil made me do it!”, like Flip Wilson did. God may concede that this is a possibility, and then give the man the chance to live out his life in a Devil-free environment to see how he does. Or perhaps this man will try a different tact.

Perhaps he will say “But God! This is your fault! You gave us that musty old testament law, with all of those boring statutes and ordinances, and you, yourself admitted that it was a defective law! So how can I be blamed for not putting the pieces together, when that was all I had to work with! If only you’d given Israel the NEW covenant, we could have done it right!”

How is God going to respond to that? What can He say – it WAS a defective law, wasn’t it?

Hebrews 8:7-8 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

“So there”, this man exclaims, “it was a faulty covenant – I didn’t have a chance, God!” And you know… at this moment, there isn’t a whole lot God could say. Oh, He could point out to this man that there were others who DID manage to find truth with that musty old covenant… or perhaps remind him that God wasn’t the one on trial here, he was… but I don’t think either of those answers are really airtight, do you?

After all, as Abraham said, the Judge of all the earth MUST DO RIGHT. He MUST be beyond any reproach at all. He must be absolutely blameless and justified in the sight of everyone, even his bitterest enemies mustn’t have a single thing they can pin on Him.

Psalms 51:4 … that thou [God] mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be CLEAR when thou judgest.

And so God is going to plug this chink in His armor, so to speak; He is going to prove, once and for all, that HIS LAW WOULD HAVE WORKED! That the fault wasn’t with the law, as this man intimated – but with the PEOPLE. This will take the blame squarely off of God and place it right back on this man, where it belongs. How can God do this?

Why, by setting aside a time – a thousand years would be ample – to let man be ruled by these simple rules that were set down by Moses. Everything from the cities of refuge to the rites of purification to the sacrificial system… THESE MUST ALL be proved to be a RIGHTEOUS, GOOD system, before God’s way will be justified!

Because excepting for a decade here and there, under a few more or less good kings, and a few dozen years under David and Solomon, God’s law was never practiced, never enforced, and NEVER JUSTIFIED!

There is no record, even once, of the first Jubilee ever being kept by Israel! And Moses had commanded them to observe the Feast of Tabernacles by dwelling in temporary dwellings every year, FOREVER, before they crossed the Jordan, and yet nearly a MILLENNIUM WENT BY(!!) without them doing it!

Nehemiah 8:14-17And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: And … make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths… And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.

THIS LAW OF GOD WAS NEVER OBEYED LONG ENOUGH TO SEE IF IT WOULD PRODUCE HAPPINESS OR NOT! And so for 1,000 years, it WILL be obeyed, administered by the incorruptible, unchanging spirits of JUST MEN MADE PERFECT!

And when that has been done, we will have PROVED that the law IS holy, just, and good! After a millennium of righteous government, without the Devil’s deceptions and evils, this planet will defy description; the deserts will bloom, the land will produce healthy food and provide proper amounts of rain at the proper seasons… and the people! The people will be so foreign to what you or I can understand, that it is difficult to even picture the society. But let’s try anyway!

No one will be able to remember the last murder that was committed. No one will even own a lock. Cars will be started with a push button, like they used to be. Blenders will be built so they can be passed down through ten generations – planned obsolescence is a form of theft, after all.

All of civilization will be happy, and joyous, and healthy. Mosquitoes, fire ants, and sand spurs will be what God intended – a boon to mankind – rather than a burden. The only time a man will get a toothache is if he falls out of the hayloft, and the priests will have the power of God to take care of that.

The streets of these towns will be safe, anywhere in the world, at any hour of the day or night, for any teenage girl to walk with hundred dollar bills sticking out of her pocket. Well, I take that back; we won’t have fake paper money any more, instead we will have real money as God intended, gold, silver, and copper, and so inflation won’t be an issue any more.

Families will dwell in the same area, and children will grow up playing with their fourth cousins. Land cannot be sold, so no matter how careless one man is, he can’t take away that inheritance from his children and grandchildren. People will slowly age and die peacefully at a ripe old age of perhaps 200, having lived a full life in a society that makes the most unrealistic dreams of Plato, Stalin, Lincoln and Confucious look like the slums of New Orleans by comparison.

THIS is what the law of God will produce over a thousand years. This is what the law of God WOULD HAVE PRODUCED in Israel under the judges, or the kings, had it been enforced impartially and fairly and CONSISTENTLY by righteous men! That musty old law will produce the society I just described, and I failed to capture the brilliance of the dream as badly as the artist who tried to capture the sun on canvas!

