Intro to the End Times
Session 1: The Millennium
I. Information About Future Events:
A. The Coming End Times:
The Bible has a tremendous amount of information in it about the future (over 150 chapters); literally hundreds of verses, and mostly having to do with the period commonly referred to as the End Times.
B. Overly Complicated:
Scholars have greatly overcomplicated the Bible; they have painted it in such a light that makes it seem impossible for us to understand. This has mostly come about through the wrong premise that the Bible (especially passages about the End Times) is to be interpreted symbolically. Once you make a scripture symbolic that was really intended to be understood in its plain sense meaning, there is no end to what the symbolism can mean. This is why so many of the scholars have differing opinions about things mean and how to approach the End Times.
C. Understandability:
These passages make perfect sense however if we believe in prophecy and we believe that the Bible was written to be understood (and not to remain mysterious for the majority). God’s End Time storyline was intended to be understood by normal people, this means anyone who is willing to spend some time praying and studying it should be able to know what God is trying to say when they hear it. Most of scripture is written in this plain sense way so that even children can know what God is thinking.
D. Diligence is Required:
When more investigation is required in order to figure out the meaning of a passage the Bible will typically interpret itself by pointing the reader to another place in the Bible where the meaning is made clear. This doesn’t require scholarly knowledge at all, just a little bit of diligence. We must not confuse the two calling the diligent person a scholar, this just makes people feel like they could never “get it,” when if they would just spend the time they would get it the same way that person “got it.”
II. The Coming 1000 Year Reign of Christ:
A. Interpretive Key:
There is an interpretive key that will greatly help us in understanding the hundreds of verses about the End Times. It is closely associated with the foundational principle we just learned about taking the scriptures at their plain sense meaning unless the text indicates otherwise; as is the case in Re. 12:1 where the verse says “A great and wondrous sign appeared” indicating that whatever follows is a sign or a symbol to be interpreted. Even then this passage then interprets the symbolism for us (Re. 12:9).
1. The physical reign of Christ:
Perhaps the most important interpretive key to understanding the End Time passages is recognizing that Jesus will literally rule here on this physical Earth for 1000 years.
2. Making sense of impossible realities:
Without this critical piece of understanding many verses just don’t make sense because the text seems impossible. This is what has caused so many to reduce much of End Time scripture to mere symbolism.
B. Actually 1000 Years:
The Lord made sure to make this point crystal clear; He tells us six times in six verses that the duration is 1000 years. He emphasizes this point so that no one would misunderstand Him or be tempted to make it a symbolic number. While there are “ages to come (Is. 45:17; Jo. 2:2; 1Co. 10:11; Eph. 2:7)” that will follow the Millennium, we must understand that Christ is coming in the future to set up a literal 1000 year Kingdom on the Earth that has very unique purposes.
“He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years (Re. 20:2).”
“He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended (Re. 20:3).”
“They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years (Re. 20:4).
“The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended (Re. 20:5).”
“they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years (Re. 20:6).”
“When the thousand years are over (Re. 20:7)”
C. Literal Realities:
If Jesus is really coming back to be the King then we can rightly interpret the prophecies about the Millennium as actual dynamics that will impact the planet when Christ comes with His Kingdom. With this paradigm the Bible begins to come alive and we can see many new aspects of God’s exciting plan for humanity and the age to come.
1. Jesus literally ruling the nations:
“I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth (Ps. 2:6-10).”
2. The Earth being clothed in His peace:
“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord (Is. 11:6-9)”
3. Many other such realities:
There are many like realities. We will spend an entire section on these in a future section of this session.
III. Christ’s Second Coming:
Commonly the second coming has been reduced to the rapture where the Church is taken away and that’s that. The arrival of Christ on the physical Earth however is the primary revelation that the scriptures speak of regarding the second coming. This will be the most dramatic shift known in human history when Jesus comes to the Earth to make it His own.
A. A Human King:
1. Jesus became a man:
When Jesus became a man He became a human forever. The decision to humble Himself into a human frame was an eternal one; this is the true mystery of the incarnation, not merely that God was born a man but that he would forever thereafter be one.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (Jn. 1:14).”
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself (Php. 2:5-8)”
2. Jesus is forever Jewish:
Men will receive the shock of their lives when the coming president of the planet turns out to be Jewish. He will probably have a Jewish nose, jaw line and he will still resemble His Jewish mother Mary.
