CG7 on the Millennium

In the current (June 2009) issue of its Bible Advocate Magazine, CG7’s former president, Calvin Burrell wrote:

The twentieth chapter of Revelation mentions a thousand-year reign of Christ six times (vv. 2-7). This period, called a millennium, is not found elsewhere in the Bible, leading some to accept it as symbolic, not literal. Our understanding is that the millennium is a literal age that begins when Christ returns to Earth (Rev. 19:11-21) and the righteous dead are raised (1 Cor. 15:20-23; 1 Thess. 4:16). The nature of this period, according to the primary source in Revelation 20, may be summed up as the binding of Satan (vv. 1-3), a judgment scene (v. 4a), and the reign of the righteous with Christ (vv. 4b, 6). Revelation 5:10 confirms that this happens here, not in heaven…

Combining texts that foretell Christ’s millennial kingdom of peace, we conclude that

1. Redeemed persons will be transformed to immortality at Christ’s return, to rule and reign with Him for one thousand years.
2. Jesus will rule all nations with a “rod of iron” when He comes. Many unredeemed will live on to be taught God’s truth from Zion during this age.
First Thessalonians 4:16, 17 describes the “catching up” of the righteous at the fi rst resurrection. We will rise to meet Christ in the air at His coming and then return with Him to the earth. We reject the popular rapture notion that Jesus comes secretly for the church and takes believers to heaven for three-and-a-half or seven years prior to His public coming with the church.

The above is consistent with something that we in the Living Church of God also teach. However, Calvin Burrell continued with:

Will the multitudes that never heard God’s Word or knew the gospel of grace have a chance to repent during the millennium, or just after? This tantalizing question finds no direct answer in Scripture. Based on God’s nature of justice and love, many of Christ’s followers believe the answer is yes.

And this is the problem that CG7 and many others have–they know that God somehow needs to deal with the vast majority who have never heard the true gospel as well as those whose understanding of what they heard was blinded–but they are really not sure how the Bible teaches this.

I believe that the Bible does teach when and how the vast majority who ever lived will be offered salvation (it is after the millennium). Those in CG7, as well as others who are uncertain of the related scriptures, should read the article Universal Offer of Salvation: There Are Hundreds of Verses in the Bible Supporting the Doctrine of True Apocatastasis.

To learn more about the millennium and when it should occur, please consider studying the following articles:

Universal Offer of Salvation: There Are Hundreds of Verses in the Bible Supporting the Doctrine of True Apocatastasis Do you believe what the Bible actually teaches on this? Will all good things be restored? Does God’s plan of salvation take rebellion and spiritual blindness into account?
Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it. Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?