A FINAL APOSTASY AND REBELLION?
A question
which confronts both Post- and Premillennialism is this: Is there to be a
brief but world-wide apostasy and rebellion at the end of the Millennium? Does
the large proportion of the human race, after enjoying the high privileges
which come with life during the millennial era, turn violently against God and
righteousness and attempt to overthrow the Kingdom that has been established?
That such is
to be the case has usually been the assumption of Post- and Premillennialism
alike. So far as Amillennialism is concerned a final rebellion does not
present special difficulty, because it does not expect a future age of
righteousness. Most Amillennialists, however, also have expected an apostasy.
But on either post- or premillennial principles, and coming at the very height
of the millennial reign, such a development does seem to be anti-climactic and
to present a very unpleasant feature. Whether the millennial age is looked
upon as the result and fruitage of a long and costly campaign of world
evangelism, as the Postmillennialist believes, or whether it is looked
upon as a divinely established kingdom with Christ ruling in person in
Jerusalem, a general apostasy and rebellion in which the Devil is given a
world-wide even though brief triumph seems to be entirely out of character.
Much of the glory of the Kingdom would seem to be lost with such a rebellion.
The Scripture
cited in this connection is Revelation 20:3, 7-10. After the statement that
Satan is to be chained and cast into the abyss for a thousand years so that he
should deceive the nations no more, we read: "After this he must be loosed for
a little time... And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be
loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which
are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together
to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up
over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and
the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the
Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where
are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and
night for ever and ever."
This passage
contains much figurative language and admittedly is difficult to interpret.
However, as stated earlier, we believe that the binding of Satan referred to
in verses 1-3, so that he can deceive the nations no more, means that the
world is to be Christianized. These verses seem clearly to refer to the
earth since John saw the angel coming down out of heaven, and the Devil was
bound so that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years
are finished. "Nations" relate to earthly life, not to heavenly life.
We believe that verses 4-6 are parenthetical and that they refer to the
intermediate state.
It is to
be remembered in the first place that the Devil already is a defeated and
fallen foe, and that he cannot tempt or injure mankind or do anything else
except as he receives permission from God. Premillennialists have a
tendency to underrate the power of God and to overrate the power of the Devil.
Some talk as if the Devil were a formidable foe, "the god of this world" in a
literal sense, contending on practically an equal footing with God, and
winning many victories. We can never understand the course of this world's
events unless we keep in mind that God is the absolute and unchallengeable
Sovereign of all that exists, and that no event, good or bad, great or small,
can take place without either His decretive or permissive will. That he does
allow much evil that He could prevent if He chose, is an undeniable fact. But
He limits it, controls it, and overrules it for His own glory and the greater
good of His people. He often uses one evil person or power to punish another.
The power that the Devil and evil men have in this world is like that which
the cruel and arrogant king of Assyria exercised toward Israel, who, while
pursuing his own plans, was in reality only the instrument of God for the
chastisement of Israel (Is. 10:5-15). He was completely in the hands of God
and could go as far as but no farther than God chose to allow him to go. This
is the only adequate view of the course of history if we are to understand
God's dealings with men.
