Tonight we're embarking on something a little different. We've been proceeding through the Book of Galatians and we're suspending that for a little while as we consider the subject of the Millennium. Now, my forthcoming trip to India, amongst other things, I've been asked to give what effectively are six lectures on the subject of the millennium to the pastor's seminary that is in Madras or Chennai as it's now called, a group of men who gather together for instruction in Reformed Baptist doctrine and who are either involved in church plants in Madras or else are preachers, teachers in other parts of the country. Anyway, they felt it would be helpful for somebody, and I'm by no means an expert to be asked to do this, but for somebody to come and to speak on the subject of the Millennium. I guess in a sense it's always the sort of subject that we never can say we've heard enough about. There's always maybe something else that we haven't heard before or thought about before. Another book that we might study and glean something a little further about it as we try to understand the passage I read earlier, Revelation 20. Not only that, but some of the other passages that we might call apocalyptic passages, passages about the end of history, the end of this present age, Book of Revelation, for example, par excellence, but other passages too. And we have to confess that we have to proceed with caution. that Christians have differed over the years in their interpretation and have adduced good reasons for believing what they do. And therefore we have to respect Christians who may differ from what I have or the view that you may hold and still may hold at the end of these sessions on the Millennium. But we do very much enter into the area of Bible interpretation. because the different views that are taken about the millennium tell us something about our rules for interpreting scripture, how we handle the Old Testament, prophecy in particular, and indeed how we handle some of the other scriptures of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation, but other ones as well, which are admittedly quite complex, and which we have to feel our way through carefully, and study and compare scripture with scripture. So we're thinking, as we go along, about rules of Bible interpretation. Whether we like it or not, we're in that province. And we have to be, for ourselves, even if we differ on these things, clear as to why it is we are reading it in a particular way and not in another particular way. And much will hinge upon how we study and understand things like prophecy in the Old Testament. It's also of interest because it obviously affects our approach to the present, and indeed to the immediate future. That our understanding of what will be, maybe distant events, I don't know, will affect how we live in the present, our expectations, how we're going to live, what we are preparing for. And so these are more than matters of academic interest. They shape our understanding, for better or for worse. And the fact is, of course, that people have taken good doctrine in the past and have reached poor conclusions from it. And what might be good things have been an excuse for doing nothing. Or people thought the return of the Lord was so imminent, we don't need to do anything, we just wait, don't need to evangelize, work with children or anything like this, it's all going to happen the next day. You might remember when we were studying first Thessalonians, that was actually an issue there. The people thought the return of the Lord is imminent, no need to do any more Sunday school work or children's work or any other kind of work, after all the Lord's coming as it were the next day. So it will affect how we think, how we approach things perhaps. It also affects, again, and we may differ on these things, our approach to Israel. You know, it is undoubtedly a fact that America has been very much shaped by particular views of the millennium that have highlighted the importance, so it's been perceived, of Israel. And nobody could argue the fact that today the American relationship to Israel is one of the key and dominating facts in international relations. What happened in the terrorist attacks are in no small way related to America's approach to Israel, and behind that, an understanding of the scripture, which is very much an American speciality, as we will see as we go along. It affects our approach to mission, it affects our approach to world events, and what we make of the world that we live in. But we must also look at the Millennium because it's in the Bible. And we cannot approach the Bible and come to Revelation chapter 20 and, as it were, let our eyes just glaze over and say, well, I think I'll turn the page quickly, I understand Revelation 21 better. It's in the Word of God. And because it is in the Word of God, we as evangelicals, who believe in the whole counsel of God, and believe that it is all inspired, inerrant, and infallible, and profitable for our learning, must spend some time studying it, there in its entirety, and this portion in particular. Now admittedly, again, some of this will be a little technical. we're going to be looking at texts, and comparing texts, and working our way through texts. So, I'll try to proceed slowly, but perhaps not at the end of today, but subsequently, we'll pause and there'll be opportunity for questions, so that things that I've said that weren't clear You'll have a chance to ask for amplification, clarification, hear it again in case you missed it the first time, or to ask something that I hadn't even raised, but which you felt maybe quite rightly is relevant to ask. So that's what we're looking at tonight and for the next few weeks or so. And it's based, as I say, very much on the talks that I'm going to be giving when, God willing, I get to India at the end of this