AN OVERVIEW OF REVELATION
[PARTS 13
-18]
By MIKE BALLOUN
-------
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
OF REVELATION
PART 13
CHAPTER 20
VERSES 1-6
Note that Verses 1-3 of Chapter
20
are parenthetical. In other words, Chapter 20 Verse 4 continues
chronologically from Chapter 19 Verse 21
Revelation 19: 21
And
the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat
upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and
all the fowls were filled with their flesh
Revelation 20: 1-6
1 And I saw an
angel come down from heaven, having the key
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold
on the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the Devil, and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years,
3 And
cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him
up, and set a seal upon him,
that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
4 And I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them
that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus,
and for the word of God, and which had
not worshipped the beast, neither his
image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or
in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand
years.
5 But the rest of
the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign with him a thousand years.
Continuing on from what
weve learned in previous lessons, we should be established in the
understanding that Satan had been previously cast down to the Earth from the
first heaven, the unseen part of this Realm, 3½ years earlier. (Revelation
12: 12
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath
but a short time.) And the events of the 19th
Chapter of Revelation (which take place
at the end of those last 3½ years) stands as evidence of the immediate response
to Israels National repentance (see Acts 3: 19-21 and Matthew 23: 39) and therefore, in accordance, reveals the final
victories in the descent of Gods appointed Christ from that previously set free
first heaven extending now to Earth unto the realization of the fullness of His
Kingdom. (See: 14
These
shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them:
for he is Lord Revelation
17
of lords, and King of kings: and
they that are with him are called,
and chosen, and faithful. Daniel 2: 44
And
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed: and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it shall stand for ever. Psalm 80: 17
Let
thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand (Jesus
Christ),
upon the son of man whom thou madest
strong for thyself. Psalm 2
Why do the
heathen rage,
and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord, and against his anointed,
saying,
Let us break their bands asunder,
and cast away their cords from us. He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh:
the Lord shall have them in derision. Then
shall he speak unto them in his wrath,
and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare
the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me,
and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be
wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye
judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish
from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.)
Christs Return brings to an end Gods
ancient arrangements in this Realm (of which we speak more in a moment). The Christ bringing with Him among His hosts, His Bride, who having shared in His
sufferings, now fights beside Him against the Anti-Christ and the confederation
of Earths kings, and the Bride will now share with Him in the fullness of His
victory. (Revelation 19:14) The Bride is not
all the redeemed, but the chosen out from
among the Body. These are they which
follow the Lamb whitersoever he goeth.
The
military victories lead on now to the 20th Chapter, wherein we see His delegation of authority to His risen
worthies, which could not have occurred anytime until now.
(It is most
helpful that Christians see the fuller Truths of this Realm. First, that
this Realm consists of an unseen heavenly portion and a seen portion,
and secondly, that this Realm is ancient; it having twice endured
a catastrophic destruction. The one destruction being the flood of Noah, and the other prior
destruction being a flood unspoken of specifically,
but its reality being seen as occurring between Genesis
1:
1
and Genesis 1: 2 (being that God did not create the heavens and
the Earth as without
form, and void, but rather, it became that way). Its
awful cause for its first destruction being the actions of Lucifer, once the chief
ruler under God,
having 3 sets of 12 appointed Angels under him, who were given charge of this Realms
heaven and earth (it
having been once teeming with life, as attested to by its fossils), and
that being untold millenniums before mans creation (which was on the 6th. 24-hour day after the Re-creation of
Earth). It was in the rebellion of Lucifer, that once great Arch-angel (Ezekiel
28), who intended to ascend above the heights (beyond that
authority he was granted) and
be like the most high
(Isaiah
14: 19)
wherein, because of his prideful ambition, he led 12 of his
co-overruling angels and their many subordinates into his failed rebellion. He
took with him one third of the ruling angels, resulting in the vast numbers of
fallen wicked spirits being relegated to this Realms
ancient destroyed World (having been kicked out of the third Heaven).
(2nd Peter 3: 5-7 speaks to this Earth as being previously destroyed
For
this they willingly are ignorant of,
that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby
the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now (which are
now, as in a different re-created one), by
the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.) We can see
then that Genesis 1:
2b to
2:
3
is the Re-Creation of
this Realm, and that Man was created
to rule it. Satan, having deceived Eve, temporarily circumvented Gods
appointed replacement for these now incumbent fallen spirit rulers in this
Realm. (Luke 4: 5-6) The remaining 24 Elders (older ones meaning those Angels whose
ruling history with this Realm reaches back millions of years ago) cited
in the Book of Revelation are
of those 2/3 Angels who did not
follow Lucifer in his rebellion, and are those other Angel spirits who had regal power in the
ancient fallen World beneath Lucifer and still retain a certain crown of
authority in this Realm under God. (Note that 3 sets of
12=perfect divine government in this Realm) These 24
Elder Angels have assisted God, through the Atonement of the Lamb of God, in the transfer of authority in
this Realm from Angels to Men (Gods Restoration of Man into a place of
authority in this Realm being the whole emphasis throughout the Bible), bringing us to
this point in the Book of Revelation, that is, in
bringing certain men to be His appointed heirs of this Realm,
and that through His great salvation plan, to bring eternal order out of chaos. (See
Hebrews 1: 14; 2:
3 and Revelation
4:
10-11;
5:
9-10
The four and twenty elders fall down before him
that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth
for ever and ever, and cast their crowns
before the throne, saying,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to
receive glory and honour and power: for
thou hast created all things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created. And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us (Greek- them men) to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us
(them) unto our God kings and priests: and we (they) shall reign on the earth. See also
Revelation 12:
3 which speaks
of Satan having royal crowns, signifying the authority by which he
rules, especially through the Gentile Nations of the Earth.
At
the chaining of Satan, his ancient reign in this realm is finally over;
he is stripped of Crown and Scepter, and cast
into the Bottomless Pit (into the Abyss for 1000 years) along with all
his evil spirit and demonic co-conspirators. (Credibilty to that statement is found
in Isaiah 24:
21-22
And
it shall come to pass in that day,
that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high,
and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And
they shall be gathered together, as
prisoners are gathered in the pit,
and shall be shut up in the prison,
and after many days shall they be visited. See also Psalm
82: 6-7 which is referring
to these fallen angels who will be cast into the place called Death
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you
are children of the most High. But ye
shall die like men, and fall like one
of the princes. And see Matthew 8: 29
And,
behold,
they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus,
thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us
before the time?
The place they did not want to go to before their time was the Abyss.)
It would do little good to have killed
the wicked men of the Earth and not arrest the great instigator spirit. The key satan had briefly attained to the great Pit to loose the
underworlds wicked hoards upon man (Revelation 1: 18 with 9: 1),
had been recovered again to the hand of the Lord, and is now in the hand of a
single arresting Angel of the now true Crowned King, who then shuts and seals
him up in the Pit. (Revelation 20: 1) This being the last
such intervening governmental act of an Angel recorded. From henceforth, in
this new Millennial Age of Justice now dawning, all governing acts are reserved
for Men of a certain kind (that being First-born
sons). (Hebrews 2: 5
For
unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world (Age in the
Greek) to come,
whereof we speak.)
The Dragon / the deadly Serpent of the
Garden / the Devil / the slanderer of God is now incarcerated.
To what determined end?
That the Gentile Nations be not deceitfully misled any longer. Although the seed of
rebellion, over which Satan rules, lies dormant in the breast of the Gentile
Nations, it is yet held in check by fear of just and swift
recompense (as the kings and priests of Christ rule with a rod of iron - Revelation
2: 27 and 19: 15). See the following verses which show that it is no longer in an Age of Grace
and Mercy, but of Righteousness and Justice. Zechariah 14: 16-19
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. And it shall be,
that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto
What is the time length of the Kingdom and throne of
Jesus the Christ?
It is
from the First Resurrection plus a thousand years, until the Second
Resurrection is completed.
The First Resurrection worthies are to
rule with Christ for 1000 years. Then there is the time that Satan is unbound
from that 1000 years, in that he must be let loose for a little
time of
unspecified length.
To what end or purpose is
Satan let loose again? It is
contrary to an uninformed or unenlightened mans way of thinking that Satan should ever
be let loose again, especially if it is to mans demise. The
must written in Scripture is
given without specific explanation. Some Bible theologians have speculated that
God would then show His intelligent creation
that left to their own free will,
when put under trial or temptation without His undergirding of grace, they
would forever fail
even after being under the most ideal
circumstances experienced in the
It is most certainly
discovered to man that Satans disease is uncurable. Satan does not restrain himself,
even after 1000 years of experiencing Gods superior power while in the Pit, he comes out with a heart
as full of rebellion as when he was incarcerated, even with the threat of the
Lake of Fire hanging over his head.
Thus, the point of Scriptures Truth of
eternal irreconcilableness is proven to those who would believe that the
eternally condemned, once under the punishment of the
THE MILLENNIUM Revelation
20: 4-6
The Return of Christ and His Bride, as
described in the 19th Chapter is literal, as confirmed
by prophetic Scripture. (Joel 3, Isaiah 13 & 24, Matthew 24, etc
) So then it must be that
the literal First
Resurrection
preceded it, seeing that it was those who accompanied Him. Their millennial
reign then is also literal. (Luke 19: 15-18) All
these literal pre-Millennial truths run counter to Anti-Millenarian views which
state that this present dispensation (of 2000 years since Christs first
Coming) has Satan already incarcerated, and says that naked souls, having died,
are caught up to the Third Heaven and are now ruling with Christ, the present
King of this Realm, and this is to continue until the saving of the world by
Christians. Wherein they believe the Gospel is to increase until all
Nations are persuaded, while the redeemed on the Earth
become more and more Christlike. With this view, Christ, contrary to Scripture,
would come with congratulations to the saved!
Today in this
dispensation, God calls the living redeemed individuals to labor for Him, in
accordance to Christs Word, and
holds out the Promise that if their labors are judged righteous, the great
reward /prize that is set before them is to be caught up out of this
increasingly wicked world, or to be brought up in the First
Resurrection
out from among the dead in Hades/the intermediate place where all dead go in
the center of the Earth, to rule with Him in His Millennial Kingdom. (Hebrews 10: 35, Revelation 11: 18; 22: 12, Philippians 3: 11-14, Luke 20: 35 etc
)
The Age wherein we are (2nd Corinthians 5: 7
where we walk by faith and not by sight) Grace and Mercy is extended, wherein God seeks a certain people for His Name
(firstborn sons) who exercise themselves as Christ did, and is still doing
in
selflessness, service, humility, and suffering. (Matthew 7: 1)
Which holds off the Age coming, with its promised First Resurrection, Christs Return, Satan bruised
under our feet (Romans 16: 20), and ruling in strict Justice
with
Him, with the rod of iron, over the Gentile Nations. There will be no turning
of the other cheek, or martyr spirit, but rather, they will be fit to judge
rightly and smite.
