The reign of Christ is eternal and will not end after the 1000 years on earth. The Millennial kingdom is the fulfillment of the promises of God to both the Jews and those who lived obediently. Look at the praise given to Jesus Christ in Revelation 5:
10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth."
This is the praise from the mouths of the 24 elders that have been in heaven since Revelation 4. The Bible says that when Jesus returns to defend Israel, the saints of God are with Him. One of the promises to those who overcome in Revelation 2 and 3 is that they will reign with Christ. The Bible makes this promise throughout the New Testament. It is a common misconception that the 1,000-year reign of Christ is only to those alive when Jesus returns, however, this is not what the Bible teaches. Those who are beheaded for their testimony during the Tribulation are also promised to reign on earth. Look at Revelation 20:
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6 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.
Inevitably when I mention God’s mercy on Israel I will have many people criticize this doctrine. I am surprised at how many people are opposed to the idea that God will redeem the Jews. In fact, people are so opposed to this idea that they refuse to acknowledge the hundreds of passages that specifically promise mercy to Israel after their rejection of their Messiah. People don’t have a problem believing the passages that foretell of the judgment and scattering of Israel, but then refuse to accept the passages that foretell their return and God’s mercy. Many of the same passages that foretell of Israel’s dispersing are the same passages that foretell their return. If we take the time to read Amos, Zechariah, Joel, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Daniel we will see that it is impossible to deny Israel’s part in God’s plan without disbelieving the scriptures. The 1000-year reign is a promise that is not only to the Christian but also to the nation of Israel. Look at Zechariah 9:
16 The LORD their God will save them in that day, As the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, Lifted like a banner over His land --
17 For how great is its goodness And how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women.
10:
6 "I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, Because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; For I am the LORD their God, And I will hear them.
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8 I will whistle for them and gather them, For I will redeem them; And they shall increase as they once increased.
God promised that once He defends Israel in the final battle, He will restore them as a nation, bless them with abundance, and it will be as thought they had never been cast off. God said that He would redeem them and take away their iniquity in one day. We looked at this in detail under the section ‘Israel in Prophecy’. The remnant of Israel will see Christ and see His wounds, the veil will be removed (just as foretold in Romans 13), they will mourn over their sin, repent, and receive Jesus as their Savior. Then Israel will inherit the promises that were made to their forefathers who were faithful. It is the promise to the patriarchs that are honored and not the merits of Israel. Romans 13 says that it is for the sake of the fathers that God will keep these promises because the calling and gifts of God are irrevocable.
The Millennial Reign of Christ begins with Jesus coming back in power and glory. He defends His people Israel and destroys their enemies. Daniel 7 tells us that Jesus will destroy the beast of Revelation, cast him into eternal judgment and then will strip the beast’s kingdom of its power but allow the kingdoms to remain for a time. Look at Daniel 7:
12 "As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time."
Not everyone who is alive when Christ returns will be allowed to enter into the new kingdom. We briefly look at this previously but to examine this fully we will look at this again so that we understand the scripture’s explanation of the 1000-year reign of Christ. Look again at Matthew 25:
31 " When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33 "And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
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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:
42 'for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;
43 'I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'
Let’s reiterate that we should not make the error of thinking this is judgment for salvation. It is clearly the Millennial Reign and the nations before the throne. Jesus has come to the earth in His glory and the nations are standing before Him. He then separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep are those who helped His people during their great persecution, the goats are those who turned a cold shoulder. Take note that none of these are being judged for persecuting His people. Those who attacked His people were destroyed at His coming. Now Jesus is judging those who turned His people away during their peril. God judges the complacent person as an evildoer. It is just as wicked to ignore the cries of the oppressed as it is to become the oppressor. Once the nations have been judged, the remnant enters into the kingdom, but not to reign. Look now at Zechariah 14:
16 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.
17 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.
18 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.
19 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.
20 In that day "HOLINESS TO THE LORD" shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
The Lord will redeem the earth and establish the prosperity man has always sought since the time of Eden. Look at Isaiah 65:
20 " 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.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 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.
23 They shall not labor in vain, Nor bring forth children for trouble; For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, And their offspring with them.
24 " It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," Says the LORD.
The Bible also promises Israel that they will inherit the promises made to Abraham. They will inherit all the land promised; the land will produce so abundantly that the reaper will overtake the sower; every man will rest in peace and sit under his own fig tree in Israel. The church will be priests and kings to our God. As marvelous as true utopia on earth may be, it pales in comparison to what God will do in the new heaven and new earth. However, before the final restoring of creation, one final act will occur. Satan will be released after 1000 years.