All of this
is clearly brought out in the story of Job. The Devil could not touch Job
until given permission, and then could do so only within prescribed limits. In
that instance God overruled the Devil's evil designs and made use of them to
further the sanctification of His servant. By that means God tested Job's
patience, humbled his pride, vanquished his self-confidence, and in the end
led Job to trust more deeply in His grace. In the New Testament we read that
"God spared not angels when they sinned [the Devil included), but cast them
down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto
judgment" (II Peter 2:4). During the public ministry of Jesus the Devil and
the demons were immediately subject to His commands. Hence any interpretation
that we made of Revelation 20 must be made on the assumption that the Devil is
at all times under God's absolute control and subject to His commands.*
This final
"war," of course, has nothing to do with military maneuvers or military
weapons, or even with geographical locations. It is the last phase of the
spiritual warfare that has been raging between the seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. It has been
shown, we believe, that the great battle described in Revelation 19:11-21 is
not a military but a spiritual conflict which rages through the centuries. The
war against the saints in Revelation 20:7-l0 is of the same nature, although
of much shorter duration. ' Inasmuch as new material relevant to this topic is
being added in a new chapter on pages 388 and following (Revised Edition,
1983) it has become necessary to delete some material as contained on pages
69, 70, 73 and 75 of the original edition. The Lord's people have a place of
refuge and safety in "the camp of the saints," "the beloved city," and not one
of them is lost. "The camp of the saints" and "the beloved city" of verse 9
quite clearly are figurative expressions referring to the Church, which is a
source of spiritual strength and wisdom and safety for the saints. The
regenerate souls in the true Church, as revealed in Revelation 7:3, 4, are
sealed so that they cannot be hurt, that is, so that they cannot be led into
apostasy by any of the Devil's works. No true saint apostatizes to the
service of the Devil. All the time they are under divine protection, which
is symbolized by the fire that comes down out of heaven and devours their
enemies. The weapons used by Satan and his followers are false doctrines,
heresies, lies, slander, etc., which are directed against the Lord's people.
Those who are not born again Christians are easy victims of the Devil's wiles
and become his followers. But true Christians are inwardly prepared and ready
to meet any such attack and cannot be hurt by any of these things.
Earlier in
the New Testament, when writing to the Christians in the Church at Ephesus,
Paul used similar language and expounded at length the idea that the Christian
is inwardly prepared and secure against the attacks of the evil one. "Put on
the whole armour of God," he said, "that ye may be able to stand against the
wiles of the Devil." "For," he continues, "our wrestling is not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole armour of God,
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on
the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And
that the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God: with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints" (Eph. 6:11-18). And to the Corinthians he wrote: "For though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our
warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of
strongholds); casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted
against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ" (II Cor. 10:3-5).
To assume
that at the end of the Millennium the vast multitude of the saints of God are
literally shut up in the city of Jerusalem by their enemies and rendered
practically helpless is to assume the absurd. We must ever keep in mind that
this is symbolical language, that what we are seeing is not the reality, but a
vision, a great pageant, and that the material symbols are merely used to
set forth spiritual truth.
In his recent
book, An Eschatology of Victory, Rev. J. Marcellus Kik makes the following
comment regarding the loosing of Satan and the warfare against the beloved
city:
"Notice that
Satan does not break out of the prison by his own power. He does not break his
chains. He is loosed by the Lord... The names of Gog and Magog are used much
as we might use the names of Hitler and Nazi after our experience in World War
II. Hitler and Nazi bring before our minds cruel armies who wrought much
damage. We might well term some future tyrant Hitler and some future nation
Nazi horde without having Germans in mind. In Revelation the names of the old
enemies are used to designate new ones. Gog and Magog represent future enemies
of the Church whose names are as yet unknown. This type of interpretation is
taught in Revelation 11:8, 'And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of
the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our
Lord was crucified.' Sodom and Egypt are 'spiritualized.' Even so we
'spiritualize' Gog and Magog...
"It is
difficult for some to conceive of the nature of the opposition. The language
is so vivid that it is hard for us to realize that this is not a battle of
arms -- of sword and gun. Our Lord clearly implies that the battle for
Christianity is not fought with carnal sword. It is a battle between the true
Gospel and the false Gospel. It is a battle of truth against error. It is a
battle of light against darkness. It is not a war against flesh and blood,
'but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of
the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places'...
"They
compassed the camp of the saints about. The Church is likened to a military
camp. This is a figure borrowed from the time of Moses and Joshua when the
Church even externally presented the form of a military camp. The twelve
tribes with their banners surrounded the Tabernacle on four sides. The camp
was in the form of a square, of which the four sides were to be placed toward
the four quarters of the compass. This was a type of the heavenly city as seen
by Ezekiel 48:20 and the city foursquare of Revelation 21:16. The camp and the
City are but different figures of speech to describe the Church upon earth.