Christ has sown the Gospel seed in the
field; once reaped, it will never be sown again. The
Millennium is a completely different economy of God. It is time for the saints of the heavenlies to
take the Kingdom. (Daniel 7: 17-27
These
great beasts, which are four,
are four kings, which shall arise out of the
earth. But the saints (Christs
Consort Bride) of the most
High (places) shall take the kingdom, and
possess the kingdom for ever,
even for ever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from
all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with his feet; And of the ten
horns that were in his head,
and of the other which came up,
and before whom three fell;
even of that horn that had eyes,
and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld,
and the same horn made war with the saints,
and prevailed against them; Until the
Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the
saints (the Consort of Christ)
of the most High (places); and
the time came that the saints (both heavenly
and earthly)
possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the
fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from
all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth,
and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that
shall arise: and another shall rise after them;
and he shall be diverse from the first,
and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and
shall wear out the saints of the most High,
and think to change times and laws:
and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing
of time. But the judgment shall sit, and
they shall take away his dominion, to
consume and to destroy it unto the end. And
the kingdom and dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,
shall be given to the people (
It
is time for the Nations of the Earth who came not up to the great battle to war
against Christ, to come before the throne of His Glory and to be
judged. (See Matthew
25: 31-46 where before
Him will be gathered all
nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as
a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats
)
King and Priest
is what describes Gods designated perfect
rulers during the 1000-year Reign of Christ. (Revelation 1: 6
And hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father; to him be
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. See also Revelation
20: 6
Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.) Under the Law of Moses, the King was not permitted to be Priest. Under the Law of the Gospel
of Christ, the redeemed believer is not permitted to be king, as they were appointed to be priests
only. (See 1st Corinthians
4: 8-12 where Paul
says we are not called to rule before the time, but rather, we are to be
intermediaries for the lost of this World.) We redeemed, as individuals, are to
avoid ruling and receiving our reward here in this life. (See Luke
12: 14-16 and Matthew
6: 1-16 which have to do
with the heavenly Kingdom inheritance.)
To those individuals who suffer with
Christ, the reward of the Kingdom is promised. (Romans
8: 17, Matthew
5: 12) Now, the resurrected worthy, with purified and glorified souls,
having drawn upon the Atonement power/grace of Jesus, having lived out
faithfully the servant priests call, and now having been made the heavenly
Consort of Christ (Revelation
19: 7),
are now to take the authority and power that satan
had over the Nations and rule as both kings and priests from the first
heaven. Satan deceived the Nations and rallied them against Christ; these kings and priests
instruct and keep them in good stead. They have now bodily entrance into the
They are qualified, for they fought the
fight of loving faith and overcame the flesh, devil, and world. They had
learned to discern between the good and evil, not only outwardly in the World, but within their own souls, and that through the Word of
God, and persistently crucified their carnal flesh. (Hebrews
5: 14) They have learned to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to the Lord (such as the daily sacrifice of their own
will or the sacrificing of the old man in them) while alive on
the Earth. They have lived in a manner that instructed men in the ways of God. (1st Peter
2: 5, 9
Ye
also, as
lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house, an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ
But
ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of
darkness into his marvellous light. Hebrews 13:
15-16
By him therefore let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of
our lips giving thanks to his name.
But to do good and to communicate forget not:
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 1st Timothy
2: 1-2
I
exhort therefore, that,
first of all, supplications,
prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
For kings, and for all that are in authority;
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.)
Now for reward, they receive
their crowns and thrones, and will rule with the spirit of wisdom and
understanding in the full knowledge of God. (See Deuteronomy
17: 8-13 where the
Levites were exhorted to be set apart and to instruct
the other Tribes to walk in righteousness, as we should also be doing.) These
love God and man
and rule as Gods perfect theocratic governors as His royal priests under
the King of kings and High Priest of priests. (Malachi
2: 7
For
the priests
lips should keep knowledge, and they
should seek the law at his mouth:
for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.) In the
THE GREAT POWER TRANSFER
The thrones of all angels are vacated and they are not heard of again. And
I saw thrones,
and they that sat upon them,
and judgment was given unto them
If the first 3
Verses of Chapter 20 are taken as
parenthetical, then it is seen more clearly that the Bride army that came with Christ
reigns with Christ, and that the them refers to
those who come with Him. The Words of 1st Corinthians
6: 2-3
are now filled with meaning. Do ye not know that the
saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are
ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
Three distinct classes who will sit
on an unspecified number of thrones and reign with Christ are
given
1) Those who
came with Christ from the first heaven
Potentially this could be
any one of us who are redeemed, living our lives
faithfully on the Earth. (1st Corinthians
6: 2-3) Specifically,
Scripture names some of these as the Apostles (Luke
22: 28-30
Ye
are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as
my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and
sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
And Paul before
his death, whom the Lord bestowed the honor which he so highly prized and
sought after, that he might attain unto the (out-) resurrection
from (among) the
dead.
(Philippians
3: 11- see the
Greek) See also 2nd Timothy
4: 7-8 where before his death, Paul is told that a
crown is stored up for him, having fought the good fight of faith. So it is, not
all who are redeemed by Christ shall reign with Christ. The promises of the
heavenly Kingdom reward in the First Resurrection are
specifically extended to the overcomers
in
the churches, over the last 2000 years. (Revelation
2: 26-27
And he that
overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the
end, to
him will I give power over the nations:
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as
the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers:
even as I received of my Father. Revelation
3: 21
To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set
down with my Father in his throne.)
Those having obtained through faith and service
the character that wins Gods favor and reward, who
have overcome (no matter their station in life, in one form or fashion) the
devil, the flesh, the world, therefore are to rule with immortal
bodies on thrones with Christ in His Millennial Kingdom. (See
1st Corinthians
15: 50-58,
which speaks of the different glories in the Resurrection.) And
shall continue to reign after the Millennium, in the eternal state. (Revelation 22: 5
And
there shall be no night there; and they need
no candle, neither light of the sun;
for the Lord God giveth them light: and
they shall reign for ever and ever. Daniel 7: 18
But
the saints of the most High (places)
shall take the kingdom,
and possess the kingdom for ever, even
for ever and ever.)
Paul seemed shocked
Know
ye not (has it not become
obvious to you) that the unrighteous (redeemed
persons) shall not
inherit the
2)
Additionally, John saw the now glorified faithful souls who were
beheaded / slain for their witness of
Jesus AND for the Word of God; all those down through all Ages, including the saints of the
Old Testament. (Revelation 6: 9) Blessed
are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake would by necessity extend to the Old
Testament redeemed.
3) Those alive
during the reign of the Anti-Christ who died as Gods martyrs. These specifically
mentioned martyrs are brought into clear view by John, as this recorded
revelation of the Great Tribulation will stand as encouraging testimony for
those who will live it, and see it necessary to stand as witnesses of Jesus and
the word of God.
To these 3
groups of worthies, the First Resurrection unto a second
life,
in royalty is appointed. (Romans 1: 4) Their reign only begins now after
resurrection, not when they die. Only when Christ takes His Throne, will they
take theirs.
Blessed and Holy
The First Resurrection is the prize
attained. (Philippians
3: 11)
blessed (are those
who have a part in the
Over these the second death (the lake of
death or
These statements are
found strange to our ears in that we have been falsely told that the
justified, by mere believing in Christ and receiving Him as their eternal
Savior, are not to be recompensed according to their works; be it good or evil.
(Matthew
16: 24-27
Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For
what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul? or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come
in the glory of his Father with his angels;
and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Revelation
22: 12
And,
behold, I
come quickly; and my reward is with me, to
give every man according as his work shall be. 2nd Corinthians
5: 10-11
For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men;
but we are made manifest unto God; and
I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.) Consider also the
Lords Words in light of that Judgement punishment truth that shall certainly
come on some believers. When correctly translated, John 8: 51 says
Verily I say unto you, If any keep my saying, he shall not for ever see death
(Death
being a locale, which is ultimately cast into the Lake of Fire.) And again, John 10: 28 says
I give unto them eternal life, and
they shall not perish for ever. And once more, John 11: 25 says
I am Resurrection and Life: he
that believeth in me, though he die yet shall he live,
and every one that liveth and believeth on me shall not die for ever. This is not to
say that all redeemed excluded from the First Resurrection will have a part in
the Second Death /
*
* *
AN OVERVIEW OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
CHAPTER 20 VERSES
6-10
PART 14
Revelation 20: 6-10
Blessed
and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over
such the second death has no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Now when the thousand years have expired,
Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations
which are in the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together to
battle,
whose number is as the sand of the sea.
They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints
and the beloved city. And fire
came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast
and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day
and night forever and ever.
An Angel, a millennium ago, had come down from the first heaven at Christs Return with the key to
the Pit, and laid hold on the dragon and bound him with a chain, and cast and
sealed him therein. He is now to be loosed out of his prison for a little season (if the little season is the same as the short time of Revelation
12: 12, it will be for 3½ years).
(Side-note: The great drama of the salvation of man and the restoration of all
things has but two more scenes after this one: the
Great White Throne Judgement and the New heavens and
New Earth.)
When Satan is chained
and sealed in the Bottomless Pit, then the earth and its inhabitors are greatly relieved
from his woe (Revelation 12: 12
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has
come down to you, having great wrath,
because he knows that he has a short time.) On another note: in
addition to the clear prophetic word of this Passage, if, Satan has been
chained in the Pit since Christs Resurrection, as Anti-Millennialists suppose, how is it that 30 plus
years after Christs Resurrection, Peter writes the warning to the Church
Be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist
stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Getting back to this lessons verses, Satans
sentence is for a 1000 years, which corresponds to the time that Christs appointed kings and
priests, those worthies of the First Resurrection up unto the first heaven,
reign with a rod of iron in strict justice over this Realms heaven and earth. This Realm having been renewed after its
great destruction and reconstruction, seen as a result of the Last Days
Judgments in the seals, trumpets, and vials at the end of the 6th
Millennium. (See Isaiah 34: 4
All
the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens
shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf
falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree. Isaiah 51: 6
Lift
up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For
the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not be abolished. See also Revelation
6: 12-17
I looked
when He opened the sixth seal, and behold,
there was a great earthquake; and the
sun became black as sackcloth of hair,
and the moon became like blood. And the
stars of heaven fell to the earth, as
a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a
mighty wind. Then the sky
receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every
mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth,
the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every
free man, hid themselves in
the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us
from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day
of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Matthew
24: 29
Immediately
after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light; the
stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Ezekiel 14: 4-11
Therefore
speak to them, and say to them, Thus says the
Lord God: Everyone of the house of Israel who
sets up his idols in his heart, and puts
before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and
then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who
comes,
according to the multitude of his idols,
that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because
they are all estranged from Me by their idols. Therefore
say to the house of
The ancient curse of God over creation, after the fall of
man in the Garden of Eden, will have been rescinded in its greater degree at
the beginning of the 7th Millennium. (Isaiah
11: 6-9
The
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down
together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobras hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the vipers
den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.)
