The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"And in this mountain [heavenly phase of the Kingdom] shall the Lord of hosts make unto
all people [of earth] a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And He will destroy in this mountain the face
of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will
swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces."--
Isa. 25:6-8.
We quote one more prophecy to illustrate and establish this point--a Scripture that
describes this Millennial reign as being the great Judgment Day:
"O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvelous things: His right hand, and
His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath made known His salvation: His
righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen [nations]. . . . Let the
floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to
judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with His
truth."--Psa. 98:1,2,8,9.
Humanity's last temptation
We observe, therefore, in considering this vision of the release of Satan, that the earthly
features of the reign of Christ and His saints will need to be kept in mind; in other words,
that the thousand-year reign of Christ and His saints is nothing more or less than the great
individual judgment or trial day of the world. With these thoughts before us it seems most
apparent that the loosing of Satan and the permission of a second attempt to defile the
earth is for the express purpose of testing the myriads of humanity--all mankind who will
have been living on the earth and enjoying the blessed privileges of this Judgment Day-the
testing being for the purpose of deciding which ones of humanity have not used these
privileges to develop a character of heart loyalty and obedience to God.
Three classes are brought to our attention as closely related and living during these
thousand years: first, there will be the immortal ones, Christ and His glorified Joint-heirs,
the heavenly Kings, Priests, and Judges, who will be invisible to earth's dwellers; second,
the Old Testament saints, who will have been resurrected to perfect human conditions in
the beginning of the thousand years, and who will constitute the visible intermediaries
acting under the heavenly Kings, etc.; and third, the world of mankind, who will be on
trial or probation for life or death everlasting. Seen from this standpoint the vision of the
release of Satan and his permitted temporary activity in opposition to God amongst
humanity, is, like all the visions of chapters 20, 21, and 22, designed simply to portray one
aspect or picture of the final testing and results of this Millennial reign of Christ and His
saints.
Consulting the writings of the commentators who have endeavored to explain this vision
of the restraint and release of Satan, we find that nearly all, if not quite all of them, with
the one exception of Mr. Russell, interpret it as referring to peoples who live through the
judgment scenes that mark the overthrow of the present order. It was not until the
ushering in of the period of Christ's personal presence that clear light began to shine on