Paradise on Earth

Earth’s coming glory

12. Eternity

At the last the Millennium will come to an end. For a thousand years mankind will have lived under the beneficent rule of Christ and his Church, administering the affairs of this world from their exalted state in the heavens above. During this whole period evil will have been progressively eliminated, men’s and women’s hearts turning more and more to the living God, loyalty, and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ the hallmark of the human society. All will be capable of living that loyal and devoted life without fear of falling away or introducing sin or evil again, for all will have been so thoroughly apprised of the evil results of sin, and the good that comes from righteousness, that no more will they be induced to turn away from the right path. The lessons of the past life and the grievous history of the world of sin and death will remain with them, an everlasting incentive to rectitude. The human race will have attained the ideal God set himself at the beginning, a community of beings, physically and mentally perfect, imbued with life coming to them through Christ the channel of life, in perpetual communion with God the Father and Creator of all. The long, sad story of sin and evil, of suffering and death, which man brought upon himself of his own volition, will be in the past, never to return. As the prophet, looking forward to that gladsome day, intoned, "they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa.35:10)

Now why is it that the scripture insists that eternal life only comes through Christ? There is no doubt about it. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son…hath not life." (1 John 5:12) "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life." (John 3:36) This is not a question of the Son conferring life upon those who please him by acknowledging him and refusing it to all others. There is a vital principle involved here which takes us back to the consideration of what life is and from whence it comes.

Life is a phenomenon manifested in the ability of certain groups of atoms to form themselves into cells which are self‑reproductive and eventually possess perceptive powers, reasoning powers, and creative powers. But just as those cells must have had an origin greater than themselves, so must the life which animates them have a source greater than itself. That source is God, God the incomprehensible but undoubtedly all‑powerful. The source of all life is God, and therefore the sustaining of all life is God. Because the Son is the manifestation of the Father to humanity, the only medium by which men can approach or discern the Father, it follows that the Divine life by which the Father sustains his creation can only come to that creation through the Son. And the atoms which form the cells which are the repositories of life must also have originated in God—as indeed Genesis tells us. "The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground" (the atoms) "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen.2:7) So because everything that makes the man what he is originates in God and is from God, the living being can only continue indefinitely, everlastingly, if he is in complete harmony and unity with God. That is why sin, continued and unrepented of, must inevitably end in death; there is no possible alternative. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen.2:17) was the word given to Adam in the story, and in the upshot he did die. So, it follows that at the end, when the purpose of God in creating man has achieved its object, there can be none but the willingly righteous remaining, for all that is of sin will have vanished from Divine creation. In the Eden story there was the Tree of Life, symbol of life that comes to humanity through Christ, from which man was cut off by reason of sin. But at the end of the Bible story, at the close of the Book of Revelation, the Tree of Life is there again, and all partake of it, because all have come into living union with the Father, through the Son.

This provokes an obvious question. Will there, at the last, be any who, after the wonderful work of the Millennial Age, prove impervious to the love of God and the drawing power of the Lord Christ? Must it be that some go into the void at the last because they steadfastly resist the call to repudiate sin and must therefore incur sin’s penalty? There is a school of Christian thought which insists that such cannot be, that when Christ says He will draw all unto himself the "all" means totality without exception. But the reasoning of Universalism, as it is called, going back to the second century, is open to some criticism. To say that because God allowed man to fall into sin, He is morally bound to recover man from that sin does not fully represent God, neither does it allow for the vitally human attribute of freewill, implanted by God. There is a difference between the instigation of evil and the permission of evil. Says the Wise Man in Ecclesiastes (Eccl.7:29 Fenton) "GOD made mankind right, but they have sought out many villainies!" It is a basic Bible truth that the human race was created mentally, morally, and physically perfect, fully able to live a right life and go on doing so eternally the while they maintained their relationship with, and their loyalty to, their Maker. Humans are endowed with freewill so that their relationship and loyalty is a matter of choice; they can, if they elect, go the wrong way. At the beginning man did so choose, hence evil came into the world, not by overt action of God, but by the will of man, and although it is the wish and endeavour of the Lord to win the allegiance of the person who has turned away, He will not compel them. And if the person will not accept life at the hands of his Creator, and there is no other possible source of life, they deliberately and purposely bar themself from entering the golden land.

Whether there will or will not be any such at the end it is impossible for anyone to say; the issues have yet to be faced for all people and the whole of the Millennial Age is set apart for that process. What can be asserted with confidence is that none can be lost until the Lord has done everything that can be done, short of compulsion. The Lord cannot compel a person to choose the right way in sincerity and honesty, even as in our own everyday affairs there is a saying that we cannot make an individual good by Act of Parliament.

