Grace be unto you all and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. This letter is the concluding part of the series of epistles we have written to you all concerning the millennial reign of Christ on the earth, that which is to come. And when that which is to come is fully come, the following
events as listed below will follow after; these are the events that shall follow after the millennial reign of Christ and His saints on the earth is fully completed:
The Millennium will end in one short period of rebellion. Then the
final destruction of all rebels will take place, leaving the saints, natural
and resurrected, in charge of the eternal perfect earth forever (Rev 20:7-10;
21:1-22:5, 2 Peter 3:10-13, Isa 66:22-24) - According to Rev 20:1-7 and
Isa 24:22, Satan and his angels and demons will be loosed from the abyss (bottomless
pit) for a little season at the end of the millennium. They will go throughout
the earth to deceive the nations who have not wanted the reign of Christ and
who, in their hearts have longed for an opportunity to get rid of such strict
laws and rigid suppression of their lusts (Eph 2:1-3) under the millennial
rule of Christ and His saints. These rebels will then mobilize in the land
of Gog and Magog, in the north parts and ascend upon Jerusalem surrounding
the camp of the saints. Then fire will come down from God in heaven and devour
them (Rev 20:9, 2 Pet 3:10-13). Thereafter, the devil will be taken and cast
into the Lake of Fire forever, the place where the antichrist and false prophet
were cast into about a thousand years before. Rev 20:10 affirms that the antichrist
and the false prophet will still be in the Lake of Fire at the end of the thousand
year reign of Christ on the earth, proving that hell and its eternal torments
are real and does not kill the body or soul but torments it forever and ever,
for if someone cannot burn up in 1,000 years while in a fire as the antichrist
and false prophet will be, then he will assuredly never do so.
The second resurrection and great white throne judgment will take
place (Rev 20:4-6, 11-15, Matt 3:10; 7:21-23; 10:15, 26; 11:20-24; 12:36-37,
41-42; 15:13, Mk 4:22; 6:11, Luke 3:9, 17; 6:24-26; 8:16-18; 10:12-15; 11:31-32;
12:2-3, 10; 13:3, 5, 24-30; 20:42-47, John 12:48, Acts 17:31, 1 Corinth 3:17,
4:5; 6:13, Gal 6:7-9, Col 3:25, Heb 10:26:29, 1 Peter 4:5-6, 2 Peter 2:9; 3:7,
Rev 20:11-15, Dan 12:2, John 5:29, Rev 14:9-11, 21:8, 22:15) - According
to the scriptures, many of which we have cited above, the wicked dead will
be resurrected unto judgment of eternal punishment and damnation about 1,000
years after the resurrection of the righteous which takes place at the rapture.
This coincides with the end of the millennial reign of Christ. At this time,
all men who have died without knowing Christ from Adam to the end of the millennium
will be judged at the white throne judgment and cast into the Lake of fire.
This judgment throne is literal and the white indicates absolute righteousness
and justice of the judgment (Psa 45:6-7, 96:10-13, John 7:24, Acts 17:31, 2
Tim 4:8) in same manner as white robes indicates the righteousness of saints
(Rev 19:8). This is true. Yet still, there would probably be some that will
die as righteous men during the millennial reign of Christ e.g. some already
at the point of death in some remote village having been saved after the rapture
and yet having no knowledge of Christ's millennial reign in Jerusalem
until after missionaries go forth from Jerusalem to win them to Christ. When
shall these people then be judged? They also shall be judged at the great white
throne judgment. But how can these things be? Is it not written that the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death? And this is to be fulfilled at the
end of the millennium as written in 1 Corinth 15:24? That death will continue
during the millennium is plainly written in the scriptures. According to Isa
65:20-22, human life will be prolonged so that men will live as long as trees
and many will live for the entire 1,000 year reign of Christ if they do not
commit a sin having the death penalty, an act that will require them to be
judged unto damnation (Isa 11:4), for the law will go forth from Zion and the
Word of the Lord from Jerusalem in those days (Isa 2:2-4, 11:3-5, Micah 4).
