The Third Dispensation

The Millennial Age

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.—Matthew 6:10

Austin Williams

“The world to come!” How peculiarly that phrase strikes the majority of minds. It is, of course, the dispensation that is to come. We can do nothing to hasten its coming for, as our Lord explains, the times and seasons are in the Father’s own power (Acts 1:7). We nevertheless find the Scriptures do tell us some things regarding the wonderful events to be accomplished: “The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5).

The early church believed in a coming kingdom, hoped for it, and prayed for it. Yet within the Christian church today the doctrine of the Millennium is a subject that is commonly taboo, something that is often viewed as “out of date.”

But among those who do believe there will be a future kingdom of the Messiah, most agree that it will not be brought about by the wholesale conversion of the world to Christianity. Two thousand years of preaching the word to a largely unresponsive world testifies to this conclusion.

Students of the Bible do know that the Old Testament is filled with God’s promises, telling Israel and all who had ears to hear of a future glorious reign of Messiah and the success of his kingdom; how “then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5). They also know that the New Testament abounds with references to the kingdom! Nearly all of our Lord’s parables illustrated something connected with it. The Great Teacher proclaimed that kingdom and taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

The apostles referred to that kingdom and pointed the church to its establishment for the realization of her hopes. They saw it as a time when the Law shall go forth from Zion, picturing the celestial kingdom, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem, the earthly kingdom (Isaiah 2:3).

When the kingdom is established, the Scriptures declare, “The desire of all nations shall come” (Haggai 2:7). The desire of all nations has not come yet. First must come the failure of mankind’s feeble efforts to solve their problems. But as we look at all the evidence around us, good intentions are no substitute for sound policy. All attempts to reduce the world’s trouble spots seem only to breed new ones.

The Scriptures identify this trouble with Messiah’s taking to himself his kingdom power and the beginning of his reign (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 11:17). Eventually today’s trouble will culminate in the great battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16), something that will teach humanity a lesson they will never forget. That lesson is that God and his laws must be obeyed.

The Bible speaks of the glorious conditions which will prevail during the Messianic or Millennial age, under the operation of God’s dear son associated with the elect church of this Gospel age, his bride and joint-heir. Their reign will bring about the blessing of all the families of the earth.

The Promise to Father Abraham

During the next age all the blessings promised to Abraham—“In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:14)—will be fulfilled. What blessings do the people need? They need education, enlightenment, good government, peace; they need so many things they seek but cannot obtain because of the present evil conditions. But in the kingdom, the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled: “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10). What a glorious Promise! This time will be the “Golden Age” which for generations have been the longing of both poet and philosopher, as well as common man.

Notice that the promise to Abraham was not that a few should be blessed, but that “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” How will these blessings be accomplished? “Times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21).

Although many places on earth are beautiful, the earth remains under a curse. Mankind has fallen and needs restoration. If we could make mankind right, we would have a wonderful world. If men’s hearts were right with God and the planet were filled with perfect men and women, the “times of restitution” would not be needed.

But such is not yet the case: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12). Mankind needs to be restored to Edenic perfection. As fantastic as this may sound, it will happen: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:9) saith the Lord, when he is the world’s chief magistrate. Christ’s ruling over the nations will mean the subduing of mankind, the conquering of Satan, and the controlling of all the elements of nature. In that day there will be no disastrous storms or violent climatic destruction. He who stilled the storm on Galilee has power over the forces of nature; everything must be brought into subjection before it can be said that nothing shall hurt nor destroy in God’s holy kingdom.

Isaiah chapter 35 tells us the “desert … shall blossom as the rose,” that blind eyes shall be opened, that the “solitary place” shall be “glad” because the LORD has lifted the curse placed upon the earth. “Then the lame man shall leap as an hart” (verse 6). It will not be just the physically lame, but those with any kind of weakness: physical, mental, or moral. It is in the latter sense that the apostle uses the word “lame” when he writes, “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way” (Hebrews 12:13).

All weaknesses that are the result of sin will be healed in that day by the Great Physician. All the holy prophets spoke of these “Times of Restitution.” During the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Gospel ages, everything was being prepared. In the next age the “Seed of Abraham” will make the work a reality. But the blessing work in the Messianic age requires the cooperation of those who are to receive the blessings. There are conditions.

Perfection of human life will only be attained in the kingdom by obeying the terms of the New Covenant: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). Adam disobeyed and death was the consequence of sin. If there were no death, there would be no pain, no sickness; there would be no dying “processes.”

Every ache and pain is evidence of death working in us: “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17—the literal Hebrew reads “dying, thou shalt die”). “And so death passed upon all men” (Romans 5:12). Billions have lived but a short time and their years are “full of trouble” (Job 5:7). Most of these billions have never heard of Jesus Christ. How then can they “believe on the son” (John 9:35) and achieve everlasting life? It requires a resurrection from the dead!

The Resurrection

When Paul mentioned resurrection to the Athenians, some mocked while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter” (Acts 17:32, NKJV). The idea of a resurrection seemed absurd to most of them, as it seems absurd to so many today. Nevertheless there shall be a resurrection of the dead: “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth” (John 5:28,29). An illustration of a future resurrection occurred when Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb where he had been placed several days earlier. What God did on that day for Lazarus he will do at a future time for every human being.

There was a time when Jesus was in a synagogue. A copy of the book of Isaiah was handed to him and he read: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). The text says he will bind up all the “broken” hearts. There is no balm for hearts that are not “broken.” The prison house that “binds” all is the great prison-house of death. Those in this prison are said to have “hope” because Christ died for them: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21, NIV).

All these prisoners in the tomb, prisoners of hope, will come forth to the privileges and opportunities of the next age, to walk up the “way of holiness” (Isaiah 35:8) and gain eternal life afforded under the reign of Christ. “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). The word “healing” implies restoration. Few appreciate that God’s mercy endureth forever, that he is “mighty to save” all who come unto him in his appointed way which means through Christ, the only way.

The Little Season

There is no Scripture that says the Messianic age ends with a “harvest.” There is, however, a season of testing at its end to determine who has God’s law written within their hearts, and who does not. Speaking of God’s great adversary the devil, we read that he will be “shut up” so that he “should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. … And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth … And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Revelation 20:3,7-9).

This period of testing which ends with the destruction of Satan and those who ally themselves with him is identified on the chart with the words “second death” (Revelation 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8) below the vertical line ending the Messianic age. There will be no later resurrection for those who die this death.

Nebuchadnessar’s Dream

In Daniel chapter two the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream which none of his wise men could recall to his mind nor interpret. The king had, in his dream, seen a great image containing various metals. This was a picture of the way earth’s great universal empires appear when man looks at them. (In the seventh chapter they are ugly beasts showing the way they appear to God.) Daniel told the king that the head of gold represented him. But this image did not stand forever. As he interprets the dream for the king Daniel says: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:34,35).

In this dream given to the king by God the kingdom is pictured as a stone, cut out of a mountain without hands; it smote the image on its feet, then it grew to fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:44).

Although the spiritual phase of the kingdom will be invisible to the human race, it will be the governing power which will intervene in human affairs. It will not only grow to fill the earth, it will endure forever: “For 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.” (Isaiah 9:6,7).

For that glorious epoch and its work let us continue to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”