Dispensationalism
& Millennialism:
Their
Origin and Their Future
From The Jewish Encyclopedia p.
90, where 13th Century Rabbi Moses ben Nahman is being discussed, we read:
“...The characteristic features of Moses’ [ben Nahman’s] commentary
are the lessons which he draws from the various Biblical narratives, in which he
sees adumbrations [foreshadowings] of the history of man. Thus the account of the
six days of Creation constitutes a prophecy of the events of the following six
thousand years , and the seventh day is typical of the Messianic
millennium....”
Note: This is
the same Rabbi who was also known as ben Nachman who shared in the
development of the Cabala [Kabbala] with his arcane13th century contributions. As
noted in “The
Spiritual Roots of NASA's Big Bang Premise” and
HERE, Rabbi Nahman [or Nachman] is also the
spiritual father (or agent) of these other concepts: Big Bangism, an Expanding Universe, Relativity,
and Heliocentricity (300 yrs. before Copernicus).
Add to those rather astonishing facts the information above from The
Jewish Encyclopedia , namely, that Raban Nahman
(along with 12th century
Rabam Maimonides) is also the father of the
Dispensationalist Doctrine (which--for Christian Dispensationalists-- includes the pre-trib rapture idea, an idea
with English and Scotish roots which go back fewer than 200 years), and one can
see quite a can of worms opening!
Since this teaching presently dominates eschatology in most Baptist and
Pentecostal churches (and a few others), the Jewish Encyclopedia’s information
about 13th century teaching in the Kabbala should be a big red flag for
Christians steeped in that doctrine. The
Kabbala (Cabala) is an anti-Christian compilation, written, in this case by a
Rabbi who was exiled from Spain for his militant anti-Christ arguments.
Millennial doctrine long pre-dates Rabbi Nachman, but his
fabrication of Dispensationalist-Millennialism-- with a messiah other than
Jesus!--is a clear warning that no such teaching is taught in the Bible.
-------
Once it is seen that the roots of the Doctrine of Dispensationalism are
traceable to an anti-Christian, anti-Bible source, and that this doctrine was articulated in the
13th century, we begin to look for other questionable connections.
Given that this same source
(along with Maimonides in the 12th
century) also articulated the Zionist idea at that
early date, and that Dispensationalism without Zionist Israel is an omelet
without eggs, we begin to wonder about the virtual monopoly of Christian
eschatology and evangelism by Christian Zionists
(HERE
- HERE).
As we wonder, it becomes ever more clear that the guiding hand behind
Dispensationalist Doctrine is not the God of the Bible.
Opponents of Dispensationalism have known for a long time that several
aspects of the Israel-first eschatology can not be reconciled with the New
Testament, and that improper use of Old Testament prophesies were its life
source. These opponents can now
better understand that what is going on is that a “holy book” is being
fulfilled with indispensable support from Dispensationalists, but that “holy
book” is not the Bible!
(This
is a wake-up call for Christian Zionist Dispensationalists
(Again:
HERE
- HERE)
As for Rabbi Nachman’s “Messianic Millennium”, the chief point for
Christians to underscore is that the Rabbi’s messiah is not Jesus.
The Rabbi’s use of a literal thousand years to make some kind of sense
out of his Dispensational hypothesis about the Creation Week is very, very
interesting. This thousand years literally interpreted by the Rabbi is
found solely in the New Testament (Rev.20).
Why would a militant anti-Christian Rabbi use a Scripture from the New
Testament which he loathed, to make the “thousand years” literal (which
years many Christian scholars insist must be figuratively interpreted)...and
thereby lay the groundwork for a doctrine avidly promoted by anti-Christ
Zionists and pro-Christ Christians alike??
The long and the short of all this is: Dispensationalist-led Christian
evangelism is toiling with might and main to help anti-Christ Judaism fulfill
its Talmud/ Kabbala plan for making the Zionist’s “messiah”--said by their
leaders to be the Jewish State they named “Israel”--the seat of a global
empire with them in control.
-------
Neither the Dispensationalist brand of Millennialism nor the plain
Pre-Millennial brand can exist without a literal interpretation of the “thousand
years” of Rev.20. That much is certain.
Curious,
isn’t it, that the source of the Dispensationalist brand of literal
interpretation--which is heard everywhere--should come from the anti-Christ,
mystic Kabbala?
Anyone could stop reading here and have gotten the core of this essay.
Yet, those who would like to know why the “thousand years” of
Revelation 20 can not be interpreted literally, and why those “thousand years”
are in fact, Scripturally forced to take place during the 7th Trumpet period (a
few months at most),
may want to
press on to the end. In all
humility, I can assure you that is what you will find.
More, in spite of endless teaching to the contrary, you will find out
that the Bible nowhere teaches that Jesus will come to this earth in His Second
Coming (HERE). When--again in all
humility--these two assertions are confirmed, a very big reason among many for
God’s promised Judgment on the churches (I Pet.4:17.18) will be fully
understood.
It’s your call.... Shall
we go??
-------
In Christian Dispensationalist and Pre-Millennialist circles, as is well
published, the return of Zionist Jewry to Palestine and the establishment of “Israel”
in 1948, is viewed as the return of God’s Chosen People, i.e., the Old
Testament descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in fulfillment of certain OT
land promises. From a New Testament perspective that Jesus is Messiah, and
also from a purely historical perspective, this lineage claim to Abraham is pure
fiction! In the first place,
historically, all or virtually all of these Zionists are not even a Semitic people, but rather, are
descendents of 8th century converts to Judaism. They have no more blood line to Abraham than an Eskimo does.
In spite of this fact, do these Zionists still somehow have an Old
Testament Biblical claim to that real estate where Arabs lived for 1300 years,
and which has been taken from them and named “Israel”?
“IF” is the biggest word in the Bible relating to those Old Testament
promises to the Hebrews, later called Jews.
God made it all conditional. They
didn’t meet the conditions. The
New Testament makes that plain a hundred times.
That is why the New Testament is hated so fiercely and has been publicly
burned in Jerusalem by the Zionists.
Christians are supposed to be following the teachings of Jesus and His
apostles in God’s New Contract with a new people (“whosoever will...no
respecter of persons...neither Jew nor Greek...wall of partition broken down,
etc., etc.). Christians are not supposed to be following the teaching of
Rabbis from any century, who get their doctrines from the Christ hating, New
Testament destroying Talmud/Kabbala teachings.
The fact of the matter is, however, that the most influential wing of
supposedly fundamentalist New Testament Christianity has been deceived into
promoting the Rabbinic agenda, an agenda which is totally dedicated to the
destruction of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament!
-------
To those who understandably object vehemently to those
assessments--pointing out that a 1000 year binding of Satan and rule by Christ
is mentioned six times in Revelation 20, thereby justifying the
Dispensationist-Millennialist eschatology--may I empathize with your mixture of
disbelief and alarm at this point?? I
realize more than you can know the absolute trauma that would engulf much of
fundamentalist Christianity if Millennialism and its attendant beliefs were
absolutely proven to be unscriptural on the one hand, and a vital partner in the
success of a Christ-hating deception on the other hand.
I know that many really anointed men and women who go all-out in their
love of God and His Word believe and teach the Dispensationalist-Millennialist
eschatology with as great conviction as they teach that Jesus is Lord and
Savior. I personally thank
God that--in spite of being deceived into spreading grievous doctrinal errors as
well as good teachings --they are at least on the Telly day and night and in the
pulpits and writing books telling about the love of Jesus and His eternal
Kingdom.... To all these, you will
agree, God knows the hearts of each and every one.
