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 and who shared in the development of the
Cabala [Kabbala] with his 13th century contributions to that latter day
appendage to the Talmud. As noted in
“The Spiritual Roots of Big Bangism”, Rabbi Nahman [or Nachman] is also the
spiritual father of these other concepts: Big Bangism, the Expanding Universe,
Einsteinian Relativity, and Zionism.
Add to those rather astonishing facts the
information above from The Jewish Encyclopedia , namely, that Rabbi
Nahman is also the father of the Dispensationalist Doctrine previously
thought to have Christian roots in England and Scotland going back fewer than
200 years! 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 per se may pre-date 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.
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Once it is seen that the roots of the
Doctrine of Dispensationalism are traceable to an anti-Christian, anti-Bible
source, and was articulated in the 13th century, we begin to look for other
questionable connections. Given that
this same source 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. As we wonder, it
becomes ever more clear that the guiding hand behind Dispensationalist Doctrine
isn not God’s.
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!
(There is a wake-up call for Christian Zionist Dispensationalists 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 to 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.
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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. When--again in all humility--these two
assertions are confirmed, aa very big reason among many for God’s promised
Judgement on the churches (I Pet.4:17.18) will be fully understood.
It’s your call.... Shall we go??
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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, 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!
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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 endure what Scripture really tells us to expect during the last days of
this earth’s history.
Still, however sympathetic and appreciative
for the Lord’s work to which so many are doing their very best one may be, 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 speaketh 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!
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 possible 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....
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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 the 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 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 New
Earth, 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 in: Heaven:
God’s Love Story & Hell: It’s Not What You Think It Is.)
Anyway, it is clear, is it not, that God
has allowed Satan’s experts to cleverly construct doctrines which purposely
distort Scripture while appearing to extol it?
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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 these core
eschatological beliefs. Again--if there
be any solace in numbers--be assured that your church will have plenty of
company when God’s Judgement on the Churches starts. Equal and even greater shocks than your church receives are a
Scriptural certainty for every church now wearing the Christian label. Judgement will BEGIN “at the house of
God” (I Pet.4:17,18). 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 tell us that if we weren’t in
it, would He??
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The Truth is that Dispensationalism and the
Millennialism which goes with the concept are--as will shortly be
demonstrated--contra-Scriptural teachings which are rooted in the mystic
Rabbinical Kabbala, an adjunct to the Christ hating, New Testament destroying
Talmud.
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:
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
other than Jesus for a thousand years.
(What the Kabbala’s “messiah”--who emphatically IS NOT JESUS--does
after the thousand years allotted him, 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 misteaching , 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 signal 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 they 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 hurt 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 will you will 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 end up in hell. If so, why does God call the city “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, etc.]
and not on things on the 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 #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 put the
gun to the head of the Preterist View now appealing to those who see the holes
in the Dispensationalist eschatology.)
Go HERE.
F. Rev. 20:4 (backed up by Rev.6:11) says that all martyrs including
the 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 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?! I
think 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, see: The Rapture: The
Question is “When”?)
(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!), 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 misteaching 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 a 110 page book
called: Hell: It’s Not What You Think It Is.)
Where was I? Oh, yes, letter I (i, eye, aye, ieee, whatever...)
I. So...If the martyrdom, revival, 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 the 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 god 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?? 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 (lead) 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 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 and 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 the 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. 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 commentator!)
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).
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 ends 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 only 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 THOSE KINGDOMS AND
THE DECEPTION BY WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN CONTROLLED THROUGHOUT HISTORY ARE
TO BE TAKEN AWAY AT A TIME WHEN THE TAIL END OF THE BEAST’S REIGN BEGINS AND THAT
DECEPTIVE POWER WITHOUT THE KINGDOMS IS NOT RESTORED, UNTIL
THE BEAST’S RULE IS ENDED. 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 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 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.
(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 judgement 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 rules
all Satan’s former kingdoms without interference--prepares His people who
have not been raptured (16:15) for the wipe-out at Armageddon, where 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 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” are not literal 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] is 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 world
first and second Beasts and the worship both receive from the start of that 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
fakers 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
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 they are. 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 in: God’s End Time Drama.)
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, 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 come 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 Judgement 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: “for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away” (20:11; 21:1,3; II Pet. 3:13).
Notice in all this that Christians
(“saints”= Christians. cf. Phil.1:1;4:22;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 fulfil 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, 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 just before this earth is destroyed and removed, is also a
demonstration that no “thousand year” period follows that Rapture whether
it is literal or not!! (Details
can be seen in: The Rapture: The Question is “When”?.)
-------
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 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 lone
Scriptural prophesies which declare 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 there 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.”
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 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 Scripture 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 in the air for 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 thru 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 Ratpure 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 of that power and
authority in recognition for Jesus’ 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 resurrect 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 then will be 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
the 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 millennialist fable teaches,
nor--as the capstone of Kabbalistic Dispensationalism anticipates--is it to be
the site of the reign of another messiah than Jesus.
That’s about it for this overview. Several short books dealing in greater
detail with all the subjects involved can be considered HERE....