month. Now, in particular, I've been asked to compare two approaches in particular to the millennium. And they are called amillennialism and premillennialism. There's another, postmillennialism, and we'll be talking about these and defining them all a little bit more closely in a moment. But first of all, let's try and get a hold of what the millennium bit is, before we try to get a hold of the a-millennium bit, or the pre-millennium bit, or the post-millennium bit. What is this millennium? What exactly does it mean? We had all that wretched millennium stuff, didn't we, as we came into the year 2000, and domes and walls of fire and... Gracious me, what else we have, I don't know. But what actually is the millennium though? That aside, what actually does the Bible say about the millennium part of it? Well, it's in Revelation chapter 20. That's why we've read this passage. And it's in this passage here, under the terms of being the thousand years. The thousand years in Greek, thousand years, kilia ate, kilia ate, from which we get the word kiliasm, kiliastics. This was very much a term used of early Christian thought on this, not so familiar perhaps to us now, but that word comes from there. Or in Latin, and this is where the millennium comes in, mille anni, mille anni. Millennium, mille anni, meaning thousand years. Nothing more than that, that's what those words mean, mille anni, a thousand years. And you'll see it therefore in verses two, and 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Revelation chapter 20. A thousand years, mille anni, millennium. So millennialism, of whatever type, is to do with this period of time, this thousand years that are spoken of in these verses of Revelation chapter 20, and how this thousand years fits into the biblical scheme of things. Now there are various questions that come to mind, aren't there? Is it literally a thousand years, or is it symbolic? Is it a period of time? Yes, but not necessarily a literal thousand-year period. Then, again, we might like to know this. Is this period of time before or after the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? Where does it fit in, in terms of his return to this earth, his second coming? is it before the return of the Lord, or is it even here now, in a sense? How does it relate to these things? And if it is after the return of the Lord, then how does it fit in with our teaching on the resurrection, on judgment, and on the new heavens and the new earth? Are there, in fact, more than one resurrection and more than one judgment? These are some of the issues that, as we go along, we'll be looking at. So, initially, we're looking at this thousand-year period. This is the thing that has attracted our interest here and has, to Christians, over centuries, a Bible interpretation. Now, the fundamental thing that distinguishes the two forms of millennialism, that is, thinking about the millennium that I'm particularly looking at, are pre- and amillennialism. Pre- and amillennialism. Basically, they mean this. The pre-millennialist puts the return of the Lord before the millennium. Pre-the millennium. The Lord Jesus Christ, in this approach, comes to the earth in his second coming before this period of time, which we have in Revelation 20, begins. Pre-the millennium. And so they are called pre-millennialists. Now the amillennialists and also the postmillennialists say that the Lord returns after the millennium, post the millennium. And so our task is really to try to unravel which of these is the most appropriate, which one fits the Bible best. Does the Bible suggest a period of time, thousand years or whatever, after the return of the Lord, but before the new heavens and the new earth? Or should we say that the return of the Lord is the final event as far as this world is concerned and directly brings in the final state of the new heavens and the new earth. Now, what I'm going to be saying in India, what I'm saying to you tonight and over the next weeks, God willing, is not exhaustive. There are so many different variations on these different approaches that I could never tell you every single subtle difference and different emphasis. Some of them are amazingly complicated. Others vary in detail here or detail there. So I can't tell you everything about every view that has ever been held. But within them you can find certain common things, by and large, which allow some generalizations to be made. Now I'm actually going to start by looking at the approach which is called post-millennialism. It's not the one that I'm going to be talking about a lot in India and not the one that I've done the more reading on. But post-millennialism, let's just look at that first for the sake of completeness before we look more thoroughly at amillennialism and premillennialism. Well, postmillennialism says that there'll be a period of time before the return of the Lord, whether a thousand years or not, when the gospel will enjoy unprecedented success. It, like all the other approaches, takes its cue from Revelation 20. There we have read, haven't we, of the great angel that comes down from heaven and lays hold of and binds Satan, the devil, for a thousand years. Satan, the devil, is cast into a bottomless pit and has a seal set upon him so that he's unable to deceive the nations anymore. So the post-millennialist believes there is a time coming in the future when the power and influence of the devil will be drastically curtailed. He will lose much of his power to keep people in unbelief and to be able to promote wickedness. Instead, the post-millennialist believes that the message of the Christian gospel will spread and cover the whole world, so that while not everyone is converted, the beneficial influence of Christianity will be felt everywhere. Education, Health, the economy, all will be affected. Social justice will be