Prophecy Special - 9/11 - The Final Solution of God, No. 13

PS13

Liberalism does not like to think of Jesus Christ as the conquering destroyer of those who are evil, but that is exactly what the Word of God portrays. It is exactly as we learned in a previous session, what He did to Sennacherib's Assyrian army. This is what he will do in protecting the Jewish people. Israel today is again a nation. They are there on the Mediterranean Sea. It all began on May 14th, 1948, in the lifetime of some of you in this study. The United Nations at that time wanted to partition what was known as Palestine there on that Mediterranean Sea (the old Promised Land of Israel) between Arabs and the Jews. The Arabs refused the deal. They would not tolerate any dividing of the land between the Arab and the Jewish populations.

Therefore, the Jews declared, on the basis of the United Nations declaration, their independence on their own. At that point, the primary leader in the Arab world was Egyptian President Abdel Nasser. The Jews declared their independence, and now after 2,500 years, there was a nation of Israel again. The Arab world said, "We're going to drive you into the sea." It was the month of May, and the ratio was 50 Arab soldiers to one Jewish soldier. The result was that the Arabs were beaten, and the Jews won. They had a tenuous hold on their independence.

A few years later, in 1967, the Arabs decided to make another move. This time in a deliberate but very subtle way, they expected the Jews to be at a low point of preparedness and expectation. Again, they came after the Jewish people with 50-to-1 odds. Again, the Arabs lost, and the Jews were saved. It was a repeat of the same thing that Hezekiah experienced with Syria.

Here we have the Jewish people obviously under the protection of God. Since the time of Abraham, Satan has been by various devices seeking to destroy all the Jewish people. When you understand that that is the key to Satan being able to win the angelic warfare, then you will understand why Israel is the key to everything. If every Jew can be killed, there can be no millennial kingdom, and God will be defeated. But because God will not be defeated, that is why the Jew survives against all odds.

The Tribulation

At this time, the world will be on the brink of disaster immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ and the Second Coming. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus says, "There will be great tribulation during the last three-and-a-half years such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall." It is going to be horrendous. The middle of the tribulation will have brought us probably through all six of the seal judgments. The seventh one will be broken, and from that will begin the trumpet judgments in the last half of the tribulation period. At the very end will come the bowl judgments--probably the last 6 weeks, or maybe 4 weeks, if that long. The bowl judgments, as we showed you last time, are so horrendous that no humanity could survive any place on the face of the earth if that period was very long. So we properly conclude that that's very near the end.

There is going to be one great last World War campaign of Armageddon, and the fuse for that war will be the Jews. It is a miracle that they have survived these 4,000 years, but they have been dispersed before and preserved in their dispersion. They've had two dispersions. The first one was by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon. They were brought back under Cyrus, the Medo Persian king. The second one was dispersion in 70 A.D. by Rome. Now (in 1948), they have been brought back once more to where they are a nation.

This national discipline was revealed as far back as the time of Moses. The Jews are very smart people, but they're very slow learners. As you read through the Old Testament and what the prophets have to say, it is amazing that you could see that this people that had so much information and so much personal experience with the power and the providence of God would still not completely trust Him and turn their backs on the idol gods. Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy. That was the last book he would write. He would die shortly after this. He's making his last predictions. Prophecy always comes through. He was making his last predictions of this nation.

In Deuteronomy 28:64: Moses says, "Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known." He has previously warned them that if they disobey God, they do not live according to the laws of God, the moral code in the Mosaic Law, they will be scattered throughout the nations. They will come under discipline.

Verse 65: "And among those nations you shall find no rest. There should be no resting place for the sole of your foot. But there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul." That has been the experience of the Jewish people throughout their history.

Verse 66: "So your life shall hang in the doubt before you, and you shall be a dread night and day. You shall have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, 'Would that it were evening,' and at the evening you would say 'Would that it were morning,' because of the dread of your heart, which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes, which you shall see. The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you. You will never see it again. There you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves. But there will be no buyer." In their desperation, they'll say, "I'll become a slave." But the thing will be so great, nobody will want to buy them, so they won't even make money that way. This desperate condition is going to come upon this nation, without a doubt. The Jews have been under this kind of suffering all along.