Nevertheless, it is Scripturally certain that traumatic jolts that will
register 10 on a Doctrinal Richter Scale are going to come upon good people as
well as bad in every church affiliation. No
church will be spared, for all have been deceived a lot.
Yet, out of this doctrinal cleansing the Final Church will come together
and, with one mind, will embrace what Scripture really tells us to expect during
the last days of this earth’s history.
So, however sympathetic and appreciative we might be for the Lord’s work
which so many are doing their very best to further,
it is time to identify false
doctrines in every area. The Church must get to the Truth and get it out
in a way that all Christians and everybody else who desires to be led solely by
the Holy Spirit of Truth can understand what has happened to doctrinal purity,
why it has happened, and what the Bible alone
(Sola Scriptura!) demands that the
Truth be on each and every teaching.
One Scripture that helps to bring into focus the big picture of how false
doctrines are able to infiltrate even Bible-venerating churches can be seen in I
Timothy 4:1. We read there this very important warning: “Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
This warning tells
us plainly that there not only are seducing spirits at work to cause Christians
to “depart from the faith”, but that there are also Demons that specialize
in creating attractive false doctrines that will succeed in fooling a body of
Christians and cause them to make the deception a required belief in their
church. Little wonder that the Body of Christ is so doctrinally
fragmented!
(HERE)
But, at the same time, it is marvelously true--and a loud testimony to the
fact that God is in control--that a false doctrine in church “A” may be
anathema in church “B”, while another false doctrine in church “B” may
be anathema in church “C” or “A” or “D” thru “Z”...and ditto for
true doctrines! The Truth on every
doctrine in the Bible can be determined from the Word alone, and those
Truths--or something very close to them--can (with the notable exception of the
Biblical non-moving earth!)
be found in a church somewhere.
Briefly, let’s take this matter of how false doctrines get into the
Body of Christ a little further in order to appreciate what exposing
Dispensationalist-Millennialism as just such a false teaching really means....
-------
Getting II Corinthians 11:13-15 under one’s spiritual belt also helps a
lot in trying to understand how Scriptural sounding false doctrines become
rooted in churches.
"...For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ,
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his [Satan's] ministers
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness;
whose end shall be according to their works."
In plain words: It is very common...no big thing...for that minister behind the pulpit or on TV to actually be Satan’s minister who has “transformed himself into a minister of righteousness”! Combine that with Satan’s hard working specialists in doctrine-twisting (I Tim. 4:1) always being on the job (and remembering the Scriptural fact that Satan is “god of this world”... II Cor.4:4; Matt.4;9, and a few other such references), and two things become very clear: First: From the earliest days of the Church (Titus 1:14; Jude 1b,4; etc.) to the present hour, Satan’s minions have been allowed by our Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Sovereign God to establish contra-Scriptural doctrines in the churches. Second: Being all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfect in all His ways, God has not only known how all this would develop, His Perfect Plan for eternity had to incorporate this pattern and allow it to come to a point where Jesus “who was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil” (I Jn.3:8) would do so. It had to be the way it has been so that, not only can the Final Scenes in the Final Act of this earth’s history be played out, but more importantly, it had to be the way it has been so that those works can forever serve as the perfect education resource on the promised New Earth (Is. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21:1), a resource capable of inculcating the same “abhorrence” of evil (Is.66:24) that God has, and thus make His flesh and bone eternal children truly “in His Image”. (See Scriptural details HERE & HERE.)
Anyway, it is clear
from the Bible, is it not, that God has allowed Satan’s experts to
cleverly construct doctrines which purposely distort Scripture while appearing
to extol it??
-------
It is to be expected, of course, that folks in churches who declare that
the Bible is their only guide to doctrine will consider themselves free from
these supernaturally engineered doctrinal deceptions.
In fact, they will be indignant at the mere suggestion that their
doctrines could be clever Satanic deceptions!
I mean...how dare anyone insinuate...!
Well, keep in mind that, although there turned out to be “a great
company of priests who were obedient to the faith”
(Acts 6:7),
the Pharisees resisted every valid criticism of their “church”
establishment, becoming murderously indignant when they were shown their errors!
Also, remember the warning about “the very elect” being fooled
(Matt.24:24)!!
There could be a lot more conditioning along this line to help prepare
the multitude of Dispensationalists and old
style Millennialists in Christian ranks for the shock of finding out they have
been deceived Big Time on their core eschatological beliefs.
Again--if there be any solace in numbers--be assured that your church
will have plenty of company when God’s Judgment on the Churches goes to
afterburners. Equal and even greater shocks than your church receives
will be a Scriptural certainty for every church now wearing the Christian label.
Judgment will BEGIN “at the house of God” (I Pet.4:17,18:HERE).
That is where it began when Jesus walked in Jerusalem; it will begin
there again as Jesus directs His people from His seat at the right hand of the
Father where He long ago was given “all authority in heaven and earth”
(Matt.28:18).
Every doctrine will
be tested by Scripture alone to see whether it is of God or is a Satanic
counterfeit. No one--not I, not
you--neither the Roman Church nor any Protestant Church will be exempt from
these tests. “Come out of
Babylon!”, God tells His people (Rev.18:4).
He wouldn’t call us out of Babylon if we weren’t in it, would He??
-------
The Truth is that Dispensationalism and the Millennialism which goes with
the concept are--as has already been established and will shortly be further
demonstrated--contra-Scriptural teachings
which are rooted in the mystic Rabbinical Kabbala, an adjunct to the Christ
hating, New Testament destroying Talmud (HERE).
That said, the following is presented with the conviction that no
Bible-believing Christian led of the Holy Spirit can fail to see how the whole
Dispensational concept with its Millennialist eschatology is indeed one of the
major pieces of work those Demonic specialists of I Tim.4:1 have been allowed to
put together...a work, to be sure, that was known and approved before the
foundation of the world
(Acts 15:18)...a
work destined ultimately to redound to the greater glory of God when He begins
to expose and destroy it and all the others from the same source
(I John 3:8).
Let’s look at the first of two headings: Part I to set the stage, and
Part II to provide the pertinent Scriptures.
Part
One
It is a fact that Revelation 20 includes six references to “a thousand
years”. This period is declared
to be a time when a) Satan is bound and,
b) a time when martyrs “live and
reign with Christ”. That much is in Scriptural concrete and is not to be
challenged by anything that follows.
As previously noted, the entire Millennialist structure rests on the
teaching that this time frame refers to a literal 1000 years.
You can underline that. If
it is literal, then all the eschatology built upon it will at least have
a chance of being accurate. If the
time frame is not literal, however, the entire Millennial edifice falls flat and
drags Dispensationalism down with it.
Agreed?
Seeing that so much rests on so little, can it be that God has not left
his Church with a way to Scripturally settle this mega-theological conundrum
built on one high-sounding but very shaky interpretation and excluding all
others?
He has left a way. Let’s
begin with the promised warm-up to the solution:
Through Peter (II Pet.3:8)
the Holy Spirit of Truth expressly warned
against making any time frame of 1000 years a literal 1000 years. Note:
But beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing,
That one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.
That is short and sweet. Having
been warned by God specifically NOT to
take “1000 years” literally, and having stressed that it would be ignorant
to do so, the Darby-Scofield Dispensationalist doctrine proceeded to take the
only references to “1000 years” in the entire New Testament
(Rev.20)
and set
them in literal concrete, as it were. Then,
(wittingly or unwittingly) an End Time Scenario has been constructed which
ignores God’s specific warning.
This
scenario then proceeded to set up all the conditions necessary for fulfilling
the teaching of the overtly anti-Christian, mystic Kabbala about the coming of
THEIR messiah by tricking Christians into believing that it is the coming of the
Messiah Jesus to rule and reign during that supposedly literal 1000 year period.
