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Are People on Earth
During the Millennium?
I was
searching the Internet for information on the
1,000 years mentioned in Revelation 20 when I
came across your website. I read your article.
“The Seventh Millennium,” and I have a
some questions. You claim that Jesus will not
touch the Earth at the Second Coming. My church
teaches that Jesus will touch the Earth and bind
up the devil in the abyss and rule over the
nations with “a rod of iron.” With the
devil locked up, there will be a thousand years
of peace and happiness on Earth! During that
time, many people will learn about Jesus and
receive salvation. Then, at the end of the
thousand years, the devil will be released to
deceive the nations once again. In fact, the
devil will lead Gog and Magog against the Holy
City! If, as you claim, Jesus takes the
saints to Heaven at the Second Coming, how can
Jesus rule with an iron scepter? What would be
the point of putting the devil in the abyss if
Earth is going to be left desolate? How does Gog
and Magog fit into your scenario?
Hello
my friend:
Thank
you for your e-mail. I am delighted that you
found our website and I hope you will visit it
often to examine the 175+ articles available
there for study. Before I respond to your
questions, you should be aware that a proper
understanding of “the end” of
sin’s drama requires a proper understanding
of several prerequisites. For example, everyone
knows that Algebra is a prerequisite for
Calculus, but few people realize that the final
chapters in Revelation are life Calculus! In
other words, several crucial themes dovetail into
the final millennium* and each theme could fill a
book. Since your questions are somewhat involved,
and this response has to be short, I hope you
will find my response helpful.
*
Note: The Latin word for one thousand is
“milli,” as in millimeter. Sometimes, I
call the thousand years in Revelation 20 the
“millennium,” even though the word
“millennium” is not in the Bible. This
is no difference than calling the days of the
week by their Roman names. For example, the word
“Sunday” is not in the Bible, but we
understand that Sunday and the first day of the
week are the same day.
1.
The saints will leave Earth and all the wicked
will be slain at the Second Coming.
For
reasons beyond the scope of this article, the
Bible teaches that death is really soul sleep. In
other words, when a person dies, he or she is not
conscious. There is not conscious awareness after
death until a resurrection occurs. This means the
dead are neither in Heaven or Hell. They are
“asleep” in their graves. Please
see article in our website under: http://www.danielrevelationbiblestudies.com/EternityInHell.htm
Soul
sleep is a very important topic because the
“sleeping souls” of the righteous will
be awakened at the Second Coming. The Bible
indicates there are two corporate resurrections
– one for the righteous and one for the
wicked.
The
righteous dead are resurrected at the beginning
of the millennium (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1
Corinthian 15:51-55; Revelation 20:6) and the
wicked dead will be resurrected at the end of the
millennium. (John 5:28,29; Revelation 20:5) Jesus
said, “And this is the will of him
who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that
he has given me, but raise them up at the
last day. For my
Father’s will is that everyone who looks to
the Son and believes in him shall have eternal
life, and I will raise him up
at the last day.”
(John 6:39,40 underlines mine)
An
angel told Daniel, “Multitudes who
sleep in the dust of the
earth will awake [at the Second Coming]:
some [the dead in Christ] to
everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting
contempt [those who crucified Jesus
– Revelation 1:7; Matthew 26:64]. Blessed
is the one who waits for and reaches the end of
the 1,335 days. ‘As for you [Daniel],
go you way till the end [of your
life]. You will rest [die], and
then at the end of the
[1,335] days you
will rise to receive your allotted
inheritance.’” (Daniel 12:2,
12,13, underlines and insertions mine)
Paul
wrote, “Brothers, we do not want you
to be ignorant about those who fall asleep,
or grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope
[of the resurrection]. We believe that
Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that
God will bring [people to life just as
He did] with Jesus [there is no
need to endlessly grieve for] those who
have fallen asleep
in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we
tell you that we who are
still alive, who are left
[on Earth] till the coming of the Lord, will
certainly not precede those who have fallen
asleep [that is, the living will not go to
Heaven before the dead are resurrected]. For
the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with
a loud command, with the voice of the archangel
and with the trumpet call of God, and the
dead in Christ will rise
first. After that,
we who are still alive and are left [on
Earth] will be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. And so we will be with
the Lord forever.” (1
Thessalonians 4:12-17, underlines and insertions
mine)
These
texts indicate there will be a resurrection of
the righteous dead at the Second Coming. The
“dead in Christ” are not spirits
floating around on clouds waiting to get their
previous bodies. When Jesus appears at the Second
Coming, He will speak the command and “the
dead in Christ” will come to life again!