If there was any question about this, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself confirmed that for their disobedience, there would be discipline. In Luke 21:23, Jesus is describing the last half of the great tribulation, and He says, "Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days." Well it's obvious that that's going to be a bad condition to be in the condition of motherhood with an infant when all the world is coming against the Jew and everywhere everyone's hand is against them. Here's a mother nursing a child in those days. "For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword. They'll be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles be fulfilled." That was done in 70 A.D., and the times of the gentiles are still in force.

God means what He says when He's indicates that He will discipline negative volition. It is not a small thing for you to know what is the right thing to do. It is not a small thing for you to know what is the mind of God and to obey it. Yes, sometimes it costs you. It costs you socially. It costs you in many human relationships. It costs you in peace of mind to do what is right. Yes, it will cost you financially to do what is right. It is better that you should find the grace and the blessing of God upon what you do financially, than that you should become wealthy under His disapproval and discipline.

Outside of the city of Chicago is a town called Cicero. Cicero has a very godly church in it and had a very godly pastor at one time. Cicero was also the headquarters of Al Capone in those days. One day one of Al Capone's men wandered into one of the meetings at the Cicero Bible church. Billy McCarroll was preaching, and the guy was saved. That's a real can of worms. One of Al's top guns gets saved. He just changed his life.

He went back to the people he was dealing with, and he told Capone, "I can't do this anymore. I've been converted. I went down to Billy McCarroll at the Cicero Bible church, and I found God. I'm sorry, Al, but I can't do this anymore." Well, all the hoods were impressed. The order was given to send a big offering to the Cicero Bible church. When it was brought to Pastor McCarroll, he knew what it was and where it came from. He had no intention of hiding it. That's the way Al Capone dealt with people. He would constantly help people with turkeys at Thanksgiving and gifts at Christmas in order to have the general population be sympathetic and to like him. The pastor there could have had a big chunk of money. It would have been very useful.

However, he said, "I know where this money came from, and I know how you have made it. I can't accept it. So take it back with our thanks." He was a preacher. Did he lose anything? Not for a minute. Is his church poorer because he would not accept money that came in the wrong way? Not the least. If somebody wants to restrict giving their financial support to God's work, is that church going to be made the poorer? Not on your life. God takes care of His own. But the person who refuses to substantially support what is God's work, that'll be the person who will be poorer. That may not be the case here, but I can guarantee it at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

So here is this personal integrity, and the Lord Jesus Christ says, "Big things are going to come. It is going to be disastrous, and you will be tempted to compromise your integrity in order to make it when you have all of these threatening conditions against you." The Lord said, "Don't do it, stay faithful to Me." Moses warned them that negative volition to God will bring you his discipline. You can count on it.

There is a difference between being restored to the old Promised Land and being there spiritually. The Jew today, yes, he's restored to the Promised Land, but he is not there in belief. He's there in unbelief. He's not there in a spiritual relationship to God. So the physical return in unbelief is something that is a human effort. What is the Jew looking for today? They're all looking for the Messiah to come because they don't believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. So you have to remember that. Yes, the Jew is back in the land. That part has been fulfilled. But he's not there in faith in Christ the Messiah. So he is still under the times of the gentiles. He's still under the heel of the Gentiles. That's why he's always looking around for somebody to protect him in that land. Spiritual restoration is going to come to the Jew, but it's going to take those seven years of the tribulation to finally wake him up.