If there were other plain Scriptural supports for the
Darbyite-Scofieldian literal 1000 year reign of Christ, one would of necessity
view the warning by Peter to be just a statement about the reality of God’s
timelessness or some such.
But
there are no such plain Scriptural supports.
The word “millennium” isn’t even in the Bible.
The only “holy book” support for the massive doctrinal structure
built upon a literal 1000 year reign by Jesus in Jerusalem comes from the
anti-Christ Kabbala and refers to the rule of someone or some thing other than Jesus for a
thousand years. (What the Kabbala’s
“messiah”--who emphatically IS NOT JESUS--does after the thousand years
allotted to him or "it", is not recorded as far as I can tell.)
Keep in mind that the New Testament of Jesus Christ with its mention of a
thousand years had been around for almost twelve hundred years when the Rabbi
(who was kicked out of Spain for his high profile anti-Christ comments) “invented”
the Dispensationalist idea which includes a literal thousand years in order to
bring in the kind of “messiah” the Jews were looking for when they called
for Jesus’ death, i.e., an earthly kingdom where they rule.
Jesus spoke against such a kingdom repeatedly, teaching rather: “The
kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo Here! or
lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
(Luke 17:20,21).
Darby’s teachings--codified and expanded in Scofield’s margin notes
in the KJV Bible and spread far and wide thru Baptist, Pentecostal, and other
Seminaries since 1909--do not alter the fact that there are no other supports
for a millennial rule by either the real or a fake messiah other than those “thousand
years” mentioned in Rev. 20. That
those years must be literal or the whole doctrine begins to look like a diabolically clever mis-teaching , I believe some have begun to see, and
others will see momentarily....
Part
II
If not a literal thousand years, then how long is Satan bound while the
martyrs reign with Christ? Are
we as Christians devoted to “searching the Scriptures daily to see whether
these things be so”
(Acts 17:11)
and “testing the spirits to see whether
they are of God of not” (I John 4:1)...not able to determine what is going on
during that time in Revelation 20 called the “thousand years?!
A. Notice first that Scripture is very specific in telling us
precisely who it is that will have the high honor of actually reigning with
Christ during that time called “1000 years”.
In fact, Revelation 20:4 spells out that this honored host consists of
those “...that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of
God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands..." This host and
this host alone is designated as those in John’s vision given to him by Jesus
who “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Without the slightest Scriptural doubt, this honored host consists of
Christian martyrs from the first century
(Rev.6:9-11) who have been joined by
the martyrs who refuse the mark of the beast and refuse to worship the beast’s
image (Rev.13:15-17). True?? Now
follow the progression....
B. Scripture teaches that it is the “Beast” who rules the earth from
Jerusalem when the Two Witnesses are killed, does it not
(Rev.11:7,8)?
The Two Witnesses present Dispensationalist eschatology with a problem it
can’t solve if these Witnesses are taken to be what they clearly are, namely two people
anointed by God for the exceptional last days role they play. Read it; they are real people!
Having made “1000 years” literal when Peter expressly warned against
doing that, Dispensationalists now make God’s Two Witnesses “figurative”
when God spells out their literalness in plain language: They prophesy, they
testify, men try to kill them but can’t; they are killed by the Beast’s
government in Jerusalem, their dead bodies lie in a street, the spirit of life
from God enters them and they stand on their feet....
Why are these Two Witnesses an insurmountable problem for
Dispensationalist eschatology? As I
saw to my joy
(Jn.8:32),
so can anyone see as we continue....
C. Why is the Old Testament holy city of Jerusalem called “Sodom” and
“Egypt” here in the New Testament
(11:8)?
(Dispensationalist preachers regularly point their flocks to Psalm 122:6:
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”
[ignoring
v.10] and tell them that this applies to Jerusalem today...and they had better
not say anything bad about the city or the Zionist Jews who want to build a
temple there and restore OT sacrifices, because if they do say anything bad they
will be going against God and the Bible and will end up in hell. But again, if so, why does God call the city of
Jerusalem “Sodom” and “Egypt”
in the New Testament? Why did Jesus
say He left Jerusalem “desolate”? Why
did Jesus prophesy Jerusalem’s total destruction and bring it to pass in 70 AD
(after Christians had been warned and all escaped)?
Why are God’s people told to look for a NEW Jerusalem repeatedly and
not to the earthly one where every prophet God sent, including Jesus, was
killed?
Why are Christians told in Colossians 3:2 to “set your affection on things above
[the NEW Jerusalem on the NEW Earth,
etc.] and not on things on this earth” [old Jerusalem, a millennial reign in a
cardboard counterfeit of heaven]?? Etcetera, etcetera.)
D. Isn’t the Greek for the “Two Witnesses” of Rev. 11 actually the
“two martyrs”?
(Check Strong's #3144. It is.)
E. Doesn’t Scripture plainly tell us that the martyrdom and the translation of the Two Witnesses (martyrs) ends the 6th Trumpet Mark of the Beast period (11:14,15)? Scripturally, the Witnesses’ translation to Heaven (11:12) completes the roster of martyrs all the way from the 1st century (Rev. 6:11) throughout history to those martyrs specifically identified in Rev. 20:4 as those future to this writing who refuse to take the Mark of the Beast. (Incidentally, these martyr facts also put the gun to the head of the Preterist View now appealing to those who see the holes in the Dispensationalist eschatology.) Go HERE - HERE)
F. Rev. 20:4
(backed up by Rev.6:11)
says that all martyrs
including these yet future ones “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years”.
(If it says “lived”, does that not mean they were dead?
If you doubt it, read the next verse in letter “G”:)
G. The very next words in v. 5 are: “But the
REST of the DEAD
lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
This [ i.e., making alive the dead martyrs] is the FIRST RESURRECTION.”
H. Put the last two verses
(4 & 5) together.
All the martyrs were dead (v.5), but in John’s vision of the future,
when the last Two Martyrs complete the roster of martyrs from the 1st century
thru the still future 6th Trumpet Mark of the Beast period, all were resurrected and “lived
and reigned with Christ a thousand years”.... (So much for pre-trib, mid-trib,
and post-trib theories of when the Rapture of I Thess.4:13-18 takes place! The Rapture involves a resurrection of “the dead in Christ”.
But it is the MARTYRS ONLY who were dead and who alone comprise those
singled out for special honors and who alone make up the population involved in
the first resurrection. Moreover--and
this is very telling--verse 14 says: “For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, EVEN SO THEM ALSO WHICH ALSO SLEEP IN JESUS WILL GOD BRING WITH
HIM.” Yet we are told that
the “dead in Christ” that He comes to Rapture (v.16) are also ASLEEP (v.15)!
Now who can that be that now “sleep in Jesus” yet rise again if it
cannot be those who are dead in Christ and are buried and about to be Raptured?!
Scripturally,
we only have one choice here.
Those Jesus brings with Him that were dead but are then alive are the
resurrected martyrs in heaven.
It is very important to note that this 1st resurrection takes place in
heaven at the beginning of the 7th Trumpet time frame.
This is already clear but can be seen again in 15:1-4
where those “...that had gotten the victory over the Beast, and over
his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea
of glass having the harps of God”
(v.2).
Who? The Martyrs. Where? In heaven. What?
Their resurrection. Why?
To be honored by living and reigning with Christ while God avenges them.
How? With the seven bowl/vial plagues of the 7th Trumpet and
the eradication of the Beast and the False Prophet and millions of their hatchet
men at Armageddon, that’s how!
