Elder Goh Kee Tai

Christ’s Millennial Kingdom

The Second Coming of Christ
The earnest desire of all truly born-again believers is the return of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, the King of kings and Lord of lords, as even we pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ in the Lord’s prayer.

Jesus has revealed to His disciples the manifold signs of His return (Mt 24: 13-28). The world’s political, economic, social and religious systems have embarked on a period of exponential development and transformation and thus confirm that we are indeed living in the end of the age. The most treacherous dictator, the Antichrist, energised by Satan, will eventually emerge to rule this evil world (Rev 13:2). He will demand all inhabitants of earth to worship him or face severe persecution and death (2 Th 2:4). Before this devil incarnate dictator takes control of the world, our Saviour will come in the clouds to take His redeemed to be with Him (1 Th 4: 16,17) to deliver them from the seven-year great tribulation period under the Antichrist (Mt 24:21). At the end of the tribulation period, Jesus will once again come to earth in the clouds in power and great glory with His saints and angels to vanquish the Antichrist and his allies at the battle of Armageddon (Mt 24:30; Rev 19:11-21). Then, will the Antichrist and his false prophet be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire (Rev 19:20).

Preparation for the millennial reign on earth
Before Jesus begins His millennial reign on earth, He will confine Satan in the ‘bottomless pit’ to remove demonic deception from the world (Rev 20: 2,3). Christ will rule all nations from Jerusalem, the political and religious centre of His 1,000 years rule (Rev 20:4).He will restore earth from its vile state which, as a result of Divine judgment on the Antichrist, have suffered irreparable cosmic, geological and ecological upheavals with complete devastation and destruction of all the vegetation and contamination of water (Rev 6: 12-14; 8:7-11; 16:3,4).

Christ will regather, regenerate and restore His elect, the Jews, from all parts of the world (Mt 24:31). At this time, Israel will recognise and accept Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and acknowledge Him with deep contrition, the One Whom their forefathers had crucified. Christ will accept them: ‘they shall call on be my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God’ (Zech 13: 9). He will blot out their sins and transgressions and forgive them: ‘And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins’ (Rm 11:26,27).

Christ will put in place the religious and administrative structures and appoint resurrected saints as princes, judges and priests to rule with Him (Rev 5:10). The Apostles will be appointed to judge the 12 tribes of Israel (Mt 19:28)

Both Jews and the Gentiles who survive the great tribulation period and the battle of Armageddon will stand before our Lord in judgment. Only the faithful Jews will enter the millennial Kingdom (Ez 20:37,38) As for the Gentiles, Christ will separate the ‘goats’ from the ‘sheep’. The ‘sheep’ are those who have been saved, whose hearts are right with God and have earned His approbation and treated the Jews well during the tribulation period. They will enter the millennial Kingdom with joy and gladness: ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (Mt 25:34). The ‘goats’ include the unbelieving, the vile and impious, unrighteous and unrepentant, and who disregard the plights of the persecuted Jews. These will be condemned: ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Mt 25: 41).

The events above will probably take place during the 75-day period from the time Jesus landed at Mount Olives to the beginning of His reign on earth (Zech 14:4; Dn 12:11,12).

Inhabitants of the millennial Kingdom
The millennial Kingdom comprises two classes of people. The first group are all genuine believers (both dead and alive) who are ‘caught up’ (raptured) to be with Christ when He appears in the air (1 Th 4:16,17), as well as the resurrected tribulation saints who take a stand for the word God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ and who refuse to worship the Antichrist nor his image nor receive his mark on their foreheads or right hands (Rev 6:9-11; 13:16,17). These inhabitants will possess the glorified resurrection bodies like that of Christ (Phi 3:21). The second group consists of believers who enter the millennium but yet possess a mortal body. However, it is certain that no unsaved person will enter the millennium Kingdom. Unlike the resurrected saints, believing Jews and the Gentiles in the millennial Kingdom will continue to marry, reproduce, multiply and replenish the earth.