advanced. Harmony in the workplace will prevail. And there will be real peace and an absence of war. Care for people will be of a very high standard. And there will be great economic productivity and blessing. Over and beyond this, many people will be converted. Whole nations might become Christian. The millennium is thus a period of great and very obvious blessing. So, just to refresh our memories, why is it called post-millennialism? The reason is that the Lord returns after, post, this golden period in the chapter of Earth's history. Now, where does support for this approach come from besides Revelation 20? Well, very briefly, people who support this position point to parables like the parable of the leaven, where the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened, Matthew 13, verse 33. And it takes leaven here to be in a good sense. And looks forward to a time when the whole world will be leavened by the presence of the kingdom of heaven. Another supporting reference is taken from the Great Commission and the command of the Lord prior to his ascension to go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Matthew 28 verse 19. Postmillennialists would say that this is to be fulfilled literally and that whole nations are indeed going to be in large measure converted and discipled. The Postmillennialist would go on to say that this mandate has not yet been fulfilled. The number of converts among the nations thus far is just a sprinkling, and so there is a long way to go yet. It follows that the Postmillennialist is not necessarily expecting the return of the Lord imminently. Rather, he or she is looking for this great time of blessing in the world before the return of the Lord takes place. Now the post-millennialist also feels that the only way to do justice to the great Old Testament descriptions of the blessings upon the Lord's people is to expect a period of prolonged blessing in the church. Now they would take a passage for example like Isaiah and chapter 2 verses 1 to 4 to support this. Let me turn to that and read it for our benefit tonight. You know the words well I'm sure. The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And so they take references there to all the nations in verse 2 flowing to Zion, to the church, and many people saying, come and let us go and we'll walk in his paths and follow his laws, and the cessation of war. Well, they say that this can only be meaningfully fulfilled if there is a time of unparalleled blessing in the whole world and the gospel makes great advances. so they're looking forward to the streaming of the nations literally and they believe there will be in the future a millennium not necessarily a literal thousand years but certainly a good length of time before the Lord returns when the Christian gospel will flourish So post-millennialism. They believe there is this golden period to come and that after that period the Lord will return. So it is post the millennium. Hence, no great surprises or trickery here, post-millennialism. Next, we'll look at pre-millennialism. Pre-millennialism. This is just really by way of basic introduction. This is quite different. Rather than have a golden period before the Lord returns, the premillennialist looks forward to it after the Lord returns. In fact, the premillennialist is more sober about the prospects of the church upon earth now than the postmillennialist. They, the premillennialists, are not expecting things to get better, but rather imagine they will get worse. They would take, for example, a passage like Matthew chapter 24 and verses 3 to 44, which talk about the signs of the Lord's coming and the events, tribulations that will be taking place. And they will say that for the church there lie great troubles ahead and widespread apostasy, that is, going away from the faith. People that once stood for the Christian gospel then going completely back on it. It is also believed that Antichrist, a satanic agent of concentrated evil, will appear before the Millennium, whose power is then decisively crushed by the coming of the Lord. Better things emerge with the return of the Lord, and most especially by the rule he will exert over the world by reigning visibly, perhaps as some premillennialists think this will be, in Jerusalem, literal earthly Jerusalem. His return and the commencement of His visible reign and rule upon earth is the beginning of the millennium. At this time, many of the righteous dead will be raised and live upon the earth, reigning with Christ. Where is this to be found? Well, it is in Revelation 20 and verse 4, that I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. And so it is thought that that is a literal resurrection that happens. Now, pre-millennialism has various offshoots. I'll tell you about some of these by way of introduction in a moment. But they're all united essentially by this one belief that Christ is going to visibly and publicly rule the earth we inhabit today with power and authority. what they call the Rule of the Rod of Iron from Psalm 2. He shall impose his will on a world which will by no means be Christian, but where there will be opportunity for the Christian message to spread. Thus passages like Isaiah 2 verses 1 to 4, which we read a moment ago, are thought to be fulfilled in the Millennium, which is now found after the Lord's return. The Lord therefore comes before, that is pre the Millennium, hence pre-millennialism. In common with post-millennialism, the millennium period for the pre-millennialist will be one of great economic prosperity and peace. So many of the things which the post-millennialist is looking forward to before the Lord returns, the pre-millennialist is looking forward to after the Lord returns. Now it's also common in pre-millennial thinking to assert that during the time just before the millennium and during the millennium itself, many