Note also that this resurrection occurs not at the beginning or in the
middle of the tribulation of the first six trumpet time frames.
It occurs at the very end of that tribulation time frame in a
resurrection which includes only martyrs and has nothing to do with the Rapture
resurrection of the dead and living Christians.
The timing of the Rapture of I Thess.4:13-18 is wedded to the
Dispensational-Millennialist doctrine in a way that the two can not be separated
without exposing the fallacies of both. (For unbendable Scriptural evidence that the Rapture
can only occur on the last day of this earth’s history, go:
HERE - HERE -
HERE -
HERE -
HERE)
(Parenthetically, yet another major false doctrine which is seen going
out the window in these very same Scriptures is the whole Platonic “consciousness
after death”, “immortal soul” lie. In
the Revelation of Jesus to John, those martyr’s spirits were in heaven, as are
the spirits of all who die (Eccl.12:7).
But
the martyrs were dead and had to be resurrected in order to live again to reign
with Christ for this period called “1000 years”.
Their resurrection is plainly labeled the “first resurrection”.
The doctrinal twisting of the parable telling of the end of God’s old
system (The Rich Man) and the start of His new system
(Lazarus) in Luke 16 has
provided a consciousness after death dogma (in direct violation of four dozen
plain Scriptures: (HERE), which dogma has been used to prop up the Satanic doctrine of
an eternal Dantean torture chamber hell.
That torture-chamber hell is a demonstrably contra-Scriptural teaching
which has probably kept more fair-minded people from becoming Christians than
any other unBiblical teaching! So,
again, the point is that those martyrs were dead (no consciousness, “asleep”
as dozens of Scriptures describe death) until they were made “alive” in that
“first resurrection”, and it is they who are honored further by accompanying
Jesus on the last day of this earth’s history to Rapture the dead and living
Christians. Consciousness after death is a contra-Scriptural
Platonic teaching which has made possible the mis-teaching that hell is a
God-ordained and maintained place
where billions of people will writhe eternally in pain.
You will not believe that lie if you carefully read this 110 page book
(HERE).
Where was I? Oh, yes, letter I (i, eye, aye, ieeeh, whatever...)
I. So...If the martyrdom, revivification, and translation of the Two
Witnesses ends the 6th Trumpet period
(11:14)
and brings on the 7th Trumpet
period (v.15), as Scripture undeniably attests, do we not know that the Beast’s
42 months (13:5) are fast running out, and in fact are completed at the end of
the 7th Trumpet period (19:20) a short time later? Read it. It
cannot be otherwise.
J. And, lest we forget that the Devil is bound during the same “1000
years” in question, do we not see this binding confirmed at the beginning of
the 7th Trumpet
(11:15),
where we are told that
“the kingdoms of this world
have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ...”?! Knowing,
as
we do (Matt. 4:8,9; II Cor. 4:4) that the kingdoms of this world have belonged to
Satan since his success in the Garden--and will continue to belong to him until
the start of the 7th Trumpet period--is it not plain that something has been
done with Satan in 11:15 when it is
declared:“ the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and
of His Christ”??
Suddenly, Satan
is dethroned!
Suddenly, he no
longer rules over anyone or anything. Suddenly,
he can do nothing to help his thrice-decimated, plague-ridden worshippers who
are about to feel another, more awesome round of the wrath of God fall on them
in the seven bowl/vial plagues of the 7th Trumpet period!
Scripture says that is what happens when Satan is bound and that his
binding lasts “1000 years”.
Yet,
we see it happening here in the 7th Trumpet at the very end of the Beast’s
reign of only forty-two months!!
Scripture thus forces the time of Satan’s binding to be during the 7th
Trumpet period.
Hence, the
“1000 years” of Revelation 20, called by Dispensational-Millennialists
“the millennium” is forced to be the 7th Trumpet time frame, i.e., about two
or three months.
For good reason, God warned thru Peter not to take that “1000”
literally. Now we know why!
Ignoring that warning opened the door for the g'd of this world
(II
Cor.4:4)
to use his guild of doctrine twisting specialists
(I Tim.4:1b) to erect
the mighty deception of Kabbala-based Dispensationalism in many (not all!)
evangelical Christian churches which, ironically, claim to be the most
Scripture-based of all!
As the literal “thousand years” doctrine goes down in flames, other
doctrines attached to it cannot remain airborne either.
Consider: Is Jesus going to return to earth and reign with the martyrs
for the 7th Trumpet period of a few months at most?!
Hardly. So, if Jesus is not
going to come to earth to reign a “thousand years” and it makes no sense to
say He will come and reign during the pouring out of the wrath of God thru the
seven plagues of the 7th Trumpet, isn’t
it time to investigate whether He ever sets foot on this earth again
(HERE)??
Can it be that this too is a doctrinal deception of huge
proportions allowed by God for a perfect purpose?? The last few pages will provide those answers.
But now....
K. The seven bowl/vial plagues of the 7th Trumpet which are full of God’s
wrath against the blaspheming worshippers of Satan’s two Beasts
(13:11)
ends
in the death of those two human leaders (and a few million others) from an aerial
bombardment of 100 lb. hailstones (16:21) on those drawn to the Plain of Esdraelon for the “battle” of Armageddon.
What “battle”?! It’s
a wipe-out from the sky! There are
two armies all right; but one is in the sky with Jesus (19:11-20) and one is on
the ground, “gathered” there by God (16:14) “into a place
called...Armageddon” (v.16). This
whole army with the two Beasts has been drawn lemming-like to this Plain of
Meggido. [Several years back, I
prayerfully scrutinized that Plain from some high ground and concluded that
several million could easily be gathered there....
Having been gathered (lead, assembled) from all over the world
(16:14), this will not be just your average
large crowd.
God “gathers” them (vs.14,16), and they will be corralled and
contained on that Plain by He Who “rules them with a rod of iron: [as] He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God”
(19:15). Fulfilling prophecy precisely, 100 lb. hailstones from
the sky will kill all of those who are gathered (led) there
(16:21; 19:18)
except the two Beasts who will “...both [be] cast alive into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone” (19;20).]
The martyrs are avenged just as God promised they would be
(6:10,11;
19:2).
This vengeance is
Scripturally stated to be the climax of the seventh bowl/vial plague
(Armageddon) of the 7th Trumpet time frame
(Rev.16:17).
Since the martyrs live and reign with Jesus during this very same time frame
when this vengeance is meted out (15:1-8), and since the martyrs are said to
reign with Jesus “1000 years”, and since the time frame of the vengeance period
is a small fraction of the Beast’s allotted 42 months,
it is clear that the Holy
Spirit put all the Scriptural facts in The Revelation that are necessary for
determining that the references to “one thousand years” ARE NOT to be taken
literally but must be applied solely to the 7th Trumpet time
frame of a few months at most.
That
being the case, not only must all eschatological doctrines built on a literal
thousand years be jettisoned from Church teaching, another eschatology
consistent with this discovery and exposure must be built upon the truth about
this time frame and its connection with all other end time Scriptures.
L. The Beast
(and later, the 2nd Beast)
is empowered by Satan
from the beginning of his allotted 42 months...right on thru Six of the Seven
Trumpet time frames. Corresponding
to Satan’s binding for “1000 years”, that empowerment ends abruptly at the
beginning of the 7th Trumpet, does not appear throughout the plagues that
follow, and is conspicuously absent at Armageddon when his human leaders over
the whole world are exterminated with extreme prejudice by God.
Clearly, not only are the Heavenly Hosts jumping for joy
(Rev.11:16,17) but
when Satan’s kingdom’s are taken from him during the 7th Trumpet period, it is a
very special time for the martyrs in heaven and for God’s people around the
whole world.
