The End or A New Beginning
The Time to Choose is Now
There’s no doubt about it. We’re living in interesting times! There’s so much chaos and confusion right now that people are wondering with a great deal of fear and loathing what will happen next. Consequentially, there’s been a lot of interest in Bible prophecy. People believe we’re living in the end times and the end of everything as we know it! And who knows, that may very well be the case. But, is the apocalypse at our door and if it is, is it really the end of everything? Well I think a lot of the fear people are feeling about the times we live in is the result of a wrong view of what the Apocalypse actually means. Is it the revealing of the end of days or is it the prelude to a kingdom come? Believe it or not, the way you look at it will change how you think about it and better inform you what to do about it.
There is a view of the Bible, specific to the end times that says the thousand year reign of Christ is an actual physical one-thousand year reign of Jesus on the earth as king that begins when he physically returns to the Earth. This view, called “Historic Premillennialism,”teaches that when Jesus physically returns to Earth, he will bring with him the spirits of all those from throughout history who “died in Christ.” He will then resurrect, reconstruct or reconstitute their bodies, from the dust if needs be, and unite their spirits, or souls, with new immortal and morally incorruptible bodies that cannot sin and will not die.
Within nano-seconds of that event, true believers who are still alive on Earth at that moment will also be miraculously transformed. As the Bible puts it, this happens “in the twinkling of an eye.” So just like the dead who have been resurrected, they will have new bodies that are glorious, immortal and cannot sin. This “first resurrection” only applies to all the old testament believers who believed in a coming messiah, the new testament “saints” who believed in Jesus as the Messiah that have already died as well as all of the faithful true believers who are alive and on the Earth at His second coming.
So, what happens to all the other unbelievers who are alive? What about those who don't go out to make war against Christ? Well, we know from the scriptures that the armies of the Antichrist will be killed by the brightness of his coming and “the sword of his mouth” and then the birds of Heaven will Feast on their corpses. At this time, the false prophet and the beast will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Then it says that Satan will be bound! He is not cast into the Lake of Fire. Instead, he will be bound and thrown into the abyss where he will remain for a thousand years. Most preaching and teaching on the matter, from my experience, pretty much ends right there.
But wait, there’s more questions to be answered here. For example, now that the beast and the false prophet are dead and Satan is bound, what will the redeemed do with Jesus during that thousand years? There are a lot of different “beliefs” on this and some of them are quite comical. Are they going to be in heaven or will they be on the earth? Are they going to be given wings of gold and told to go and dust off clouds, play our harps, sing hymns and do whatever it is that eternal beings do? I think not!
The scriptures also teach that those believers, past and present, who are caught up in the air to be with the Lord are going to rule and reign with Christ on the earth. So it looks like they don’t go to heaven, at least not right away. Instead, they return to the earth together with their King. They’ll be on the welcoming committee! In Bible days, it was common for people to come outside the gates of the city to greet arriving dignitaries and then escort them back into the city with a heroes welcome. So too will it be when our king returns.
Jesus’s kingdom will be headquartered in Jerusalem and his believers will be set up to rule and reign with him. But they don’t rule and reign from Jerusalem. That’s way above their pay grade. Instead, some will reign over a city, or a town, or a village and others may be given rule over several cities. This will be all around the world. So if they are to rule and reign, they must be ruling and reigning over something and some one. So, who will they rule and reign over?
Well, it may just be that all the unbelievers who are alive at His second coming don’t die like the Beast, the False Prophet and all their armies do at the battle of Armageddon. I’ll bet most of you never learned that in Sunday School or heard that from the pulpits of your churches. I know I didn’t! It seems that most churches don’t talk much about that. I wonder why? I suspect it’s because they are coming from a different biblical perspective. So if a teaching doesn’t fit their model, they seem to think it must be above their pay grade so they just ignore it.
Anyway, it would seem that the believers who are now made glorious and reigning on Earth for a thousand years will be ruling over those unbelievers who didn't go out to wage war and were not part of the antichrist’s armies. Think of it, we’re just shy of 8 billion people alive on the earth today. We don’t have the logistical capabilities to move everyone to the Valley of Megiddo, throw a uniform on them and give them a weapon. Those not in uniform will do as they have always done throughout history, hold down the home front and raise the next generation of cannon fodder for the kings of the earth to waste on their own vanity.
But that being said, it would seem that these unbelievers who don't die at the Messiah’s return will remain in their bodies of sin and death. So, it would seem that the Bible is telling us that believers who are glorified with Jesus will rule over a world that is still filled with unbelievers who remain in their mortal bodies who still live, still sin, still procreate and will still die for the duration of the Messiah’s thousand year reign over the earth.
So the next question to be answered is why will the glorified believers reign over unbelievers? I think, and this is just me speculating here, but I think that this is to give mankind a taste of what it's actually like to have the perfect God man and perfect human rulers ruling over them. From that point on, mankind will finally experience what it is like to have no more corrupt immoral judges, politicians or lawyers who pervert justice or oppress the righteous and help the wicked to prosper! It is during the thousand year reign of Jesus that unbelievers will finally see what it's like when you have the perfect justice they claim they’ve been pining for and now here’s the kicker, they're going to hate it!