The atmosphere around the Earth will no
longer absorb the Suns originally
intended energy. (Isaiah
30: 26
Moreover
the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, As
the light of seven days, In the day that the Lord binds
up the bruise of His people And heals the stroke of their wound.) And
creation will have speedily sprung forth in its original unaborted state. (Isaiah
55:12-13
For
you shall go out with joy, And
be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn (which
came as a result of the curse at Adams Fall)
shall come up the cypress tree, And instead
of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.)
The position of man is now somewhat like
it was when he was in the Garden of Eden. (Ezekiel
36: 35
So they will say, This land that
was desolate has become like the garden of Eden;
and the wasted, desolate,
and ruined cities (the Earths
infrastructure having been destroyed in the Great Tribulation) are
now fortified and inhabited. Isaiah 51: 3
For the Lord will
comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He
will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord; Joy
and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Isaiah
33: 24
And
the inhabitant will not say, I
am sick; The people who dwell in
it will be forgiven their iniquity.) Universal peace shall be the Millennial experience for all mankind. (Hosea
2: 18
In that day I
will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the
field,
With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things
of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will
shatter from the earth, To
make them lie down safely.) The Nation
of Israel shall again hold the ruling scepter in the Earth over the Gentile
Nations. (Micah
4: 2
Many nations
shall come and say, Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To
the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach
us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.
For out of
And so it will be
in these ideal circumstances, that Satan will be loosed from the Pit in Hades
in the Center of the Earth. And as he misled man into dissatisfaction
with his standing in the Garden of Eden, so he leads the Gentile Nations in
dissatisfaction with their standing relative to the favored Jews
(with whom he made no progress if he had attempted to turn
them from their trust in God). (Isaiah 60: 10-12, 14, 16
Enter
into the rock, and hide in the dust, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty
For the day of the Lord of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
Upon everything lifted up -
And it shall be brought low -
Upon all the high mountains, And upon all
the hills that are lifted up; Upon all the
ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful
sloops. Isaiah 49:
22-23
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the
nations, And set up My standard for the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters shall be carried on
their shoulders; Kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers; They shall bow down to you with their faces
to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then
you will know that I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.) Was it not the same
ideal circumstances that Lucifer had when he became dissatisfied and rebelled
and became the father of lies?
For which he felt Gods judgement
hand, in that he was removed from his high office in the
Third Heaven and relegated to this Realm long ago. And
being then yet unrepentive, God created his replacement to rule in this Earth,
and he thus set himself against Man and tempted him with lies, and caused him
to also be dissatisfied in his ideal
conditions and circumstances. And so it is,
that Satan, again by lies and deceit, causes the Nations, in ideal
circumstances, to be dissatisfied with Gods appointed authority.
After the interruption of 6000 years, the
Blessing of this renewal, in the 7th
Millennial day sabbath, will particularly rest upon the now sanctified Jews
with their New Covenant in the restored and greater
The Gentile Nations, at the
Messiahs Return, had passed before the judgement
throne
of His glory to receive recompense for good or evil done to
His brethren according to
His ancestry, and the Abrahamic Covenant (judgement
being
only on the then surviving living peoples, and that relative to inheritance or not in His
Millennial Kingdom and all those who helped / blessed His brethren will enter and inherit in His Kingdom,
now to be ruled over by His appointed kings and priests). This is seen in Matthew 25: 31-46 where Christ
separates those nations / people as a shepherd divides his sheep from the
goats.
See also Isaiah
66: 18-21
For
I know their works and their thoughts. It
shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues;
and they shall come and see My glory. I
will set a sign among them; and those
among them who escape I will send to the nations: to
Tarshish and Pul and Lud, who
draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to
the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. Then they shall
bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, on
horses and in chariots and in litters, on
mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord,
as the children
of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.
And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites, says
the Lord. See also Zechariah
8: 23
Thus
says the Lord of hosts: In
those days ten men from every language of the nations
shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man,
saying, Let
us go with you,
for we have heard that God is with you.) Those who had cursed
the Jews and refused them help were ferreted out. (Matthew
13: 30
Let
both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, First
gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them,
but gather the wheat into my barn.) And
they will be cast forever (age- lasting) into the
And so it will be
that living saved and unsaved surviving
Gentiles, many whose leaders and Nations have been judged and destroyed, now enter
as subjects into Christs
These saved and unsaved people: Jew and Gentile,
entering into the Kingdom alive, having not died in the Greatest of all
Tribulation. They are existing in the same state as they were before
a living
soul with a spirit
living in a
natural earthly body, and procreating more unredeemed. In that all yet possess
the mortal fallen nature/flesh, and although without satanic direct influences,
there shall yet be sin and death, albeit on a much smaller scale. They will be
in anticipation of living hundreds of years, as did the Patriarchs of old, even
the entire Millennial period; some then being over 1000 years old at the time
appointed when Satan is loosed. (Isaiah 65: 20-22
No more shall
an infant from there live but a few days, Nor
an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They
shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and another eat;
For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My
people,
And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.)
(Note that only the caught up into the
first heaven and those having
part in the First Resurrection
out
from among the dead in Hades, will have obtained unto the flesh-free / sin-free
eternal state of being
the Glorified New Creature, and therefore incorruptible, and are
immortal. -1st Corinthians
15: 51-57
Behold,
I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed - in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet (this speaks of the
Harvest Rapture / First Resurrection). For
the trumpet will sound, and the (worthy)
dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption,
and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death
is swallowed up in victory. O
Death,
where is your sting? O Hades,
where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength
of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.)
And as a consequence
of that retaining of that corruptible body with blood, having the flesh /
fallen nature, the possibility of sin and revolt remains among men. (Zechariah
14: 16-19
And
it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came
against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King,
the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the
families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King,
the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If
the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in,
they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with
which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the
punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles.)
Now
the word of the Lord came to me,
saying, Son
of man,
set your face against Gog, of
the
Now when the thousand years have expired,
Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the
nations which are in the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together to
battle,
whose number is as the sand of the sea. [Revelation
20: 7-8.]
Ezekiel 38: 1-2 and Revelation
20: 8 are the only
two places in Scripture where the people of the Gentile Nations Gog
and Magog
are mentioned together and are corresponding prophetic
words of the same thing, but separated by 1000 years. That is to say, they are
the gathering of the Gentile Nations forces, who are deceived and
aroused to battle by Satan against
And
the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever (eternally). [Matthew 25: 41]
The reign of the Second Adam in this
Realm is all but completed in the devouring of Gods enemies in Holy Fire.
(Matthew 25: 41
Then He will
also say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels
Isaiah
66: 22-24
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. And
they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed
against Me. For their
worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. Revelation
15: 2
And
I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and
those who have the victory over the beast, over his image
and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing
on the sea of glass, having harps of God. The
This casting of Satan to the
How gloriously wonderful
the gift of free
volition granted
unto Gods intelligent
creation! But how awful then must be the
final consequences for persistence in abuse of its privilege outside loves
guidelines! The exercising accordance to Gods instruction leads to glory, and
an existence in good things unperceivable to man who chooses to love God
but
when that gift is persistently exercised in prideful selfishness, nothing but
loss and ruin can await. It has been set forth marvelously in Gods Word that a humble
repentant sinner, in His graciousness and mercy, after test and trial, may
finally be established in a glorious like nature unto His
where it is no
longer conceivable or possible for the will to venture beyond loves boundaries. Let us Behold His goodness and severity extended to us in His
Christ, and work out our salvation in humble, loving faith in His Word with
reverential fear and trembling. TO THIS END
WAS MAN APPOINTED.
The power, given at rebirth,
is associated with Christs Crucifixion
and Resurrection. Born
again from above is an experience of the spirit of a man. (See 1st Peter
1: 3, 23
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according
to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
having been born again, not of
corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of
God which lives and abides forever
) Man is a triad being; spirit, soul, and
body. (1st Thessalonians
5: 23
Now
may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your
whole spirit, soul, and
body be preserved blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.) He then, by way of this
rebirth in his spirit, holds within himself the gift of the divine power unto the
divine nature of God. (2nd
Peter 1: 3-4
as His divine power
has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by
which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises,
that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.) This gift of rebirth of
the spirit of a man does not directly affect the flesh part of the soul; that part of a man which Scripture
calls carnally minded or the Old
Man. (Romans 8: 6-8
For
to be carnally minded is death, but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God;
for it is not subject to the law of God,
nor indeed can be. So then, those
who are in the flesh cannot please God.) The renewed spirit
within is at enmity with the flesh, and in accordance with the Word and Holy Spirit, ever
encourages the New
Man to will, to choose, to
come forth and take dominion and rule over the flesh, in the power of the spirit / Spirit. (Colossians
3: 9-10
Do not lie to one another, since you have
put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge
according to the image of Him who created him
)
The renewed spirit empowers Man unto the promise of the salvation of the soul
in Christs Atonement glory
to be then
found worthy to rule in the Millennial Kingdom and be an eternal priest /
mediator of God thereafter.
IT IS THE TIME OF THE
RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS
That which is appointed
to be accomplished during the
The Lambs Throne and
MISCONCEPTION OF MODERN
DAY
Contrary to todays opinions that Israel is being currently restored by God
back to Israel, Scriptures portrayal
is that they should be viewed currently as the valley of dead bones that will not be revived
and restored to the Land until after
the Return of the Messiah. It is then that the bones of individual dead
righteous Jews from all the Tribes will come back to life; and the graves shall
opened up in their resurrection (this Resurrection being a part of the First
Resurrection). Ezekiel 37:11-38: 2a
Then
he said unto me, Son of man, these bones -- are
the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are
dried, and
our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore
prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I
will open -- your
graves, and cause -- you
to come up out of your graves, and
bring -- you into the
If we let the entirety
of prophetic Scripture stand on its own, we see Ezekiel 38: 2 (in the fuller light of
Ezekiel Chapters 34-39) as having
two connotations, and rightly divided, speaks to two different future times,
intermingled together as Scripture often does: the first being a time before
the Nation was consolidated, at the end and just following the Great
Tribulation / Jacobs Trouble, as seen being fulfilled in Revelation
19,
and the second being a time after the restored Nation of Israel by Christ, when
the Nation is peacefully and prosperously existing at the end of the 1000
years, having neither bars or gates
a Nation of vast wealth gathered out of
the Nations, a condition that can only be realized during the years of the
Millennium. That Millennial condition of the Jews and the Nation of
Israel that Gog (Gentile Nations) and Magog (Nations from the 4 corners of the
Earth), are now inflamed against the Jews and
It is made clear in Scripture that Satan
is unreconcilable, that mankind in the condition that he is then in, faced with
those Millennial-ending circumstances, will forever be subject to failure. It
is then seen necessary that those circumstances, along with that state and this
current Realm, must be done away with
setting the stage for the final act (the
Great White Throne Judgement) before the eternal
state and its environment is to be implemented and established.