Clearly also, there has got to be a very different ball game from the end
of the 7th Trumpet on out. Scripture
describes what happens and further confirms the impossibility of a literal 1000
year millennium....
M. God foretells of Satan’s binding and imprisonment and his release in
Rev.20:3: “...And cast him [Satan] into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and
set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, TILL the
thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that
[the thousand years]
he must
be loosed a little season.”
This
is very important. In verse 3 here
we read that Satan’s power to deceive the “nations” is removed UNTIL the
thousand years are over. Five
verses later, after the thousand years are over and Satan is released
(v.7), we
read in verse 8: “And [he, Satan] shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth....”
“Nations” here is the same word and refers to the same people, i.e.,
Satan's followers alone.
When he was bound and imprisoned he could not deceive them; when he is
released he can deceive them, and sets about immediately to do so everywhere.
(By-the-way: In the Greek, “God and Magog” simply refers to those who
are anti-Christs (#1136 & #3098). This
fits perfectly with what you are reading. All
the decades-long excited talk about Russia invading Israel, etc., etc., is
Zionist-hyped deception. The Hebrew
for these words (#4031 & #1463) pointedly refer to attacks on Israel from
the north with “a MIGHTY ARMY OF HORSES
(Ezekiel 38:14-16)
with BOWS AND
ARROWS (39:3). Israel wins and
takes up SHIELDS AND BUCKLERS AND SPEARS to burn for seven years (39:9; etc.!).
All that was fulfilled almost 2500 years ago!
The reference to Satan’s use of deception in Rev.20:8 refers to its use
on the enemies of Christ at the end of this world’s history; it does not refer
to the enemies of ancient Israel almost twenty-five centuries ago!
The Dispensationalist’s interminable comments linking the anti-Christ
Zionist State of Israel today with Ezekiel’s prophecies where sacrifices are to
be given in a restored temple with Jesus sitting right there, etc., are
BLASPHEMY (Heb.9:25,26), no matter
how convincing the preacher!)
Two Biblical facts related to Satan’s release for “a little season”
further demonstrate that the “thousand years” is really the 7th Trumpet
period (some 2 or 3 months of the Beast’s allotted 42).
First, we are aware of the flexibility of the Greek for “nations”
(could be the bad guys only or could be everybody).
We won’t concern ourselves with that, except to say that it plainly
refers to the bad guys only more often than not, and thus is more flexible than
the oft repeated reference to “those who dwell on the earth” which is always
used to designate the bad guys (13:8 & 17:8).
Anyway, more important is the fact that Satan’s powers are suddenly
removed because he is bound.
That
is what interests us here. Surely
there can be no argument with the conclusion that deception is Satan’s modus
operandi, the chief way he works. “There
is no Truth in Satan”, John 8:44 tells us, so deceptions (i.e., lies) of all
sorts are his stock in trade, his very means of ruling the world’s kingdoms
(which God’s Plan as set forth in His Word has allowed: Matt.4:8,9: John
14:30; II Cor.4:4; Acts 15:18;etc.).
BUT DON’T FORGET!
These
are the very same “kingdoms” of the world which Satan has been allowed to
control thru deception since the Fall in the Garden until that time ahead at the
beginning of the 7th Trumpet when we are plainly told:
“The kingdoms of the
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall
reign forever and ever” Rev.11:15!
-------
Frankly Scarlet, I don’t see any way around the conclusion all this forces upon us. Scripture teaches that Satan has been allowed in God’s Perfect Plan to be the god of this world from the Fall in the Garden 6000 years ago until the 7th Trumpet time frame begins. At that point in time his control of all the world’s kingdoms thru deception stops abruptly. Father God and Jesus take over, not just till Satan is released, but for ever (11:15). NOW NOTICE: Scripture will allow no twisting of what is said about Satan’s binding.... IT says he is “bound a thousand years” (20:2), and is cast into a bottomless pit, and shut up, and a seal is set upon him, that he should DECEIVE the nations no more, TILL the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season (v.3). So, if Satan has been god of the whole world, ruling all its kingdoms by the chief power he has, namely, DECEPTION (Jn.8:44; etc.), and that control of the world’s kingdoms is taken away from him at the beginning of the 7th Trumpet period, the explanation is inescapable: This is when he is bound “for a “thousand years” and explicitly prevented by God from “DECEIVING the nations until the “thousand years” are over and he is loosed for a little season (v.3,7) and permitted to deceive again (v.8). Finally--the time when Satan’s kingdoms are taken from him along with a specific enforcement of a gag rule on DECEPTION designated to last “a thousand years” and then be restored--WE KNOW THE THOUSAND YEARS CAN NOT BE LITERAL BECAUSE SATAN'S KINGDOMS AND THE DECEPTION BY WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN CONTROLLED THROUGHOUT HISTORY ARE TAKEN AWAY NEAR THE TAIL END OF THE BEAST’S REIGN (R.11:15)... AND, THAT DECEPTIVE POWER IS NOT RESTORED, UNTIL THE BEAST AND HIS RULE ARE BOTH TERMINATED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE! (R.19:20).
Since all of this is
totally confined to the time frame of the 7th Trumpet, it cannot be a literal
thousand years. It must be a short
period at the end of the Beast’s 42 months.
Excuse me; I think I’ll shout a little bit!!
There, that’s better.... After the Lord takes Satan’s kingdoms away from him (11:15) there is joy in heaven (11:16) “because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast REIGNED (v.17). (This is the same “reigning”time as when Jesus reigns with the martyrs, i.e. the same few months at the end of the Beast’s tenure.) “ The *nations [bad guys connotation here obviously] were angry”. Their hopes had just been dashed by the resurrection and ascension of the Two Martyrs before the whole world’s eyes [on satellite TV, obviously], (11:9,11,12), and now they know that “thy wrath is come” (11:18) and that they are about to get a dose of what eternal hell could be if God were that kind of God. HIS wrath is indeed poured out to the double in the seven vial/bowl plagues which rain down mercilessly “upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped the image” (16:2).
Satan’s worshippers know God is sending these terrible plagues upon
them and they blaspheme Him all the more in their sufferings
(16:9,11).
It is abundantly clear to them that the great power Satan exercised
earlier in their behalf (13:4,7,11,13,14,15,16,17;etc.) is nowhere to be seen.
Throughout the seven bowl/vial plagues
of the 7th Trumpet time frame (c. 2-3 months) they are getting the needle Big
Time and Satan can’t help them.
His
kingship has been taken away (11:15), you will recall, and he can’t “deceive
the *nations [bad guys connotation] any more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled...”(20:3).
He can’t
help them because he is bound.
His
binding begins the “thousand years” and his loosing ends the “thousand
years”.
So, again, we know that
the “thousand years” is forced to be the final few months of the Beast’s
42 month tenure...and that means that the literal thousand year millennium
teaching --with Jesus on the ground in Jerusalem--is a contra-Biblical lie,
i.e., a "Jewish fable"
(Titus 1:14) from our ever scheming adversary, the
"father of lies", Satan himself (Jn.8:44).....
We continue to take careful notice too that these seven extremely rough
plagues administered by God during the 7th Trumpet period constitute the time of
vengeance promised to all the martyrs, “For they
[Satan’s people
throughout history]
have shed the blood of the saints and prophets, and thou
hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy”
(16:6).
Remember, it is the martyrs who are honored with the first resurrection
and it is they “who live and reign with Christ a thousand years”.