Jews will be converted. Where is this to be found? Well, often they return to a passage such as Romans chapter 11 and verses 25 to 27. says Paul there, writing to the Romans, for I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written. the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. And the premillennialist might draw from that passage, the inference, that all literal Jewish Israel, believers, will be converted. That all Israel, that nation of Israel, Jewish people, are going to become believers. and they return to that passage and the idea of the Lord coming out of Zion would be an indication, they believe, of his reign in Jerusalem, a literal Zion, and he comes forth from there and the Jews are converted. Indeed, it's said by some pre-millennialists that it is of vital importance that the Jews return to their homeland in preparation for this time. And it's expected that many of the Jews will be converted not so much by the word that is preached, but by the mere sight of the Lord returning and because of the judgments that go forth across the earth. through the ministry of this great host of converted Jews, many Gentiles will also be converted. Now I've said much of the expectation of this is centered on Jerusalem, and many of the premillennialists also are expecting a temple to be built in Jerusalem along the lines of the one that was revealed to the prophet Ezekiel in chapters 40 to 48. We'll be looking at this later on, or not tonight, but on another occasion. Because this prophecy in brief sets out a vision of a temple, with all the dimensions of its courts, its gates, and its buildings. Part of the ministry that is offered there is the offering of animal sacrifices. And so many of the pre-millennialists are expecting there to be a temple, and temple worship, as there was in the Old Testament. However, at the end of the millennium, Satan will rebel once more and enjoy a period of brief success before he is finally judged along with the unbelieving world and cast into the lake of fire. Then the end will come and the new heavens and the new earth will begin. Now, just to confuse you, what I have just described is what might be called historic premillennialism. Historic premillennialism, which can be traced back to the early church and which many Christians, maybe say in the last couple of hundred years, have also followed. But there is another form of premillennialism which I'm going to introduce to you tonight. This goes by the name of dispensationalism. Dispensationalism. I'm going to dwell rather more at length upon that later on, but just very briefly by way of introduction, This is a view that is of moderately recent origin, coming into existence in the 1850s in the United Kingdom, but being far more readily adopted in the United States, and being particularly associated with a publication called the Schofield Bible, which you might have heard of, the Schofield Bible. Now, the Schofield Bible is a King James Bible with Bible notes attached that were written by a man called C.I. Schofield. Now, this publication made the dispensational approach to things more widely known. It originated with a man called J.N. Darby, who ministered in Dublin and who was over this side of the water, but it caught on rather more the other side of the Atlantic. Let me try, try, to outline its approach briefly to you now. In the dispensational account, the Lord Jesus Christ originally offered the kingdom to the Jews of his day, but they refused it and rejected him as king. As a result of their refusal, the Lord then postponed his intention to bless the Jews and establish a kingdom with them and instead instituted the church. As I say, we'll look at this in more detail later on. But basically it is saying this, that the Old Testament prophecies regarding the kingdom and regarding Israel are yet to be fulfilled. Our age, the church age, the dispensationist believes, is an era unknown to the Old Testament prophets. It was only revealed much later on, to Paul, and is essentially an interruption in the plan of God until the Lord Jesus Christ returns and brings in the Millennium. Then, as I've said, there'll be the widespread conversion of the Jews, as historic premillennialism looks forward to, and the rule of Christ upon earth, which will fulfill then the Old Testament prophecies about the kingdom. Now, along with this doctrine is the doctrine which you might have heard of, of the so-called secret rapture, the secret rapture. Now, the secret rapture marks the end of our particular age, the dispensationist says. That is the conclusion of this, what we would call the gospel age, the church age. And it's the time when there is a sudden departure of all the saints, Jew or Gentile, alive upon earth, who will be lifted up, raptured away, caught up, snatched up into the air, so as to be with the Lord. After the church has been raptured, taken away, happens all of a sudden, hence the term it being secret, there's no announcement, the people who are believers see the Lord in the clouds, the unbelievers don't, church has gone, the unbelievers wonder where they've got to. So it all happens suddenly, secret rapture. But after it, a period of severe tribulation will then grip the world, after which the Lord will return to defeat his foes and be publicly seen and establish his kingdom. At the end of the millennium, the devil is finally defeated and the rest of eternity begins. That is dispensationalism as opposed to historic premillennialism. Lots of ways in which they overlap, but ways in which dispensationalism is quite a unique and quite a different approach to scripture. But I'll confuse you more about that at some future time. We'll leave it there where it is for the now. So we've had postmillennialism. We've had premillennialism. Postmillennialism looks forward to the return of the Lord post the