*
* *
AN OVERVIEW OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
THE
GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT
REVELATION 20:11-15
PART 15
What does it mean to be
alive or to have life?
God breathed animating spirit life into the
body that He had fashioned, and man became a living soul,
made in the image of God. (Genesis
2: 7
And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.) When Adam
sinned, his spirit died, resulting in loss of
animation / life, unto a state of death / being in separation from God. He and
his seed would no longer be living
souls, but carnal souls
living, without the greater degree
of life, and in a corrupting
body.
What does it mean to be
dead?
The Book of James declares a man is dead without his
spirit
the body
without the spirit is dead
(James 2: 26) God receives
the spirit back upon the death of a mans body. (Ecclesiastes
12: 7
Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was:
and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Luke
23: 46
And
when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he
said,
Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit:
and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.) The soul, which is the
man himself, can no longer use the dead body, and must vacate it. The man is
then no longer a soul living
but dead. But being created eternal, he exists
and lives, and is consigned to the
place of the dead, which was created by
God to hold all who die until - [the future
time of] -
resurrection.
All speaks to the condition that man was
condemned to for his part in rebellion against his Creator. Had it not been for
Christ, the Son of Man, Who willingly yielded His self unto the
unjust murdering hands of Satan, unto death for mankinds propitiation, man would forever be condemned to
deaths condition, to one degree or another. And
Christ, as the Son of Man, upon death, was therefore consigned to Hades. And because it was not possible that Hades could hold the
Righteous One, He was resurrected from the dead to life; the
First-Born from the dead, and behold He lives forever and ever in Resurrection
Power.
There were around 200 million people
alive on the Earth when Jesus was born, and around a billion dead in Hades and
Death. In 1950, there were 2.5 billion people alive on the Earth. In 2023, the
Earths population
of the living reached 8 billion people. Around 15 billion people have been born
in the last 2000 years, and 7 billion have died. 60 million people die every
year. Around 9 billion souls living have experienced death since Adam and
Eve, and are now dead. These
statistics give us a better perspective on the vast number of souls that will die and those who are currently physically dead; all who
will experience one of two resurrections from Hades and
Death.
The Judgement Seat of
Christ is for the redeemed dead.
Scriptural evidence has been set forth
that (generally) what immediately follows a redeemed persons physical
dying is his appearance before the Lords Judgement seat. (Hebrews 9: 27
And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment.) Resurrected Christ, by conquering death, has the keys to Hades and
Death (little distinction can be found in Scripture between the two locations
perhaps the differentiating has to do with the different Judgments pronounced
upon those entering the Realm of the dead); Death and Hades (or Sheol in
the Greek) being the intermediate place (or places) for all the dead, which is
(are) located in the lower parts of the Earth. (Ephesians
4: 9-10
Now
that he ascended, what is it but that he also
descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens,
that he might fill all things.
See
also Genesis 37: 35) Scripture declares (contrary
to popular Christian corrupted teaching) that this is where all the souls go
when dead
awaiting resurrection (see several of our lessons on what
happens to the soul after death). (Note that the declaration of faith made by
Peter (Petros - stone
in Greek), is the rock (petra - rock in Greek) or foundation on which Christ would build His
Church upon, and He said the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it; its restraints will not be able
to keep them there eternally, Christ having the keys to Death and Hades.)
Christ, the Judge
of all the dead, has the control and power to grant comfort to dead souls by
assigning them to its Paradise (also called Abrahams
Bosom)
or banishing them in judgement to outer darkness, or the Abyss, or the place of
torment, or the place of Death. (John 5: 22
For
the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son.) And He will exert His Power at the appointed times to
resurrect all from their confines
either in the First or the Second Resurrection; the Second being the Great White Throne.
THE
JUDGEMENT
of CHRIST at a redeemed souls death
has the positive side in view first, which is to say, the hope that the proceedings
from the Bema will result in the Lords pronouncing of well done good and faithful servant
you have obtained unto the prize
the chief prize being the
future First Resurrection out from among the dead, with the return of your spirit,
now with glorious immortal life, and with the promise of an inheritance in the Millennial
Kingdom of Christ. This being the result of the redeemed and sanctified soul whose works done while in his body are found good (2nd Corinthians
5: 10
For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body, according
to that he hath done, whether it be
good or bad.)
So it is, that
the winning of the prize,
having been determined by the Judge, is just after one crosses the finish line
of physical death. But that great prize, then
attained, is only to be awarded when the Games are completed
after this Age, which is to say after all
the participants have finished their course, at the First Resurrection. (2nd Timothy
4: 8
Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing. Philippians 3: 11
If
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead (the out-resurrection from among the dead in the Greek). (Luke
14: 14
And
thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense
thee: for thou
shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke 20: 35
But
they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world,
and the resurrection from (among) the
dead, neither marry,
nor are given in marriage.
Revelation 20: 6
Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with him a thousand years.)
But for those redeemed judged at the Bema
of Christ who are found unworthy, the consequences of disqualification
for the race that was run contrary will be discovered as immediate. (1st Corinthians
9: 24
Know ye not that they
which run in a race run all, but one
receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may
obtain. 2nd
Timothy 2:
5
And if a man also strive for masteries,
yet is he not crowned, except he
strive lawfully (unless he ran legally). Luke
19: 11-27
And
as they heard these things, he added and
spake a parable, because he was nigh to
[* NOTE: This paragraph is NOT the Roman Catholic
doctrine of Purgatory: this is divine TRUTH
recorded throughout the Holy Scriptures.
Yellow highlighting in bold type and editing is
mine. Look and see the above teaching throughout Old
and New Testaments. - Gen. 37: 35: I
will go down to Sheol
to my son mourning
; Num. 16: 30;
and
the ground opened her mouth, and swallowed them up
and they go down alive into Sheol. Now
compare disobedient Sauls request from Samuel, after the prophet Sanuels death:
bring me (from the
abode of the dead) up Samuel
(1 Sam. 28: 11.); and Samuels
reply to Saul:
Why
hast thou disquieted my to bring me up (verse 15). David, had
also declared:-
My flesh shall
dwell in safety (confidently) for
thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol (Psa.
16: 9, 10); and thousands of years later, the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost - (50
days after Christs crucifixion was quoted Psalm 16; and also said:
David ascended
not into the heavens
(Acts
2: 34,)!
Also
written in Matthews Gospel are Christs words:-
I will build my church; and
the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it
(Matt.
16:
18). Likewise,
in Lukes Gospel we read of our Lords teaching of correspondence in Hades -
the Underworld of the disembodied souls of Dead -
And it came to pass, that the beggar died,
and that he was carried away by the angels into
Abrahams bosom: (i.e., into a higher
compartment of bliss in the underworld) and the
rich man died, and was buried. And in Hades (in the lower compartment of
the underworld) he lifted up his eyes, being
in torments,
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
But
Abraham saith,
They have Moses and the prophets;
let them hear them
And
he saith unto him, If they hear not Moses and the
prophets,
neither will
they be persuaded, if
one rise from the dead (Luke
16:
22, 23, 29, 31. R.V.).
See also- (Luke 23: 43; John 3: 13; 14: 2, 3; Acts 7: 5; Heb. 11: 35b-40; 2 Tim. 2: 18,ff, R.V.)]
The
Judgement Seat of Christ is always in session for the redeemed on the
other side of the finish
line of living on
the Earth, for immediate determination of the degree of faithfulness
while the training and
chastenings of the Father and the Throne of mercy and grace are always in
session for the redeemed while running the race for the prize, while alive on the Earth. (In other words, to be able to go to
Christs Throne of mercy and grace to draw upon for power to overcome is a
privilege only to those who are living. Once dead, there is only the Bema Seat
of Christ.)
The redeemed dead in Hades, having already
been judged worthy or unworthy of the First Resurrection unto Millennial
Kingdom inheritance by Christ, is additionally seen by those under the altar in Hades in Revelation
6: 9-11
And when he
had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls
of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given
unto every one of them; and it was
said unto them, that they
should rest (in
Note that there
are difficulties that are impossible to overcome for those who hold to the
doctrine of the redeemed going straight to Heaven when they die. Besides these
verses that have been presented, there are other Passages in Scripture that
stand in opposition to that false doctrine. Effectively, this false doctrine,
and others, have done away with the reward and necessity of the First
Resurrection. When confronted, they contend they do not,
adding a further reproach to Scripture in teaching that their bodies will be
resurrected and they will be reunited for a one-time session before the
Judgement Bema at the time of Christs Return
and that, for the receiving of
lesser or greater rewards only; not believing that any punishment for
unfaithfulness / unfruitlfulness is in view.
Satan spins and adds in leaven to Scripture to relieve our consciences, which
keeps us from battling spiritually while alive, that we may be worthy of the
First Resurrection.
Another doctrine promoted is that all
redeemed go to Hades, where they are gathered together in Paradise and wait for
the Return of Christ, and then all redeemed will then be resurrected
at the First Resurrection and stand before the Bema of Christ and then be
judged according to their works of service; for either reward or punishment.
The great difficulty of this doctrine is, having been raised up incorruptible and immortal, as Paul reveals
those worthies of the First Resurrection to be (1st Corinthians
15),
how is it conceivable that those who are then judged unworthy of the
The fire of the
Judgement Seat of Christ, before which every redeemed man shall stand, is for
an assessment of his works after regeneration, for service / fruitfulness while
alive on the Earth. (1st Corinthians
3: 12-15
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold,
silver,
precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble; Every mans work shall
be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire;
and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. If
any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon, he
shall receive a reward. If any mans
work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself
shall be saved; yet so as by fire.) It is the structure material that the
redeemed chose to build with that is judged. The fire
of the Judgement seat does not cleanse the soul, but tries what the soul built on the foundation of redemption.
The fire of His eyes proves the quality and quantity of service to receive
reward or loss of reward. Punishment, if prescribed, is for lack of
fruitfulness discovered
(John 15: 4-6
Abide
in me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no
more can ye, except ye abide in me. I
am the vine, ye are the branches: He
that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing. If
a man abide not in me, he is cast
forth as a branch, and is
withered; and men gather
them, and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned.)
and the punishment
equates to owing God, defaulting on the loan, resulting in debtors prison,
until every farthing due Him is paid. (Matthew 18: 34
And
his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the
tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.) In effect, it is what
the Word of God, while we redeemed are alive, wrought in us after redemption.
The clear implication is that there is redemption and a future shameful saving (2nd)
Resurrection, shameful in that though they are saved from
being condemned eternally dead, they are without any reward for service. (1st Corinthians
3: 15
If
any mans work shall be burned, he
shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet
so as by fire.
with Matthew 6: 1
Take
heed that ye do not your alms before men, to
be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven.)
Between the two Comings of Christ, it is the redeemed only who
are judged for their works
that is to say, at the Bema of Christ,
for their qualifying or disqualifying works of service for reward; which, in the chief place, is
the First Resurrection, and a place in His Millennial Kingdom, thereby being
excluded from the Great White Throne Judgements and
therefore any possibility of experiencing the tormenting fires of the Lake of
Fire / the 2nd Death. (Revelation 20: 6
Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.)