Three Signs of the Close of the Age

1. Israel is Reborn in the Promised Land

   The first sign is that the nation of Israel will be reborn in the Promised Land. This is predicted in Ezekiel 38:8. God actually says that this is precisely what will happen. Here again we have prophecy. The future is being foretold, and you can count on it. God says, "After many days, you'll be summoned in the latter years. You will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountain of Israel, which had been a continual waste. But its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them now." Certainly, as we have seen in some of the videos that we have shown you, Israel is now a prosperous land. It was a desert wasteland. They have made it a fruitful place, but they are not living securely. The promise is that that time is going to come. There is going to be that for Israel. It will come in the latter years, the time of Israel's spiritual restoration. It will be after a long time when the land has been under the sword and neglected. It'll be a time when Jews will come from all over the world to want to get back to the land of their forefathers.

   This is a sign that Jesus gave of His return to the earth. He said there were to be certain conditions that would precede His return to save the Jew from its final destruction. He said it'll be religious apostasy. You'll have all kinds of false religious floating around. Even biblical Christian groups will be very shallow, and will be oriented more to the good life than to the serving life. There will be wars. There'll be national revolutions. There'll be earthquakes in greater intensity than ever before. Famine will increase. All of these things are true of our time, and more so every day. The Jews will be back into the land, and they will be once more under the care of God as they always have been, but they will not be under His blessing because of their unbelief. The Sabbath will be back in use, and that is true already today among the Jews. The whole predicted restoration of this nation is in the Word of God.

2. The Jews Possess Jerusalem

   The second thing that is a sign that the return of Christ is near is that the Jew will possess the city of Jerusalem. Zechariah 12-14 predict all of this. There will be a great invasion of Israel living near Jerusalem at the time of the Messiah's return. Zechariah 12 describes this siege of Jerusalem by the nations of the world. Verses 1-3 describes the siege by all nations. In verses 4-9 are the descriptions of the battle in and around Jerusalem. Verse 10 describes the personal revelation of Jesus Christ as Messiah to a remnant of the Jews in Jerusalem, and their repentance in faith at this person particular point in time. Finally, this is when the Jew accepts Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth will be restored and will be accepted by them and restored as their Messiah Savior.

   Zechariah 12:10: "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced. And they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a first born." God is talking about His Son, Jesus Christ. The Jews are going to weep how they have been deceived by their forefathers and how Satan has kept them blinded all these years about Jesus the Messiah Savior.

   Verses 11-14: "In that day, there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo." The plain of Megiddo is where the final great battles of Armageddon will be fought. "The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves." There'll be a great time of mourning.

   But then, Zechariah 13:1: "In that day, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity." A fountain of what? God's grace--cleansing Israel of its sin. Then the whole chapter of Zachariah 14 is the triumphant return of the Messiah. The Lord Jesus Christ predicted that a temple would be erected in the end times. It would be desecrated by the antichrist. That is going to happen in the middle of the seven-year period.

3. The Jews Rebuild the Temple

   The third thing indicating the near return of Christ is the rebuilding of the temple on the ancient site. That has not happened. We don't know how far away that is. I personally suspect it will not happen until after the church is taken out to heaven. However, in the June, 1967 war, they finally recaptured the city of Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall. On Mount Moriah stands the Muslim mosque, the Dome of the Rock. It's going to take some doing for the antichrist to remove that structure in order to re-establish on it the original Solomonic temple. But if the Word of God is true, then that's going to happen.

The Calendar of Events of Future Prophecy Fulfillment

1. The Rapture

   So what is the next thing that is going to happen in prophecy? This thing is imminent. And I mean that this thing could occur within the next half-minute, or before this night is over. What is the next thing such that there is nothing else that has to be done for this to happen? The rapture of the church.

   The church age of grace, which began on the day of Pentecost, ends abruptly at some point in time. The word "rapture" comes from the Latin which means "to catch away." All of a sudden there's going to be this catching away. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with a trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord." This is not the Second Coming of Christ, is it? Because his feet don't touch the Mount of Olives here. We meet Him in the air. This is a different coming. This is the coming for the church. This is the coming for the body of Christ.

   At that point, all dead Christians who are in the graves will be raised physically. Some Christians will still be alive, and I'll bet some of you are going to make that. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53: "Behold, I tell you a mystery (a secret). We shall not all sleep. (Not every Christian will die before the rapture.) But we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable and this mortal must put on immortality." That is, you will have a body which cannot die again.

