So we have the Second Coming, then we have the delivering of the kingdom. They are two separate events that according to Revelation 20 are 1000 years apart. Take careful note how in many of these Bible references there are two separate things listed. What we have here is a breakdown of those events into what happens before and what happens after this 1000 year period. To see each of these texts in their original state without this breakdown please look them up in your own Bible.
HIS APPEARING (The Second Coming)
“Jesus Christ ... shall judge the quick“ 2 Timothy 4:1.
“they that are Christ’s at his coming” 1 Corinthians 15:23
“they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life“ John 5:29
“some to everlasting life” Daniel 12:2
“I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” John 14:3
“the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout ... the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord” 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17
“the great day of His wrath has come” Revelation 6:17
“He hath ... avenged the blood of His servants ...” Revelation 19:2
“The earth ... shall fall ... the LORD shall punish ... the kings of the earth.” Isaiah 24:20-22
“he that hath part in the first resurrection ... the second death hath no power” Revelation 20:6
“the Devil ... bound ... a thousand years” Revelation 20:2
HIS KINGDOM (Delivered to the Father)
“Jesus Christ ... shall judge ... the dead” 1 Timothy 4:1
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” Revelation 20:5
“we shall judge angels” 1 Corinthians 6:3
“thrones ... they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them ... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” Revelation 20:4
“the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and the dead were judged” Revelation 20:12
“some to shame and everlasting contempt” Daniel 12:2
“they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” John 5:29
“whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” Revelation 20:15
“This is the second death” Revelation 20:14
“the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” Revelation 21:2
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” Revelation 20:9
“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God” 1 Corinthians 15:24
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men ... the former things are passed away” Revelation 21:3,4
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” Matthew 5:5
“for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” Revelation 21:1
TO SUM UP
When Jesus returns He will destroy the living wicked, all who have rejected Him one way or the other. The living Saints, His true followers, will watch as He raises from the dead those who were His true followers from every other generation of human history. Both together are changed and fly off to Heaven for a period of 1000 years. An exception to this is a special resurrection for those who “pierced Him” (from Revelation 1:7).
This Millennium time has God’s people with Him judging the fallen angels and the wicked. In other words, He will explain why those He didn’t take to Heaven lost out on the chance He gave them. They made their own choices each and every one. Every single question will be answered, every single mystery will be solved. We’ll get a chance to see world history from His point of view. We’ll see when the angels, particularly our guardian angels, came to help us and offered help to the wicked that was turned down. The “bottomless pit” of Revelation 20:1-3 is obviously symbolic of the earth as a wasteland as the rest of the chapter clearly describes events that happen on the surface of the earth. Satan will be “bound” by a chain of circumstance, as he will have no one to lie to or tempt into sin. With all his people dead and God’s people all in Heaven, he’ll have nothing to do but think about the horrible things he has done in ruining this world.
At the end of this time period when the Heavenly City comes down to the earth as Revelation 21 speaks of, God raises all the wicked together, and this is the one point in history where every knee does bow before Jesus Christ in recognition of His justice as it says in Philippians 2:9-11. We’ll be satisfied with His justice, that He did try to reach those who are lost, and they will be shown where they had a chance to be saved and turned it down as well. Satan makes his final effort to deceive the wicked and one last time they show their contempt for God’s mercy by trying to attack the City as described in Revelation 20:7-10.
After all sin and sinners are completely wiped out of existence by that fire, God will make the earth anew and it will be the home of the saved forever. The earth will then be the capital of the entire universe and the door will be opened to a brave new world of exciting adventures for God’s people. There will always be something new to learn, always be something interesting to do. We will see Jesus face to face and we’ll always be reminded of the great love He has for us by seeing the scars in His hands, feet and side. Isaiah 66:22, 23 gives us this promise “’For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me,’ says the LORD, ‘So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.’” All flesh here includes the redeemed people of earth, the angels and every other intelligent being on every other planet.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
It was because the Jews, especially their priests, had misinterpreted the prophecies in light of an understanding that was for this world only that they rejected Him. He wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted. The same thing could easily happen again today as we near the Second Coming. There are so many false interpretations regarding end-time events that focus on political Israel instead of spiritual Israel. That’s a topic far beyond the scope of this blog however. The Lord did know this would happen. I recommend you take a look at Ezekiel chapter 34 in your spare time. It’s a prophecy about corrupt priests who lead His people astray and what God intends to do about the situation. Verses 11 and 12 say “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.’”
