The reality of the Third Millenium

[angels4u]

The Reality of the Third Millennium

by Wim Malgo (1922-1992)

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 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. 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. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 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" (Revelation 20:1-6).

The millennium is mentioned repeatedly in this short portion of Scripture. This thousand-year reign of peace will become a visible reality when Satan is bound. He will already be weakened by the terrible judgments which will come upon the earth during and after the Great Tribulation period when sin is judged. Satan has nothing more to say or do. That is the secret of Calvary. Jesus was judged in our place, and for our sin. When we became one with Christ at the Cross of Calvary, Satan no longer had any claim to us, nor does he have any power over us. In spite of this, however, God still permits Satan, the dragon, to have great power, even though judgment is being carried out in heaven and on earth. "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand...." Notice that a great chain is needed; we are dealing with the most powerful prince, the ruler of darkness himself. Satan will be spiritually bound, thrown into the abyss and locked up for a thousand years when the Antichrist is destroyed. During those thousand years, Satan can no longer deceive the nations or the individual, which will result in peace on earth and a world-wide blessing.

What exactly is the "millennium"? First, it is the answer to Jesus' prayer: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." The thousand-year reign of peace is also the seventh or Sabbath millennium. In the 15th century, Luther said, "The world will exist for six thousand years: two thousand years without the law, two thousand years under the law, two thousand years under Jesus Christ and after that will come the seventh period of a thousand years." From God's eternal perspective, these thousands of years are like days. God rested on the seventh day. To Him, a thousand years are like one day, and one day is like a thousand years. We are drawing near the end of the sixth thousand years since creation.

The patriarchs, prophets, kings and priests looked forward to the thousand-year reign of peace. When we read the Bible, we are amazed at how often this coming kingdom is mentioned. Approximately fifty prophecies concern it in the Old Testament alone. And, it is always mentioned in connection with the King, the Ruler of the kingdom: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth...Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion..." (Numbers 24:17 & 19a). Balaam, the Gentile prophet, saw this. So did Hannah, Samuel's mother. In fact, she even sang about it in her Holy Spirit- inspired prophetic song: "The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed" (1st Samuel 2:10). God, the Lord, will install His King. Psalm 2 contains another prophecy concerning the coming kingdom, but we also read of the preceding world-wide revolution which we are already experiencing in part. The human race is being attacked by the spirit of rebellion. "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" (Psalm 2:1-4). For, "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" (Psalm 2:5-6). This revolt will come to an end when the Antichrist is revealed because the Lord will destroy him with the breath from His mouth, and Satan will be bound for a thousand years. This will be the time when God inaugurates His King, the Prince of Peace.

The Old Testament also testifies to this King, Jesus Christ, and reveals Him to us very clearly. Isaiah records His supernatural conception: "A virgin shall conceive..."; Micah documents his birthplace as Bethlehem; Isaiah describes the death of the King also found in Psalm 22. This chapter begins with the dying King's exclamation: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"; Psalm 22:16b is the account of the Shepherd's execution: "...they pierced my hands and my feet." This psalm also reveals the future kingdom He will establish: "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations" (Psalm 22:27-28). This last prophecy refers to events that are to occur in the future. Psalm 45:6 says: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre." Remarkable is that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews quoted this verse: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" and then speaks of Jesus: "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him...But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom" (Hebrews 1:5-6 & 8). Psalm 47 and 48 also contain this prophesied thousand-year reign of peace, but we learn of it especially from the royal prophet Isaiah. For instance, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD" (Isaiah 2:2-5). Here is revealed the name of the place where the Kingdom will be set up. The center of world-wide disarmament and global peace will not be in Washington, Moscow, Rome, Geneva, or any other place on earth, but the holy mountain in Jerusalem. There will be no more wars when Jesus Christ sits upon the throne and rules as King. Hatred, gossip, divorce and all other types of squabbles will be eradicated. What a wonderful situation, one in which even the animal world will be affected, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him ... And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious" (Isaiah 11:1-2a & 5-10). This kingdom will contain incomparable peace. Surely we can already experience a glimpse of it right now. When the enemy in our hearts is bound, all enmity and fear disappear. Then we are ruled by the One of whom it is written: "He is our peace."