(Note: the great disqualifying threat to
those who were redeemed in the past, and for those alive today, is to misjudge the Scriptural truth of the Bema Judgement, and completely reject or ignore any
possibility of hearing the words wicked and slothful servant. This judgement on the redeemed is for lack of
doing for God with what he has been entrusted with.
The hiding of their talent
their declaring the appointed path was too
difficult a task, not hallowing His name,
completely discounting the value of the prize of the higher calling. - Philippians
3:
14,
21
I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
Who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body (for those who are awarded the
prize),
according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto
himself.)
All the preceding being a part of the
past, we have advanced to the setting up of THE GREAT WHITE THRONE (or the conclusion of a process of
judgments from where final Judgments are made). And at the opening
of the procedure, the earth and its heaven (Genesis 1: 1) have fled
away with a loud
noise, as the outward faηade is removed by the consuming fire of God. All
things that could be shaken are gone and only that which is eternal and cannot
be shaken remains, as the Judge exercises His Sovereign power in this great
final purging, in the Restoration of
All Things.
In the fleeing (when the earth and its heaven flees away
- Revelation 20: 11),
all that cannot be shaken is exposed to every eye; dominating the scene is the
Great White Throne, and the One Who makes it great, sits upon it. (John
5: 22
For
the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son. Romans
2: 16
In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.) He is the Creator and life-giver
and has the
power to give or take away life. Without question, the most imposing event in
all history, since the Creation of the Heavens and Earth, has now arrived. Untold
billions of Fallen Angels, Demons, and Mankinds everlasting futures
are now to be determined and told.
The most grave and
momentous Court ever to be held
throughout all eternity
is now in session.
Loomingly and
forebodingly on the horizon, is the
All are now resurrected
from the places of the
dead, not from the state
of death.
They are all referred to as the dead, and from this, it can
be understood, that the dead are to be raised dead
and shall remain in that condition until after the White
Throne Judgement pronouncements over every individual, either unto life or unto
judgement and punishment. (John 5: 21
For as the Father raiseth
up the dead, and quickeneth them;
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. and
Verse 29
And shall come forth;
they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that
have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation. The Greek says, they that did the good things and they that did practice the worthless
things unto
krisis / judgment death.)
Whether the resurrected dead are raised in material body, or not, is not said. Possibly,
without material body (if the order of the events in the Passage are taken to
be chronological) being then only in the resembling state of the soul without
its previous material body
as can be
understood from Samuels experience when he ascended from Hades in the
continuing state of dead, but yet recognizable.
(1st Samuel
28: 12-14
And
when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice:
and the woman spake to Saul, saying,
Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be
not afraid: for what sawest thou?
And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods
ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What
form is he of? And
she said, An old man cometh up;
and he is covered with a mantle. And
Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he
stooped with his face to the ground,
and bowed himself.)
Or, as in the case of the Rich Man and Lazarus and Abraham,
all seen in the same continuing form, but without earthly bodies. These now who
are judged at the Great White Throne, who enter into life after resurrection, may then receive at that,
approving bodies fit or adapted for the New Earth and its
heaven.
This being the Second Resurrection, which differs greatly from the First Resurrection; in time
at least a thousand years earlier, and in
circumstance
as these now dead are to be judged after resurrection, whereas
those of the First Resurrection, the dead were then judged before
resurrection and brought up from Hades from among the dead. They were then
united with their earthly bodies (as was their Masters before them), and in a
twinkling of an eye, were changed / glorified, and made an incorruptible,
immortal New Creature, that became the regal consort / Bride of Christ. (1st Corinthians
15)
Revelation 20: 12
.and
the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which
is the book of life (taking into consideration the Scriptures
having to do with these books, particularly Exodus
32: 32-33
Yet now, if thou wilt
forgive their sin--; and if not,
blot me, I pray thee,
out of thy book which thou hast written.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever
hath sinned against me, him will I
blot out of my book. And also Romans
9: 3
For
I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my
kinsmen according to the flesh.
In these 2 verses, it is not conceivable that eternal
death is meant in the offering of blotting their names out of this Book, but from the book in which is recorded
their Kingdom inheritance. It is likely that, the first books (in Revelation 20: 12) have to do with
the deeds of all summoned
and every persons name born of Adam are recorded in the book of
life
and their works in life then documented, it is from this book a persons name may be blotted out. And
if their name is not found written therein after the Great White Throne
judgement, they are forever cast into the
Every mans name is in the Book of Life
but the redeemed persons name is
indelible / inerasable as it relates to eternal life. Those names in the (Lambs) Book of Life are recorded for the higher calling of the heavenly kingdom,
from which they may be stricken for lack of faithful service. (Hebrews
12: 22-29
But
ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and
to an innumerable company of angels, To
the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect,
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than that of Abel.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.
For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape, if we turn
away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Whose voice then shook the earth:
but now he hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth only,
but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as
of things that are made, that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a
kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
For -- our God is a
consuming fire. (Luke
10: 20
Notwithstanding
in this rejoice not,
that the spirits are subject unto you;
but rather rejoice, because your names are
written in heaven.
Revelation 13:
8
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.),
and it is possible that every redeemed
persons name that is written in
this Book is inscribed as a first-born son {or possibly in another book}, and all
their deeds following redemption are also recorded, with the possibility of
their names being blotted out, only as
being worthy of the first-born inheritance; that to which Moses and Paul
appealed as a sacrifice for their brethren. And from another point of view, the removal from position as
a firstborn son is that which Esaus wicked
works stand in testimony of. The unworthy of the First Resurrection redeemed shall surely stand
before the Great White Throne, being they are then resurrected.
and the dead
were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to
their works. How detailed and precise the works
of every person (and every intelligent being 2nd Peter 2: 4
For
if God spared not the angels that sinned,
but cast them down to hell, [i.e.,
Gk. Tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to
be reserved unto judgment. Jude 6
And
the angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, he
hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the
great day.) must be recorded, that they are the evidence on which the
destiny of the soul (individual) is determined. No Adversary argues against,
nor is there an Advocate for; no Jury in deliberation, but each person, no
matter how small or great his worldly accomplishments, is
judged on the indisputable recorded records of their good and evil
works. Only the Judge will weigh justly and pronounce the prescribed sentence
unto life
or death. No human lineage will save
him, no human lineage will condemn him, on each, according to works done, will
come forth His verdict
all decisions are final, and there will be no appeals.
And after the
emptying of Hades and Death of its prisoners
they are cast into the
THE LAKE OF
FIRE
is the eternal circumscribed (encapsulated) inescapable lake of fluid prison
for finite eternal condemned beings who must be somewhere. It is made of a
material that is consistent with containing and unceasingly punishing them
without consuming them. It will exist along with the New
heaven and New earth eternally. (Isaiah 66: 22-24
For
as the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will make, shall remain before me,
saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your
name remain. And it shall come to pass,
that from one new moon to another,
and from one sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come to worship before me,
saith the Lord. And they shall go forth,
and look upon the carcases of the men that have
transgressed against me: for their
worm (soul) shall
not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.)
Leaving the question
.
After the fire came down
from the first heaven and consumed Satan and the bodies of the rebels of the
Earth (at the end of the Millennial reign), those souls were no doubt
immediately incarcerated in the place of Death (that fire of Revelation 20, Verse 9 from heaven
most likely answers to the fled away of Verse 11 and 2nd Peter 3: 5-13
For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the
world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens
and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be
not ignorant of this one thing, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day. The
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as
some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.).
What happened to the redeemed faithful living Jews
and Gentiles that were on the now
extinct Earth? It is not directly said. So, we look to other Scripture to find the answer. After the
creation of a new heaven and a new earth, we find those Millennial redeemed
again in Revelation 21:
24
as a part of
the
nations of them which are saved
(which more will be said about when we reach that point). How
did they get there? And in what condition were they
found? It is not said. From other Scripture, we may
gather Scriptural possibilities.
Those Jews, having once died, who were
found to be worthies of the First Resurrection, who were alive again on the
Earth, having their part in Christs Millennial
Kingdom, are caught away directly to the New heaven and earth. This would not be dissimilar to the Angel
who
ascended in the fire of Samsons parents offering
unto God. (Judges
13: 20
For
it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven
from off the altar,
that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And
Manoah and his wife looked on it, and
fell on their faces to the ground.)
* *
*
AN OVERVIEW OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
REVELATION
21:1-7
PART 16
1
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them,
and be their God.
4 And
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away.
5
And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I
make all things new. And he said unto me,
Write:
for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It
is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end. I will give unto
him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He
that overcometh shall inherit all things;
and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
King David and King Solomon together are
typical of Christ the King, in that hell rule in two
facets. David is anointed King, and with His mighty
men, they take their appointed place according to their works (all not being at
the same level). He begins to reign over 2 tribes,
then later he rules over all. Christ is anointed King, and is wed, and He and
His chosen worthies first rule in the heavenly part, and then over the entire
Millennial Realm with a rod of Iron. King Davids great enemy comes out
to war against him and he utterly defeats them. The
The
Genesis 1: 1- 2a
In the beginning God created the
heavens and earth
(This
original creation, being before the Re-Creation wherein Man was created, was
free from curse, any death, or corruption. It was created in
the beginning and granted unto His created free-will spirits
/ Lucifer and his Angels, over which He had put them in governmental control
over this Realm. In whose rebellion resulted in Gods Judgments, leaving
this Realm in destruction, death, and corruption)
And
the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. This
being the apt accurate description of the
earth that then was seen in 2nd Peter 3: 5-6
the (beginning) heavens (that) were
of old,
and the (beginning) earth
standing out of the water and in the water (note the Holy Spirit declares here in Peter that in the original
Creation, the earth was not completely covered with water when first created, a flood of water covered it only as a
result of Gods judgement due to Lucifers rebellion) Whereby
the world / kosmos that
then was,
being overflowed with water perished.
2nd Peter 3: 7-10 continues
But
the heavens and Earth, which are now, (these in which we live presently,
restored to a very
good state at the time of Adams creation) by
the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
But the day of the Lord (His day now
concluding at the Great White Throne Judgement)
in
the which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be
burned up. (Revelation
20: 11
And
I saw a great white throne, and him that
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled
away; and there was found no place for them.) This corrupt
heaven and earth melt away in fervent heat. All else that is corrupt is
consigned to the
The new canvas is readied for the Great Creator.
The New Heavens and
Earth
.
Johns new vision is
recorded in Revelation 21: 1 And
I saw (John saw clearly) a
new heaven and a new earth: for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea (70 percent of the Earth
is presently covered with ocean water
before Noahs flood of waters / the
instrument of destruction, dry land was possibly 97 percent greater, and only 3
percent of this spheres surface was water, in the form
of lakes and rivers only. This appears to be the case in the Eternal
state, for though there will be no more sea, water
is still
supposed to be present there, as there is water in New Jerusalem).