In order to rightly understand the storyline of the Bible and prophecy in particular, you have to line up the really significant events and think beyond your own time period. Try to see the entire history of the world from God’s point of view essentially. You have Adam and Eve and the birth of sin, that’s the day in which Jesus was given to the world. Then the flood, as previously mentioned represents God showing the universe just how bad things would get under sin. We transition to Moses and the Ten Commandments then on to David. There were prophecies given through Abraham that Israel would have an earthly kingdom but the earthly success of the nation was only to provide a means for the spiritual success of the plan of salvation. Solomon of course frittered away the empire with the compromises he made for his many wives and false religion plagued the divided kingdoms. Then comes the captivity when Israel’s sovereignty was taken away. Ezekiel 21:25-27 speaks of the crown of Israel being overturned three times until the Messiah comes, who then keeps it forever. This happened; as the political sovereignty over God’s people was in Babylon’s hand when the prophecy was given and then overturned to Persia in the time of Nehemiah, and later to Greece, and finally Rome. This explains why Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world and why He said the kingdom of God is within you (John 18:36, Luke 17:21) The spiritual promise of being a new person with God’s love in your heart is always what the storyline of the Bible was really about.
Now we get beyond the time of Christ into the early church, how it went throughout the whole Roman empire sharing the truth. The falling away predicted by Paul came about as the pure church Jesus started became the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages. But God kept working bringing the truth back to light slowly through people like Martin Luther, the early Baptists and John Wesley. Now we transition into our time where the last of the truths of the Reformation, some of which are the secret keys we recently looked at, are being restored. When the full truth has gone to the whole world and everyone has had a chance to make a decision the end will come, but not without another counterfeit from Satan. This time the counterfeit will so closely resemble the truth that only those who really take God at His word and study it diligently will be able to tell the difference. (I’ll give you a hint, the true gospel has the true understanding of righteousness by faith, Martin Luther’s original point, while the false gospel doesn’t. With that true understanding comes a true understanding of how the Ten Commandments relate to practical Christian faith. With that eventually people will naturally ask themselves “why was the Sabbath changed?” The answer is that it wasn’t.)
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 15:23,24 and add in 2 Timothy 4:1 and then have an in-depth study into the next great events that will soon come to pass. “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.”
In order to rightly understand the storyline of the Bible and prophecy in particular, you have to line up the really significant events and think beyond your own time period. Try to see the entire history of the world from God’s point of view essentially. You have Adam and Eve and the birth of sin, that’s the day in which Jesus was given to the world. Then the flood, as previously mentioned represents God showing the universe just how bad things would get under sin. We transition to Moses and the Ten Commandments then on to David. There were prophecies given through Abraham that Israel would have an earthly kingdom but the earthly success of the nation was only to provide a means for the spiritual success of the plan of salvation. Solomon of course frittered away the empire with the compromises he made for his many wives and false religion plagued the divided kingdoms. Then comes the captivity when Israel’s sovereignty was taken away. Ezekiel 21:25-27 speaks of the crown of Israel being overturned three times until the Messiah comes, who then keeps it forever. This happened; as the political sovereignty over God’s people was in Babylon’s hand when the prophecy was given and then overturned to Persia in the time of Nehemiah, and later to Greece, and finally Rome. This explains why Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world and why He said the kingdom of God is within you (John 18:36, Luke 17:21) The spiritual promise of being a new person with God’s love in your heart is always what the storyline of the Bible was really about.
Now we get beyond the time of Christ into the early church, how it went throughout the whole Roman empire sharing the truth. The falling away predicted by Paul came about as the pure church Jesus started became the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages. But God kept working bringing the truth back to light slowly through people like Martin Luther, the early Baptists and John Wesley. Now we transition into our time where the last of the truths of the Reformation, some of which are the secret keys we recently looked at, are being restored. When the full truth has gone to the whole world and everyone has had a chance to make a decision the end will come, but not without another counterfeit from Satan. This time the counterfeit will so closely resemble the truth that only those who really take God at His word and study it diligently will be able to tell the difference. (I’ll give you a hint, the true gospel has the true understanding of righteousness by faith, Martin Luther’s original point, while the false gospel doesn’t. With that true understanding comes a true understanding of how the Ten Commandments relate to practical Christian faith. With that eventually people will naturally ask themselves “why was the Sabbath changed?” The answer is that it wasn’t.)