All this takes place during the 7th Trumpet period when the Lord
takes over Satan’s kingdoms (11:15) and reigns
(11:17) making Satan’s
followers angry because they know that judgment and wrath and destruction are
about to descend on them (11:18). God’s
wrath is poured out on Satan’s worshippers (16:2), the martyrs are avenged
(16:6), Satan’s followers suffer and blaspheme God but do not repent
(16:9,10,11; etc.), Jesus--who is
now reigning over all of Satan’s former kingdoms--prepares His people (who have not been raptured!)
(16:15) for
the wipe-out at Armageddon. This is when God lets go His fierce wrath in remembrance of
all the evil Satan’s empire of Babylon has caused (16:14-21).
Those seven last plagues and the wipe-out at Armageddon are also
described as a time when the Beast and the False Prophet are killed
(19:15,20)
and when God “has avenged the blood of His servants...”[i.e., His
martyrs](19:2) as He promised He would
(6:10,11).
-------
Thus, by way of summary on this part, there are three subjects relating
to the “thousand years” of Revelation 20 which, separately and collectively,
demonstrate that the “thousand years” is not literal, but rather is
a time frame that is Scripturally determined to be the 7th Trumpet period in the Book of The
Revelation of Jesus to St. John. No other Scriptures in the Old Testament and only a few
others from the New Testament are needed to settle this matter.
The three subjects are: 1) The binding of Satan’s deceptive power and
his imprisonment. 2) Christ’s reign.
3) The martyrs time to live and reign
with Christ.
Scripture has been given which shows that any one of these three subjects
separately or in combination with one or both of the others shows unequivocally
that the period called “a thousand years” in Revelation 20 does not and can
not refer to a literal 1000 years. Judged
from Scripture alone, it is certain that both Dispensationalist and Premillennialist doctrines with their literal 1000 year millennium--during which
Jesus returns to Jerusalem from a seven year hiatus in the sky to rule the
world--are false teachings. The
fact that a Christ-hating and New Testament-hating religion has a “holy book”
which teaches the Dispensational-Millennial doctrine with a literal 1000 year
reign by a messiah (not Jesus), adds a most interesting dimension to the
doctrine that multiplied millions of Christians believe is strictly a solid
Bible teaching.
Two other Scriptural subjects which will add even further proof that the “1000 years” is not a literal time frame need to be examined briefly. They are: 1) A little more on the post “1000 year” period. 2) The question of whether the Scriptures say that Jesus comes to earth when He comes again or whether they do not say that.
-------
First; A Little More on the Post “1000 year” Period:
So, looking ahead, the 7th Trumpet time frame is over when Armageddon is
over. The Beast and the False
Prophet are now dead. There is no human leader to carry on Satan’s thrice
decimated, but still intact, global kingdom.
Satan must take personal charge of the situation, and that is exactly
what Scripture says he does: “And when the thousand years are expired [past],
Satan shall be loosed [released] out of his prison” (20:7) “And shall go out
to deceive the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog
(all anti-Christs), to gather them together to battle....”(v.8).
(The Apostle John always spoke of “anti-christs” in the plural, never
in the singular as one hears all the time [I John 2:18,22; 4:3].
The Scriptures call that one who will sit in Jerusalem (Rev.11:7,8), that
one “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that
is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God” [II Thess:2:4] to be a man who has three Biblical titles, none of
which is “anti-christ”. Those
titles are: The Man of Sin, The Son of Perdition (v.3), and The Beast
(Rev.2:2,4,12,14,15,17; 17:11,12,13,17,etc.)
Since we’ve seen that Satan’s control over the world’s kingdoms is
abruptly ended at the beginning of the 7th Trumpet period (11:15), we know that
he was still in charge of those kingdoms during the previous Six Trumpet
periods. This is a
fact made plain by the repeated references to his empowerment of the first and
second Beasts and the worship both receive from the start of the global government after
Babylon has fallen and the 1st Trumpet period has begun.
He is certainly in control during the Mark of the Beast period when the
last Two Martyrs are killed at the very end of the 6th Trumpet time frame.
(11:7,8,14).
-------
Now
we can look more closely at that period after the “thousand years” which
period is called the “little season” (20:3).
Satan’s earthly leaders are dead and he personally goes out
to deceive his own demoralized worshippers and whoever else he can amongst the
remaining "saints" on God’s side worldwide (Luke 12:43-46). This time frame; this “little season” is a time
when Satan goes to afterburners deception-wise.
His worshippers still control the world but their two human leaders are
dead and the previous 3 1/2 years have been hell on earth for them.
Still, they all hate and blaspheme God and are looking for any thing to
encourage themselves and restore their confidence. Satan accommodates
those needs by deceiving them into
believing that they and their god Satan can still defeat God’s Plan.
They hate the Truths they have been forced to recognize, and they love
the deceptions that once ruled the world (II Pet.3:3-5).
They are ready to believe any deception Satan puts on them, and he is
ready to accommodate this longing, for as soon as “...the thousand years are
expired [past], Satan shall be loosed [released] out of his prison,
And shall go out to DECEIVE the nations which are in the four quarters of
the earth....”(20:7,8). So, after
the “thousand years” Satan’s worshippers are eager to believe anything but
the Truth, and he is ready, willing, and able to accommodate them.
Satan succeeds in deceiving his followers completely.
Remember, these are people who know the Truth but “received not a love
of the Truth, that they might be saved."
And because of that " God shall send them strong delusion [error], that they should believe a lie [they will believe
it!]: That they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure
in unrighteousness” (II Thess.2:10-12).
Satan
deceives them and God guarantees that they will believe the deception!
Believe what deception?! What
deception does Satan use?! If there is a more contextual answer than the one
Jesus tells us about in the passages given in Matthew 24:35-51 and Luke
17:28-30, I don’t know where it is. In
Matthew Jesus tells quite a bit about what will be going on before He returns
“in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (v.30).
In the longer passage just cited (verses 35-51) He gives the familiar
comparison about the days of Noah before the flood when the people “...were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah
entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;
so shall the coming of the Son of Man be (vs.37-39).
Jesus also gives the same kind of analogy about Lot in Sodom (Luke
17:28-30). In other words, as
God has prophesied, Satan’s final deception--to which God adds strong delusion
so that it will be believed--is to let everything return to normal...like it was
before all this began! The plagues
are over; Jesus didn’t come; we’ve won!
So let everything return to
“normal”!
(See details
HERE)
Anyway, this somewhat mysterious time frame called
“a little season” bears on the literal “thousand year” issue in a
roundabout way. First we note that this time frame can be quite elastic, as
when Paul stayed in Asia for a “season” called a “while” which appears
to be two or three years. On the
other hand, the first century martyrs are told to rest a “little season”
until the rest of the martyrs from the Mark of the Beast join them, and that has
been over 1900 years. So, with God’s
perspective on time
(which the Preterist View foolishly ignores: HERE), the meaning can be two years or 2000 years. (One would think that it would take several years for
Satan to get his followers so deceived that they would fall for the “normalization” program (a la Noah and Lot)
and basically put the terrible recent past out of their minds. However, when we consider that God Himself actually speeds up
the process by “sending strong delusion so that they will believe the lie”
(II Thess.2:11), we can rest assured that it won’t take very long.
I’d go with the word’s use to describe Paul’s stay in Asia, i.e.,
about two or three years. However long the period is, it ends with “fire coming down
from God out of heaven, and devouring them” [Satan’s living followers], with
the Devil being cast into the Lake of Fire, and with the heaven and the earth
being destroyed and having “fled away; and there was found no place for them”
[i.e., the old heaven and earth.] (20:9-11;II Thess.1:6-10; Is.65:17;66:22).