Now let's consider the individual stages in which the Kingdom of God is realized. The entire Bible deals with the fact that Jehovah will be King in all eternity, and that all things are of Him, through Him and to Him (Romans 11:36). Everything revolves around the Kingdom of God. Through man's fall, it became apparent that he did not want to acknowledge God's absolute sovereignty, and as a result, he rejected his own sovereignty. Consequently, man, deceived by Satan, lost the sovereignty God gave him, for God made man ruler over all creation. Psalm 8:4,6 contains important statements concerning man's position: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? ... Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." That's the way things were before man's fall. These verses actually speak prophetically of Jesus as the "last" Adam. God instructed man to rule over His creation, but one of the by-products of the fall was the reduction of Adam's position to that of a slave. Acts 15:16 explains why Jesus Christ had to come: To reestablish the Kingdom (the tabernacle of David). How could this take place? How was it possible to set up the Kingdom of God again on this earth, which is still in subjection to the devil? It was accomplished by the Lord Jesus who suffered as our substitute, yet remained a King under all circumstances and never sinned. He wore a royal robe of mockery, a crown of mockery made of thorns, and held a sceptre of mockery, a reed that was placed in His hand. He was even given a royal title; inscribed above His head were the words: "Jesus, the king of the Jews." Jesus had to become the "last" Adam so that the "first" Adam could be reinstalled in his royal office. The result is so wonderful that we can exclaim: "...And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:6). We are kings again, invisible in the flesh as of yet, but the moment is coming when we shall be revealed with Jesus - in the millennium. Why? Because we acknowledge Jesus Christ as King. Is this true in your life? Many children of God believe it is important to know Jesus as Savior, but it is much more important to know that He is King. It is a tragedy that many children of God fall away from the Lord like Israel did at the time of Samuel, wanting an earthly king instead. When Samuel lamented over this, the Lord spoke these sad words to him: "...they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them" (1st Samuel 8:7). Later, when Jesus came, the true Anointed One, their Messiah, they cried, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him...We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15). Israel's tragedy has repeated itself throughout history. Christ's sovereignty in our hearts is expressed in our longing - worked by the Holy Spirit - for the purpose of revival, cleansing and sanctification.

The first phase of the reestablishment of the Kingdom of God is called the "Kingdom of heaven." Matthew 13 and 25 document the Lord's repeated words regarding the Kingdom of heaven: "...again the Kingdom of heaven is like unto...." His parables also show us how the enemy tries everything possible to destroy this Kingdom of heaven on earth. His work becomes more intense because he knows that his end is near (Revelation 12:12b). Jesus Christ, as Man from heaven, brought back the Kingdom of heaven. We find this deep meaning in the words of His testimony to Himself: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3:13). The Lord Jesus was always one with His Father. He walked as a man on earth, but His Spirit was with His Father: "I and the Father are one."

We can call the second phase the "Kingdom of Jesus Christ." This is the kingdom which we now await. At the return of Jesus Christ, it will be finally and visibly established. What has been prepared throughout the centuries in the hearts of believers will become visible. The Lord Jesus said: "The kingdom of God is within you." It is never His ultimate goal that it should remain in our hearts, but that it should one day be revealed: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4). Our redemption from the power of Satan was determined in God's heart before the foundation of the world. This redemption was made visible in the death and resurrection of His Son. In the same way, His Kingdom will also become visible. We read of the goal of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ: "For He hath put all things under his feet...And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." So the millennium is the realization of the complete restoration of the Kingdom of God. According to Revelation 19 and 20, the great "Hallelujah" chorus will resound when Babylon has fallen. We learn from Scripture that the eternal God Himself is always the goal, and this should also be true in our lives. "That we should be to the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:6,12).

