Look at Revelation 20:
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.
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10 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.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
The second resurrection is for the judgment of God. The believer will not be raised here – only those without Christ will participate in this resurrection. All sinners will be raised to be judged. Look at these two passages:
Revelation 2:
11 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." '
21:
8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
From these passages we can see that the believer will never stand before the Great White Throne nor will we experience the second resurrection, nor will we experience the second death. I won’t spend a lot of time on this since it was discussed earlier in the ‘Throne of God’ section. I do want to point out a few things that we should understand. The principalities are judged first. Before God judged the nations at the beginning of the Millennial reign, he first judged the anti-Christ. Before God judges the souls of the condemned, God will first judge Satan. It is the devil that led the charge into sin and it is the devil that will lead the charge into hell. This is one of the fundamental flaws of the various theories that previous worlds existed before this one. God does not judge those led astray without first judging the one who led them astray. Theories like ‘The Gap Theory’ could not hold consistent to what God has always done because it would allow a world to be judged first and then father of sin is allowed to go free.
God does not change. What He does now is what He has always done and always will do in the future. Throughout scripture, the leaders of rebellion are either judged with the people or prior to the people in rebellion. The same is true here. Satan is first cast into the lake of fire and then all men who followed him will then be judged and cast into this eternal judgment as well. Before we move away from this subject, we should take a moment to dispel a few other misunderstandings about hell. Hell is not the final judgment. Hell is a temporary prison for the enemies of God who await the final resurrection and judgment. Hades is not the lake of fire, it is cast into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the fire of God’s eternal wrath. The attributes of God never change, the wrath against sin will always exist, and sin will always be under that condemnation. Hell is not the absence of God – it is the absence of God’s grace. We often hear people say that the lost will be eternally separated from God, but this is not a completely accurate statement. It is an eternal absence from the presence of God’s grace and the absence of a relationship with Him, but God will be there. I realize that to many this seems odd, but it is the only understanding of hell consistent with what God has revealed in His word.
God is an infinite God. He is all knowing, and omnipresent – He is everywhere at once and there is nowhere He isn’t. The Bible tells us that all things are held together by His power and in Him all things exist and have being. Can an infinite God not be in Hell? How can you divide infinity? If you try to exclude God from hell, then He is no longer infinite. Also, if all things exist by His power, how can hell exist if God is not there? How can the soul exist if God is not there? If Satan (or any other soul) could live completely separated from God, then his life would be self-existent and he would then be a god without need of God. Nothing lives – either physical or spiritual – outside of God. He alone is able to make alive and keep alive and nothing exists or has its being outside of God. Heaven is God’s grace, love, and mercy poured out on those who love God. Hell is God’s anger, wrath, judgment and justice poured out on those who hate God and love sin which is at war with God.
Look at 2 Peter 3:
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
As with many of the prophecies we studied earlier, this is one prophecy, but its events are divided by time. The Bible is one complete revelation. From Genesis to Revelation, God has proclaimed His truth and it is our responsibility to obey God and study the Word to show ourselves a faithful workman who can rightly divide the word of truth. Scripture always supplements scripture – it never replaces scripture. The day of the Lord for the sinful nations is unveiled at Armageddon; the day of the Lord for the physical earth and the heavens is unveiled in the final two chapters of Revelation. Look at Revelation 21:
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
7 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
After the tribulation has ended, Satan is bound and the 1000-year reign of Christ begins. After the Millennial reign of Christ, Satan is released and then he and his followers are judged. Then the old earth and the heavens are destroyed by God’s purifying fire. Every trace of sin will be removed and the elements will melt with fervent heat. God then re-creates the heaven and the earth and takes it back to the way it was intended from the beginning. The curse from sin will be removed (Revelation 22:3) and pain, death, and suffering will be no more. The Bible says that all of creation groans as it awaits His redemption. This redemption will begin when Christ comes to reign but will ultimately be fulfilled as described in Revelation 21 and 22. Sin will be gone and only those who have loved God and are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ will enter into this final rest. The fall will not be repeated because everyone in heaven has already overcome sin by trusting in Christ. Each person has already been tested and the time of temptation has already passed.
These final chapters in the Scriptures describe the wonders of heaven. However, it is impossible for us to grasp what God has prepared. 1 Corinthians 2 tells us:
9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
12 "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
The greatest promises to the believer center around serving closest to God in our eternal inheritance. This is the time God has provided for the believer to purify himself and inherit the great promises of God. The Bible tells us how we become pure in John 15:
3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
It is the word of God living within us. We abide in Christ and He makes us pure. 1 John 1:7 tells us that if we walk with Jesus Christ in the light, His blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness. It is an abiding, consistent walk with Christ that purifies us and keeps us pure. According to Jesus, if anyone wants to follow Him, they must die to themselves, take up their cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23-24). He then produces a pure life and pure works that God can honor. According to scripture, there is nothing we can do to make ourselves pure other than submitting to Jesus Christ and His will. There is not a single deed or good work that we can do that will please God other than what He produces through us. John 15 tells us that if we abide in Christ, we will bear much fruit. He must bring us into the vine (which is Himself) and then He must produce fruit through us. The Bible tells us that all of our works will be tried by fire and everything that is not pure and of God will be burned. Many deeds in of great effort will be lost because we are working by our own strength to produce good works. True good works are pure only when God works through us by our love and abiding relationship with Him. My works are an act of love. I take what God has given me and in a heart of love, I use it as He desires and give back to Him. I acknowledge that He has produced these things through me. I am not giving what I have done for Him, but I am returning to Him what He has given to me. It is a heart that is yielded to Him that obeys and allows God to work His purposes and perfect will through us. It is all founded upon the greatest command in scripture, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength”.
Revelation 22
7 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
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10 And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.
11 "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still."
12 " And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
There is so much more that has been left unsaid. It is very difficult to determine what to include and what is to be left unexplored. This study is by no means comprehensive and there are many valuable prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments that I have not touched upon. My hope is that this study of prophecy has revealed some truths that each believer can carry into their lives. One of the purposes of prophecy is to call believers to action. In prophecy we don’t predict God, but present what God has foretold about Himself and revealed about His plan. What God has left unsaid, we hopefully have left unsaid. I also hope that it has become clear that each prophecy agrees and fits together in perfect harmony. History has proven prophecy to be true and world events also testify to the truth of prophecy. Ultimately, the purpose of prophecy is to encourage the believer, reveal that God is in control, show God’s word to be true, set the scriptures apart from other voices claiming to be the voice of God while causing us to recognize that our hope is not in this life but in the life to come. Prophecy is a call to be faithful with the promise of reward. Prophecy is the closing statements in a love letter to the believer who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ. Prophecy is the revelation of Jesus Christ and our promise to be partakers of His glory. The invitation of prophecy is summed up in Revelation 22:
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
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