MILLENNIUM

According to `Rev. 20:6`; `1 Thes. 4:16`, will the Millennium be before or after the coming of Christ? It is claimed by some that the Millennium began in the year 799 and ended in the year 1799 A.D.-- Millennium meaning one thousand years--and is known as the Papal Millennium. Is that the Millennium mentioned in the Bible?

<ANSWER>--The Scriptures above referred to, together with many others, show that Christ will reign during the Millennium, and we all know that Christ has not reigned yet. If Christ was reigning now we would not have the great systems of evil in the earth, for the Scriptures declare that when "His judgments are in the earth then the people shall learn righteousness." (`Isa. 26:9.`) The Scriptures in your question declare that "the dead in Christ shall rise first" at His coming. In harmony with this we see that then He will take unto Himself His great power and reign, as set forth in `Rev. 11:17,18`. Jesus Himself declared (`Mat. 25:31`), that His reign would follow His second coming.

Please explain `Isa. 65:20`, which reads: "There shall no more come thence an infant of days, nor an old man that shall not have the full length of his days; for as a lad shall one die a hundred years old; and as a sinner shall be accursed he who dieth at a hundred years old." (G.A.N.)

<ANSWER>--The `verses connecting, particularly the 25`the, show that it is during the Age in which divine favor and blessings are to be disseminated over the world, and when the terms of salvation are much more favorable to humanity than now, that an incorrigible sinner dying at an hundred years of age will be but as a child. The apparent teaching of the Scriptures is, that a thousand years have been set apart in the Creator's plan of salvation, and that this period of time, constituting the judgment or trial day of the world, will immediately follow the Christian Era. In the meantime, those who are to be the judges and rulers over the world in that day are now being prepared and qualified for that future work. (`Acts 17:31`; `1 Cor. 6:2, 3`.) In that Age of joy and blessing (`Psa. 92:4-9`), when a wayfaring man though a fool shall not err concerning the way of salvation (`Isa. 35:8-10`), all will have at least an hundred years to make some progress in the way of righteousness. Failing to do this they will die as an infant, for one an hundred years of age, comparatively speaking, is but an infant to one a thousand years old, for all who will comply with the terms of righteousness will live to the end of the thousand years, and may make their existence eternal if they successfully endure the final trial or test at the end of that Age, when Satan is loosed for a little season. (`Rev. 20:7`.)