In the beginning of this new dispensation, its Divine origin and character will be apparent to all, but this aspect of the matter may not be so manifest as time rolls on. The new government will last a thousand years, for it is written: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. When the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and fire came out of heaven and devoured them" (Apoc. 20:4-9, RV). Thus a rebellion against this government will arise. Such an occurrence would be unlikely if the administration of the Kingdom bore the same Divine impress at the end as at the beginning. After a thousand years much that was done in the beginning will be looked upon as legendary. Notwithstanding the fact that human life will be lengthened and longevity will be the rule in that age (Isa. 65:21-22), it seems improbable that any mortal will live to see both the erection of the Temple and the revolt against its Divine constructor. Those of the inhabitants of the earth alive at the commencement of the reign of Christ will in all probability be in the grave at its close. Since the mortals alive then may not have witnessed but only heard from their forefathers of those terrible and miraculous acts by which the nations were subdued (Micah 7:15-18): since they may not have seen any other form of government than that which they are then experiencing, even though that experience may go back hundreds of years; and since during their whole life they may not have seen anything particularly Divine about the Kingdom and its administration, what more likely than rebellion? For these divine rulers entering and leaving the Temple in the midst of the inflowing and outflowing multitude will appear like ordinary men, just as the Angels of God, whose equals they are (Luke 20:36), have often so appeared. The three angels who appeared to Abraham, and who partook of food prepared by him, are styled "three men" (Gen. 18:1-8). The two angels who visited Lot, and who exercised such transcendent power in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, are described as "men" who smote the Sodomites with blindness (Gen. 19:1, 10). These men "laid hold" upon the hand of Lot, "and upon the hands of his wife and of his two daughters," hurrying them away from the doomed city (vs. 16). Again, the "man" who "wrestled" with Jacob is described as an angel by Hosea (12:4). Compare also Matthew 28:2 with Mark 16:5-6 and Luke 24:4, 23.
The mixture of mortal and immortal men in the administration of the Temple service would give opportunity for the idea to arise that there was nothing Divine in it. Just as men now deride the idea of the miracles in Egypt when Moses appeared before Pharaoh, or that Jesus the Christ really did the wonderful things set down in the record, so after the lapse of time, infidelity becomes rampant, for "the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9), and is not readily accessible to faith rounded upon recorded evidence. Man easily finds reason to disregard the law of righteousness. Especially when tired of judicious control, he would easily persuade himself that these supreme rulers of that age do not occupy that position by Divine right, but by usurpation. Do they not all appear like ordinary men? Do they not see the same individuals who at one time slay the sacrifices teach the people the laws of the Lord in the northern cellae? Do they not see others like them go in and out with the rest, joining in song and praise, and talking of God's requirements in the southern cellae? Will they not easily confound the two classes, and think they are all human beings like themselves? Will they not say, "Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi, all the congregation are holy"? Ah! we know from past experience, and from the highest witness (Matt. 15:19), how fruitful of evil is the heart of man, and how history demonstrates this truth in every age. All that is required is time and opportunity. In due time insubordination will take root and grow into open rebellion. Thus it will be at the end of the most perfect government the world will ever see.
(By Henry Sulley)