Then if they do not rebel with Satan at the end of the 1,000 years and if they
are born again and consecrated to eternal righteousness, they will be allowed
to continue to live eternally in the new earth. In those days, a man will be
considered a mere child at the age of 100. The resurrected saints of all ages
who have been made immortal and have come back to the earth with Christ at
His second advent (Zech 14:5, Jude 14-15, Rev 19:14) will be kings and priests
and the judges to execute judgment and justice throughout the earth and perfect
righteousness and justice shall be meted to all alike without favoritism. Now
concerning the great white throne judgment, it is generally accepted by many
that this is the judgment of the wicked dead only. But how about righteous
men that die naturally during the millennium just before Christ's fame
spread throughout the whole world? Shall not all men be judged according to
their works? Shall they then also not be judged? They also shall be judged
at the great white throne judgment for it is written in Rev 20:11-15 that at
this judgment, books will be opened and the dead will be judged according to
their works. But then the scriptures states clearly in Rev 20:12 & 15 that
another book will be opened which is the book of life and names will be checked
whether they are written in the book of life before anyone is cast into the
Lake of fire. So then, if all men that appear at this judgment are the wicked
dead with none righteous among them, why then would their names be checked
whether it is in the book of life? If they are all wicked, there would be no
need to check whether their names are written in the book of life because their
names cannot be written in the book of life. God Himself promised in His word
that He will blot out of the book of life the names of men that would sin against
Him. This is plainly written in Ex 32:33. The fact that names are checked whether
they are in the book of life or not clearly suggest that some names of people
that appear at this judgment would be in the book of life. These are the righteous
dead between the Second Advent and the end of the millennium. It is at this
time that they also shall be judged.
Death will be destroyed and swallowed up in victory (1 Corinth 15:26,
55, Isa 25:8) - According to the scriptures, in the first resurrection
which is before the millennium, all the righteous dead of all ages including
the godly from Abel to the future tribulation will be resurrected, and death
will be done away as far as they are concerned, at that time (1 Corinth 15:23,
51-57, Phil 3:20-21, 1 Thess 4:13-17, Rev 20:4-6). Death will not be destroyed
for sinners though, for they will continue to die during the millennium. When
the second resurrection takes place and all wicked men are given immortality
of the body, to be tormented day and night eternally, then death will be destroyed
(1 Corinth 15:24-28, 34-35). Christ has already conquered death and He now
holds the keys of death and Hades (Rev 1:18), but death as an enemy will continue
throughout the millennium and exercise its powers over sinners (Isa 65:20).
After that period, there will be no more death (Rev 21:3-7, 22:3). And after
these things, the new heavens and the new earth shall be established to remain
forever, never to be destroyed again (2 Pet 3:10-13, Rev 21-22, Isa 65:17;
66:22-24). At this time, the New Jerusalem in heaven, God's capital city,
will be moved from the planet heaven to the planet earth (Rev 21:2, 9-27, Heb
11:10-16; 13:14) and God shall be all in all among men forever as before the
fall of Adam (1 Corinth 15:24-28, 2 Corinth 6:16, Rev 21:2-7). This will be
the beginning of the eternal ages to come.
We must also mention that sins, sickness, diseases, calamity, wars, and other
curses will be past for Israel and all other nations when Christ reigns eternally
on the earth. For Israel, all this will stop in the millennium because they
will all turn to God and be saved, as mentioned in Isa 60:21; but among the
Gentiles this will not be so until in the new earth. In the Millennium, Israel
will for the first time inherit all the land originally promised them forever
(Isa 60:21; Gen 17:8). Such passages as this prove that God's program
for man on earth is eternal, and not for a period of 7,000 years only. The
fall of man did not do away with God's original purpose; it merely postponed
that purpose until the final restitution of all things during the Millennium;
and after that, natural man ruled by resurrected man will continue God's
original program as if man had never sinned. This then is the summary of the
purpose of God in the dispensational tests of Scripture i.e. to rig man back
to the place where he was before the fall in the garden of Eden, after having
purged him of all possibility of future failures, and to set him in the new
earth to carry on where the race left off when man fell (1 Corinth 15:24-28,
Eph 1:10; 2:7; 3:11, Rev 21-22). Father, thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. Amen. Peace be to you all. Maranatha.