   So the dead Christians are raised, and they're given a glorified body with no old sin nature. The Christians who are alive are also given glorified bodies with the old sin nature removed. Now they're exactly in the absolute righteousness condition of Jesus Christ. Now, they can never die again. They can never sin again. That's the next thing that's going to happen. We Christians are the schedule of the next event. We will meet the Lord in the air. That's what John 14:3 said. Jesus said, "I'm going back to heaven to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you will be." That is the rapture. He's taking us to be where he is.

2. The Judgment Seat of Christ

   When we get there, what is going to happen? This is part of the events we should be aware of? The rapture is going to take place at any moment. There we will be, standing before the throne of God. We stand before what is called the Judgment Seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:10: "For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for the deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." To be recompensed for something means you've earned it. This has nothing to do with salvation. This is what you have earned by your life service; what you have earned as a steward of God's treasures; what you have earned with those spiritual gifts He gave you; and, most important, what you have earned with your lifetime. How have you spent your life?

   1 Corinthians 3:11-15: "No man can lay a foundation other than the one which has been laid, which is salvation in Christ Jesus. If any man builds upon this foundation of your salvation (not to get salvation, but to build upon it a life compared to) gold, silver, precious stones (imperishable things, or) wood, hay, straw (perishable things), each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it." You can kid yourself all you want about serving the Lord and about being His steward, and how your eyes are set on things above and not on things below, but you're not going to kid anybody except yourself because the work will be evident. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, the joy bells are going to ring for all the good deeds which were done in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The horn is going to blast. The horn of a loser will blast for all those human good works you have done via your old sin nature.

   "Each man's work will become evident. The day (the day of the rapture) will show it because it will be revealed with fire (as it were, that is the judgment of God), and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work." Everything's going to be fair. "If (maybe it will, and maybe it won't) any man's work (your life--what you did with your life) which he has built (what he built upon that life and his salvation in Christ) on it remains (after the judgment evaluation of God), he shall receive a reward." Here, again, this is a reward--something you earn. "If any man's work is burned up (God judges us and says, 'That's human good trash. I don't reward that.'), then he will suffer loss (of what he could have had), but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (the judgment of God)."

   This is what the apostle Paul had in mind when he summed it up in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship (God's workmanship). We have been created in Christ Jesus (for what?) for divine good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." He has a mission. He has the work for you to do. That is what is on deck. None of you in this coronation are ever going to be able to stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and say, "I didn't understand. Nobody ever called my attention to Ephesians 2:10. Nobody ever called my attention to the mission."

   Buddy Rouch called me last week. He said that somebody who hasn't been in touch with Berean church said, "What's going on? What is Dr. Danish doing?" Buddy said, "I told him, he's reminding the people that it's the mission, and the mission, and the mission." He told them that I was still doing the old job of letting them know. Indeed, that's it.

   So after the church is taken to heaven, it's standing there for the evaluating, to be rewarded. I'll give you one of the caveats, or one of the conditions of this judgment. Every now and then I hear somebody who's nervous about this doctrine say, "Well, that only means rewards in the millennium." Can anybody here tell me where Jesus said to store your treasures which you will be rewarded with? In heaven. You store your treasures in heaven. Don't go for that guff that rewards apply only to the millennium. Do you know why people say that? They say, "OK. Well, for 1,000 years there'll be people who have a greater experience with God than I do, but then we're all equal." That's not true. Treasures are stored in heaven.

   None of us are going to be all that we should be or could be, but at least we're aware of it. Do you realize how many Christians never know about this doctrine? How many Christians are never alerted to it?

