FOR FAIR USE EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES

Link of article or video : www.churchofgod.net/booklets-church-of-god/why-the-millenial...

Hello all,

Part 4 of this study includes four more valid reasons why the millennial doctrine is not Biblical. Reason number 17 gets into an area that I feel needs to be given more supportive studies, as it is a very crucial factor in rightly dividing the Holy Word, and for understanding the total picture of the Lord's Kingdom and Redemptive Plan for all mankind. Therefore, I am also posting a study about the FIRST RESURRECTION, that I hope you will read in conjunction with this. It should help one further understand the concepts addressed here.

################

Why the Millennial Doctrine Is Not Biblical (Part 4)

By Albert J. Kempin

Reason Number Fourteen

It Contradicts Paul’s Verdict that “Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50)

Premillennial teachers associate the establishment of the kingdom of God with the second coming of Christ. Paul shows clearly in this chapter that when Jesus comes those who have died will be resurrected, and those who are alive when Jesus comes will be changed from mortality to immortality. Millennial teachers ignore this fact and say that after Jesus has come and established His earthly kingdom, life will go on much the same as it goes on now. This is due to a literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecies and the putting off of their fulfillment to the second coming of Christ. Such teachers say that in the millennium people will be married, rear children and die. They will ride trolley cars, sit under fig trees, raise vineyards, and carry on missionary work. That is a carnal conception of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is primarily a reign of righteousness in which redeemed, spiritual people who are in the world and yet not of it reign in this life by one Christ Jesus. See Romans 14:17 and 5:17.


Reason Number Fifteen

The Millennial Doctrine Ignores the Kingdom of God as a Present Reality

Men and women, very often sincere, cannot see the fact that Jesus is King of kings now, or that there is such a thing as the kingdom of God. They say that Jesus was a prophet, is priest now, and is our coming king. Such leaders fail to notice that Zechariah said, “He shall build the temple of the Lord; and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:13). Two New Testament passages answer this prophecy: Acts 15:15-17, which associates the inclusion of the Gentiles with the building of the New Testament temple or church, and the picture of Christ seated at the right hand of God the Father making intercession for his saints (Hebrews 7:25). As we have pointed out before, that throne upon which Christ is seated is the throne of grace (4:16).

The fact that the kingdom of God is a present reality is summed up beautifully by Paul when he says: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). This is too plain to need any comment. Every person who is born again sees that kingdom (John 3:3).

When Jesus comes again He will be the judge of all mankind and His redemptive reign will be ended: “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). “He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). Paul states that death is destroyed “at his coming” at the resurrection, at “the end.” Hence, if we are to reign with Christ we ought to do it now. When He comes again the redeemed will enter the realm of endless praise and adoration.


Reason Number Sixteen

The Millennial Doctrine with Its Many Comings and Many Judgments Renders Ineffective the Actual Second Coming and the Judgment Day

The minds of men have been beclouded and confused by the strange twists which millennial teachers give to God’s holy Word. The plain teaching of Jesus concerning His second coming is, “I will come again” (John 14:3). The writer to the Hebrews said, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).

Millennial teachers disregard these plain teachings on one future coming and have Jesus coming secretly in a supposed rapture, then coming with His saints, and after the millennium coming for the last or white throne judgment. That does not sound like one future coming; it sounds like many comings.

We might note that Jesus comes with His saints for His saints, because all who have died in the faith are said to be with the Lord. Since the church or the family of God is composed of all true believers both in heaven and on earth, it is easy to see how Jesus can come with His saints (those who have died before His second coming) for His saints (those who are alive when Jesus does come again). No, these saints with whom Jesus is seen coming are not “the tribulation saints.”

The New Testament points to only one great judgment which is still future—a judgment in which both the righteous and the unrighteous are brought before the great tribunal of God. The fancied introduction of judgments for sin, for nations, for saints, and for sinners is not only unscriptural, but confusing. Such interpretation takes the spotlight of conscience and of truth from that one great event toward which all creation is moving. Paul assures us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Our Lord Himself assured us that “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 ****ation” (John 5:28-29). We should so live that we will be found dressed in God’s righteousness when we stand before His throne.


Reason Number Seventeen

Millennial Teachers Invent Another Physical Resurrection

According to such teachers there are two physical resurrections yet future. One resurrection will be for the righteous just before the millennium, and the second resurrection, for the wicked, will be after the millennium. The New Testament is very plain on this matter. Let the reader read John 5:22-29 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 to see that only one general resurrection is still future.

Advocates of such doctrine fail to see that the first resurrection is spiritual and the second one is literal. This is where all the confusion originates. All will admit that sin causes a spiritual death: “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” Only a spiritual resurrection can recover such persons from that spiritual death. That is exactly what the New Testament teaches. Let us see if it does. “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).

John describes the spiritual resurrection which takes place now as a result of believing on Jesus as Savior: “Verily, verily 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” (John 5:25). Note that Jesus speaks of both the spiritual and physical resurrections in this fifth chapter of John.

Paul taught that those who were redeemed by faith in Christ were already partakers of that first resurrection: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). Other scriptures could be cited to prove this point but lack of space will not permit doing so. The reader can trace this teaching through the New Testament himself, having been given this start.


###########################################

As explained above, I have posted another study about the issue in reason 17, it is called FIRST RESURRECTION, and it gets deeply into this subject and how it relates to the millennium. Reasons 18-21 next time.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!

Patti C.