The Church in heaven will never be surrounded by enemies such as are pictured
to us in Revelation 20...
"To others
this is the literal city of Jerusalem. Just a little thinking will show how
impossible this is. Imagine all the armies of the nations of the world laying
siege to one city in Palestine! And you must picture modern armies equipped
with missiles, bombs, and planes. The land of Palestine could not contain all
the armies of the world. This is figurative language. This is the language of
the Old Testament to express the enmity of the world against the Church" (pp.
237-242).
It is of
further interest in this connection to note that Dr. Warfield believed there
will be no resurgence of evil at all at the end, but rather that at the return
of Christ the present Kingdom -- then perfected, with the conquering of the
last enemy, death,-- will be merged into the eternal kingdom. He understood
the section Revelation 20:1-10 to refer to the intermediate state, and he
believed that the "thousand years" was intended to describe the heavenly bliss
of the saints in Paradise, in contrast with which the trial time of the Church
on earth is described by the term "a little time" (vs. 3). This view made it
possible for him to hold that there is no apostasy or rebellion at all at the
close of the golden age of righteousness and peace. As a Postmillennialist he
believed that the world is to be converted to Christianity before the return
of Christ, but he based his view on Revelation 19:11-21 and on the intimations
in Romans 11 and I Corinthians 15 rather than on Revelation 20:1-10. He says
concerning Revelation 20:1-10:
"The picture
that is brought before us here is the picture of the 'intermediate state' --
of the saints of God gathered in heaven away from the confused noises and
garments bathed in blood that characterizes the war upon earth, in order that
they may securely await the end. The thousand years, thus, is the whole of
this present dispensation, which again is placed before us in its entirety,
but looked at now relatively not to what is passing on the earth but to what
is enjoyed 'in paradise.' This, in fact, is the meaning of the symbol of a
thousand years. For, this period between the events is, on earth, a broken
time -- three and a half years, a 'little time' (verse 3) -- which, amid
turmoil and trouble, the saints are encouraged to look upon as of short
duration, soon to be over. To the saints in bliss it is, on the contrary, a
long blessed period passing slowly and peacefully by, while they reign with
Christ and enjoy the blessedness of holy communion with Him -- 'a thousand
years.'
"Of course
the passage (xx. 1-10) does not give us a direct description of 'the
intermediate state.' We must bear in mind that the book we are reading is
written in symbols and gives us a direct description of nothing that is set
before us, but always a direct description of the symbol by which it is
represented. In the preceding vision (xix. 1l-21) we had no direct description
of the triumph and progress of the Gospel, but only of a fierce and gruesome
war: the single phrase that spoke of the slaying sword as 'proceeding out of
the mouth' of the conqueror alone indicating that it was a conquest by means
of persuading words. So here we are not to expect a direct description of the
'intermediate state'...It is a description in the form of a narrative; the
element of time and chronological succession belong to the symbol, not to the
thing symbolized. The 'binding of Satan' is, therefore, in reality, not for a
season, but with reference to a sphere; and his 'loosing' again is not after a
period but in another sphere: it is not subsequence but exteriority that is
suggested. There is, indeed, no literal 'binding of Satan' to be thought of at
all: what happens, happens not to Satan but to the saints, and is only
represented as happening to Satan for the purpose of the symbolical picture.