So, at the end of the “little season”, the Rapture takes place (I
Thess.4:17,18); the general resurrection takes place (John 5:28,29); fire comes
down and kills Satan’s followers (20:9); Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire
(20:10); the earth and the heavens are destroyed (20:11;II Pet.3:10-12); the
White Throne Judgment for those in John 5:28,29 takes place (Rev.20:11,12); God
the Father and Jesus begin eternity with God’s adopted children on a New Earth
with New Heavens (21:3): “for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away”
(20:11; 21:1,3; II Pet. 3:13;
HERE).
Notice in all this that Christians (“saints”= Christians. cf.
Phil.1:1; 4:22; Rev. 13:7; 14:9-12; 16:15; etc.) are still on the earth right down to the last day of this
earth’s history (Rev.20:9)! They
were never Raptured to escape all the trouble as Dispensationalist-Millennialism
and PreMillennialism teach. All the
talk of Daniel’s 70th week being postponed for 2000 years and that week being
seven years during which the rapture of I Thess. 4:13-18 takes them to heaven
with Jesus, where they make a U-turn and come to Jerusalem to rule one thousand
years with the Jews and Him, is a “Jewish Fable” (Titus 1:14) designed to
fulfill the Talmud/Kabbala, not the New Testament of the Bible!
The Rapture is real, but, Scripturally, it can not take place before the
last day of this earth’s history.
NOW, YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! Since--according to Dispensational and Premill teaching--a Pre-tribulation (or mid-trib) Rapture of the Church is the indispensable springboard into a literal “thousand year” reign of Christ, and since it is clear that the Rapture can only come on the last day of this earth’s history, there is no time left for a literal “thousand year” reign on earth, or even one of a few months! This earth’s time is over after the Rapture and the other events on that last day! Hence, any iron-clad Scriptural demonstration that the Rapture as described in I Thessalonians 4:13-18 can only come on the last day of this earth's history...just before this earth is destroyed and removed, is also a demonstration that no literal “thousand year” period follows that Rapture!! (Details can be seen HERE.)
-------
Now (#2) we come to the final question.
According to Scripture alone, does Jesus actually come to earth when He
returns or not??
If Scripture nowhere teaches that Jesus actually even sets foot on this
earth to fulfill the Scriptures about the “thousand years”, it would be
manifestly settled that any doctrine which teaches an earthly reign is false.
Does Scripture so teach?! Is
it possible that a deception of this magnitude could have a major part of the
Church of Jesus Christ totally barking up the wrong tree about End Time
matters?!
Prayerfully lay aside all previous input on the subject, look anew at the
related Scriptures, and--keeping in mind the origin of
Dispensational-Millennialism from the Christ-hating Talmud/Kabbala
teachings--judge for yourself....
-------
Aside from a couple of verses (Zechariah 14:4,9) one searches the
Scriptures in vain for any clear prophesy of Jesus physically coming to earth.
This is strange to say the least, seeing that such a mountain of teaching
is built on Him physically reigning in Jerusalem for a literal “thousand years”.
Since Zechariah 14 contains the only clear Scriptural prophesy which declares
Christ’s physical presence in Jerusalem, we must determine if this reference
tells us what we are told it tells us, wouldn’t you say?
Where do we start?!
Well, let us first remind ourselves that this is an Old Testament prophesy written 494 years before Jesus was born and well over five hundred years before His feet did indeed stand on the Mount of Olives (v.4). Realizing that fact, one must immediately wonder why this reference couldn’t be to His first coming. One must wonder why the fulfillment of this prophesy has to be stretched 2500 years and more into the future instead of 500 years when the New Testament tells us that Jesus did in fact come and stand on the Mount of Olives.
There are several ways to read the highly allegorical/poetic/symbolic
language contained in this chapter of Zechariah.
Verse 4 speaks also “of the Mount of Olives cleaving in the midst
thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great
valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it
toward the south”. In short, when Jesus comes to Jerusalem in this prophesy
given 500 years before His birth, the mountain called the mount of Olives is
going to split in the middle and the two parts are going to go in opposite
directions. The Hebrew word for “mountain”
in the verse (#2022-har) we are told is “sometimes used figuratively”.
This is common and known to all Bible scholars.
Given that common understanding about the figurative use of this word in
the Bible, isn’t there every reason to at least consider and test and see if
this is one of those times when the reference is meant to be taken figuratively
rather than literally??
Yes, certainly there is every reason to look for a figurative,
allegorical interpretation, and virtually no reason to declare dogmatically that
this is to be taken literally. There
is simply no reason to take it literally (except to certify Kabbala-based
Dispensational doctrine...and the Scofield Bible notes!)
Since the word “mountain” figuratively refers numerous times to “government
and rulership” in Scripture, and since Jesus’ coming totally overturned the Old
Testament place of the Jews and established His whole New Testament system where
God was “no respecter of persons”, etc., it is infinitely more
sensible to conclude that this prophesy in Zechariah was fulfilled some 530
years after it was given, than it is to stretch it over 2500 years and
counting.... Sheesh....
But that is only the beginning of the difficulties of stretching this
prophesy fulfillment to the present and beyond!
Verse 9 says: “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that
day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.”
(For Scriptural proof
that Jesus was King over the whole earth in the first century and is not coming
to be King, go (HERE).
As one reads on for the context we see all sorts of things going on that
would not be possible or make any sense if the verse referred to Jesus ruling
the world during a yet future thousand years of bliss on earth.
Terrible plagues smite people; there is tumult with neighbor fighting
neighbor; Judah is fighting at Jerusalem; there are plagues on horses, mules,
camels, asses, “and all of the beasts”; drought is put on some who don’t
come up to worship and others are killed (during a blissful “millennium”?!).
There are sacrifices being carried out!
Nowhere is there even a hint of today’s modern world in all of this.
Besides, is it not more reasonable to go to Nehemiah 8:14-18 where the
conditions befitting the times and what is going on to discover the fulfillment
of this part of Zechariah?? The
time in Nehemiah in those verses is 444 BC, a full half-century after Zechariah’s
dual prophecies, and a full thirty years after Esther’s behavior had secured
total Jewish control over the whole Persian Empire and great numbers of the Jew’s
former enemies were killed or became converts to Judaism and completely subject
to Mordecai’s dictates (Esther Chs.8 & 9)!!
I mean, what’s the point of trying to stretch Zechariah’s prophesies
two thousand and five hundred years into the future when most of what is said
can clearly can be accommodated much better twenty and fifty years later, and
when the part about Jesus can be accommodated five hundred years later when He
tore down the old system forever and erected a new one that cannot be changed??
So, if the only Scripture in the Bible which tells of Jesus actually
being on the earth in Jerusalem can be whittled down to nothing in two minutes,
how can it be that so many Christians believe with all their hearts that the
Bible teaches that He is physically coming back to terra firma earth and rule as
king for a thousand years?? Could a
deception that pervasive ever grab hold and not turn loose of so many
people?! (Hah! Look at the Copernican and Darwinian deceptions
and tell me how many people believe they are scientific truths beyond the
remotest hint of being seriously challenged!)
-------
OK. Let’s look at some
Scriptures where the nature of Jesus’ return--His Second Coming--is plainly
taught, and see what they say:
1) Acts 1:9,10,11 says: “And when He had spoken these things, while
they beheld [watched] He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their
sight. And while they looked
stedfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white
apparel; Which also said, Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go
into heaven.”
“...shall come in like manner...”
What “manner” is that? That
Scriptural picture speaks of Christ’s return all right, and He shall
definitely return! But the picture does not speak of the place to which He will
return, but to the “manner” of His return.
That “manner” is the same as when He left, viz., in a “cloud”.