The glories and blessings of the millennial Kingdom
Our Lord Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of David at Jerusalem and rules with justice and equity (Is 11:4). The capital is called ‘a city of truth’ (Zech 8:3), a holy, joyous city free from all idolatry and false prophesying (Zech 13: 2) as ‘The LORD is there’ (Eze 48:35). Christ will bring in everlasting righteousness in His Kingdom (Dn 9:24). He is ‘the desire of all nations’ (Hag 2:7).
Holiness and righteousness will characterise Christ’s millennium Kingdom, as God, in Jesus, the King, will live among Jews and the Gentiles. It is a glorious Kingdom as the glory of God will be fully manifested. The people will enjoy sweet fellowship with Him (Jere 30:22) and experience fullness of the Holy Spirit (Is 59:21). All that is offensive to God’s holiness will be obliterated. Everything will be holy unto the Lord and consecrated for His service and for His glory (Zech 14: 20,21). Its inhabitants will joyously do the will of God and enjoy His blessings. Jesus will manifest Himself fully in His grace and love as He personally attends to the needs of every individual with His joy and comfort. All divers illness and diseases will be healed by the Divine Physician and the blind shall see, the deaf shall hear, the dumb shall speak, the lame shall leap and weak hands and feeble knees shall be strengthened (Is 35: 5,6).

The King will restrain evil by His authoritative power (Is 2:4). As the Prince of Peace (Is 9:6), He will unite the nations of the world and achieve perfect universal peace, tranquillity and harmony: ‘And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places’ (Is 32:18). There will be no more wars among the nations: ‘they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up swords against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’ (Is 2:4). Political, social and religious oppression is non-existent. Equity and justice, safety and security with no fear of evil will be the order of the day (Is 65: 21-23).
The world in the millennial Kingdom will enjoy economic prosperity as its inhabitants will be gainfully employed. Throughout, the lands will be blessed with abundant crops: ‘in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water’ (Is 35:6,7). A perfect economic system and harmonious working relationship will contribute to increased agricultural and manufacturing outputs. The people will thus enjoy quality life on earth (Is 60:16). There shall be no more sorrow or sighing (Is 35:10).

The world’s population will increase rapidly as the lifespan of children born in the millennium will be lengthened. They will live to a ripe old age as in the days of the patriarchs: ’There 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’(Is 65:20).

Removal of the original curse
When Adam and Eve fell in sin in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:17,18), the whole creation was cursed. Nature, including animal life, are affected: ‘the creature was made subject to vanity, … the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain’ (Rm 8:20,22). Now, in the millennial Kingdom era, Christ will remove this curse and redeem His creation. Thorns and thistles will disappear. The animosity in the animal kingdom will be removed. All ferocious beasts of prey will become harmless as they will only feed on vegetation. They will not hurt or destroy one another. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the wolf and the lamb, and the cow and the bear shall feed together, and their young ones shall lie down together. The lion shall not hurt nor destroy a little child; the cobra and viper shall lose their venom and a suckling or weaned child shall play with these snakes without endangering himself is a typical scene in Christ’s millennial Kingdom (Is 11:6-9).

Special blessings on Israel
Israel will be re-established as a mighty nation and will occupy the territory which God promised Abraham, stretching between the two great rivers, Nile and Euphrates (Gen 15:18). The 12 tribes will be reallocated portions of the land in Palestine (Eze 48:1-7;23-29). Christ will bless her richly and exalt her above all the Gentile nations on earth (Gen 12:2).
When Jesus lands at Mount Olives on His second coming on earth, the geography of the land of Palestine will be transformed by an earthquake (Zech 14:4). A great valley will be formed when the mountain where Jesus stands splits into half. A river will flow from Jerusalem, half towards the Mediterranean Sea and the other half towards the Dead Sea (Zech 14:8). A great plain will replace the mountainous region (Zech 14:10). The land will be extremely fertile: ‘the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk’ (Joel 3:18). Trees bearing 12 different kinds of fruits each year will grow along the banks of the river which proceeds from beneath the millennial Temple and runs through the desert to the Dead Sea which will be purified and revitalised with fishes living in it (Eze 47: 8-10,12 ).

