27. Millennium and the End of Sin

27. Millennium and the End of Sin
The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints in heaven between the first and second resurrections. During this time the wicked dead will be judged; the earth will be utterly desolate, without living human inhabitants, but occupied by Satan and his angels. At its close Christ with His saints and the Holy City will descend from heaven to earth. The unrighteous dead will then be resurrected, and with Satan and his angels will surround the city; but fire from God will consume them and cleanse the earth. The universe will thus be freed of sin and sinners forever. (Rev. 20; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3; Jer. 4:23-26; Rev. 21:1-5; Mal. 4:1; Eze. 28:18, 19.)

Commentary -
First to debate this section (Part 27), it would necessary to determine what the 7th day Adventists mean when they refer to the 1st resurrection and the 2nd resurrection. It is recorded in Revelation 20:6 "Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and they will rule as kings with him for the 1,000 years." Now this is not in fact the 1st resurrection that took place but what has been determined to be the 1st type of resurrection. This 1st type of resurrection was deemed to exist by Jehovah when he established the formation of His Kingdom. In order to perform a resurrection of the dead for the great crowd or the new earthly society of humans, there must be His established kingdom in the heavens to perform this resurrection or the 2nd type of resurrection. The 1st type of resurrection is to the heavens and the 2nd type of resurrection is to the earth. Then there is the 1st (type of) death and the 2nd (type of) death. This 1st type of resurrection is also referred to as the Earlier Resurrection 10 My aim is to know him and the power of his resurrection and to share in his sufferings, submitting myself to a death like his, 11 to see if at all possible I may attain to the earlier resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11.

Now, the 1st resurrection of the 2nd type was a resurrection back to life on earth. It was not a resurrection to heaven. The 1st resurrection was performed by Elijah recorded for us at 1kings 17:17-24 where it reads: 17 After these things, the son of the woman who owned the house fell sick, and his sickness became so severe that he stopped breathing. 18 At this she said to E·li′jah: “What do you have against me, O man of the true God? Have you come to remind me of my guilt and to put my son to death?” 19 But he said to her: “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her arms and carried him up to the roof chamber, where he was staying, and he laid him on his own bed. 20 He called out to Jehovah: “O Jehovah my God, are you also bringing harm to the widow with whom I am staying by putting her son to death?” 21 Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and called out to Jehovah: “O Jehovah my God, please, let this child’s life come back into him.” 22 Jehovah listened to E·li′jah’s request, and the life of the child came back into him, and he revived. 23 E·li′jah took the child and brought him down from the roof chamber into the house and gave him to his mother; and E·li′jah said: “See, your son is alive.” 24 At that the woman said to E·li′jah: “Now I know that you truly are a man of God and that Jehovah’s word in your mouth is truth.”

The 2nd resurrection or the 2nd type of resurrection is a resurrection back here to the earth. There is no indication from the Bible that there is a 3rd resurrection or 3rd type of resurrection.

Now there is the 1st death and the 2nd death. The 1st death is an Adamic death or a death wherein there is a hope of a resurrection. The 2nd death is a 2nd type of death or one wherein there is no resurrection. This expression occurs only in the book of Revelation and is clearly symbolic. The Bible gives its own explanation and definition of the symbol by stating: “This means the second death, the lake of fire.”—Re 20:14; 21:8. The symbolic quality of the lake of fire is further evident from the context of references to it in the book of Revelation. Death is said to be hurled into this lake of fire. (Re 19:20; 20:14) Death obviously cannot be literally burned. Moreover, the Devil, an invisible spirit creature, is thrown into the lake. Being spirit, he cannot be hurt by literal fire.—Re 20:10; compare Ex 3:2 and Judges 13:20.

As far as the next point discussed in this Point 27 mentions that the wicked dead will be judged, further saying that the earth will be utterly desolate, without living human inhabitants, but occupied by Satan and his angels. It appears that the 7th day Adventists get this belief from Jer. 4:23-26. In reality this scripture applies to the apathetic people of Judah. Early in Jeremiah's career, Jehovah gave him (Jeremiah) a foreview of the coming divine judgment as recorded here at Jeremiah 4:23-26. The future application parallels the attitude of people today. They are of little concern regarding Jehovah's judgment on them. And nowhere in this chapter or other chapters in the Bible did I find any reference to Satan and his demons being the sole tenants of the earth and nowhere in the Bible did I find that the earth would ever be void of people or that the world of ungodly or even his worshipers be vacated from the vicinity of the earth. They (the 7th day Adventists) do reference Revelations 20, but nowhere in the entire chapter is there any reference to the earth being void of people and completely inhabited by Satan and his demons. It does however refer to Satan and his demons being confined in an abyss, but not to the earth. Vs. 7 does say that, "Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth,"

How they (the 7th day Adventists) then translate the remaining part of this Point #27 in their belief from the Bible to me is unknown. They (the 7th day Adventists) say: "At its close Christ with His saints and the Holy City will descend from heaven to earth. The unrighteous dead will then be resurrected, and with Satan and his angels will surround the city; but fire from God will consume them and cleanse the earth. The universe will thus be freed of sin and sinners forever." Certainly none of the scriptures they site show that this will be the case.