It has to be admitted that there are Scripture texts which seem to imply that there will in fact be some such. Isaiah says at the end of his description of the Millennium that at the end the redeemed "shall go forth, and look on the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." (Isa.66:24) Such statements should be taken as metaphors; no one would seriously suggest that the redeemed would take pleasure and spend time in the consideration of dead bodies covered with immortal worms and ever‑burning fire. The expression could mean that the memory of those who perished in their sins would remain for ever; it could be that it pictures the death of the sin rather than that of the sinner. What we do know with certainty is that the time will come when there will be no sin in all of God’s creation and all who live will be the Lord’s, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil.2:10‑11)

There is one rather obscure statement, unsupported by any other Scripture text, in the Book of Revelation (Rev.20:7‑10) which pictures the Devil being freed from his restraints at the end of the Millennium and going out to deceive the nations again; he is unsuccessful and with his followers is destroyed by fire from heaven. The purpose of his release is not stated, neither is any indication of the extent to which he succeeds in deceiving the nations. One would hardly think there could be much success; after a thousand years of Divine rule with the benefits it will have brought to the children of men it would seem that there could be little possibility of deception. It is on the strength of statements like these—and there are quite a few such scattered through the Scriptures—that it has been suggested the foreknowledge of the Most High does perceive that some will fail to make use of the grace of God in Christ, and, preferring evil rather than good, and steeling themselves against every endeavour of the Lord to win them, they reap the consequences of their decision. Remembering the story of the shepherd who could not rest until he had found and brought back the one wandering sheep of his hundred, we can but hope. (Luke 15:3‑7)

How will the glorified Church of Christ, changed to celestial conditions, citizens of the celestial world, no longer human flesh, communicate with people upon earth. If, as is plainly stated in the New Testament, they are to be "Ministers of reconciliation" who will during the thousand years call men and women to repentance and conversion and bring them to Christ, there must be personal, so to speak face‑to‑face, communication. In Old Testament times visitants from the celestial world appeared in human bodies, formed and adopted for the occasion. One can imagine Divine power being employed to fabricate a body of flesh from the earthly atoms round; in much the same way as the Eden story pictures the creation of Adam. On one noteworthy occasion three men, travellers appeared to Abraham. (Gen.18:1‑2) Only later did he realise they were angels, heavenly messengers. One appeared to Joshua in the guise of a soldier, drawn sword in his hand; the Lord himself, after his resurrection, in the attire of a gardener. There seems no reason why individuals who have "made their calling and election sure" to the higher, celestial, life should not appear to and commune with men and women upon earth in the same way, and in fact every reason why they should. A well‑known Christian journalist of the last century, Newman Watts, writing under the pseudonym of "A London Journalist" has in one of his books a fictional account of life in the Millennium in which he tells of an unbelieving man attempting to scale a precipitous mountain and finding himself in a position in which he could go neither forward nor backward. In his terror and distress, he called upon God for help. Suddenly there was a man behind him who had not been there a moment before; a strong hand held him and he was guided to safety. He turned to thank his rescuer, and with a kindly word the rescuer disappeared. In the story that man renounced his unbelief and became a true disciple. That kind of thing might become commonplace in the Age to come. It has also to be remembered that for each one who is taken to be with Christ there will be loved ones, family, relatives, friends, who themselves have not attained that destiny. To be everlastingly separated from such is unthinkable; one of the glories of the next Age will be the reunion of those who have been parted by death and unless that is possible in some real manner there would be an element of sadness and loss in the heavenly salvation which is altogether out of keeping with the promise of One who says that sorrow and sighing shall flee away. A logical view of the relationship between the celestial and terrestrial orders of life to all eternity must include free and natural communication between them.

This is where the restored and perfected human race passes into eternity. They have attained the Divine purpose and ideal and there is no more sin. Consequently, there is no more sadness or unhappiness, no disease and no death. The earth brings forth enough for all and every member of the human race accepts willingly his or her share of the world’s work. At long last, they can be trusted to govern themselves on the principles of justice and love. As the prophet Isaiah said long ago, "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." (Isa.32:17) This is where the One who has reigned in righteousness, albeit with firm hand, for a thousand years, stands aside, as it were, and presents the redeemed and restored world of man to his Father, a world fully loyal to God and never again to be sullied with sin. "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father...that God may be all in all." (1 Cor.15:24‑28) Of old time the Lord made a solemn promise to mankind, a promise which will surely be fulfilled: "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with my glory." (Num.14:21)

The End