Beginning
Point in Time: When the
1,000 Years Are Over and New
Jerusalem Rests on Earth Ending Point in Time: Soon
After the Creation of a New Heaven
and Earth
Summary:
This prophecy
describes the end of sin and
sinners. God will resurrect the
wicked at the end of the 1,000 years
to hear the reason why they are
doomed and then destroy them.
After sinners and the curse of sin
are consumed by fire, Jesus will
create a new Heaven and a new Earth
and the saints will inherit the new
Earth.
Introduction
Through the
centuries, many people have been
puzzled by the contents of Revelation
20. Consider these issues:
Many
Christians believe that a
person goes immediately to
Heaven or hell at death.[1] What
is God’s purpose for
resurrecting the righteous
dead at the Second Coming[2] if
they already exist in
Heaven? Even more, why
would God resurrect the
wicked a thousand years later
if they are already burning
in hell?
Other
people have wondered why God
would even want to resurrect
the wicked at the end of the
1,000 years. Why not leave
the wicked to rot in their
graves and move on with the
creation of a new Heaven and
a new Earth?
Some
Christians are frustrated
with Revelation
20 because this chapter
contradicts the idea that a
New Testament God would
punish people with hell fire,
and annihilate people that He
loves.
These three
issues can be resolved. Many
people have not taken the time to
examine and absorb all that
the Bible has to say about various
aspects of God’s ways and plans
so they often reach a conclusion
based on an inadequate number of data
samples. For example, if a
person’s view of God is limited
to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, his
view of God will be incomplete.
If a person thinks the God of the Old
Testament is unlike the God of the
New Testament, his conclusions about
God are incorrect because the God of
the Old Testament is the God of the
New Testament and He is changeless.[3]
Consider this:
The God who
created Adam and Eve and put them in
the Garden of Eden is the same God
who drove them out of the Garden of
Eden. In fact, consider these
events recorded in Bible
history. He is:
the
God who caused the whole
world to drown in Noah’s
day
the
God who burned up Sodom and
Gomorrah
the
God who killed the first
born, both man and beast in
every Egyptian family, and
drowned Pharaoh’s army
the
God who destroyed the wicked
city of Jericho
the
God who sent Nebuchadnezzar
to utterly destroy Jerusalem
in 586 B.C
the
God who sent the Romans to
utterly destroy Jerusalem in
A.D. 70
the
God who will kill 25% of
Earth’s population
during the first four
trumpets
the
God who will destroy all of
the wicked at the Second
Coming
the
God who will burn the Earth
with fire at the end of the
1,000 years
the
God who will create a new
Earth and hand it over to His
children!
God has given
mankind sixty-six books (the Bible)
to study. When properly
aligned, these books describe
God’s actions over a period of
approximately 7,000 years.
Because God is eternal, a thousand
years might go by before He decides
to do something new or unusual.
A thousand years contains many human
generations, so it may appear that
God has changed from one generation
to another. For example,
Noah’s flood occurred
approximately 1,656 years after
Creation week. Noah’s
flood was not out of character for a
God of love. God did not
suddenly change in Noah’s
generation. God is so huge in
terms of timing that large samples of
time are required to properly
understand Him and His actions.
The Bible declares that God is love.[4] This
means that God defines and
demonstrates what love is and is
not. If we are willing to
examine all that the Bible has to
reveal about God over a large span of
time, many questions will disappear
because there is One Constant in this
dynamic universe. He is the
Creator of the Universe, Almighty
God.[5]
The
Big Picture
Please
consider the following questions for
a moment. Why has God told
us in advance about
the 1,000 years that will occur afterthe
Second Coming? Why has God told
us in advance about the resurrection
of the wicked and their annihilation
at the end of the 1,000 years?
Why has God told us in advance about
the great white throne and the
judgment process that goes with
it? Why has God told us in
advance about the destruction of the
wicked by fire at the end of the
1,000 years? Why has God told
us in advance about the creation of a
new Heaven and a new Earth? Why
has God told us in advance about the
devil leading the wicked against New
Jerusalem?
The simple
answer to all these questions is that
God has given us this information so
we can understand His plans. He wants
us to know where the drama with sin
is going. God wants
His children to align Bible history
with Bible prophecy so that we can
see and understand His love for
us.” Understanding
principles of divine love is not as
simple as you might think! (Ask
a child if he understands the
principles involved when his
parent’s discipline him.)
God’s love is larger and more
inclusive than we can fathom and this
makes God’s behavior seem
mysterious at times. God’s
love for oncoming generations is no
less than His love for the current
generation. This simple fact
explains, in part, why He destroyed
the world in Noah’s day.
He destroyed the world to protect
oncoming generations from the
decadence and degeneracy of the
previous generations.
God’s actions are always
consistent with principles of love,
therefore, consider the following
statements:
According
to infinite wisdom and
unfailing love for mankind,
long ago God predetermined
that the saints would judge
the wicked during the 1,000
years. The golden rule is a
fundamental building block in
the law of love. The
golden rule demonstrates a
perfect balance between mercy
and justice.