They will be given flawless bodies – no
longer subject to the curse of sin. As they
ascend to Heaven, Jesus will call the righteous
living, “Come up here!” Paul says together,
the dead and the living will meet the Lord in
the air. They will be meeting the Lord
in the air? If you will remember, a few days
before ascending to Heaven, Jesus said, “In
my Father’s house are many rooms; if were
not so, I would have told you. I am going there
to prepare a place for you. And If I go [there
– to the New Jerusalem] and prepare
a place for you, I will come back [to
Earth] and take you to be with me that
you also may be [in my Father’s
house] where I am.” (John
14:2,3, underline and insertions mine)
After
Jesus lifts the saints from Earth, He will
destroy the wicked in two ways. First,
Lucifer’s government and Lucifer’s
persona* will be thrown alive into a lake of
burning sulphur. “… The two of
them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of
burning sulfur.” (Revelation 19:20)
*
Note: For reasons beyond the scope of this
article, the coming Antichrist is Lucifer. He and
his angels will be allowed to come out of the
spirit realm (the abyss) in the fifth trumpet
(Revelation 9:1-11) and they will assume physical
bodies that we can see and they will physical
appear before mankind. At the Second Coming,
Jesus will destroy the “physical”
bodies that Lucifer and his angels
“used.” Jesus removes their physical
bodies and returns Lucifer and his angels back
into the spirit realm (the abyss) from where they
came.
The
wicked who are alive at the Second Coming will be
destroyed by a command that comes out of
Jesus’ mouth: “The rest of them
[the wicked] were killed with
the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider
on the horse [Jesus speaks the wicked to
death with a command that is described as a
‘sword’ that comes out of His mouth], and
all the birds gorged themselves on their
flesh.” (Revelation 19:21,
explanation and insertion mine)
2.
Why does Jesus destroy the wicked at the Second
Coming?
During
the Great Tribulation, God’s servants, the
144,000, will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
throughout the world. The 144,000 will present
“the testimony of Jesus” to every
person. (Matthew 24:14, Revelation 12:17) This
means that everyone who is alive on Earth will be
confronted and tested with the truth
about Jesus Christ. Jesus does this to determine
who will obey and follow Him. Babylon will
persecute everyone who chooses to obey Jesus.
This means that all middle ground will be
eliminated.
There
will be some people who receive the gospel of
Jesus and be saved, but the rest of mankind will
commit the unpardonable sin to avoid persecution.
The unpardonable sin is rebellion against the
Holy Spirit. (Matthew 12:31,32) In other words,
wicked people will reject the gospel of Jesus (as
they did in Noah’s day) and they will be
destroyed (as they did in Noah’s day). Once
a person commits the unpardonable sin, he cannot
repent – even if he had a thousand years to
repent! When the unpardonable sin is committed,
the Holy Spirit abandons a person when it becomes
clear that person will not surrender to the
authority of the Spirit. Once the Spirit leaves,
a person cannot repent of his or her sins. He or
she may lament the penalty or consequences that
follow 9like the hand caught in the cookie jar),
but honest repentance and the prerequisite
reformation) is impossible without the indwelling
power of the Holy Spirit.
The
critical point so many people is this: When
Jesus appears at the Second Coming, everyone will
have been tested and Jesus will have passed
eternal judgment on every person.
Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming
soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to
everyone according to what he
has done.” (Revelation
22:12, underline mine) This means that at the
Second Coming, Jesus will grant the faithful
eternal life and He will destroy the wicked.
There is no second chance for salvation once the
judgment process of Christ ends. (2 Corinthians
5:10; Ecclesiastes 12:13,14) The bottom line is
this: There is no salvation after the Second
Coming because every living person will have
heard the gospel and all decisions will have been
made.
3.
After calling the righteous from Earth and
killing the wicked, Jesus puts Lucifer and his
angels back in the abyss so that Earth can rest
during its Sabbath millennium.
At
this time, the world will be left desolate and
the devil is returned to the abyss and
“chained” to this Earth for 1,000 years
so that he cannot bother anyone in the universe.
Jesus gives the devil and his angles 1,000 years
to ‘thoughtfully” consider their
actions and upcoming destruction. Meanwhile, a
very important process will be transpiring in
Heaven. As the saints reign with Jesus,
they will also reign as judges with Jesus.
The saints will judge the wicked (in many cases,
the saints will judge the very people who
tortured and killed them). This particular
process of judging the wicked is not for the
purpose of determining eternal life (that issue
was decided by Jesus Himself before the Second
Coming), but for the purpose of restitution.
God’s justice demands that restitution be
extracted from each wicked person who refused to
make restitution for the wrongs committed in
life. The golden rule is god’s eternal rule:
Do unto others, as you would have them do unto
you – because God will see to it that you
suffer as you caused others to suffer. (Romans
12:19, Hebrews 10:30, Revelation 2:23, 18:6) In
other words, during the 1,000 years, the saints
will determine the amount of pain each wicked
person and each wicked angel must suffer in the
lake of fire. (1 Corinthians 6:2,3) Some will
burn for a long time and some will burn for a
short time.
