Q. In the Millennium, will everybody be living with Christ or will they be spread out all over the earth?
A. The indication is that they will be spread out. The Prophet Zechariah says that people from all nations will go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Tabernacles to worship the King: “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles” (Zech. 14:16).

This shows that there will be those living in other places too. In fact, as the world population multiplies fruitfully during that 1,000 year period, this will be a necessity. In all likelihood, nations will just send contingents of people to worship the Lord, as all the world’s population could not fit in one city. But still, everyone in the Millennium will be touched by the Lord’s presence, as communication devices bring news of His activities into every home on an ongoing basis.

Q. Why did God allow Satan to operate after his rebellion, knowing that through him, sin would enter the world and the majority of the world would be unsaved and end up in hell?
A. God wants us to love Him out of our free will. To do so, we must have an alternative. Satan serves as that alternative from which mankind must choose. If there were no alternative to following God, there would be no free will, and we would follow Him as if we were preprogrammed to do so. No one really wants human relationships to be that way, and God does not want that for our relationship with Him, either.

Further, Satan quite often is used by God to accomplish His ultimate will. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, but Joseph ended up as Pharaoh’s right-hand man during a severe famine. As a result, Joseph was able to save his family, the children of Israel. When he was reunited with them, he said: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

It should be of some comfort, however, to remember that Satan cannot operate outside of the confines of the permissive will of God. Satan came before the throne of God to accuse Job, and God gave Satan permission to test Job, but only within certain parameters (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6). As we know, Job passed the test by maintaining his faith in God. God responded by restoring to Job twice what he had originally lost (Job 42:10-17).

The most notable biblical example of God’s use of Satan’s evil for a greater good, of course, is Satan’s motivation of the Jewish and Roman leader of Jesus’ day to condemn Him to death. But by Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, mankind’s sin debt was paid.

The fault does not lie with God for allowing Satan to perpetrate evil. The fault lies with those who do not take advantage of God’s greatest gift to mankind, salvation through Jesus Christ. All of our praise goes to God for offering that sacrifice on our behalf.