The Kingdom of God will last a thousand years, during which Christ and his brethren shall rule the mortal nations of the earth; sin and death continuing among mankind, but in a milder degree than now. At the end of that period, an entire change will take place. Christ will surrender his position of supremacy and become subject to the Father, who will then manifest Himself as the Father, Strength, Governor and Friend of all. As a preparation for this sublime manifestation, sin and death will be abolished, but not before an extensive revolt of nations at the close of the millennium. This revolt will succeed to the last point and will be suppressed by a summary outburst of judgement; after which shall occur a resurrection and judgement of those who shall have died during the thousand years, and judging of those who are alive at the end of that period;1 resulting in the immortalization of the approved, and the consignment of the rejected to destruction. None will then remain but a generation of righteous, redeemed, immortal persons, who shall inhabit the earth for ever. Christ's work will be finished, and the Father will reveal Himself without mediation.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan 2 and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, 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 I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 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, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 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... And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 3 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:1-9, 12-15)

There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14).

There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. (Isaiah 65:20).

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

1 Excluding the approved at Christ's coming who will already have been granted eternal life (Romans 2:7; 2 Timothy 4:1,8) and who will have reigned with Christ in the kingdom. There shall be a resurrection of believers, both just and unjust at Christ's coming (2 Timothy 4:1; Acts 24:150), prior to the establishment of his thousand years' reign on earth. They, together with living believers will be brought before the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). The righteous will be granted immortality, and shall become the associates of Christ in the rule he will set up on earth (Revelation 5:9-10; 20:4); the unjust will be given over to the "second death" (Revelation 2:11) - Editor.

2 It must be noticed that the Apocalypse, from which this is a quotation, is a setting forth of prophetic truth in the form of symbol. The most casual reading will show this. Candlesticks are put for communities of believers, stars for angels, hidden manna for eternal life, four beasts full of eyes for the totality of the redeemed, a slain lamb with seven horns for a polity of nations, a woman for an imperial city, an ocean for peoples, and tongues, etc. The dragon of the passage quoted above is symbolical of the political and ecclesiastical powers of Europe gathered under one head to oppose Christ at his coming. The descending angel is a symbol of the power that will be revealed from heaven in Jesus and the saints, and the chaining of the dragon, the universal triumph of Christ, and the riddance of the world of human pests for a thousand years (cp. Revelation 12:3 with Revelation 17:9-10, 18).

3 The lake of fire is not literal, but a symbol representing the second visitation of death, by which the wicked, after judgement, are to be for ever destroyed from the earth, There is no countenance in this for the popular idea of hell, which undoubtedly, is a pure fiction, originating in the speculation of heathen philosophers.