Friday, June 10, 2016

1000 Year Reign of Christ

When was the last time you heard someone talk or preach about the 1000 Year Reign of Christ? God tells us He is creating a New Heavens and a New Earth and that should be reason enough for us to research and discern this Eschatology as part of our Christian reality. While Heaven is certainly our eternal destiny, we need to weigh the entirety of the scriptures with the fact that there will be a new eternal Earth as well. This reality is obviously an even greater expanse for the renewed/perfected human race other than just Heaven. 
Isaiah 65:17
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Revelation 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

1000 Year Days 
Many preachers and theologians that view the discussion of the 1000 Year Days as being numerology, or that it’s God’s way of saying that time is minuscule in His eyes. Well let’s dispel that notion right up front and demonstrate that God has done many great work and appointments on specific Millennia 
2nd Peter 3:8
But beloved, do not let this one thing be hidden from you, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

Moses reiterates the point of the 1000-Year-Day in Psalms. 
Psalms 90: 4
One thousand years in your sight are but a single day that passes by, just like a night watch.

God makes a very important point in Chapter 46 of His book to the prophet Isaiah that is the backdrop and foundation for much of Eschatology we will discuss in this blog and future writings. 
Isaiah 46:9-10
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
God tells us in Isaiah that He has “declared the end from the beginning,” and in the prophetic nature of God, He did exactly that when He gave Moses the first 35 verses of the Genesis. It would be too much of a rabbit hole to describe in detail for this letter, but all of human history from Adam until the end of time is revealed in those initial verses of Genesis 1 and 2. Most people don’t realize that many of the great prophets, kings, and icons of the Bible were born or positioned precisely on Millennial days.  
Day 1 (3000BC) Noah
Day 2 (2000BC) Abraham
Day 3 (1000BC) King David
Day 4 (1AD) King Jesus

Above is the storyline of how God works on Millennial Days, and when God speaks about 1000 Year Days it can and is prophetic and literal. In Genesis 2:17 God told Adam if he ate of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that “in the day that you eat you will surely die” and we know that Adam lived 930 years. Almost a 1000-years or “A Millennial Day” later. In Genesis 6:3 God tells Moses that He is going to reduce man’s lifespan to 120 years right before the flood of Noah. One Thousand Years later Moses himself dies on his birthday at the exact age of 120. Moses death was an exact fulfillment of the declaration God made just before the flood. Moses “with his eyes still bright” (meaning he was still full of life) fulfilled that prophecy perfectly 1000 Years later in Deuteronomy 34:7. 
As God finished His six days of work creating the Universe and every detail of Heaven and Earth, He ends with this very prophetic proclamation. 
Genesis 2:1-2
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 

Hebrews 4: 4-5
For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works” 

1000 Year Reign of Christ
Just as God gave Moses and man the 10 Commandments to guide our path, God also took remembrance of these truths as well as you can see in Genesis 2:1-2 to “remember the Sabbath Day and keep Holy.” This was a declaration of rest from His creative process on the 7th day of the week, and the fact that Satan and his angles are locked up in a bottomless pit during the 1000 Year Reign of Christ is why the millennial reign is referred to as a Day of Peace/Rest.
There are three primary books of Scripture (see below) that describe this Millennial Day after the events of the 7-year Tribulation/Apocalypse have ended. John’s Revelation seems to indicate that the New Heavens and New Earth after the 1000 Year Reign of Christ, I also see Isaiah 65: 17-25 seems to indicate the New Heaven and New Earth are to be formed before the 1000 Year Reign of Christ. So as 2 Timothy 2:15 says I implore you to rightly divide the Word of Truth and come to your conclusion. 

Revelation 20:1-3
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years. He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the 1,000 years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.

Revelation 20:6-9
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of the Messiah, and they will reign with Him for 1,000 years. When the 1,000 years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth,  Gog, and Magog, to gather them for battle.  Their number is like the sand of the sea. They came up over the surface of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city.  Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
Isaiah 65:17-25
For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. Then be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people. The sound of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her. In her, a nursing infant will no longer live only a few days, or an old man not live out his days. Indeed, the youth will die at a hundred years, and the one who misses a hundred years will be cursed. People will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and others live in them; they will not plant and others eat. For My people’s lives will be like the lifetime of a tree. My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor without success or bear children destined for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord along with their descendants. Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on My entire holy mountain,” says the Lord.

Isaiah 11: 6-10
The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den. None will harm or destroy another on My entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water. On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His resting place will be glorious.

Ezekiel 37: 25-26
They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live in it forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will establish and multiply them and will set My sanctuary among them forever.

These scriptures above are abounding and a deep wealth of knowledge about what the future holds for God’s Creation, Christians, the Hebrew people, and allows us to glimpse the destiny for the world at large. It is evident that Satan will be bound for 1000 years. This will usher in a dispensation of peace and rest that will end not with a final war. Many have described this as a fire from Heaven that devours Satan, and all his angelic, demonic, and human minions.  (Revelation 20:9-10)
Animals Become Peaceful: I have long debated with other Christians about animals in Heaven, and it was not until I did my full vetting of this project that I realized it’s not about whether animals are in Heaven. It’s about us as perfected humans/spirits have access to this new Earth where animals are peaceful, herbivores, and possibly communicative. Psalms 150: 6 says that “everything has breath will praise The Lord.” So while we know there are horses and beast and other “living creatures” in Heaven itself, we are also well assured that on this New Earth there will be animals in a perfected nature. (Isaiah 11: 6-9) 
Life Spans Increased: Here a passage with some astounding information. Isaiah 65:20-25 says, "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
People will procreate: It is clear in both Isaiah 65:23 and Ezekiel 37:26 that during this 1000 Year Reign of Christ there will be offspring, infants, toddlers, children, etc… So, this begs the question; who all will be procreating during this prelude to eternity? I think many will conclude that in Isaiah 65: 22-23 that these are “Chosen” people that will have offspring, but we also see in Isaiah 46:20 that sinners will also procreate and die with increased lifespans. The curious nature that is in my heart must ask; what about us? As the perfected, renewed, redeemed of Christ is it too bold of a question to ask if we procreate in this 1000 Year Reign? Most would point to the scripture in 
Matthew 22:30
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

To that, I would ask what about the angels in Genesis 6: 1-4 that obviously procreated with human women to create “giants”? They obviously were not sexless if they indeed procreated with human women. Obviously procreation is not predicated on marriage, and in the end, we are all married to The Lamb of God in Heaven, so the human idea of marriage is irrelevant. 
I hope this letter has stimulated you to do some digging on your own into the fascinating book of the Bible God left for all of us. I am so encouraged by the reality that we serve such an amazingly powerful God and want to encourage all Christians to take God, and our denominational ideologies out of the tiny boxes we have kept Him in. Let us see beyond our wildest visions. We serve a BIG GOD, and as long as our imaginations don’t go beyond the bounds of sound doctrine, then let’s dream big... Flying like angels, talking animals (Balaam’s Donkey did it on Earth) future generations of perfected human beings (without physical limitations), a sinless Earth. It is all a grand vision that most don’t dare to explore, but I say why not?

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