And
God said
and it was so
and Re-Creation of the
heavens and earth were finished
(Genesis 1 & 2: 1) All was then prepared for Man in the
beginning of a new Age, determined to be 7000 years long. In the same manner,
as when
God
said
and it was so, the New
Heavens and Earth begin to be formed and come into
existence. The New Earth and the heavens associated with it are completed and
presented to the Eternal seed of Man at the opening of the eternal Ages. (Revelation
21: 1) And whereas man was yet to be created and was not present in the Genesis account of
the Re-creation of the Earth, now man, resurrected, has
passed through the Judgments of the Great White Throne, and those multitudes
there acquitted are poised now to be the residents of new earth, and they look
on, as Angels did before at the original Creation. They rejoice with shouts of joy in the Creation of
the New heavens and Earth. (See Job
38: 4-7, where God said to Job
Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast
understanding. Who hath laid the measures
thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;When the morning
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy?) No doubt this will be a most
amazing sight to see!
An Old Testament type may be used to give us
a view of this scene and future event
this being when Israel first crossed the
Jordan
and their eyes first beheld the Promised Land and began to possess it
So
it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land
of which He swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you
did not build, houses full of all good things,
which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did
not dig, vineyards
and olive trees which you did not plant. (Deuteronomy 6: 10-11, Joshua 24: 13) Then, in the type, it
was man who built their inheritance; here, in the anti-type, it is God Who
builds / creates it.
The Jewish prophets of the Old Testament
had a very clear view of the earthly
I
am God,
and there is none like Me,
Declaring the
end from the beginning,
And
from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, My counsel
shall stand,
And I will do
all My pleasure,
Calling a bird
of prey from the east,
The
man who executes My counsel, from a far
country.
Indeed I
have spoken it;
I will also
bring it to pass.
I have
purposed it;
I will also do
it. [Isaiah
46: 9-11]
All that is about to be depicted of the
Eternal Ages in the last two Chapters of Revelation was then in
the foreview of God from the beginning.
Verse
2 And I John saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband.
It is the New City that all the
The Great White Throne has held court,
and it is now closed
all old things have been dealt
with
the
former things are passed away.
It is time for realization of eternal inheritance.
Now Johns vision is upwards into the just-created New
heavens, and he sees the new
Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband.
The words prepared and adorned have a double application; one for His earthly people on the one hand,
and on the other hand, one for His heavenly overcoming
firstborn
sons.
THE
STATE AND CONDITION OF THE RESIDENTS OF THE NEW EARTH
Verse
3 And I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men
(New Jerusalem
has fully descended to just above the Earth in full view of the now residents
of the New Earth, centered just above Zion and in the midst of that eternal wifes of God; the New Earths Nation of Israel.{Hosea
2: 19-20
And
I will betroth thee unto me for ever;
yea, I
will betroth thee unto me in righteousness,
and in judgment, and in lovingkindness,
and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. Jeremiah
31: 3
The
Lord hath appeared of old unto me,
saying,
Yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting
love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Isaiah
4: 4
When
the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and
shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit
of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.} The Tabernacles Gates arrangement of three gates on four sides,
implies the centering of the New Tabernacle over
The true Promised Land on the New Earth is finally reached by Israel / those who have
wrestled with God and man and prevailed (Genesis
32: 28) The
Israelites are in eternal Covenant, as also proclaimed by the Prophet Isaiah,
who had a far away glimpse unto this day. Isaiah
66:22-24
For
as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make (a creative
action), shall
remain before me, saith the LORD, so
shall your seed (the Jews) and
your name remain (Israel of God). And
it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one sabbath to
another, shall all flesh (generations of natural mankind born
on the new earth without pain) come to
worship before me, saith the LORD. And they shall go forth,
and look upon the carcasses (eternal
bodies) of the men
that have transgressed against me:
for their worm (soul) shall not die, neither shall their fire
be quenched; and they shall be
an abhorring (sight of sin and its consequences) unto all flesh (natural
uncorrupted bodied subjects of the Kingdom of God {1st Corinthians 15: 28}, those first who were transplanted
survivors onto the New Earth of Revelation 20: 7-9, and then their seed, will
be pure and whole, never having been defiled, for they are New Earthly beings. These will,
for generation after generation, look upon the carcasses of those in the eternal Lake of Fire,
which serves as the great deterrent to all intelligent creatures in ever
transgressing Gods laws and
commandments).
The eternal distinction between the heavenly and earthly calling of our current Age,
had /has Millennial and Eternal implications. Our choices today determine our
reward / inheritance, not only in the
THE
STATE AND CONDITION OF THE RESIDENTS OF NEW JERUSALEM
Turning back our view
again to the awe-inspiring event of Verse 2
And
I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. When all the
assembled hosts, along with Gods overcoming firstborn sons in their resurrection
glory are present with Christ, as He closes the
The Creator made / built the Bride Eve and presented her
to Adam in all her beauty. The Father has Built / made the Great City of New
Jerusalem in all her splendorous beauty and now presents her to the Second Adam
(Jesus) and His heavenly sons.
Verses 5-6 And
he
(Christ) that sat upon
the throne (the Great White Throne)
said, Behold, I
make all things new. And he said
unto me, Write: (written for us
too, as Christ had / has our reading of
His prophetic words in view this very moment, that our hope may be enlivened,
and our longing and courage be increased) for these
words are true (not a scam)
and faithful (worthy to put our faith in without seeing and
order our lives today accordingly). And
he said unto me, It is
done (the consummation of all Gods work
through His Son). I am Alpha and Omega, (He who from)
the beginning (created the first heavens and earth) and
the end (He Who has now
created the New Heavens and Earth). I
will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. There is
literal water that will give and sustain life, which belongs
to the eternal
Are we thirsting? He will give only to
those athirst; those thirsty from our battle against our enemies, in our
fighting for faithful service unto Him. Or is our
thirst easily quenched by this Worlds stolen waters? Be it understood, that any redeemed
person who has passed presumptuously through this Age of Mercy and Grace and
has not thirsted for righteousness,
but has disengaged and relaxed in the justifying righteousness of Christ alone,
without thirst for sanctification, will never be rewarded citizenship in New
Jerusalem.
But be here warned;
all redeemed will thirst for righteousness. There will be those who thirst and will be rewarded for faithfulness, and then there will be
others by falling under judgments at death and at the Great White Throne, who
will then become very thirsty for righteousness.
That thirst will answer to punishment for their debt as the redeemed in Christ
who owed a certain kind of service to God, but bothered not to discover and
give Him what was rightly His. These will find themselves in debt of service,
for which they must pay. They shall not enter into His Eternal Kingdom until
every farthing is extracted, and that entrance into
His Eternal Kingdom will be merely on the New Earth as subjects, and without
reward.
Verse
7 He has just given unto us the destiny of the nations / the peoples of God (those outside the City),
those resident subjects of
the New Earth, who will go up to the Great City at appointed times. Now, in Revelation
21: 7,
He
begins to set forth the greater destiny of His faithful overcomers who met His
conditions. They are residents
of New Jerusalem, kings and
priests, who served Christ during His Millennial Kingdom. These select are His
personal attendants, and as such, they will see His face, His name will be in
their foreheads, and forever they will serve Him. (Revelation
22: 3-4) They are
His heavenly glorious firstborn sons.
He
that overcometh shall inherit all / these
things; and I will be his (not them or their, but individualized) God, and
he shall be my son (not my
people, but individualized).
How exceedingly privileged and marvelous
to be a son in First Resurrection glory; an eternal resident of New Jerusalem, as
opposed to being one of His people and subjects upon the
new Earth!
More shall be said about this
*
* *
AN OVERVIEW OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
CHAPTERS 21 and 22, particularly
the
Second
Death
and the Tree of Life
PART 17
THE ETERNAL AGES
Revelation 21: 7-8 He that overcometh
shall inherit all things (this
statement answers the question as to what happens to those of the First
Resurrection after the Millennium, in the Eternal Ages); and
I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But (to he that
does NOT overcome
) the
fearful, and unbelieving,
and abominable, and murderers,
and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and all liars, shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:
which is the second death.
The
Lake of Fire is the Eternal Ages chronicled memorial / monument to be occupied
by those free-will agents who sinned and refused Gods gracious offers of
redemption through repentance and His appointed propitiation, and therefore,
they will serve as an Eternal reminder / warning to all generations of His just
and holy wrath.
Certainly then, this Passage has a sure
application to the wicked unredeemed of mankind who
will be cast eternally into the
Revelation
20: 6
Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power (they are not
subject to its judgments related to it), but
they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign with him a thousand years. Thus, the
clear implication of Revelation 20: 6 is that there are some
redeemed (who arent part of the First Resurrection)
who ...shall have
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the
second death.
Judgments of reward and punishment on the
New Testament redeemed before His Second
Coming have to do with ones obedience and service to Christ after being gifted
eternal life, and therefore, have nothing to do with eternal damnation. Rather,
they have to do with inclusion or exclusion from Christs
This Age wherein we
redeemed live, with its provisions of grace and mercy as a result of the
Atonement of Christ, has but one great purpose; that is for the Holy Spirit to
seek out and qualify ruling firstborn sons for the Father and a Bride for the
King (these being the types for the same group of people in that the Father
seeks a Bride for the Son
and the Son seeks First-born sons for the Father). To that end, Gods judgments are on the redeemed, for they are not
their own, but are bought with a price (1st
Corinthians 6: 20)
and are thus held accountable for either overcoming the flesh, the devil, and the world and for
bearing fruit or held accountable for being overcome by the flesh, the devil, and the world and for not
bearing fruit. The Lord and His Apostles warn His redeemed
servants
again and again, that after having lived on the Earth, there will be judgments
made for faithful service in overcoming fruitfulness resulting in reward and for unfaithful
service of the redeemed for having not borne fruit, and for having been
overcome by the flesh, world, and devil. This includes various corresponding
just punishments, and in some cases, purgative fire
Matthew
5: 22; 29-30, 23: 15, 33; 13: 42, 50, John 15: 6, Hebrews 6: 8; 12: 29, Romans 8: 12-13. All these Passages in
context having to do with the merely redeemed who resisted spiritual maturity
and fell prey to those 3 great enemies, (1st John 2: 15-17) being generally
unfaithful and unfruitful, with potentially having their part in the Second
Death in view.
