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The Post-Millennial Test of All MankindGod’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached
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And they advanced over the breadth of the earth and encircled the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. But fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.
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The Post-Millennial Test of All MankindGod’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached
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8. (a) How is it here shown that the issue forced upon all mankind is that of universal sovereignty? (b) Who are the “holy ones,” and what is the “beloved city”?
8 That the same issue is forced upon all mankind after the end of the thousand years is shown by the fact that those who are now misled by Satan and his demons advance over the earth and encircle the “camp of the holy ones and the beloved city.” Yes, there will be “holy ones” on the earth then. These are encircled by Satan and his earthly hordes because they refuse to be misled by Satan and his demons. Such “holy ones” are those of restored mankind who keep their integrity to God under this all-deciding test. They are like in a war camp under attack by enemy warriors. The “holy ones” are put as separate from “the beloved city.” They are not in it but are in the “camp.” Evidently, then, this “city” is not any city constructed on earth as a global capital. This must be the city that is spoken of by the glorified Jesus Christ to his followers, in Revelation 3:12, and that he calls “the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from my God.”
9. To whom is the city “beloved,” and how does it descend out of heaven from God?
9 This “city” is one “beloved” by God and also by the “holy ones.” The 144,000 joint heirs of Jesus Christ have written upon them the name of this “new Jerusalem.” It is not on earth like some material city, but is a heavenly city that descends by extending its influence and authority to the inhabitants of the earth.
10. Is the unloosed Satan able to get at the “beloved city” direct, and so what is the purpose of his attack upon it?
10 This “city” is not disorganized and demolished at the end of the thousand years of its rule over mankind, but its good, righteous effects still remain on earth with the “holy ones.” By making war upon this “beloved city” Satan the Devil aims at undoing all this good that the New Jerusalem has wrought. He does not want these benefits to remain with mankind forever. Being restrained to the earth’s vicinity, with no place for him any longer up in heaven out of which he and his demons have been cast, he cannot get directly at the “beloved city” up there. So he wars against it to the extent of trying to bring to nothing all the righteousness that it has established on the earth.
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