...by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water , perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:5-7 KJV)

ASTHE WORLD APPROACHES THE YEAR2,000,many are fascinated with apocalyptic speculations as to events about to transpire upon the earth. Stephen King's recent TV movie, The Stand, typifies a heightened sense of a pending conflict between good and evil, God and the Devil, Christianity and a pagan society. Is the "end" of the world at hand? Are these the "last days?" What terrors, what joys, await us? What is the mission of the Church and, in the words of Francis Schaeffer, "How shall we then live?"
Popular teachers of Biblical eschatology have their charts all made out, yet revise them with every issue of Timemagazine. A spectrum of speculations offers the plastic believer a broad range of convenient options. You can choose to leave here "pre-, mid-, or post-trib," or you can choose to remain and contend for the faith. At one end of the spectrum, escapists conjecture the events of dispen-sensationalism from a safe distance. But while the premillennial message (recent to historical church theology) has enraptured evangelical Christianity for the last century, the other end of the spectrum, the postmillennial view, has been lately trumpeted under the banner of "reconstructionism." Reconstructionism offers a refreshingly optimistic view to those disillusioned by failed date-setting and to those weary of occupying pews "till He comes." In between is a hodgepodge of charis-maniacs who don't know whether to flee the devil or resist him, so they do both (the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit allowing them to hold two contrary views in their belief system at the same time).
There is a certain intrigue concerning millennary thought in the Scriptures. Peter alludes to the figurative use of a thousand years in speaking of the "Day of the Lord," saying that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day" (2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4). Bible chronology calculates Adam's origin at about 4,000 B.C., placing our day at the end of the 6th millennium and Bible numerology makes "six" the symbolic number of Man, the creature of the sixth day. Therefore, these six thousand years have been six millennial "days" of Man's corrupt works under the dominion of sin and death. But the seventh "day" is supposed to be the "Day of the Lord," His Rest, when all the kingdoms of the world become His kingdoms and every enemy is manifestly under His feet. Bringing the figurative into the actual, that would make the year A.D. 2,000 the

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