In the last lesson, which covered the
first 7 Verses of Revelation
21,
we spoke of the creation of the new heaven and new Earth, and the New Jerusalem
coming down from God out of Heaven to the new Earth, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband
this being at the beginning of (what begins) the
Eternal Ages. Giving us, who are
living in this current Age, an even more future view; that being after the soon
coming of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, with its restored
conditions
of this heaven and Earth. These conditions, which were predicted primarily by the prophets of the Old
Testament, were of restoration. But that which then
follows the Millennial period is not mere restoration, but the creation of the New heavens and New
Earth,
in perfect and marvelous conditions in the opening days of the Eternal Ages. We
see the New Earth being Gods gracious
inheritance for His people (Verse 3), to reside
on; they having stood before the Great White Throne, being judged out of books of recorded works,
(Revelation 20: 12) and their
name found remaining in the Book of life. Along with
rewarding His overcoming sons who shall inherit all
things (Verse
7);
those being the residents of the New Jerusalem, whose names are in the Lambs Book of Life, and
their names are written in the Book of the Firstborn (Hebrews
12: 23), if they are not the same Book. See Hebrews
12: 23
To
the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God the
Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect
All
the redeemed have the potential inheritance of being Firstborn sons, and so
their names are written in Heaven, (most likely in the Lambs Book of Life) but
their names can be blotted out from the inheritance of the First Born (typed by
Esau; who was the Firstborn who remained the child of his father although he forfeited his Firstborn
privileges). Nevertheless,
at the Great White Throne, their names will be found
in the Book of Life (having received the gift of Eternal life).
An inheritance of all things and
residence in the New Jerusalem is an extension of the promises to overcomers
in the New Testament, they having been judged at the Bema of Christ in
worthiness for the First Resurrection and inheritance in Christs Millennial Kingdom.
These are then projected to be the worthy glorious
residents of the heavenly New Jerusalem as the Bride of Christ. But lest the
redeemed during this Age (foolishly only having the gift of eternal life alone in view) be carried away unduly with
the assumption that the marvelous prospects described in the Eternal Ages are
guaranteed to be theirs, we are quickly reminded that these inheritances are conditional as Revelation
21: 8 confirms
But the
fearful, and unbelieving, and
the abominable, and murderers,
and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and all liars, shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:
which is the second death.
This Verse flashes into the redeemed ones view the 10
classes of sins, as a brief but compelling warning / threat unto all living
redeemed in this Age of mercy and grace (as well as a
future warning application to those of the Millennial Age of Justice) who will be judged according to
their good and evil works, and potentially suffer the appropriate sentence of
punishment, and if they be found particularly wicked, assigned their
part in the Second Death (a part in it being shorter or longer in duration of time).
Before picking up again
with Johns vision,
which has more of New Jerusalems wonderous descriptions and Eternal Age
revelations in Revelation 21: 9-22: 5 in view, then in Revelation 22: 6, again
leaving those marvelous descriptions of the Eternal Ages again, now through the
remainder of the Book of Revelation, we,
the redeemed of this Age, are confronted again with both the promises to the
overcomer
(Blessed are
they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter
in through the gates into the city. (verse 14)
and
a repeat of the warnings For without
are dogs, and sorcerers,
and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh
a lie.
(verse 15 with 18-19)
Although it is not specifically stated
that these are suffering the same punishment of those of Revelation
21: 8 in the Lake
of Fire, there is the very same contrast between overcomers / those who do his
commandments and those who dont. The Second
Death in severe eternal punishment against unrepentant unredeemed offenders is
certainly in view, but what should be understood in considering Scripture, is
that it includes some redeemed, albeit not eternally, who are willfully and
habitually overcome by the flesh in this Age of extended grace and mercy in
Christ by the very same sins committed by the unredeemed. Those unfaithful
redeemed / servants will hear the New Testaments most foreboding words of Christ, found in Matthew
5: 26
Verily
I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come
out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing (paid the price down to the
penny
for the various unrepented affronts and great debt of service owed to God after
redemption; that debt being neglected or ignored in life.)
Lesson continued next week
* *
*
AN OVERVIEW OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
(A
continuation of the Eternal Ages)
PART 18
We have been
considering the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation - the
Eternal Ages immediately beginning after the Great White Throne Judgement, with
Gods creation of the New
Heavens and New Earth. Wherein now will be the full realization of Gods predestined purposes
of a New World, His mysterious will that He had in full view in the imagination
of His mind
before the foundation of the (this) world
His will
being to create a being in the true image of Himself, who, after being tempted,
tested, and tried
should
be holy and without blame before him in love and rule over all His
Creation. (Ephesians 1:
4)
To accomplish this, He sent His Eternal Son incarnate as the Son of God and Son
of Man, Who having suffered and succeeded victoriously
in all the Fathers holy and
just will, was resurrected out of the place of the dead
and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all principality and power, and
might, and dominion,
and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come
This world that is to come is that Eternal World to
which we have arrived in the 21st Chapter of Revelation. All things
are to be understood by His redeemed by the wisdom He grants to the
single-minded (as opposed to being double-minded and unstable - see James
1: 5-8). In that,
the future may be understood from the past, and Gods Character and
Covenants are unchangeable. (Isaiah 46:
10, James 1: 17b, Romans 11: 29).
Mankind,
predetermined by God to reign with His Son both in the Heavens and the Earth in
the Eternal Ages, would then consist of two groups: 1) this heavenly group is His adopted first born sons
/
the heavenly Bride of His only begotten
eternal Son / Son of Man, the fully realized heavenly New Creature, who are kings of kings (in that they are
over the kings of the new Earth) and priests as servants of God
with a heavenly glorious body like unto the Bridegrooms glorified body, who
shall reside eternally in New Jerusalem, which will tower above the Earth (its
height, length, and width being 1500 miles) and will illuminate the Earth 2) the second Earthly group is His people, consisting of Israel
and the Nations (Zechariah 2: 10-11), who,
survived the destruction fires that consume the old Earth which passes away
after the Millennium and who, like Noah, step out of the Ark to live on the new
Earth.
They shall be fitted with eternal material bodies of flesh, like unto the first New Creature Adam before the fall.
For those who
are married to Christ, they share eternally in the position that Christ is in
for all eternity. Wherever He goes, the Bride goes also. This should incentivise
us to put ourselves to the short task of applying our hearts to the Lord while
we are alive (a mere few years) so that we might attain unto things that reach
into the eternal ages; unto an inheritance with Him
forever and ever and ever. Just to be in His Presence forever is incentive
enough!
The Jews and
their Nation (from which the very Lamb of God came) shall maintain their
preeminence among the other Nations (made up of many individuals whose very presence on the New Earth are the result of the evangelistic
efforts of
Blessed
is the keeper of the prophecy of this Book
[Revelation 1:
3]
For
we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan,
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which
is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we
shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be
swallowed up of life. Now he that
hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore
we are always confident, knowing that, whilst
we are at home in the body, we are absent
from the Lord: (For we walk by faith,
not by sight:) We
are confident, I say,
and willing rather to be absent from the body, and
to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we
labour,
that,
whether present or absent, we may be
accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. [2nd Corinthians
5: 1-10]
Christs motive for
John to write the Book of Revelation is for you to believe and to determine to order
your lives as the instructed redeemed of God according to the things written in
this Book. So as to put yourself
in position to receive from Him the wisdom and
power to attain unto its promises and avoid its dire warnings of drinking from
the Cup of this Worlds
Read Psalm 90 written by Moses
Lord,
thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to
everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction;
and sayest, Return, ye
children of men. For a thousand years in thy
sight are but as yesterday when it is past,
and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood;
they are as a sleep: in the morning
they are like grass which groweth up. In
the morning it flourisheth, and groweth
up; in
the evening it is cut down, and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before
thee, our secret sins in the
light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we
spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labour and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how
long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may
rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we
have seen evil. Let
thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us:
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us;
yea,
the work of our hands establish thou it. Reading this
in light of the things weve
been talking about, we can see that man should recognize that he needs the
wisdom of God to navigate through life. This Psalm serves as a reminder that we
are temporal. It says, So teach us to
number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. May we do so by considering the great
revelational truths being set before us. (Man is
allotted typically about 70 years, generally speaking.
Note that in Biblical lunar years, 70 years x 360 days equal 25,200 days)
Proverbs 1: 20-31 speaks of
the value of seeking Godly wisdom
Wisdom crieth
without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in
the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her
words,
saying,
How long, ye simple ones,
will ye love simplicity? and
the scorners delight in their scorning,
and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof:
behold, I
will pour out my spirit unto you, I
will make known my words unto you. Because I have called,
and ye refused; I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at
nought all my counsel,
and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they
call upon me, but I will not answer;
they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge,
and did not choose the fear of the Lord:
They would none of my counsel: they despised
all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of
the fruit of their own way, and
be filled with their own devices.
There is an
End-Time lethargic luke-warmness pervasive in the Body of Christ, which is doctrinally lulled to sleep in a false
sense of security. (Revelation 3: 15-16) To most
Christians (contrary to the Book of Revelation), there are
only two alternatives in their afterlife; that of
going to Heaven / where God now resides, or to Hell /
This intermediate
place of the dead simply means the state and place God created in the center
of the Earth, which everyone goes to after death until the First or Second
Resurrection. It is easily determined as the place to where all the dead still
go, if one will take the time to look and search out for themselves Scriptural
Truth rather than just relying on tradition or what someone else has said.
(References in Scripture are numerous; just the one word search
of
hell, which is Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in the Greek, renders
over 50 mentions in the Old and New Testaments. More references can be found
from the words pit, abyss, bottomless pit, tartarus, paradise, place of comfort, place of torment
it
would be advisable to read and consider each one, noting the context).
It
is quickly seen from the Old and New Testament that Sheol / Hades is the
immediate place where Christ went after He died on the Cross, and from where He
arose 3 days later to the surface of the Earth, and after 40 days He alone
ascended unto the 3rd Heaven (See John 20: 17, Acts 1: 3, 9; 2: 31-35
note there that 40
days after Christs ascension, David remained in Hades, where he remains today).
Going to
Hades at death, with promise of a future resurrection, is the reality testified
by Old and New Testament Scripture to which all Christians historically adhered
to for hundreds of years after Christs Ascension. Along with the
well-established Scriptural doctrinal understanding that Christians could and
would be chastened on the Earth with a view towards their repentance while
alive unto spiritual maturing unto worthiness of the First Resurrection.
Along with holding to the doctrine of threatened punishment after death for
willful lack of spiritual growth and service while
alive. Evidential proof of this doctrine from just one Book of the Bible is
sufficient for conviction in the sincere of heart. (Matthew 5: 22-30; 7: 22-27; 10: 28-39; 16: 24-27; 18: 7-9; 21-35; 24: 45-51; 25: 1-30) All these verses
(taken only from the Gospel of Matthew) should open
up the eyes of Christians that there is punishment after death for willful sin,
as Christ is speaking to the redeemed.
These words have not passed way. Christs commandments show us how His
servants are to behave while alive on the Earth or we will face the
consequences for lack of service, unfaithfulness, unlovingness,
hatred for our brother, bitterness, resentment, adultery, and other sins that
we Christians think we are getting away with
but He says we unrepentant
redeemed will be cast into prison for things like these until we have paid
every farthing.