4.
When the thousand years are over, the Holy City,
New Jerusalem, will descend from Heaven with the
saints safe inside.
When
we add up everything in the Bible about time, the
1,000 years in Revelation 20 will be a Sabbath
rest for Earth, the seventh millennium. The land
itself will “rest” from the works of
sin for one thousand years. At the end of the
thousand years, the Holy City, with all the
saints inside, will descend to Earth. The wicked
dead (who have remained in their graves) will
then be resurrected to stand before the Great
White Throne of Jesus. Jesus resurrects the
wicked for two reasons. First, He wants all the
wicked to understand why He could not save them.
Jesus will give them an unvarnished review of
their lives’ actions and decisions. At the
end of the presentation, everyone will admit that
His judgment is righteous and true. Even though
every knee will bow before Jesus, this does not
mean the wicked are repentant for their sins
– remember, they have committed the
unpardonable sin. After they realize their
impending doom, the devil is released from the
abyss (the spirit realm). The devil will organize
the wicked from all nations, encouraging them to
attack the Holy City – he deceives the
wicked into thinking that they can save
themselves by destroying God. At this time, fire
will fall from Heaven and the extraction of
restitution (which the wicked had been unwilling
to pay during their lifetime) will begin.
Ultimately, after restitution has been paid in
full, God annihilates the wicked and they become
ashes. Sin is no more. Jesus will create a new
Heaven and a new Earth. (Revelation 21:1-4)
5.
Who is Gog and Magog?
To
analyze this topic, we need to back up to the
time when the 1,000 years have ended. “When
the thousand years are over, Satan will be
released from his prison [the abyss] and
will go out to deceive the [wicked from all] nations
in the four corners of the earth – Gog
and Magog – to gather
them for battle. In number they are like the sand
on the seashore. They marched across the breadth
of the earth and surrounded the camp of
God’s people, the city he loves [New
Jerusalem]. But fire came down from
heaven and devoured them.” (Revelation
20:7-9, underline and insertions mine)
The
identity of Gog who lives in the land of Magog is
a mystery to many people. However,
“Gog” is nothing more than another
title given to Lucifer in Ezekiel 28 and Magog is
his territory in “the far north.”
In a nutshell, this is the story. Lucifer is
called “the king of Babylon” in Isaiah
14 and “the king of Tyre” in Ezekiel 28
because the devil is “the prince of this
world.” In other words, the Bible gives
Lucifer different names to help us understand
this invisible foe. Actually, Lucifer was the real
king of Tyre and the real king of Babylon.
It is Lucifer who brings civilizations to their
end. He understands God’s full cup principle
very well and this is why he incites sin and
rebellion to reach such a degree of decadence
that God has no choice but to destroy nations
that go past the point of no return.
Under
the Old Covenant (“Plan A”), Lucifer
(as the Antichrist) would have been visibly
“exposed” in a prophetic sequence of
events that is something like his visible
exposure under the New Covenant (“Plan
B”). The physical appearing of the devil is
a very serious topic and it deserves careful
study. Under the Old Covenant (“Plan
A”), Lucifer (Gog) would have come against
the city of Jerusalem with a horde of nations for
the purpose of destroying God and His people.
John’s reference to “Gog and
Magog” in Revelation 20 indicates that
Lucifer’s hatred for God remains – even
after a thousand years of living in the abyss! In
other words, Lucifer and his angels cannot repent
because they have committed the unpardonable sin.
Therefore, the level of hatred for God and His
people has not changed.
At
the end of the 1,000 years, the devil (the
Anti-Christ) will rally the wicked from all
nations through deceit, causing them to think
that they can kill Christ and take His city.
However, Jesus rules the nations with an iron
scepter and His sovereign ruler ship cannot be
broken. As billions of wicked people rush upon
the New Jerusalem to destroy Jesus and His
kingdom, fireballs from Heaven and the nations of
Earth are destroyed. Warring against
Christ’s authority is always the destiny of
the carnal nature – the carnal nature is
always hostile toward God’s authority.
(Romans 8:5-7) Lucifer became a carnal being when
he allowed jealousy toward Christ to consume him.
His hatred for Jesus led him to deceive one-third
of the angels of heaven with clever lies. His
hatred for Jesus will never change, because he
has committed the unpardonable sin. Isn’t it
ironic that Lucifer meets his end doing the same
thing he did in the beginning – but this
time, his target will be wicked human beings who
like him, have committed the unpardonable sin?
I hope this helps my
friend!
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