Scripture Query and Answer: Reign of Christ

From: Bible Treasury: Volume N11

• 3 min. read • grade level: 11

Q.-Can it be shown from Scripture that when the reign of Christ over the earth is finally established, there will be none of mankind living in the world but such as have been born of the Spirit?

C. Cox

A. Does not Revelation 20:7-9⁷And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, ⁸And 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. ⁹And 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. (Revelation 20:7‑9) supply the answer? For the expiration of the millennial reign of Christ reveals the solemn fact that, in spite of the universal knowledge of the glory of Jehovah (Habakkuk 2:14¹⁴For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)) the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth fall under the deceptive power of Satan, then loosed out of his prison, who succeeds in gathering them to battle against the camp of the saints and the beloved city—Jerusalem, God's holy mountain.

With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, a new covenant will have been made, and “they all shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34³¹Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³²Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: ³³But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, 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. (Jeremiah 31:31‑34)). Compare also Ezek. 36; 37. They shall be all righteous and shall inherit the land forever, the branch of His planting, the work of His hands, that He may be glorified.

As regards the Gentiles, all flesh shall see the glory of Jehovah, but the nation and kingdom that will not serve Israel shall perish, they shall be utterly wasted (Isaiah 60:12¹²For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. (Isaiah 60:12)). “Whoso will not come up ["from year to year"] of the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.” “Jehovah shall smite the nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.” This shall be the “punishment [or sin] of all the nations that come not up” (Zechariah 14:16-19¹⁶And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. ¹⁷And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. ¹⁸And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. ¹⁹This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16‑19)).

Whilst, therefore, Israel will be a “holy nation,” not so the nations universally. Righteousness wilt reign, and evil be suppressed; non-existent it will hardly be, else how can we understand (the margin of) Psalm 18:44⁴⁴As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. (Psalm 18:44), “sons of [the] stranger shall yield feigned obedience to me;” also Psalm 66:3³Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. (Psalm 66:3), “Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies yield feigned obedience to thee"? And of the children of the righteous born during this period of universal blessedness, how can we assume that they would be all born of God? —that they necessarily grow up to walk (as did not the sons of Samuel—remarkable man as he was) in their father's ways? On the contrary, we see judgment falling during, and at the end of, the thousand years, disclosing conclusively that not all are converted, whatever may have been the case at the beginning of the reign. Does not Isaiah 65:20²⁰There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. (Isaiah 65:20) show that the man who filled not his days was cut off, because he was a sinner? For there will be no death during the thousand years except as the result of open sin; death will be swallowed up in victory (Isaiah 25:8⁸He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 25:8)).

We thus learn that no outward circumstances avail for the conversion of the soul. There must be an inward work of the word and Spirit of God. The mighty works of our blessed Lord in favored Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum failed to work repentance in these cities! So in the millennium, with all its manifested power and glory and knowledge increased, the heart of man remains unchanged, unless the subject of divine grace. There must be a new birth, and this cannot be apart from repentance and faith.

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