Off the Chart: A Thousand Years of Peace, Then to Infinity and Beyond

After the world’s armies are destroyed, an angel binds Satan with chains and throws him into a bottomless pit where he is imprisoned for a thousand years. At that time the people who believed in Jesus and died during the Tribulation period are raised from the dead. With that resurrection all the people from all along the Time Line who believed in God (during the Old Testament time) and Jesus (during the New Testament time) will be alive in their new bodies and will live with God forever.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem and sets up his throne to rule the whole world from there for the next thousand years – called the Millennium period. He will govern those people who made it through the Tribulation period still alive. Some will be believers, and some will be those who didn’t fight in the battle of Armageddon. He will judge the survivors and send those unbelievers to the lake of fire. At this point there will only be believers left on earth - some still alive in the bodies like we have now, and the remainder in their new eternal bodies. Those believers of the church will be tasked with ruling with Jesus for that thousand year period. We are not told what that would involve, just that they would be ruling and judging.

During the thousand years of peace there will be many people born from the Tribulation survivors. Those later generations will not have lived through those terrible times, only heard of them. Unfortunately, they will still be human beings and descendants of Adam with that disobedient nature and will not be happy under the ruler ship of Jesus on earth. Since God knows the real nature of mankind’s heart, after that thousand years of peace, he allows Satan to be let out of his prison to stir up the people and give them one final choice to follow God and believe him, or choose to turn their backs on him. Those who choose to follow Satan will be destroyed and Satan thrown in the lake of fire for eternity.

At that time God will cause all of his creation to disappear (Revelation 20:11-15). There will be nothingness, except God the Father – the first spirit – sitting on his throne of judgment. This is called the Great White Throne Judgment and it is reserved for all of those who rejected him while they lived on earth. Each individual born on earth will stand before God and be judged. Since they had rejected him while alive, they were sent to their eternal place in the lake of fire – the only place in all of creation where God will be absent. Since they did not want anything to do with God they will be given their consequences of being without him for all eternity.

After the Great White Throne Judgment, God will create a new heaven and a new earth. I’m sure that means a completely new universe, because he also creates a city, called New Jerusalem, which is fifteen hundred miles wide, long and high. Now our current moon is a little over twenty one hundred miles in diameter, so this will be almost 3/4 the size of it. This city-planet-moon will be built of all sorts of precious stones for its foundations and walls*. The streets will be clear, pure gold. It will light the earth because Jesus the second spirit will be living there. This will be the eternal home of all those believers who made up the church. The earth will be inhabited with all the remainder of the believers who lived on the earth throughout the rest of the Time Line. Revelation chapters 21 and 22 give an in-depth description of this.

After this, it’s infinity and beyond forever and ever. We’re not given much information about it – just that it will be no more Curse, that God will wipe away all our tears so that we will have joy and peace forever.

*Note: I had done a study of the foundation stones and their colors. I did an illustration for myself and discovered that there is one BLOOD RED stone towards the center in that stack of foundation layers, that is a continuation of that Scarlet Cord of Christ that we’ve seen all through the timeline of history. Throughout all Eternity Future we will see that Scarlet Cord to remind us of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be in His presence forever.

The Great Escape

After the great snatching away of those who gave their lives over to Jesus they will be taken directly to the place where the 3-part God dwells, in Heaven. We get glimpses of it throughout the Bible in both Old and New Testaments. All “raptured” believers will be instantly given new bodies – or resurrected bodies – with the same attributes as Jesus’ new body. Our bodies will be changed to overcome the space-time limitations which now bind us to the Time Line and this earth. The new bodies will live forever and never be subject to the illnesses we face now.

During the last seven years of the current Time Line, during the time of judgment on earth and its people, those believers in Heaven will go through a rewards judgment, a rewards ceremony, and a dinner banquet.

The first event will be the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). Every believer will stand before the Judgment (Bema in the Greek) Seat where they will give an account of the work they did for God in obedience to him. This is the first order of official business in eternity future for the believer. An example would be that if they believed God told them to do something and they obeyed, they will receive an award. If they disobeyed, or did it to please those around them at the time, or make themselves look better than others, their motives would have been wrong and they won’t receive a reward. Those who hung in there during persecution, those who yearned for Jesus’ return, and those who lead groups of believers will receive rewards to name a few. That is what is meant when Jesus told the people around him to lay up their treasures in Heaven.