millennium. The premillennialist looks for the millennium after the return of the Lord. So they are premillennial. The Lord returns pre the millennium. Now, this next approach is called AMillennialism. AMillennialism. Which is a little unfortunate, because the literal meaning of this word would be, no millennium. But that is not what the AMillennialist strictly believes. But no one has come up with a better name to date, and so it has stuck. This view says that we're not to look for a separate period of time, whether of a thousand years or not, either before or after the return of Christ. Instead, the hotly disputed passage in Revelation 20 and its reference to a millennium is taken to refer usually to one of two things. It is either taken to refer to the whole of the New Testament church age after the day of Pentecost, now, in other words, or else it is taken to refer to what theologians would call the intermediate state, the blessed existence which departed souls and believers enjoy with the Lord prior to the resurrection when they're united with their body. That's what is called the intermediate state. Not yet raised, that's right at the end when we're clothed in our new resurrection bodies, but it's the place, a paradise, where departed souls and believers are now. And so that's where it is thought, one view, of what the millennium is. The amillennialist goes on to deny two major things. He or she denies, first of all, that the Bible predicts a period of unprecedented blessing prior to the return of the Lord, as the postmillennialist believes will happen. Secondly, the amillennialist denies that there will be a period of special, spiritual, and material prosperity on earth after the Lord Jesus Christ returns, but prior to the new heavens and the new earth. For the amillennialist, very much the parable of the wheat and tares of Matthew 13 is taken to heart. Both wheat and tares grow together until the harvest and there is no indication, in fact the contrary, that evil is going to be eradicated prior to the return of the Lord. Now the amillennialist would also assert that there will be a period of a special trial at the end of this age and that there will be a personal antichrist who will himself then be destroyed by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. Now in this respect, the amillennialist doesn't share the optimism of the postmillennialist, nor necessarily the pessimism of the premillennialist. There is a sober assessment about the prospects of the church, especially as the end of the age draws near, but also there is a belief about the power of God to bring great blessing. Along with the post-millennialist, the amillennialist asserts that the Lord personally returns and that this is the signal for the resurrection of the just and the unjust, the time of judgment and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. They do not believe there is an earthly millennium in between the Lord's return and the new heavens and the new earth. I suppose it's true to say, perhaps, that amillennialism and postmillennialism are the nearest to each other, because both have a rather more straightforward view about the return of the Lord, the resurrection, the judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth. Now, let me say that all of those positions which I have briefly outlined there, and which we'll go back to and look at in more detail later, have been adhered to by solid Bible-believing Christians. Each, as I've mentioned, can be used for good or for ill. Each can cultivate good or bad attitudes. And so we have to be careful about being too dogmatic on these matters. But we need to ponder them. because for sure others are pondering them and publishing books on them and broadcasting on them and sending out videos across the world on them and we therefore do well to think a little about these things and to try to understand how they fit in. Let me just take us a little further. I don't intend speaking that much longer this evening. Your minds are probably boggling already at all these A's and P's and posts and everything else there. Let me just begin to describe the approach which I personally favour, which is the AMillennial approach. Now let me remind you, in case you've already forgotten, that the post-millennialist and the pre-millennialist are both looking forward to a special era of blessing and spiritual happiness upon the earth. For them, the millennium. But the amillennialist is seeing the continuation of what we have already experienced in church history, ups and downs, continuing until the end. Now let me give you a quotation by Dr. Voss, who in the estimate of Lorraine Buttner, who is a writer on the millennium, considers to have grasped the essence of all the different systems the best. And so let me quote what Dr. Voss says about amillennialism. He says this. Amillennialism is that view of the last things which holds that the Bible does not predict a millennium or period of worldwide peace and righteousness on this earth before the end of the world. Amillennialism teaches that there will be a parallel and contemporaneous, that means happening at the same time, development of good and evil. God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom in this world which will continue until the second coming of Christ at the second coming of Christ the resurrection and the judgment will take place followed by the eternal order of things the absolute perfect kingdom of God in which there will be no sin suffering nor death So, paraphrasing, good and evil will continue to exist side by side, and when the Lord returns, then is the resurrection, then is the judgment, then is what the Bible or theologians call the final state. New heavens, new earth, heaven and hell. Or, if this is helpful, this is Louis Burkhoff, the great systematic theologian of last century. This is