   We have a crisis here in this nation regarding terrorism. What are the government and the educators doing? They're putting out the word that the children should pledge allegiance to the American flag. You have to tell school kids to start pledging allegiance to the flag. That was so dumb. I had to stop and think about it and I said, "Yeah, I guess that's right." Every morning we're used to doing that already. We do pledge allegiance not only to the American flag, but also to the Christian flag, and, in addition, we pledge allegiance to the Bible. We do it in chapel, and then the teachers do it in the classrooms, pledging allegiance to country and to God and to the Word of His Wisdom. That's what life is all about. We have to have a terror attack to say that the kids should be doing this.

3. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

   Alright, the church will be in heaven; the evaluation will be made; the eternal rewards will be distributed. Then it's party time, folks. Revelation 19 reveals the marriage supper of the Lamb. Jesus Christ, who is now our Lord, will become our groom. We, who are His body now, will become His bride. Revelation 19:9: "And He said to me, 'Write. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.' And He said to me, 'These are true words of God.'" The marriage supper of the Lamb will be celebrating our joining together with the Lord Jesus Christ in an eternal relationship closer than any saints have ever had before. These are, folks, the true words of God. If you're going to have a wedding, you need to have wedding clothes, right?

   One of the nice things of the custom of ministers who have to perform marriage ceremonies is that they're not required to be compatible with the attire of the wedding party. The minister wears whatever he wants. What is the bride going to wear? That's what all of you are going to be. Well, we have the guidelines, the pattern for you to cut out your gown here in verse 7: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen (the materials out of which she would make her wedding gown) is the righteous acts of the saints." You got that? This is the godly living; the obedience to the Word of God; your time; your treasures; and, your talents. Boy, some people are going to be embarrassed by the skimpy material they're going to have to draw on to design their wedding garment. This is all for real. It's not just poetic language. It is the literal purpose of God.

   So, the thing that's going to happen next is the rapture of the church. Following that will be the Judgment Seat of Christ, and then the marriage of the Lamb.

4. The Tribulation--The 70th Week of Daniel

   Meanwhile, down on the earth, the next thing in the order of events will be the 70th week of Daniel. God's program in that 70th week will finish Israel's history. It'll be seven years of enormous activity worldwide. All covenants between Israel and God will then be completed. The antichrist will be in power. He'll be a world dictator from the middle of the tribulation, and he will permit the Jews to re-establish their sacrifices. Then he'll double-cross them; put up his own image; and, say, "Now you will worship me." There will be tremendous events all over the tribulation world as we have already reviewed previously. In the middle of the tribulation, Ezekiel 38 and 39 (which we don't have time to read) describes Russia in the north. She makes a decision with her Arab allies to move in on Israel and finish them off. God comes in and we have the description of their eyeballs melting and their hair burning off their head. It makes it sound a lot like a nuclear attack of God. Only a sixth of the soldiers survive. They lose 5 or 6 of their military, and the sixth that is left straggle back to Russia and to their Arab countries.

   Well, the antichrist moves in; he sets up a one-world government; and, he has a one-world religion under the false prophet. Then the Word of God describes the last three-and-a-half years as the time of Jacob's trouble. There will be suffering for Israel as they have never had or could ever imagine.

5. The Second Coming of Christ

   At the end of the seven years, the Lord Jesus Christ returns with His bride, the church from heaven, where they have been during that seven years. That will be the Second Coming of Christ.

6. The Judgment of the Gentiles

   Then will come the judgment of the living gentiles. The gentiles are gathered after Christ's return, as described in Matthew 25:31-46. This does not have to do with the church. It has to do with the period after the Second Coming of Christ. The Gentiles are lined up as individuals before God, and they are judged. Relative to what? Whether they're saved or not. A lot of people get saved in the tribulation era. They're not part of the body of Christ (the church), but they are saved, like on Old Testament ground. Matthew 25:31: "But when the Son of Man comes in his glory (the Second Coming) and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne in Jerusalem. And all the nations will be gathered before Him." These are all the gentiles. That word "nations" is translated from the Greek word for gentiles.

   "And he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right hand (the good side), and He will put the goats on His left hand (the bad side). Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come you who are blessed of My Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" What is he talking about? He is saying, "Come on into the millennium. The Millennial Kingdom is here." That's what Jesus came to provide the first time, but they killed Him instead.