The second event will be the giving of awards, or the awards ceremony. There are several crowns given for different types of rewards. These are diadems, or crowns of honor and royalty. 2 Timothy 4:8 speaks of a crown of righteousness, James 1:12 describes a crown of life, 1 Peter 5:4 shows a crown of glory, and Revelation 2:10 describes a crown of life. These are just a few of the rewards written about.  Not much is written about the time called eternity future – just glimpses of how wonderful it will be.

The final event during those 7 years will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Jesus is described as the perfect Lamb of God because while he lived here on earth, he lived a perfect life and took the place of the Jewish sacrificed lamb to pay for our disobedience so we wouldn’t have to. Revelation 19:7-9 talks about the event. It will be the final celebration when all believers dine with Jesus and each other in the largest banquet of all time.

Shortly after the Marriage Supper, Jesus returns to earth on a white horse, followed by the armies of Heaven riding white horses. I would like to think those armies were the angels followed by the raptured believers. It doesn’t specify if the believers will be in that campaign. Revelation 19:14 just says “armies.” Jesus and his army will ride down to where the battle of Armageddon will be raging and the armies of earth will immediately turn to fight him. Revelation 19: 19-21 describes how he will take the world leader (the beast) and his false prophet and cast them into the lake of fire alive. He will then destroy the remainder of the armies of the world.

Next post – beyond the Time Line.

The Great Tribulation

The last three and one-half years left on the Time Line are going to be the most devastating years ever seen in the history of mankind. The first spirit, God the Father, has been very patient with his creatures’ disobedience throughout the Time Line. The only other time in history that God intervened and turned his wrath on earth was during the great flood back towards the early part of the Time Line. He did it to save the purity of the human race, but that is another study for later.

This last few years of earth’s existence as we know it are called the Great Tribulation because during this time God is going to throw great hail, fire and what are described as comets down onto earth to destroy the vegetation, the water, and pretty much everything that man needs to survive. These final judgments total 14 in all: 7 trumpet judgments and 7 bowl or vial judgments. The final trumpet judgment opens the first bowl judgment.

The first 3 trumpet judgments destroy a third of all vegetation on earth, then turning a third of the oceans into blood, and finally a third of the fresh water is turned into blood. If you read the book of Revelation chapters 8 through 10, it gives a graphic description of what will happen during these judgments. The fourth trumpet judgment snuffs out a third of the light from the heavens including the sun, moon and stars, which will make things night and day a third darker.

The final 3 trumpet judgments are called the Woe Judgments (Revelation 8:13) because of their terrible nature which begins even more deadly judgments. The fifth trumpet takes up half of Revelation 9 and describes the demonic beings that are given free rein to torment those people left alive on the earth. People will want desperately to die, but they won’t be able to. That completes the first Woe. The sixth trumpet takes up the second half of Revelation 9 and describes assembling the armies of the east, given power by the hand of Satan, to cross the river Euphrates and march to war, killing a third of the people left on earth. Verse 17 describes fire, smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths which is a great description of tanks today. The Chinese army is the only army in the world that can fulfill the number of soldiers described in Revelation 9. And I recently read a news post that with the new dam on the Euphrates River, the flow of water can be shut down and dry up the river bed. And they had already done it as a test.

The final trumpet judgment opens the way for the bowl judgments. Revelation 15:5 describes the temple in Heaven opening and 7 angels are introduces who hold the last 7 judgments. The first angel pours out the first bowl and all of the people who took the mark of allegiance to the one world government and its leader are affected with terrible sores. When the second bowl is poured out the remainder of the sea coagulates like blood and all the creatures in the oceans die. The third bowl turns all rivers and all fresh water into blood, so no one will have anything to drink.

When the fourth bowl is poured out the sun scorches men with fire. That sounds like our sun going super-nova. Several years ago I read a little article in the back of our newspaper about things happening to our sun and that the scientists were worried. I wish I would have clipped and saved it now, because I have seen subtle changes in the level of light and sunspots in our sun.

