1841 William Miller Evidence from Scripture & History - A2Z.org

&la coming. Then cometh the end" And a&
1 Them. iv. 16, For the Lord himself shall descend
From heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel
and the trump of God; and the dead in Chriet
shall rise fimt." And then our context and text show6
that the blemed and holy 'are raised a thousand yem
before the rest of the dead. If we are correct, then,
Christ will come before the millenni~un instead of &-
wards, as some believe ; and the milleanium is a state of
personal, and glorious, and immortal reign on the new
earth, or this earth cleansed by fire, aa it was once
by water; and it will be a pew dispensation, new
heavens, and new earth This will be our next prop
sition to prova And, first, we will examine the 20tb
chapter of Revelation, let verse: 'And I saw an
angel come doton rom heaven ;"- th~s angel I coneider
no less a being d an the Lord Jesus Christ; for it only
can be said of him ;- hamng the key of the kttanrlcsr
pit and a at chin in his hand." See Rev. i. 18:
" I am he tg liveth and was dead ; and behold, I am
alive for evennore, amen, and have the keys of hell and
of death." And Christ only has power to bind Satan
"That he might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil," Heb. ii 14 2d verse : U.9nd
he W h~ld on the drugon, that old +, which w the
deoil, and Sa!un, ad bound him a thowand yems." I
,suppose this verse needs no explanation It can only
be understood in a literal sense, for it explains itself in
the figurea wed; as dragon and serped, often used
ae figures, are explained to mean the dad and Satan.
If the thousand years had been used, in this chaptor,
or any where elso in the word of God, in a mystical
or figurative sense, it would have been somewhere explained;
but, aa it is not, I consider wo are to place
upon it the most simple construction, and I shall therefore
understand it literally. 3d verse : And cud hin,
into the bo#omlcsr ;"-by bottomless pit, I have
ahom, by the proo p" on our fYst verse, that it is hell;
see Rcv.~. 18;-uandshuthimupandaet a ruJ
&n, h t he 8hould dwtioe the miions M m, tix
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