“Extend mercy and
kindness to others as you
would have them extend mercy
and kindness to you because
God will ensure that every
kindness and injustice is
fully repaid.”[6]
God knows that no one is
better suited to determine
how much suffering occurred
during the commission of a
crime than the victim.
Therefore, at the appointed
time, God will allow the
redeemed to determine (to
judge) the amount of
suffering which predators
must suffer by fire.[7]
Love functions in a perfect
balance and God loves mercy
and justice equally.
With God, there is no statute
of limitations and this is
one reason why the wicked
must be resurrected at the
end of the 1,000 years.
God cannot conclude the drama
of sin without justice being
served. Bruise for
bruise, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, and life for life.
According
to infinite wisdom and love
for all mankind, the Father
predetermined that Jesus
should speak to all of the
wicked at the same time at
the end of the 1,000 years.
Therefore, all of the wicked
will be resurrected at the
end of sin’s
drama. First, they will
see the glory of the city,
New Jerusalem, whose builder
and maker is God, filled with
an innumerable multitude of
saints. The wicked will
also observe the brilliant
white throne of Jesus Christ,
the Creator and Honorable
Judge of all mankind.
He will meet face to face
with each wicked person and
show them a complete record
of their lives; as recorded
by angels.[8]
Jesus will explain to each
wicked person why he could
not be saved and why he is
not allowed to enter the New
Jerusalem. The Father
predetermined that each
wicked person must understand
that Jesus was righteous and
more than fair in His
judgment. This meeting
with Jesus will silence every
argument that God is or has
been unfair.[9]
Of course, God could easily
ignore His enemies by leaving
them in their graves, but
this is not the way of
love. God will confront
the enemies of love so that
rebellion and selfishness can
be fully exposed.
According
to infinite wisdom and love,
the Father predetermined that
each saint should see for
himself why wicked people
could not be saved.
Therefore, God will give the
saints 1,000 years to examine
the record of any wicked
person they wish to
investigate. This is
extremely important because
God does not want one saint
to question His judgment
throughout eternity.
For example, suppose you are
taken to Heaven, but a loved
one is not there. You
begin to wonder why your
loved one could not be saved,
so you examine the record of
their life. This
openness will silence and
resolve any notion that Jesus
judged unfairly; all this
occurs before a
single person is destroyed in
the fire.
According
to infinite wisdom and love,
the Father predetermined that
fire is the best tool to
accomplish two purposes at
the end of the 1,000 years.
First, fire produces
suffering and it will be used
to extract the suffering
which predators must
repay. The suffering of
the wicked will not cease
until justice is
satisfied. Once justice
is achieved, each wicked
person will die the second
death (a death from which
there is no recovery).
Second, fire is useful in
that it sterilizes as it
purifies. After Jesus
has destroyed Lucifer and his
angels, the wicked who
rebelled against the laws of
love, and the curse of sin
itself (death and the grave),
Jesus will reuse this
sterilized orb called Earth
as the foundation for a new
Earth.
According
to infinite wisdom and
unfailing love for new worlds
that will be created millions
of years later, the Father
wants to prove a point at the
end of sin’s drama that
is very important. The Father
wants everyone to see what He
foreknew before the creation
of life. Therefore, He
will break the seventh seal
and display the contents of
The Book of Life at the end
of the 1,000 years. The
universe will see that The
Book of Life is a perfect
mirror of the record books
which angels recorded in real
time. This amazing
revelation will prove two
points. First, the
Father has perfect
foreknowledge. He knows
the end from the
beginning. Before any
life was created, He foreknew
who would choose salvation
and who would not, both in
Heaven and on Earth, and He
wrote it down. Second,
God can be trusted to
separate His foreknowledge
from His love. In other
words, the Father will not
use His perfect foreknowledge
to protect the Godhead from
harm and He will not
manipulate the choices of His
children to satisfy His
objectives. He will
prove to the universe that He
will not violate the will of
His children even though He
foreknows the outcome.
God can be trusted
completely! His
commitment to the principles
of love prevents Him from
using His foreknowledge to
manipulate His subjects.
According
to infinite wisdom and love,
God predetermined that
Lucifer and his demons should
remain alive until the end of
the 1,000 years. By allowing
them to live, the fruits of
sin will be allowed to
mature.
Eventually, God will address
each argument that Lucifer
used to lead one-third of the
angels into rebellion.
(Remember, the drama with sin
is far more encompassing than
events on Earth.) The
demons that followed Lucifer
will clearly see that Lucifer
lied to them. Even when
they were confronted with the
truth, they willfully chose
to believe Lucifer’s
lies rather than surrender to
God’s authority and
truth. Going forward
through eternity, it will be
necessary and important to
review this confrontation so
that sin’s ugly pall
never rises again.
Pure, sinless, holy beings
can fall and have fallen
twice because rebellion
falsely promised short term
gains. Submission to
God’s infinite wisdom is
not always easy for
intelligent beings, but
finite beings must remember
who is infinite and who is
not.
When these
six issues are considered, we find
that God wants His people to
understand His love, plans, and
actions. There is no hint of
evil in God. To know God is to
love God. He has generously
provided a thousand answers about
Himself and His plans if we are
willing to search for them.