THE MILLENNIUM WILL JUSTIFY GOD, and the LAW of God, so that anyone who would say “But God… I was an Israelite, and your law never worked for us!”, can be taken by the nape of the neck and shown exactly what this law of God DID produce, and that the law of God DOES work, that the fault wasn’t found with the law – but with the PEOPLE, and their stubborn, uncircumcised hearts!

Hebrews 8:7-8 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. FOR FINDING FAULT WITH THEM, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

But there is another lesson to be taught by the Millennium! And one that is perhaps even more important than this one! At the end of the thousand years, God will show mankind one final, vital lesson! The changes made to earth after a thousand years of freedom from Satan’s influence will be astounding. Stupefying.

And throughout all of this time, Satan has been bound, so that his deceptions and lies were thoroughly kept out of society, and so mankind has SEEN the, to us, unimaginable fruits of a righteous lifestyle!

Revelation 20:1-3 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

And then, like dumping ice water on a sunbather, God shocks mankind by letting Satan loose! God exposes this helpless UTOPIA He has created through a millennium of righteous rule to the wiles and craftiness of the devil – who, after a thousand years of imprisonment is bent on wreaking havoc with mankind!

Ezekiel 38:10-12 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

Notice that this scripture mentions that Gog will be attacking the people who have been gathered out of the nations! But other scriptures show that Israel won’t be gathered out of the nations until the return of Christ! So this can only be referring to a millennial time-frame!

Notice also that Gog will be attacking UNWALLED villages. After dozens of generations of righteous rule, without wars, strife, or even murders, the cities will have no need of walls to keep out marauders. They will dwell in peace.

Ezekiel 28:14-16 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

This prophecy about Gog for the end of the millennium is tragic! Why would God, a righteous, just God, send a great horde out of the north to attack a peaceful, defenseless people, dwelling in unwalled cities?? What could He possibly hope to prove by this? Let us refer to the echo of this prophecy, back in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 20:7-9 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, GOG and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

And so, after a thousand years of PERFECT rule, and a HAPPY, TRULY UNITED NATIONS GOVERNMENT, under DIRECT leadership from Jesus Christ HIMSELF, these nations, with millions, perhaps BILLIONS of people, will be deceived by the devil and go up to war against Israel, AGAIN!

They will have learned NOTHING about God! And THAT is the final lesson the millennium will teach man – that without God’s spirit, living IN him, and without being born of God as an incorruptible spirit being, he will NEVER be trustworthy, and he will NEVER be incorruptibly righteous, that even if he lived for an eon with righteous rule without ever thinking an evil thought, the moment the devil was loosed he would chase after him like a silly schoolgirl!

1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

This final part of the millennium will prove, once and for all, that mankind, without the spirit of God, ISN’T FIT TO BE ALIVE, and IS NOT FIT TO INHABIT GOD’S HOLY UNIVERSE! And once that lesson is showed to mankind, God will have every point of His character, every judgment He has ever made, and every moment of His rule over mankind throughout all his generations JUSTIFIED!

As God explains to Gog in Ezekiel 28:16, “I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”

And that final lesson, that ultimate act justifying God, will usher in a new era, an era where God gives freely of His spirit to all mankind, and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea! (Isaiah 11:9).

Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

And during this Great White Throne period, all mankind will know God! And all mankind will have the opportunity to see God, and to LEARN WHAT HE IS LIKE, without deception, without lies or coercion, without constant pressure to follow the world and the Devil, but to see God for what He truly is!

No longer will mankind see God through a glass darkly, no longer will God need to hide behind the veil of a temple or a mediator, but He will dwell in the hearts of mankind!

Isaiah 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

And the spirit of God will guide them into righteousness, unto a thousand generations, until all of mankind who have ever lived, the infant who died in China never having heard the name of God, to the worst monsters in history, have had a chance to know God and repent of their evils.

And when this glorious process is finished, at the end of the age of the ages, the overall plan consisting of many plans or ages is completed…

1 Corinthians 15:24,28 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. … 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.

And so after tens of thousands of years of working with mankind, after watching all of the suffering and pain, joy and elation, after the lifetimes of countless billions have been accomplished, Christ hands up the finished, immortal, incorruptible fruits of this plan to His Father, those spirits of just men made perfect – that God may be all in all.

Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

And what comes after that? I don’t know. Perhaps God doesn’t know. He may be waiting on you to decide.