   His reason for telling these people to come in was, "For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or, thirsty, and we gave you a drink? When did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked and clothed you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?' And the King (King Jesus) will answer and say to them, 'Today I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'"

   Who are the brethren of Jesus Christ in the time of the tribulation? The Jews, and particularly, the saved Jews. And the people who are born again gentiles will help the Jews. No Gentile who is not born again would hazard his well-being by helping out the Jews. It's going to be a test case. It's not just putting your money and your action where your mouth is. It's not just testifying your sympathy and support, but doing it. So these gentiles, who lived through the tribulation and were saved, they're going to be judged. Those that are found to be sheep will enter the kingdom. Then on the other hand, to those who are the goats, he will repeat all this. They will say, "When would we have been able to do all that to you?" Verse 45: "And He will answer them saying, 'Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of these, the least of these, you did not do it for me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." So this dividing of the sheep and goats has nothing to do with the church.

   First of all, in the order of events is the rapture of the church; the Judgment Seat of Christ; and, the marriage of the Lamb. Then comes the 7th week of Daniel--the seven years finishing all of God's covenant promises with Israel. Next is the judgment of living gentiles.

7. The Gathering and the Judgment of Israel

   Then comes the gathering and the judgment of Israel. Here the Jews are brought under the judgment and evaluation of God in the same way. This is recorded in Ezekiel 20:33-38: "As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I shall be King over you. And I shall bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out." This prophecy has never been fulfilled. "And I shall bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I shall enter into judgment with you face-to-face." He'll take them out into the wilderness area, and they will come before Christ one-by-one. "'As I entered into judgment with your father's in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into the judgment with you,' declares the Lord." He says, those who obeyed Me in the Exodus generation, they went into the Promised Land. Those who disobeyed Me in the Exodus generation, they were left out to die in the wilderness."

   Verse 37: "I shall take you and pass you under the rod." That is the judgment of God. For the Christian, this is described as going under the fire--that of the judgment of God. Here it is under the rod." And I'll bring you into the bond of the covenant. I shall purge from you the rebels (the unbelieving Jews) and those who transgress against Me. I shall bring them out of the land where they have sojourned, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord."

   So only a godly Jewish remnant are those who are brought into the millennial kingdom. That judgment is made by Christ.

8. The Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ

   Next will be the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. He'll be King of Kings. He will reign from Jerusalem. This will fulfill the promise made to King David in 2 Samuel 7:16, and announced to his mother in Luke 1:32-33. This child born is in fulfillment of the promise of a King of the Jews. So for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6 give us the actual time), there will be on this earth the Lord Jesus Christ reigning over all nations from Jerusalem. During this period, we're told that Satan is put into the pit of the abyss. Changes are put upon him so that he cannot tempt the nations or anybody else again. There will only be one source of evil during the millennial kingdom, and that's the old sin nature in man. There'll be no evil from society. There will be no evil on the television of the time.

   It's going to be a terrific, wholesome period of human history. And it'll be a time of peace and righteousness. Therefore, all over the earth, there will be no wars. It'll be a time of great joy and of great economic prosperity for everyone. It will be a time of good health and long lifespans. That time is described that if a person is 100 years old and he dies, he's dying as an infant. They will be back to living for hundreds of years.

9. The Great White Throne Judgment

   Next in order is the final judgment of the Great White Throne. At the end of the 1,000 years, Revelation 20:7-9 tell us that Satan is once more loosed from that incarceration which is probably in the center of the earth. All of this is for real, and it has not happened. But it is predicted to happen. Revelation 20:7-9: "When the 1,000 years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison. He will come out to deceive the nations (the gentiles) which are in the four corners of the earth (all over the earth), Gog and Magog, to gather them together for war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore."