That is why Jesus is giving them a taste. Mankind has experienced various governments, kingdoms and rulers throughout the entirety of our history and all have failed. Now they will have the opportunity to experience what it's like when God in the flesh shows up with a group of glorified human beings who cannot be tempted to corrupt justice ruling over them perfectly and passing judgment swiftly because they can't be deceived and/or misled by false witnesses to pass down unjust verdicts!
Jesus is now going to show mankind what it's like to be governed by morally incorruptible perfect humans and the God man Himself. That's why they will rebel when the 1000 years is completed! Why do unbelievers rebel? Unbelievers rebel because sinners within sinful bodies cannot endure real justice. When justice will be swift and punishment is just, there will be no room for any of the wicked to escape it and they won't be able to endure it so they're going to hate it with a passion. That's why when Satan is loosed and says “Hey here's your chance! Let's get rid of the rule of Christ and his Saints. Let's break free from these shackles and rule over ourselves!” They will rebel!
Why does that make sense? Well, I believe the answer is found in Revelation 2:26-26 and again in Psalm 2:8-9 (both are linked in the references at the end of this piece). These verses are applied to the “Assembly” (Church) of believers who are either resurrected from the dead or miraculously transformed at Christ’s second coming and given new incorruptible immortal bodies. Jesus promises his church that if they endure and overcome, they will rule over the nations with a rod of iron and dash them like Pottery.
That tells me that it can’t possibly mean that believers will be ruling over other believers. Why? Because a believer will never dash another believer to death because the believers have been made incorruptible and immortal. There will be no cause for an incorruptible and immortal being to judge another incorruptible and immortal being. So, this can only apply to “believers” (incorruptible and immortal beings) ruling over corruptible and mortal unbelievers.
The next question is, who will Jesus destroy at his second coming? It's not explicit, but it's implied that when Jesus comes back with his believers, not all those who will be alive at that time will die right away. The scriptures do say that Jesus will kill Beast, the false prophet and their armies but, it doesn’t say that Jesus will kill everyone in all of the nations around the globe. It also doesn’t say that everyone on the planet will have taken the mark of the beast either. It may very well be that in addition to the millions who wittingly or not took the mark there may be a smattering of unbelievers of the nations who will survive and continue to live in their sinful mortal bodies too that didn’t. Do you really think some native living in the remotest jungles of the Amazon who never heard of the Beast or the False Profit will willingly or knowingly take the mark?
What is clear is that anyone who took “The Mark” and survives, their fate is sealed! By taking the mark, they blasphemed the Holy Spirit and there is no forgiveness for anyone who does that. But even so, those who do survive Armageddon and all the rest of the events associated with the Second Coming, they will live and many of them will marry and have children. It is more than implied that there will be many generations of sinful humans who will be born, live and die during the millennial kingdom of Christ. What will happen to all of them?
They will live under the rule of those who were saved and were gathered to meet Jesus in the air at his glorious second coming. The people who were part of the welcoming committee for the King will be given rule over cities, towns and villages all around the globe and they will be under the authority of King Jesus who reigns in Jerusalem and they will righteously preside as judges over those who survived and those who will be born during the millennial kingdom.
Now this part is pure speculation on my part but, it may be possible for those who are born during the millennial kingdom who, by virtue of being born after the Beast and the False Prophet are destroyed, who did not take the mark; it may be possible for them to repent of their sin and be forgiven. I say this with great trepidation because we still don’t yet know for certain what “the mark” is. There are some who speculate that this mark is a genetic change to our DNA via mRNA vaccines and just like sin is written into our DNA through Adam’s sin, the mark may be written into theirs. I’m not really sure I buy that one but, it is out there for your consideration.
So, what happens after the 1000 years have ended end? We know that Satan will be released from the bottomless pit and he will once again deceive mankind to declare war against Christ and the Saints in the holy city. That's when fire comes and consumes them all. Satan is then thrown into the Lake of Fire where the false prophet and the Beast are. Then there is the general resurrection of everyone who’s ever lived and the final judgment of all. Following judgement, then all unbelievers are dealt with. Once that is all taken care of, that is when the earth will be changed into a new Heaven new Earth with no more sin, no more pain, no more disease, no more death and no more Satan. Then God the father comes down to join the son and the assembly of believers to rule on the earth!
Admittedly, there’s a lot more to this that would take several hundred pages to discuss and that still wouldn’t do the matter justice, but in a nutshell, this is NOT the end! Rather, it’s a new beginning! And knowing this can change what you do about it while you still have the opportunity to do so, “Choose you this day whom you will serve!” Seems to me I read that somewhere.
Resources (Linked): NKJV Please Read the whole chapters for greater context.