his view on amillennialism, a view which he himself incidentally shared. The amillennial view, he says, is, as the name indicates, purely negative. It holds that there is no sufficient scriptural ground for the expectation of a millennium. and is firmly convinced that the Bible favours the idea that the present dispensation of the Kingdom of God will be followed immediately, and that's in emphasis in the original, immediately by the Kingdom of God in its consummate and eternal form. So whatever the millennium is to be, it is not a golden period of spiritual prosperity, either before or after the return of the Lord. Rather, the world goes on very much as it always has. There will be no complete Christianization of the world. There will be no all-pervasive influence of the Church in all nations. there will not be a period of universal peace and tranquility with Christian values coming to the fore and the church having unheard of influence and power. That is however not to say that it is entirely pessimistic. That would be a caricature of it. It is able to incorporate God's sovereign dealings with nations, revivals, awakenings, special seasons of blessing, Equally, it is able to cope with apostasy. It allows for both possibilities. But as I've already mentioned, it does believe there will be a special period of decline, trial and tribulation, just before the return of the Lord. It's also very orthodox about its view of the end of the world, which is very much what these quotations were stressing, that the Lord returns and then new heavens and new earth, the judgment, the resurrection. It heralds the time both for the just and the unjust, for their resurrection, and then of heaven and hell, the only two dwelling places of man for eternity. This actually sets it apart from pre-millennialism, which expects there will be another form of existence after the return of the Lord, but before the final state of things is reached. But let's just finish on this point this evening, take that parable I mentioned a moment ago of the wheat and the tares, and see how that very much accords with this amillennial view of good and evil coexisting together. So this parable can be found in Matthew 13, if you wanted to turn to it and have it open before you. Matthew chapter 13, and the actual parable is in verses 24 to 30, and the interpretation of it is in verses 36 to 43. Now, as I've said, this parable is one of the main supports for this view, that things are not going to radically change. The world is not going to be so drastically different from the one which we have heard of in church history and experience today. just to clear up any misunderstandings, this is not a parable that is to do with the composition of the church. Anglicans, for example, would tend to justify their rather sort of broad church that is composed, at times quite evidently, with unbelievers by saying, well, it's like the wheat and the tares. You let them both grow together, you don't sort the tares out in case the wheat comes up with it, you just allow them both to grow. Well, that's not what this parable teaches, because it tells us here, very clearly, in verse 38, that the field in which the wheat and the tares is growing is the world. It's not the church, it's the world. The church is described to be a wheat-only church, not to think itself wonderful if it's got tares and everything else growing in there at the same time. But that's just really an aside. But there's the lesson. Both are going to grow together until the end. The wheat, God's people, and the tares, those sons of the devil, the evil one. And this is the normal order of things. In fact, when an invitation is given to the owner of the field to do something about the tares which have appeared in his field, which you'll find there in verse 28, and the servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up, these tares that have sprung up? he declines. As you see in verse 29, he says, no, while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. Rather, he is content to wait until harvest, which in the interpretation the Lord himself supplies is the end of the age. In other words, as you'll see there in the explanation from verses 36 and onwards, it is when the Lord himself comes back. So verse 39, the enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age. and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, in verse 40, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The son of man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so it's pointing us to the end of the age. That's when this dual sort of world which has got good and evil growing together with it is finally going to be dealt with. The owner of the field, as we saw in the parable, declines to eradicate evil before the end of the age. When harvesters come, he says in verse 30, let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. That's a picture, I would suggest to you, of the end of the age. It's the judgment, it's the separation of the godly and the ungodly. And the language there in verse 42 is very much that of hell, of cast into the furnace and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and very much of heaven for the righteous who will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. So then, and not before then, will the Son of Man send out his angels and bring all to a happy conclusion. No promise in this parable of a special golden era upon Earth. Well, we'll go on to see, God willing, next week, why the amillennialist, furthermore, holds to the view that he or she does on this matter, and why, in effect, it's to believe that now is the millennium, and that the millennium is that life, the intermediate state where the blessed souls of the departed are with Christ now, why that is the best fulfillment of the description of Revelation 20. But we'll stop at this point.