   Now, where on earth is Satan going to get people who will rally to him? These are some of the kids who are born in the millennium. When they saw Jesus Christ and had to be subject to Him under his authority, they refused to accept Him as Savior. They still have to believe in Him and accept him as their Savior. These kids will grind their teeth. They will grouse and complain, but there'll be no open rebellion tolerated. Satan comes up and now he says, "Come join me. We're going to get rid of this Savior. We are going to take over the world the way we had it."

   Verse 9 says, "And they came up in the broad plain of the earth, the plain of Megiddo." And it is a broad plain. I've stood on that hill up in the mountains over it and looked upon it. Napoleon also stood there and looked down upon that plain and he said, "This is the greatest battlefield in all the world." It's a huge plain with maneuvering room like you wouldn't believe. It's just enough that you need to be able to maneuver armies and to have places for concealment. It's the plain of Megiddo.

   "And they came upon the broad plain of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Jerusalem), and fire came down from heaven and devoured them." So the end of Satan's final rebellion at the end of the millennial reign of Christ is to destroy these people at the final battle of the campaign of Armageddon. It will be done by God himself from heaven--a nuclear attack and blast, undoubtedly.

   At this point, the unsaved dead have all still been in graves from the time of Cain. Cain is still dead there with all the rest of them. Now, in Revelation 20, we're told that all these unsaved people are now going to be resurrected. The believers have already been raised.

   Revelation 20:11-15: "Then I saw a Great White Throne." Here's the final judgment of the Great White Throne after the millennial reign of Christ. "I saw a Great White Throne and Him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, the great, the small standing before the throne. The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life." The first books that are opened are all of their human good works. "And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds." This was not good enough. Their deeds cannot produce absolute righteousness. Therefore, their names are not recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, in which only saved people are recorded.

   Verse 13 says, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades (Hades is a temporary holding station now for the unbelievers) gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds." When it says, "They were given up from the dead," that means they got their bodies back. "Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death." They had their physical death, and now they have their eternal spiritual death, separation from God. They are in the lake of fire, which is commonly referred to as hell. "If anyone's name was not found written in the Lamb's book of life, he was thrown in the lake of fire."

   Is that for real? That's for real. They will be there forever, consciously in that suffering. The basis of this judgment will be that they did not accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, their names were erased from the book of the living. Therefore, the final book of the living, the only people left in that book are those who have been saved, and thus it becomes the Lamb's Book of Life.

10. A New Heaven and a New Earth

    Next in the order of events will be the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. This takes place after the Great White Throne judgment. Revelation 21:1: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea." The whole heavens and earth have been contaminated by sin. The demons out in space are contaminated, and there is the contamination of sin upon this earth. The whole thing is simply burned up.

    2 Peter 3:10 refers to this: "But the Day of the Lord." "The Day of the Lord" is a technical term in the Bible that refers to the seven years of the tribulation and the 1,000 years of the millennium. "The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." Did you get that? Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, Jesus said that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. Why? Because that's all going to be burned up? And if you die with things, somebody else is going to use them and spend your money for you.

    Verse 11: "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?" "The day of God" is a technical term for eternity. "On account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat." The whole earth is going to go down in a puddle of molted material.

    Verse 13: "But according to His promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." God will make a new heaven and a new earth. There won't be any seas anymore. It will be a new heaven and a new earth, and it will be perfectly absolutely righteous. There will be no contamination by sin and no possible contamination by Satan again. It will be a place of absolute righteousness. Why a new earth? Because that's going to be the eternal home of the Jews. We are God's heavenly people. Our eternal home will be the New Jerusalem. The Jews will have their home here on this earth, and will have access to it too. It'll be a fantastically wonderful eternity.

God is a terror indeed to the Christian who squanders his life in spite of knowing the calendar of future events. To such a believer, yes, God is a terror indeed. 2 Corinthians 5:10-11: "For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God, and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences." Paul says, "I know what's coming, and I know that you'll be disappointed if you have not acted appropriately as the steward of God. How are you doing?

Father, we thank you for the Word of God.

The Bible is the Word of God. So let's get on with it.

Dr. John E. Danish, 2002

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