What actually happens is that the saints described are removed from the sphere
of Satan's assaults. The saints described are free from all access of Satan --
he is bound with respect to them: outside of their charmed circle his horrid
work goes on. This is indicated, indeed, in the very employment of the two
symbols 'a thousand years' and 'a little time.' A 'thousand years' is the
symbol of heavenly completeness and blessing; the 'little time' of earthly
turmoil and evil. Those in the 'thousand years' are safe from Satan's
assaults: those outside the thousand years are still enduring his attacks. And
therefore he, though with respect to those in the thousand years bound, is not
destroyed; and the vision accordingly requires to close with an account of his
complete destruction, and of course this also must needs be presented in the
narrative form of a release of Satan, the gathering of his hosts and their
destruction from above" (Article, The Millennium and the Apocalypse; reprinted
in Biblical Doctrines, pp. 649-651).*
We agree that
Revelation 20:1-10 affords no real basis for believing that there is to be a
final apostasy in the sense that a large proportion of earth's inhabitants
turn against God, or that the safety of the saints is seriously threatened.
Furthermore,
after we have been shown in the Revelation 19:11- 21 how complete is Christ's
victory and how thoroughly crushed are all His foes, we cannot believe that at
the end God as the sovereign Ruler of the world -- He of whom the Scriptures
say, "The * We shall have more information regarding Dr. Warfield's views in
chapter 22, which includes an article added to the 1983 edition of this book.
king's heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses; he turneth it
whithersoever he will" (Prov. 21:1); and, "He doeth according to his will in
the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay
his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Dan. 4:35) -- will suddenly and
purposefully throw away that victory and permit the Devil a worldwide triumph
even for the briefest time. Once the hard-fought battle is over and such a
magnificent victory won, we may be sure that it will be properly safeguarded,
and that the Devil will never again be allowed to rise as a serious contender
against God.
And this we
believe is the consistent teaching of Scripture. Perhaps the most definite
statement regarding the permanence of Messiah's kingdom is found in Daniel's
interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, where, after indicating the
successive world kingdoms that were to rise, Daniel said: "And in the days of
those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it
shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for
ever" (2:44). Ezekiel pictures the ever-increasing blessings of Messiah's
reign as a flow of healing waters that issue from under the threshold of the
temple, first only ankle deep, then to the knees, then to the loins, then a
great river that could not be passed through (47:1-5). Zechariah says of the
Messianic Kingdom that "his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the
River to the ends of the earth" (9:10). The kingdom prophecies in Isaiah and
Micah teach a complete victory with never a reference to a final apostasy.
Speaking through the Psalmist God said, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the
nations for thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession" (2:8).
The New
Testament presents the same teaching. The healing stream pictured by Ezekiel
finds fulfillment in the life-giving ministry of the Christian Church. The
kingdom of heaven is said to be "like unto leaven," which a woman took, and
hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened" (Matt. 13:33).
"The residue
of men, and all the Gentiles" are to "seek after the Lord" (Acts 15:17).
Christ is to sit at the right hand of the Father until all His enemies have
been placed under His feet (Acts 2:35) -- and there is no reason to believe
that those enemies, having once been conquered, will ever again be permitted
to rise up and renew the battle.
A striking
contrast between the Millennium in which the Postmillennialist believes and
that in which the Premillennialist believes is seen in the degree to which
evil will be allowed to assert itself during that time and at its close.
The Postmillennialist believes that as the Millennium becomes a reality evil
will be reduced to a minimum. But the Premillennialist believes that while
Satan is to be bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations, those
nations nevertheless continue at heart enemies, ready to turn to Satan and to
follow his leadership in a war against the saints the moment the thousand
years are finished. According to the premillennial view evil is effectively
held in check during the Millennium only by the rod-of-iron rule of Christ.
Premillennialists who are accustomed to think of the millennial age as an age
of righteousness and peace may be surprised to know what three of their
representative men who have been so influential in bringing the system to its
present form (Dispensationalism) had to say on this subject. John N. Darby,
whose influence at the beginning of the movement was so formative, says: "Now
there are a faithful few, Satan being the prince and god of this world, going
against the stream. Then Christ will be the prince of the world, and Satan
bound, and obedience will be paid to Christ's manifested power even when men
are not converted. When this obedience is not paid, excision takes place, so
that all is peaceful and happy. It is a perfect government of the earth made
good everywhere. When Satan is let loose and temptations come again, those not
kept by grace follow him. I have an impression that piety will decline in the
millennium; but it is founded on a figure, so that I do not insist on it; but
the rest of what I have said is revealed. That men should fall when tempted,
however sad, is nothing but what is very simple. It is the last effort of
Satan" (Collective Writings, xi., p. 534).