These were
solid doctrinal understandings of the early Churches until religious doctrinal
leaven was kneaded into the Written Words of the Apostles over a period of
hundreds of years following their deaths (Matthew 13: 33 - see past lessons on
the Corrupted
Eschatology of the Church). When the religious
doctrinal leaven had finally done its work, it became the popular belief that
Christians no longer went to Hades to await Resurrection, rather, upon death
they contend Scripture declares (by implication as there is not one Scripture
that explicitly declares that Christians when they die go to Heaven) that the
redeemed by-pass Hades, and immediately ascend unto the Third Heaven to be with
Christ (although being disembodied, which is to say naked, and with bodies yet
un-resurrected as they await their resurrected bodies), supposedly to be ruling
with Christ from Heaven. Generally, they reference 2nd Corinthians
5: 6-8, Philippians 1: 23, Ephesians 4: 8, 2nd Corinthians 5: 8 as proof texts.
Many
of these Christian leaders / teachers, in their efforts to remove the doctrinal
Truths of sundry judgments of punishment on Christians, here or in the
hereafter, have resorted to teach
1)
Christians, redeemed and forgiven for their sins, are not subject to Law (in
that they say their sins past, present, and future are forgiven) and therefore,
they are not considered sinners. 2) Therefore, they cannot be chastised or
punished. These, and different doctrinal versions, effectively teach the
same thing. They are untenable views or positions taken by those who have
wrested the Scriptures, but are very hard to maintain against the scrutiny of
the diligent seeker of Truth with a sincere heart (remember that it is not to
men that we shall answer to after dying).
Paul said: If by any means I might attain unto
the (first
/ out-) resurrection of the dead. Not as though
I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow
after, if
that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us
therefore, as
many as be perfect, be thus minded
[Philippians 3] Paul
buffeted his body daily lest he was disqualified / rejected
from the First Resurrection
But I keep
under my body, and bring it into subjection:
lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be a castaway. [1st Corinthians 9] Then Paul
said at the end of his life with death imminent
For
I am now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight
(why would we have to fight if everything was imputed to us?), I
have finished my course,
I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that
day: I have
finished the race and what is laid up in store for me is the crown. (2nd Timothy
4) Our race is
then finished at death as it relates to the First Resurrection and heavenly [and
Millennial]
Kingdom inheritance and the future residence in New Jerusalem. All that is left after death is judgement for how we ran the race
while alive on the Earth. And if we ran the race well, we will await the
presenting of the prize (like Paul still is today) of the First Resurrection in
glory, at the time of Christs Return to
this Realm from the Third Heaven to this Realms first heaven to receive His Bride and establish here His Millennial Kingdom. (Revelation
19
& 20)
The
Scriptural reality is that when we redeemed / Christians die, we are then
judged by Christ (or as in the case with Paul, he was judged as an overcomer
just before his death), but not judged as it relates to eternal life (Paul was
not concerned with eternal life
but strove with great effort to attain unto the all-important
eternal quality of life). For
we are assured of that irrevocable gift from God of
eternal life, being justified before the Father by faith through the
righteousness of Christ. However, be it understood that every individual
redeemed person will be judged most scrupulously for
our righteousness. meaning our loving
faithful service to Him. Which is to say, the Holy Spirits exhortation
to us through David is how we should number our days
(and) apply our hearts to wisdom
and live our lives out in accordance to the
wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of God that is afforded to the
sincere seeker in order to be found an overcomer on the Earth after we depart
here. Which is also to say it another way
we are
judged for our behavior in obedience to His and His Apostles written
New Testament commandments in our faithful service to Him on the Earth after
our redemption that was accompanied by the gift of His eternal divine nature in
the gift of the New Testament power of the Holy Spirit and the agape love of
God. (2nd Corinthians
5: 10, Colossians 3: 25, 1st Peter
1: 4, Romans 5: 5)
It
is then, at death, that the race is finished, and at the Judgement Seat of
Christ, that worthiness according to good or bad works, will in the first place
determine which Resurrection; the First or the Second, we shall be raised up
out of Hades in. (Revelation 20: 5-6) And second
a judgement must be made as to where we will be assigned while in Hades. (Luke
16: 22-23)
The First
Resurrection is not just about coming up out of Hades, but about being clothed
in glory. If we are judged to be in the First, then
when Christ Returns to this Realm at the end of this appointed Age to receive
and reward His Bride, those
who were judged faithful at His Judgement Seat will be raised from Hades, being
then as Christ declared sons
of the resurrection. (Luke 20: 35-36) They are to
be no longer naked in a certain state of
death, without bodies, but then to be clothed with heavenly bodies, fit for the
heavenly spirit realm. (2nd Corinthians
5: 1-11) In eternal bodies that are incorruptible (1st Corinthians
15: 50, 52), and caught up
gloriously to the first heaven (not the third Heaven, that place where
Scripture, rightly divided, never states man will ever reside) associated with
this Realms Earth, and
from there, rule as co-heirs over the nations of this Earth with Christ in His
Millennial Kingdom, and that being with a rod of iron in the coming Age of
Justice and Righteousness, which precedes the Eternal Ages. (Revelation
2: 27, 12: 5, 19: 15)
The rest of
the redeemed who have been excluded from the First Resurrection will remain
in Hades, in their respective state and place, for 1000 years, until the Second
Resurrection. And then along with the rest of the dead, they will be brought up out of Hades, who then will join
those Jews and Gentiles who were living on the Millennial Earth that were not a
part of those who went up against Israel, and who did not die when the fire
came down from God on His enemies, and when this earth and heaven fled away.
(Revelation
20: 9; 21: 1b). So it will be
that all remaining dead will have been brought up to stand before the Great
White Throne, along with all the living on the Earth during the Millennial
Kingdom, that were caught
away from this then vanishing
Earth. It is important for the redeemed to NOTE
that there is no promise in Scripture of incorruptibility in any of these (after the First Resurrection raised from
Hades, or translated from the Millennial Earth) who then stand at the Great
White Throne Judgement, who will now receive their eternal bodies
regardless
to where they are then to be consigned.
Once again, these essential doctrinal truths, with their warning threats, were
held forth for hundreds of years after Christs Ascension by the Church.
That is, until the leavening tares brought forth the deceiving doctrine that
says that Christ took with Him all the redeemed out of Hades in His Ascension,
into the Third Heaven. This false doctrine, over a period of
time, was / is received as being truth. Satanic influences in the Church
over
a period of time have leavened out the doctrinal Truth that the redeemed and
unredeemed are judged and held accountable after death for their works while
alive on the Earth, beginning in Hades, waiting for their resurrection and
final eternal determination judgement at the Great White Throne.
This false
teaching of the redeemed going to Heaven is accomplished by
confusing the Scriptural Truth of unconditional imputation of Christs propitiation in
justification through faith to all the redeemed with eternal life, with then
the FALSE teaching that that
imputation of His righteousness for the gift also includes the imputation of
the promised rewards. The result being the false doctrine that the saved / redeemed are free from the
restraints and judgments of Hades after death, and are immediately caught up to
the Third Heaven. Thereby, effectively doing away with the
promise and necessity in overcoming in this World, with faithful fruitfulness
to attain unto the reward of the First Resurrection. (2nd Timothy
2: 18) Therefore, the Protestant false doctrine leaves only the unredeemed going to and
staying in Hades
also wrongly taught as Hell /
On
the other religious Christian hand, which is no less the deceitful doctrinal
thief, and serves the same disqualifying misappropriation as the Protestant
unbelief, is the belief promoted primarily by Catholicism for hundreds of
years, and believed by millions, is that upon death 1) certain Christians with absolution from sin by a qualified priest go to Heaven, 2) some go to purgatory to be purged, after which they shall immediately then go to
Heaven, and 3) unbelievers / unredeemed
go to Hell / Lake of Fire immediately after death (all false doctrines are too
broad to explore here
see teaching series on The Corrupted Eschatology of the Church).
Scriptural
Truth is: when men die, redeemed or unredeemed, they are all judged immediately
to a certain extent according to how they lived in the circumstances
surrounding their lives and are appointed to the appropriate place in Hades. (Luke
16: 19-31) All
redeemed Christians stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ after death, in
judgement for having overcome or for having been overcome,
and are graded according to their faithful and unfaithful service to Christ
while alive. (2nd Corinthians
5: 10,
Hebrews 9: 27, Matthew 25: 1-30) Exclusion
for unworthiness or inclusion in graded worthiness for a part in Christs
All
dead then will remain in Hades until one of those before-mentioned two
Resurrections
the First Resurrection being for the blessed overcomers determined
by Christ at the Judgment Seat according to their obedient spiritual maturity
in morals and loving faithful works while alive, who are to be brought up out
from among the rest of all the dead in Hades, upon Christs Second Coming to then be clothed in heavenly incorruptible
spiritual bodies fit to wed Christ and become co-rulers with Him over this
Realm from the first heaven in His Millennial Kingdom. (1st Thessalonians
4: 16-17)
After which,
a thousand years later, comes the Second Resurrection and final judgement
on the remaining dead, both redeemed and unredeemed. The intermediary place of
the dead in the center of the Earth will be emptied. Final judgements that have the Eternal
Ages in view are now to be made and declared at the Great White Throne by
Christ on all mankind (and spirit beings) who had lived and died over the
entire period going all the way back to Adam, who were not a part of the First
Resurrection (who are immune from any further judgement). This Great
White Throne judgement has to do with each individuals every work, word, thought, and intent, be it good or bad
while living on the earth, and a final determination will be made as to whether
their names remain in the Book of life or are blotted out. Those
whose names are found in the Book, their destiny and state of being determined,
are a child of God and
and they shall be His people
and will
rejoice in the inheritance of eternal life, and take their appointed place,
according to judgments determined at the Great White Throne, and with an
assurance of a place on the new Earth as a subject of His Eternal
Kingdom. And if their name, at the end of their
judgement, is not found recorded in the Book of Life, then it is Written they
shall be banished forever in the Second Death the
At the end
and passing away of this present Earth and heavens, at the opening of the great
judicial setting (2nd Peter 3: 7), all mankind
will have been judged according to their works, those redeemed and unredeemed
over 7000 years from Adam. Those redeemed worthy who had lived and died before
Christs 2nd Coming had been judged and were a part of the
First Resurrection. Those redeemed found unworthy for the First Resurrection are
brought up at the end of Christs Millennial
reign, and are then fully judged, whose names must then naturally remain in the
Book of Life and/ or in the Lambs Book of
Life. And those redeemed and unredeemed who lived and who did
not die during the Millennial Kingdom, or lived and died during the Millennial
Kingdom, were also judged according to the unique Age of Justice wherein they
lived, whose names then will be either found in the Book of Life or not
as
well as some who will presumably also have their names written in the Lambs Book of
Life. Their names having been found in the Book of Life or additionally
in the Lambs Book of life, along with the qualifying works
of various kinds in their lives, affords them their standing and position in
the New Earth.
But
only
those whose names are found in the Lambs Book of Life may enter into New Jerusalem. That place and
its residents and visitors we will speak of in the next lesson.
*
* *
[To be continued, D.V.]