Whenever the question is asked (which originates from unbelief), whether the coming reign of peace should be understood literally or symbolically, I always ask a counter question: Is the nation of Israel, as it exists today in the Middle East, a reality or just a symbol? The answer is obvious. The nation of Israel is a living reality! The Christian Church has, since olden times, committed the sin of claiming for herself the biblical promises of blessing meant for Israel and taking them literally. However, where Scripture speaks of Israel's glorious future, she has spiritualized and symbolized everything, with the exception of the threats of judgment which she was only too willing to connect literally with Israel. Isaiah 60:1 says: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee." The note in the margin explained this verse in the following manner: "Get up, leave thy former affliction; - this is what God says to His Zion, His believing Church." Another example is found in Isaiah 62:1: "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." The annotation says: "For the Church's sake, the spiritual Jerusalem, because I love her I will not cease to provide for her." Even today, Christians are inclined to take literally that which applies to them, but the Word concerning Israel is spiritualized. When we read Luke 1:32, we agree that Jesus was born and is called the "Son of the Highest." However, the second part of the same verse says: "...and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David" seems to be more questionable, so it is spiritualized. The same thing happens with Zephaniah 3:12-13, for these verses are also applied literally to Israel: "I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." On the other hand, verse 14 is proclaimed in the Church: "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem." This has nothing to do with the Church of Jesus Christ. These last sentences are also meant for Israel.

It now becomes quite clear in our hearts that we may expect the coming Kingdom of God to be something visible and tangible, as also the return of Jesus, for it is written: "...and every eye shall see Him."

The question remains: Who will take part in this reign of peace? Mankind will be divided into two groups; one will take part in the first resurrection, the other in the second. According to Revelation 20:6a, everything depends upon your taking part in the first resurrection: "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." Let us prove ourselves in the light of Revelation 20 and see which group we belong to, because verse 5 says: "...the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Those who have no part in the first resurrection remain in the grave (Hades), the realm of the dead. Those who do take part in the first resurrection will be blessed and holy, and will experience what the Lord has promised in Revelation 20:6b: "...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." The first resurrection is the Rapture: "...and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (1st Thessalonians 4:16b-17). We also read of this in 1st Corinthians 15. Let us take this to heart: "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." These are the born-again believers who followed the Lord with all their heart. The others will have to wait a thousand years, and then will have to appear before God for the final judgment: "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God..." (Revelation 20:12). After a thousand years, the devil will be allowed to deceive one more time, but then he will meet his end: "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth..." (Revelation 20:7-8a). This is followed by the second resurrection: "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. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them" (Revelation 20:11-13a). Many people want to be cremated out of fear. They imagine they can completely destroy everything pertaining to their existence, but they are in error. "...and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:13b-14). This is the death which does not kill. It is being separated from God for all eternity. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). Something is missing at this last judgment before the Great White Throne. It is the Lamb and His shed blood! Forgiveness is no longer possible. That is why NOW is the time to attain the four signs necessary in order to take part in the first resurrection:

[starfire]

:noidea:I dream of dirty bombs in the U.S. a few days ago. This feeling will not go away.

[angels4u]

Starfire,

I believe something is about to happen but we don't know when,I believe its just a matter of time....

But thank God He is in controle ....we can just see His whole plan be unfolded with everything what is going on everywhere.

It will not be long and you and I might meet in our mansion on high!!

Love in Christ, Angels

[whatsitmean]

In the 15th century, Luther said, "The world will exist for six thousand years: two thousand years without the law, two thousand years under the law, two thousand years under Jesus Christ and after that will come the seventh period of a thousand years." From God's eternal perspective, these thousands of years are like days. God rested on the seventh day. To Him, a thousand years are like one day, and one day is like a thousand years. We are drawing near the end of the sixth thousand years since creation.

Is that what the Bible means when it says Last Days (Acts 2:17 and others), it means days 5 and 6 on a seven day, seven thousand year calendar?