3. Jesus will become King:
Jesus will come and be set in place as the high authority of all the governing bodies of the Earth (Ps. 72, 45:1-8, 118:22-29; Ps. 37:11; Mt. 19:28, 20:21-23, 25:23; Lk. 19:17-19, 22:29-30; Ac. 3:21; Ro. 8:17; 1Co. 6:2-3; 2Ti. 2:12; Re. 2:26-27, 3:21, 5:10, 19:12-15, 20:4-6). He will truly become the King of all the kings.
“His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself…his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter…On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords (Re. 19:12-16).”
B. Setting Up Government on the Earth:
The old systems will be completely removed but the planet will still require leadership. Jesus will put into place a new government that is ruled according to the principles of righteousness. This will include appointing all new leaders over the nations and the infrastructure of the Earth. This is what is referred to when the scripture promises about ruling with Jesus in His coming Kingdom. There will have recently been 100% openings in the governmental positions that will need to be filled.
“Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt. 19:28).”
“To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations (Re. 2:26)”
C. Three Groups of People:
The next three sections are dedicated to the details of each of these groups, so for now we will simply list them with a brief description.
1. The resurrected:
All the saints will receive new resurrected bodies and will spend eternity with Jesus in His new Kingdom.
2. The rebellious:
All those who took the mark of the beast during the period of the Great Tribulation will be put to death for their crimes against Jesus.
3. The resistors:
Possibly some millions of lost people will have resisted the Antichrist and refused to worship him or take his mark. The Bible most often refers to these as “those who are left” after the events of the Great Tribulation (Is. 4:3).
IV. Resurrected Saints:
As westerns who are mostly impacted by Greek thinking we tend to think about worshiping Jesus in the context of Heaven. This is the whole reality for those who die from the time period of Jesus’ death to the time of His second coming. But then things change drastically; all the saints of Heaven and all those alive on the Earth are resurrected from the dead and enter into a very real interaction with the Earth.
A. Receive Resurrected Bodies:
1. We will receive new bodies:
“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (1Co. 15:42-44).”
2. Timing of the resurrection:
We receive resurrected bodies only at the timing of Christ’s second coming and not before. The reason is that we don’t need a resurrected body to interact with the environment of Heaven so all the saints that are there in Heaven with Christ now don’t have resurrected bodies because there is no need.
“but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed (1Co. 15:51-52).”
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (1Th. 4:16-17).”
3. When Jesus comes:
When Jesus comes all the saints will come with Him to the Earth, and on Earth we need a body in order to fully interact with the environment here.
“he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers (Re. 17:14).”
B. Receiving Eternal Rewards:
1. Rewards verses salvation:
a. Our salvation:
Salvation is a free gift through faith. It can’t be earned; nothing we could do could ever amount to enough to cover over our sins. We therefore gratefully receive salvation and this beautiful relationship with God as a free gift of His grace.
b. Our rewards:
Heavenly rewards however are a very different subject. We will not all be treated the same with regard to what eternal blessings we receive. This may be perhaps a new concept to us but the Bible makes it abundantly clear that we will be rewarded according to what we’ve done in this life.
2. Some will receive nothing:
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames (1Co. 3:11-15).”
3. The rewards offered are vast and various:
The Bible tells us so much about eternal rewards that we can not afford to ignore it (Ps. 58:11, 62:12; Is. 32:1; Pr. 19:17, 25:22, 28:10; Da. 7:18, 22, 27, 12:13; Is. 40:10, 49:4, 62:11; Je. 17:10, 32:19; Mt. 5:5, 12, 19, 46, 6:4, 6, 16-20, 10:41-42, 11:11-12, 16:27, 18:1-6, 19:21, 29, 20:16, 20-23, 26-28, 23:11, 25:13, 34-40; Mk. 9:33-37, 10:21, 30, 35-45; Lk. 1:14-19, 6:23, 32-36, 9:46-48, 22:24-30, 12:33, 14:11, 13-14, 16:10-12, 18:14, 22, 30, 19:17, 21:1-4, 22:30, 36-38; Jn. 13:12-17, Ro. 2:7, 8:17-18; 1Co. 3:14, 4:5, 6:2-3, 9:17, 24, 15:58; Eph. 6:8; Phil. 3:14; Co. 3:23-24; 1Ti. 4:8, 6:6; 2Ti. 2:12, 4:8; Ja. 1:12, 2:5; He. 2:5, 6:10-12, 10:35-36, 11:24-26, 35; 1Pe. 3:3-4, 5:4; 2Pe. 1:11; Re. 2:26-27, 3:21, 5:10, 22:5, 12).