We see this confirmed numerous times in Scripture....
2) One such passage with which all prophesy students are aware is the “Rapture”
passage in I Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Here
we see the key point in question clearly spelled out in a way which not even
those who firmly believe Jesus is coming to earth to rule and reign will
contest. That point is that He definitely returns from heaven: “...the
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout...and the dead in Christ
shall rise first....” (v.16) But
where is Jesus when these are raised? Answer:
the same place He is when He raises those who are alive at that time.
Note the very next words in v.17: “Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them [the dead in Christ] IN THE CLOUDS
, to meet the Lord IN THE AIR: and so shall we a) be with the Lord for: a) seven years (Dispensational- Millennialist teaching) or: b) “ever be
with the Lord” (what the verse says). (??)
It is not hard to see why millennialist doctrines have to go through all
that fancy hermenutical footwork about the postponed 70th week, etc., etc., to
make the Rapture be a separate Coming of Christ which precedes the alleged
coming back for a millennial rule....
Jesus
has to be on the ground for the millennium and it is clear that He never comes
to earth to carry out the Rapture. More,
the fact that He doesn’t come to earth to carry out the Rapture reinforces the
conclusion that He comes ONLY in the clouds when He does return because: a)
There is no Scripture which actually says He comes to earth; b)
He resurrects
people in the Rapture without coming to earth; c)
Several Scriptures describe
His coming in the clouds without coming to earth; d)
Jesus pulverizes those at
Armageddon from the sky without ever coming to earth; e)
The dissolution of the
earth (II Peter 3:10-12) is accomplished by fire coming “DOWN from God out of
heaven” (Rev.20:9; Luke 17:29,30; II Thess.7,8), again showing a major event
carried out from the sky.
So here in the Rapture passage particularly we have a stated return of
Jesus from heaven to deal with His people on earth without ever setting foot on
the ground. We keep that firmly in
mind as we examine some other Scriptures related to Christ’s return which have
nothing to do with the “Rapture” per se.
3) Matthew 24:30b says: “...and they shall see the Son of Man coming IN
THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN with power and great glory.
It doesn’t say He comes to earth there, does it?
More, it sounds as though He already has “power and great glory” and
is not coming to get either one and reign on earth.
In fact, Jesus said: “ALL power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”
(Matt.28:18) before He was ever taken up in a cloud (Acts 1:9)!
Jesus is not coming back to be King and reign; He has been King of Kings
and Lord of Lords ever since shortly after that moment in the cemetery when He
told Mary Magdalene: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father...”
(John 20:16,17), and then not more than a few minutes later
He met several of the women and said: “All hail. And they came and held
him by the feet, and worshipped Him” (Matt. 28:9).
If Scripture is to be followed, Jesus had ascended to the Father and
received the authority to rule in those few minutes.
It was just a few days later in Galilee when Jesus told the disciples
that He had been given ALL power in heaven and in earth (v.18).
(Did that make Him “King” or not?)
When the Pharisees asked Jesus “when the kingdom of God should come”,
Jesus replied, did He not, that “the kingdom of God cometh NOT with
observation”? (That verse alone ought to give Millennialists the heeby
jeebies!). And the next one
too: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom
of God is within you” (Luke 17:20,21). The
Bible teaches that God’s Kingdom is not something that can be seen...in
Jerusalem or anywhere else; it is within a person.
Either that, or Jesus lied.
Actually that kind of kingdom and the King over it came when Jesus walked in Galilee and Jerusalem. The ascension to receive all power and authority from the Father in Person was the official transference from God the Father of that power and authority to Jesus in recognition for His obedience in going to the Cross. Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom had already come before the Cross when He said this to a group of people: “...if I with the finger [power] of God cast out devils, no doubt [that proves] the kingdom of God is come upon you” (Luke 11:20). He was casting out devils by God’s power; the Kingdom had come, and so had its King. He just didn’t receive the coronation until His ascension.
Speaking further about this of Jesus, we read: “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matt.21:5). “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord....”(Luke 19:38). “And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev.19:16...This is in heaven (v.11), during the 7th Trumpet, not on earth. Jesus--seated at the right hand of the Father with all power--has allowed Satan to be on a long leash for these nineteen odd centuries. But, at the onset of the 7th Trumpet, Satan’s kingdoms “become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ” (Rev.11:15). He doesn’t just start being King at that point, however, He just imprisons Satan and begins to exercise the great power that He had all along. Read it: “...We give the thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned (11:17)
So, to
repeat: Jesus is not coming to earth to be King and reign for a literal thousand
years or even the figurative few months of the 7th Trumpet period which is the
“thousand years”. He is now
King of kings and Lord of lords and has been so since His ascension and official
coronation by the Father! He has
been sitting on David’s throne for a long time!
Everything has been upheld by His power since His resurrection and
subsequent ascension to the Father. He
has just allowed Satan to continue to be god of this world and control its
kingdoms as part of the Perfect Plan, i.e., until He binds him, takes his
kingdoms away, and begins to exercise His Kingly power without interruption
while God’s vengeance (promised to the martyrs) is poured out during the seven
bowl/vial plagues of the 7th Trumpet. (This is a side point, but a related one,
bearing as it does on whether Jesus is ever coming to earth again, the issue to
which we now return....)
4) As recorded in Matthew 26:64, Jesus said: “...Hereafter shall ye see
the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven.” Does Jesus then come on down to earth? It doesn’t say so....
5) Revelation 1:7 tells us: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every
eye shall see him....” Is this
just before Jesus comes on down to earth? It
doesn’t say so....
-------
Scripture tells us that Jesus comes back in the clouds to Rapture the
dead and living in Christ (I Thess.4:13-18).
It tells us that He resurrects everyone who has ever died who isn’t
taken up in the Rapture (John 5:28,29), with nary a hint that He is on the earth
when He does this. (Do we need another ascension and a 3rd Coming after the “millennium”
to get Jesus back in the sky and get this done??
Where is the Scripture for such a thing?!)
Scripture does tell us that He “cometh with clouds” and every eye
will see Him in the sky (Rev.1:7; Matt.24:27).
It tells us that He sends fire down from heaven, and devours those not
raptured (Rev.20:9). It tells
us that He burns up, melts, and dissolves the earth (II Pet. 3: 10,11,12) from
the sky. It tells us that, from
heaven He causes the earth to flee away never to be found again (Rev.20:11;
Isaiah 65:17).
The only thing that comes down is The New Earth with a New Jerusalem on it which God promised He would create and put in place (Isaiah 66:22; Rev.21:2,10; Rev.21:2). It comes right to the place John saw in the vision, i.e., right to where the old earth was, but by then will have been moved out of the way, having “fled away”). That is to say, the New Earth comes right to the center of the universe where--in the first creation--He hung this old stationary earth on nothing, and declared that it could not be moved...not by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Sagan, or anybody else, until HE moves it to make way for the eternal New Earth with its New Heavens!
This is all done from the sky. Jesus never sets foot on this earth again. This earth is not to be reupholstered so Jesus can come and rule, as the Dispensationalist fable teaches. Rather--as the Bible repeatedly declares--There will be a NEW Earth with NEW Heavens which will replace this Old Earth and Old Heavens that are burned up and dissolved and will flee away never more to "be remembered nor come into mind" (Is.65:17; 66:22; II Pet. 3:10-13;Rev. 21:1)....
That’s about it for this overview.
Several short books dealing in greater detail with the subjects
involved in this essay can be considered
HERE - HERE -
HERE -
HERE....
Also, three other essays where the Scriptural impossibility of a literal
thousand year millennium is demonstrated can be read (HERE
& HERE & HERE)....