Satan’s last stand is so anti-climatic that it is almost comical. Look again at Revelation 20:
2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
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7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
8 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.
9 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.
After 1000 years of peace and paradise, Satan musters up the masses against God one last time. Just imagine this spectacle as it unfolds. All is well and has been for so long that we can’t even fathom the concept of rebellion. Satan has been brooding and plotting for 1000 years. Each time someone walked by his pit and shook their head in scorn, he thought, “I will have my vengeance”. The day finally arrives and the angel of God unlocks the chain and releases him from this prison. Suddenly the saints of God see a wave of people coming from every imaginable direction with such a sea of humanity that it can’t be numbered. They begin to encamp around Jerusalem as they lay it under siege. God seems to be idle and does nothing about this. The whole city is in a buzz and for the first time in this eternal kingdom, many people have a sense of uncertainty. The massive invading army continues to grow. Still God has not responded and has shown no sign of responding. Just when the multitude was as big as it could get, more troops cross the horizon. The mass gets bigger and bigger. Satan has accumulated the strongest and most unified army we have ever seen. His leaders are poised and ready to spring into battle. The troops are prepared and in position. The generals shout, “Charge!” There is a mighty roar of the armies as they begin their rush into battle and then – a flash of fire and it is over. Whew. What an offensive Satan mounted in his greatest moment of strength.
Why did God bother with this final world event? I believe it serves a threefold purpose. First, it removes all excuses for mankind’s sin. For 1000 years the world has had no evil influences. Not a single person can say, “I didn’t know the truth” or “I was raised in an environment with an unfair disadvantage”. Every person was required to acknowledge Jesus for who He is and participate each year in the feast of Tabernacles that proclaims His truth. Man has already seen the destruction of human nature and now the peace of the Kingdom of God. Faith will be sight and God will be known. For 1000 years the whole world will see and experience Jesus Christ unveiled and in His glory. When God called for faith without sight, the masses have refused throughout time. Now God calls for man to trust by sight, the masses will still refuse. This will be a testimony against mankind at judgment.
Second, this event shows that those who reject Christ don’t just choose ‘another truth’; they are at war with God. The Bible says that sinners are at enmity with God and are actively at war with God. When the world is given a choice, they will not only turn from Christ, but they will attempt to destroy Him. If the world had the choice and full knowledge of Jesus Christ as He truly is, they would crucify Him today. The world likes to talk about Jesus as a meek teacher who never corrects, condemns or disapproves of anyone or anything. The world loves the Jesus it creates. The world’s Jesus is no different than all the other idols it has created. A man or woman who is rejecting God always creates a god in their own image. The atheist’s god is himself and the religious world’s god always accepts and acts just as they desire to act. They may call their god ‘Jesus’ but an idol called Jesus is still an idol and is an instrument of war against the true Jesus. When all the pretense is stripped away, mankind is at war with God until we are reconciled through the cross of Jesus Christ.
The third purpose behind this final rebellion is that it forces the world to choose. Many who survive the Great Tribulation are not Christians and even in the Kingdom of Christ, not everyone in the world is a Christian. They entered the kingdom, married, have children and their children marry and have children. If each person had children by the age of 30, we would have 33 new generations during the 1000-year reign of Christ. Each one of those people have to make a choice to place their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior or reject Him. God doesn’t call us to religious practices, but into a loving relationship with Him, and without a choice there is not love. If we don’t have an option to reject the love of God, there is no evidence for our love of God. Salvation centers around a relationship with God – not religious practices. For 1000 years the whole world has practiced serving Christ. For some, it is an act of love and faith; for the world, it is an act of constraint. Any who do not come up to worship Jesus Christ will not be blessed with the rain He provides during the next year (Zechariah 14:16-18).
Of course the atheist will say that it is unjust to stop the rain just because someone refuses to acknowledge the Lord as God. However, all good things come only from God. If someone declares that they don’t need God and He honors their desire for self-sufficiency, is God unjust? If someone does not need God, then they don’t need what God provides. God doesn’t stop the rain – He doesn’t send the rain. A world rebelling against God is like a rebellious teen. It is ironic that teens enter the rebellious phase of life and declare that they don’t need mom or dad and don’t want them to interfere with their life. However, they want to borrow the car, food on the table, a home to live in and countless other needs that are taken for granted. The declaration of independence from God is actually a declaration of ignorance to what God provides to both the just and the unjust.
On that final day, each person will have to choose to love God or declare war against Him. We can see from the prophecy that most will reject Him and we can also see that most reject Him today. Look at Matthew 7:
13 " Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
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