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 15:23,24 and add in 2 Timothy 4:1 and then have an in-depth study into the next great events that will soon come to pass. “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.”
Thursday, April 8, 2010
John 3:16 POST TWO
The Father obviously gave control of this earth to the Son. 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 shows that what Christ is doing in the plan of salvation is to buy the world back that Adam sold. He was already king of the universe ruling with the Father from eternity, but when all is said and done here He will also be king of this world too. He’ll have the place Adam once had.
"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."
So this verse is an overview of all of human history. We talked already about how the story of the world can be summed up into a few distinct phases. God gave the universe a demonstration of just how bad things would get under sin before the flood, then He gave us a chance to recover ourselves through obedience, but that didn’t work either since we are no longer capable of obeying on our own. Finally when Jesus came He did for us what we can’t do for ourselves. This text describes the final phases of history. Since Jesus rose from the dead He can now give the promise to those who seek Him that He will raise them up when He returns again. “Then comes the end” refers to a time after when the wicked will be punished for their sins. In just a little bit we’ll briefly discuss what that punishment will entail. This earth, once cut off from God the Father by sin, will then be given back to Him by His Son, Jesus, the king of this world. The earth will regain the place in the universe it once had.
Of course when Jesus did come to earth He looked like any other human being. It was the combination of the miracles He performed and the prophecies He fulfilled that proved He is the Messiah. In Acts 2:22-24 Peter said “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
It was not possible for death to hold Him because death is the penalty for sin and Jesus never sinned. This is according to Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Peter continues in Acts 2:25-32 with:
"For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ "
"Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses."
The fact that Peter comments the way he does shows that he and the rest of the early church finally understood what the coming of the Messiah really meant. Before the cross everyone within the realm of God’s people was looking for an earthly king to free Israel from the Romans. However, Jesus as a heavenly King came to free them from sin itself. What happened over time is that people had misinterpreted the prophecies of Jesus coming. Instead of a spiritual leader they were looking for a political one. This is why Jesus said in Luke 20:41-44 “And He said to them, ‘How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?’ ‘Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: “The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ Therefore David calls Him “Lord”; how is He then his Son?”
"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."
So this verse is an overview of all of human history. We talked already about how the story of the world can be summed up into a few distinct phases. God gave the universe a demonstration of just how bad things would get under sin before the flood, then He gave us a chance to recover ourselves through obedience, but that didn’t work either since we are no longer capable of obeying on our own. Finally when Jesus came He did for us what we can’t do for ourselves. This text describes the final phases of history. Since Jesus rose from the dead He can now give the promise to those who seek Him that He will raise them up when He returns again. “Then comes the end” refers to a time after when the wicked will be punished for their sins. In just a little bit we’ll briefly discuss what that punishment will entail. This earth, once cut off from God the Father by sin, will then be given back to Him by His Son, Jesus, the king of this world. The earth will regain the place in the universe it once had.
Of course when Jesus did come to earth He looked like any other human being. It was the combination of the miracles He performed and the prophecies He fulfilled that proved He is the Messiah. In Acts 2:22-24 Peter said “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
It was not possible for death to hold Him because death is the penalty for sin and Jesus never sinned. This is according to Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Peter continues in Acts 2:25-32 with:
"For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ "
"Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses."
The fact that Peter comments the way he does shows that he and the rest of the early church finally understood what the coming of the Messiah really meant. Before the cross everyone within the realm of God’s people was looking for an earthly king to free Israel from the Romans. However, Jesus as a heavenly King came to free them from sin itself. What happened over time is that people had misinterpreted the prophecies of Jesus coming. Instead of a spiritual leader they were looking for a political one. This is why Jesus said in Luke 20:41-44 “And He said to them, ‘How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?’ ‘Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: “The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ Therefore David calls Him “Lord”; how is He then his Son?”
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