James H.
Brookes, in his Maranatha, presents an even darker picture. Says he: "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh and though restrained during the
Millennium it will manifest its inherent depravity at the first favorable
opportunity, like a tiger long caged and curbed that will bound back to its
native jungle with unquenchable thirst for blood when their iron bars are
removed" (p. 540, Fifth Ed., 1878).
And Dr. G.
Campbell Morgan says: "We have seen that the Golden Age is to be characterized
by the direct government of Christ. Sin will still be in the earth; but it
will be held in repression and summarily punished as soon as manifested. The
nations which Christ will rule with a rod of iron will be to a large extent
disloyal in heart; so that when Satan is loosed for a little season he will
straightway deceive them. True, there will be everywhere those who refuse
enlistment under his banners; but the picture here is that of an enormous
apostasy, the most fearful even seen... There is no doubt that to some who
have dreamed of the Millennium as a finality, the outlook afterward is
disappointing; but ere the kingdom of Jesus Christ in all its glory can be
ushered in, the unbelief and disloyalty which lurks in the hearts of men must
be brought to a final head... All the nations will be under the government of
the 'rod of iron,' and will be compelled to submit therefore. In heart,
however, the great mass will be rebellious to the end, and will eagerly avail
themselves of the opportunity of outwardly throwing off the yoke and entering
upon actual conflict when it presents itself in the unloosing of Satan" (God's
Methods with Man, pp. 132, 133).
Commenting on
this view Dr. Allis observes that it is not an attractive one and then says:
"it is not pleasing to think of the Messianic King, the Prince of Peace,
sitting enthroned as it were on a smouldering volcano; of a reign of Messiah,
peaceful on the surface but seething with hate and muttered rebellion; of
people yielding outward obedience because 'excision' is the inevitable
consequence of disobedience and opposition, since the rod-of-iron rule can
only mean the 'dashing in pieces' of the rebellious like a potter's vessel.
When we read that 'the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,' we do not take this to
mean that the wolf will be as eager as ever to devour the lamb and be
restrained from doing so only by fear of the consequences. We naturally
understand it to imply a change of nature; the ravening beast, whether the
words be taken literally or figuratively, will no longer desire to devour the
lamb. "They shall not hurt nor destroy' in all God's holy mountain, for the
reason that they will not want to, not because they will be restrained by
force majeure from doing what they will want to do."
He adds
further that according to this view, "The enemies of Messiah will make a show
of obedience to a rule which they hate. So we may say that, according to this
view, the millennium will surpass all others as the age of hypocrisy and
hypocrites. Men, many men, will submit only because they must; and these
tiger-men will be waiting with ever growing impatience for the moment when
defiance and resistance may offer at least the semblance of a successful
issue" (Prophecy and the Church, p. 241).
What a
Millennium the Premillennialist has! A thousand years of Jewish supremacy with
Jerusalem as the capital, semi-heavenly and semi-earthly, saints in glorified
resurrection bodies mingling with sinners in the flesh, a mixed state of
mortals and immortals, and all of this climaxed by an unprecedented
manifestation of evil at its close! Human life and the work of the world will
go on during all that long period very much as now. Men and women will marry
and children will be born; people with mortal bodies will live in houses and
eat physical food and be subject to sickness and death although not to the
same degree as at present. Conditions will be ideal but not heavenly; the
earth will be abundantly fruitful; multitudes will honor and worship God while
other multitudes will be sullen and resentful. Wicked men will be held in
check by the rule of force. To a considerable extent Old Testament conditions
will be re-established. "The middle wall of partition" between Jew and
Gentile, which Christ has broken down "that he might create in himself of the
two one new man, so making peace" (Eph. 2:14, 15), is to be built up again and
made higher and stronger, and the Jews re-established as the chosen people.