The millennial Temple
A spacious, splendid Temple, filled with God’s glory, will be built on an elevated site (Eze: 40-47). This will be the centre of worship for the world to come before Jesus, the King of glory (Eze 43:4). The Shekinah glory of the LORD which had departed (from the east gate of Solomon’s Temple at the time of Babylonian pillage and captivity) will now return (by the east gate of the millennial Temple) (Eze 10:18,19; 43:4). Unlike Solomon’s Temple, this Temple will not have a barricade to keep worshippers away from the glory of God, for the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple was torn into two pieces from top to bottom when Jesus died on the Cross, signifying now we have direct access to our Saviour (Mt 27:51). With Jesus, the Bread of life (Jn 6: 35) and the Light of the world (Jn 8:12 ) in the midst of it, there will not be a table head for the shewbread and the lampstand.
Worship of the Lord in Jerusalem will be the chief activity of all nations. TheJews will evangelise to the Gentiles and lead believers of all nations and tongues to Jerusalem (Zech 8:23; Is 66:18-21) on annual pilgrimage to worship the King: ‘many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD’ (Zech 8:22). The Lord Himself and the priests will teach the nations His word, His laws and His ways. The people will have the full knowledge of God and walk in His paths (Jere 31:33; Is 2:3). The Feast of the Tabernacles will be revived and celebrated as an expression of their joy of the Lord and contempt for sin. Those who do not keep the Feast will have the blessings of heavenly grace withdrawn (Zech 14: 16-19).
There will be animal sacrifices in the Temple (Eze 46: 1-15).During this period, millions of children will be born to parents of saved mortal Jews and the Gentiles who enter the millennium. These children are conceived in sin and iniquity (Ps 51:5) and they all have to be born again to receive eternal salvation. Although satanic influence will be obliterated in the millennium, mortal beings with sinful nature are totally depraved, deceitful and desperately wicked (Jere 17:9). None of them is righteous before the thrice holy God (Rm 3:10). Thus, the object lesson of these sacrifices is a stern reminder of the holiness of God, the corruption of sin, the finished sacrifice paid by Jesus in God’s redemptive work of salvation for sinful man, and the necessity of the new birth (Jn 3:7).

New heaven and new earth
At the end of 1000 years, by the unsearchable wise decree and sovereign will of God, Satan will be released from the ‘bottomless pit’. He will make one final attempt to overthrow Jesus Christ by deceiving all the nations and gathering them to the battle of Gog and Magog. However, he and his armies will be utterly vanquished. Satan will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:7-10). All the unsaved dead from the time of Adam and those whose names are not found in the book of life will be resurrected to appear before Christ at the great white throne judgment and then cast into the eternal lake of fire (Rev 20: 11-15). The present creation will be destroyed. The heavens and the earth shall be dissolved by fire and the elements therein shall melt with great fervent heat (2 Pet 3:7,10,12). A new heaven and a new earth where there is everlasting righteousness will be created (Rev 21:1). All glorified resurrected saints will dwell in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, for all eternity with God (Rev 21: 2 ).

Conclusion
Jesus will certainly return to bring everlasting peace, justice and equity to this wicked depraved world. His millennial Kingdom will be an ideal society characterised by perfect peace, freedom, harmony and righteousness in the whole creation.
Are you ready to meet the Lord face to face when He returns? Will He find you faithful? Are you laying up treasures on earth or seeking after His Kingdom and His righteousness? The urgency of His Second Coming should stir all of us to be spiritually discerning, serving Him and living each day for Him with eternity’s value in view.
While the Lord tarries, may He enable us to live a life of holiness without blemish (Eph 5:27) as a chaste virgin of Christ (2 Cor 11:2) and earnestly look forward to that great and glorious day when the Bridegroom and Head of the church (Eph 5:23), shall take His bride, the church, to heaven before the great tribulation period begins and return with Him on earth to reign with Him as kings and priests of God and of Christ (Rev 1:6;20:6) during the millennium and finally, to share the New Jerusalem with Him through all eternity (Rev 21:9-27). Amen.