Prophesies Of Millennial Kingdom

What Will Christ’s Millennial Kingdom Be Like?

Geography: The second coming of Christ, when the Lord stands upon the Mount of Olives, will be accompanied by a great earthquake and the landscape of the land of Israel and the rest of the earth will be drastically altered.  The literal meaning of Isaiah 40: 4-5 will come to pass, ‘Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.’

Zechariah 14:4 tells us, ‘His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the cast, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.’

Jerusalem will rise to become the capital of the earth, ‘The LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and His Name one.  All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.’ (Zechariah 14: 9-11).

Ecology: Starting with the millennium, there will be a removal of the curse upon the earth which began with Adam’s fall and continues down to the present, unabated.

As the coming again of Christ will be to save the spared remnant of Israel and to destroy their enemies, so it will also be to deliver creation from the bondage of corruption in which it now travails (Romans 8: 21), ‘Because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.’  Hence we see in Isaiah 11: 9, ‘They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.’  Note the earth, not heaven.  The earth has never yet been full of the knowledge of the Lord.  Therefore it must be future.

Still speaking of the earth, Isaiah 35: 1-2 says: ‘The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them (Israel); and the desert shall blossom as the rose.  It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.’  There is no wilderness or solitary place or desert in heaven.  Therefore it must mean on this earth.

In Romans 8: 18-23 we read, ‘I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation of the creature [creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  For the creature[creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.'

The earth, and especially the Land of Israel will become like the Garden of Eden.  Ezekiel 36: 35: ‘This land that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced. and are inhabited.’

Animals will once again be friendly to one another and to humans.  The wolf will lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the baby goats.  Little children will be able to play near serpents without fear.  Isaiah 11: 6-8: ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.’

Wolves and lambs will feed together, and even the lions will eat straw like the bullock.  Isaiah 65:25: ‘The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat.  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the LORD.’

‘Lord, how long shall this creation groan and travail sore in pain;

Waiting for its sure salvation, when Thou shalt in glory reign;

and like Eden, this sad earth shall bloom again?’

The parched ground will become a pool.  Isaiah 35: 7: ‘The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.’

The trees shall clap their hands, and instead of thorns there will be trees.  Isaiah 55: 12-13: ‘Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (there will then be no more creation-groan).  Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.’

The earth will be fruitful, and there will be no famine.  Ezekiel 34: 27-29: ‘The tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.  And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.  And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.’

Health: People will live longer during the Millennium.  A person one hundred years old will be considered a child, since, presumably, a person could live throughout the 1000 years in the restored environment (Isaiah 65: 20-23).  ‘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.  And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.  They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.  They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.’

Sickness will not be a problem because in Malachi 4: 2 it says, ‘Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.’

Politics: Jesus Christ will be King of kings and Lord of lords, and of the increase of His government there will be no end. Isaiah 9: 6-7: ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.’  This is an important scripture as here we have the whole of history in a nutshell – Christ’s birth, ‘a child is born;’ His death, ‘a son is given’ (see John 3: 16); and His coming again [to rule] ‘His government and peace.’

For a thousand years the devil, ‘the god of this age,’ ‘the prince of this world,’ ‘the prince of the power of the air, will be bound that he should deceive the nations no more.

The Millennium will be marked by peace.  Isaiah 2: 4: ‘He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’

With Horatius Bonar we would say,

‘Come, and make all things new; build up this ruined earth;

Restore our faded paradise, creation’s second birth.

Come, and begin Thy reign of everlasting peace;

Come, take the kingdom to Thyself,

great King of righteousness.’

Jerusalem will be the capital of the world, and all nations will come to Jerusalem.  It will be considered the centre of the nations. Isaiah 2: 2-3 ‘It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’

Then in Ezekiel 5: 5: ‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.’

No sin or rebellion will be allowed, because the Lord will withhold rain and send plagues on any who would rebel.  Zechariah 14: 16-19: ‘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.  And 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.  And 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.  This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.’

We do not have to change the Scripture to fit a scheme; not at all.  I quote Dean Alford, who wrote the words of the well known hymn, ‘Come, ye thankful people, come.’  He also wrote, ‘I cannot consent to distort words from their plain sense and chronological place in prophecy, on account of any considerations of difficulty, or any risk of abuses which the doctrine of the Millennium may bring with it. Those who lived next to the Apostles, and the Church for 300 years, understood them in the plain literal sense.’