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The History of the Ages – Lesson 65

Let’s continue on with several more points having to do with the people who live and are born into the Millennium.

1. We’ve just talked in the last lesson about the availability of healing during the Millennium. This naturally leads to the next point – prolonged life. Isaiah 65:20 tells us if a man dies after 100 years, he will be considered an infant. And if he does die, it is because he is accursed (guilty of something that carries the death penalty under the law of Christ). Verse 22 says men will live as long as trees (some are known to be 5,000 years old), a statement thought to be figurative, meaning a long time of undetermined length. To this you can compare the statement in Matthew 25:46 at the judgment of the nations to determine who will enter the Millennial kingdom, Christ says those who are in right standing with God are invited to enter into “eternal life”. If those who enter into this time do not commit a crime worthy of death or rebel with Satan against Christ at the end of the Millennium (Revelation 20:7-10), they will live on into the eternal earth.  
2. That death continues in the Millennium is also clear. Let me tie together several verses that show something you may not have thought of. Above, I mentioned Isaiah 65:20 and the fact that some will be executed if guilty of something that carries the death penalty under the law of Christ. In Isaiah 11:4 we find this statement, “and He will smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips will He slay the wicked.” The fact that the “wicked” will exist during this time is also obvious from what we have already looked at (for instance I Corinthians 15:24-28, where Christ must abolish every other rule, authority and power, and put all His enemies under His feet). And, as already discussed, both Christ and the saints who return with Him both are said to rule the earth with a rod of iron (unyielding authority). Revelation 2:26-27 tells us Christ will give the saints authority equal to His own. I Corinthians 6:2 says that one day the saints will execute judgment on the world. And, even more specifically, Psalms 149:5-9 tells us the saints will wield a two-edged sword, “to carry out vengeance upon the nations and chastisement on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written”. Everything I see about this time tells me Christ will rule from Jerusalem, but it will be the saints who will do what is required by the law He has written. So, when the phrase above from Isaiah 11:4 talks about smiting the earth with the rod of His mouth and slaying the wicked with the breath of His lips, it seems that He will determine the punishment by the laws He establishes (Lesson 62, point 10), but it will be the saints who carry it out.
3. Therefore the test for man during the Millennium will be to obey the laws published by Christ to avoid punishment and death administered by the saints. If they obey they will live and enjoy the blessings of that time and then live on in the eternal earth. Read Psalm 2 and you will get the idea. God will have no patience with those who reject His Son during this time. Judgment will be swift and sure. The last phrase in this Psalm sums it up, “Blessed are all those who seek refuge in Him.” The word translated “refuge” is chasah, meaning, “to seek refuge for protection”. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remember talking about the fact that during the tribulation things will begin to be clarified in respect to the fact that God is, in fact, in total control of the affairs of men and man’s destiny. The gray areas will begin to disappear and everything will become either black or white. You will either be loyal to God and serve Him or you will be disobedient and suffer the consequences. During the Millennium men will no longer be allowed to live under the illusion that they are in control of their own destiny. They will not make their own laws. They will not worship God with standards and practices of their own choosing.
4. There will be the natural increase of mankind during the Millennium. Children will be born and the population of the earth will begin to increase in accordance with God’s original command to man. “And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth, and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28a) When you examine the many passages in the Old Testament that talk about the Millennium, there are numerous references to children being born during this time (see Isaiah 65:20, 23; Jeremiah 30:19-20; Hosea 1:10 and Zechariah 8:5).  
5. Another issue that must be addressed is the fact that during the Millennium the curse from Genesis 3 will begin to be reversed. Part of this curse was aimed directly towards women. “And to the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In sorrow you will bring forth children. And your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16) There are several things to consider here. “Sorrow” is itstsavon, birth pangs, pain associated with childbirth. Then the verse says that conception is multiplied as well. So, from this we can conclude that several things changed from what God had originally planned. The first is that childbirth was to be a pleasant, painless experience. The second is that God had designed the woman’s reproductive cycle to be longer (though it’s not specifically defined for us in scripture). And from this we can further conclude that even though it would make it more difficult for a woman to conceive so her children would be born further apart, the conditions of prolonged life would mean she would be capable of having children for many, many years. And when she does bear children, new conditions tell us it will be absent the pain, stress and potential health hazards we know today.  
6. Then, there is a change in relationships. So, I can’t resist mentioning the last part of Genesis 3:16. The sin that brought the curse and the fallen nature of the man and the woman created a negative disconnect or tension in their relationship. The proper translation of the last sentence should read something like, “And your desire will be to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” A woman instinctively knows the man is to be the head or ultimate authority in the marriage relationship. Yet her fallen nature tells her she must protect herself from the potential tyranny of the man, and she probably doesn’t have to look very far to see vivid examples that would support this feeling. So, she often takes steps to control circumstances and situations to protect herself. Yet to balance this God put in the soul of the man the determination to be the authority in the relationship. So, he will resist her attempts to usurp his authority. At this point I need to give you the Biblical principle of hupotasso, a military term used in scripture to describe subjection to authority (the church being subject to Christ, children to parents, servants to masters, women to their husbands, etc). The principle is, simply: with authority comes responsibility. In all of God’s creation, when it comes to relationships, the one in authority has the responsibility to wield that authority in a way that provides for the protection and security of those under his authority. Of course, we can easily find exceptions. In the case of marriage, some women refuse to subject themselves to a man, regardless of his honest attempts to be a proper leader in the relationship. And, many men do not understand their leadership responsibility or don’t care to accept it; some just let the woman take over. All are perversions of God’s design. So, why am I talking about this? In the Millennium, as the curse is being reversed, those who serve God and are loyal and obedient will find the natural tensions in relationships easing. Relationships in all levels will become more pleasant and congenial, as the self-interests of the fallen nature are taken away. The implications of the curse being taken away are tremendous. If you consider all the expressions of the flesh (anger, greed, lust, jealousy, name as many as you like), and remove them from relationships, it’s difficult to imagine what it would be like. And, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but after the dust settles at the end of the Millennium, that is what it will be like on the eternal earth.