The Meaning Of The Millennium

Q. Please help me to understand something about the Millennial Kingdom. According to descriptions of the Kingdom in Isaiah and elsewhere, it will be ruled by Jesus Himself from Jerusalem.  It will be characterized by peace, and “they will neither hurt nor destroy…”.

How can that be if the people will be mortal and still have their sin nature to the degree that, when Satan is released 1,000 years later, the people will rebel again, bringing about a new Gog-Magog war? When do they begin to “hurt and destroy” again?  What does omniscient/omnipotent Jesus do about it?

This would seem to be a time when we, the Church, will be called out of the New Jerusalem to police the people (about which Scripture is silent).

A. For years I wondered about the Millennium and its purpose.  It isn’t part of the 6000 year age of man and yet it isn’t part of eternity either.  I’ve concluded that it’s man’s final chance to show whether he can live up to God’s standards.  Man has always offered three excuses for his failure, so in the millennium those excuses are taken away.  First he blamed the devil, so in the Millennium the devil will be chained in prison.  Second he blamed the bad influence of unbelievers, so at the outset of the Millennium only believers will be allowed to occupy the Earth.  And third, he blamed the absence of the Lord.  So in the Millennium the Lord will be King of all the Earth, ruling in person.

Even in this perfect environment man will fail, and as the 1000 years transpire human civilization will once again sink to a level so low that when Satan is released he can immediately mount a huge army to try one more time to defeat the Lord.

The church will never be called out to police the Earth because the goal is not to enforce order.  The Lord would need no help to do that.  The goal is to demonstrate once and for all that there is no circumstance or condition wherein natural man can live a life that’s pleasing to the Lord. That’s why we need a Savior, and that’s why we need a new body, one that’s been divested of its sin nature.