Such a Kingdom must of necessity be far inferior in glory to the final
Kingdom.
Premillennialists insist that the latter part of Ezekiel, chapters 38 to 48,
is to be taken with great literalness as having fulfillment in the millennial
kingdom, and as foretelling a restored Israel in the land of Palestine. Thus
the temple is to be rebuilt, animal sacrifices are again to be presented to
make atonement for the sins of the people (45:15 -- 46:15), the priests will
officiate (46:2), the people of the earth will go up to Jerusalem for the
appointed feasts (46:9), and Christ personally present and visible only to a
comparatively small number of people will enter the temple by the eastern gate
as the priests prepare His burnt-offerings and peace-offerings (46:2, 3).
Notice that if these chapters are to be taken literally they do not say, as
Premillennialists attempt to make them say, that the sacrifices will be only
memorial in nature, but that they definitely are called "sin-offerings,"
"burnt offerings," and "meal-offerings" (45:22, 25). A literalist has no right
to give them any other meaning. We prefer to say that these predictions were
fulfilled in part when Israel was restored to Palestine at the time of Ezra
and Nehemiah and later, and that as regards any parts that did not find
fulfillment at that time, Old Testament thought forms are employed to teach
New Testament spiritual truths, truths which in that day could be expressed
intelligently only through those forms with which the people were familiar.
Frankly, we
have no desire for such a state as Premillennialism sets forth, but prefer at
death to enter directly into the heavenly Kingdom. Surely it must be evident
to anyone that such a state, though for the saints it may be marked by
holiness of life, nevertheless leaves much to be desired, and that such a
lesser state of things prolonged for a thousand years becomes not an increase
but a decrease of blessedness, restraining rather than promoting the coming of
the Kingdom of God in its fullness. There is in fact nothing to justify the
prolongation of such a futile interval. For the departed saints who have
been reigning with Christ a return to earthly life and earthly conditions
would be, literally and figuratively, a great "come-down," a serious
restriction of the glorious life that they now enjoy. The Premillennialist
makes no adequate allowance for the far superior and radically different type
of life enjoyed by the saints in Paradise and that to which they would be
subjected if brought back to this earth. And as far as those who still are in
the flesh are concerned, surely the Lord's physical presence, visible to but a
comparatively small number of His people, would mean less than His spiritual
presence now experienced by all His people in all parts of the world -- unless
we are to cease walking by faith and begin walking by sight.
Again we say,
What a Millennium the Premillennialist has! -- a Millennium preceded by seven
years of unparalleled confusion and suffering and persecution during the
"Great Tribulation" and under the reign of Antichrist, and ending with a
universal revolt and war against which the saints and even Christ Himself seem
to be helpless and from which they are rescued only by fire from heaven! We
cannot refrain from asking, Does Christ desert His people at the end of the
glorious millennial reign, that they should be shut up in Jerusalem and
practically at the mercy of the enemy? Surely that cannot be! How is that
strange turn of events to be explained?
And we must
ask further, why, if such an important earthly interval lies ahead, why did
not Christ and the apostles clearly predict that the temple would be rebuilt,
the Levitical sacrifices and rituals re-established, the Aaronic priesthood
restored, the Jews again appointed to be a separate and especially favored
people, and Jerusalem again made the center of the world's worship in a
thousand year Jewish kingdom? There can be but one answer: Such a scheme
formed no part of their belief. Far from localizing worship in a temple in
Jerusalem, Jesus said, "The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in
Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father... The hour cometh, and now is, when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such
doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a spirit: and they that
worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:21-24).