The fifth bowl caused darkness over the headquarters and territories of the one world government. We don’t know exactly how that darkness will be caused, but it could be erupting volcanoes as some scholars have suggested. The sixth bowl causes the river Euphrates to completely dry up for the Chinese army to march on Israel and start their military attack. That begins the campaign of Armageddon, the final great battle on earth. The remaining countries bring their armies to the Valley of Megiddo in Israel where they will fight against Israel to completely wipe the nation and its people off the face of the earth. Satan has empowered these armies to do his bidding, lead by the one world leader, and this is his final fight to the death. The only way out for Israel is a direct intervention from God.

At that point the final judgment of the Great Tribulation is poured out with the greatest earthquake that earth has ever experienced, and with huge hailstones thrown down on mankind. A voice from the temple in Heaven said, “It is finished.” Then the second spirit of God, Jesus, came down from Heaven on a white horse followed by the armies of Heaven and destroyed the armies of the earth and kept them from totally destroying Israel. He threw the antichrist (the one world ruler) and his false prophet (who tried to turn all religions into a one world religion) into imprisonment into the one place in all of creation where God is absent. It is called the lake of fire.

At that point Jesus binds Satan and his followers for a thousand years so that they cannot tempt, deceive or harm any person left living at the end of the tribulation. Jesus sets up his throne in the city of Jerusalem to rule the world for a thousand years (called the Millennium). During that time there will be people born on earth who will be disobedient to God and at the end of that thousand years, Satan will be set free for a period of time to test the people to see if they would stay true to God or follow him. The ones who choose to follow Satan will be destroyed and Satan and his followers will be bound forever in the lake of fire.

Then future eternity begins. All the people who wanted God in their lives will be able to live in his presence. Those who rejected God will spend their final phase of life – eternity future – in the one place where God is absent, the lake of fire. God recreates the earth and heaven and creates a new mini-planet/moon called the city of New Jerusalem where those who were part of the church will live. All others who believed God throughout the rest of the Time Line will live on the new earth for eternity future.

Next installment we’ll look at what’s going on in Heaven during these 7 years.

The Middle of the Tribulation

As promised, I will elaborate on the middle of the Tribulation period (three-and one-half year mark), during the Seventh Seal Judgment. But first we’ll have to go back to before the Time-Line and the creation of our universe to catch us back up to what is really going on in Heaven and why this one world leader will be taken over by Satan.

Way back in eternity past, before God created his universe and earth, he created messenger spirits. These spirit beings are what we call angels. God had angels that stood around his throne and sang to him and worshiped him. The head worship angel was called Lucifer and was gifted with a voice and the knowledge of music. It was his job to lead the worship around God’s throne. Unfortunately, his talents gave him what we call “the big head” or a bad dose of pride, and he got jealous that the angels weren’t worshiping him. He decided he wanted to be like God and wanted to take over God’s place. At that point, he was kicked out of his place, but not before he spread his discontent among at least a third of the others, and they left with him. I can’t imagine any being, knowing what Heaven and God were like, would turn their backs on all of that and walk away, but he did.  (Isaiah 14: 12-19)

When God created the earth, and then created the first two people, Adam and Eve, Satan figured he could get them, and all their descendents, to follow him instead of God. When Eve listened to Satan, who disguised himself as a snake (the Bible calls him a serpent) and disobeyed God, which was the first sin or act of disobedience to the few laws that God had set up for mankind. The one law that Eve disobeyed was eating a certain fruit in the Garden they lived in – the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan deceived her into eating it. But Eve went to Adam and Adam listened to Eve and not God, which was blatant disobedience. God had set it up that Adam was to take care of the garden and his wife and keep Satan out, which he didn’t do very well. The rest is history – they were both kicked out of the Garden before they could eat of the other special fruit of Eternal Life. God was merciful when he kicked them out because they would have lived eternally like Satan and the angels he took with him – without ever having a chance to make it right with God and spending eternity without him.

When God kicked the first couple out of their Garden home, he told them that there would be one coming that would destroy Satan. Of course, Satan heard it, and he has tried to destroy mankind ever since. When God chose Abram to be the head of a new chosen people, the Jews, Satan realized that the chosen one would come out of that race of people, so he has tried his best to destroy them down through the centuries. And when Satan found out that God’s second spirit was born in the nation of Israel, he caused the king of the area to kill all babies that would be around the age that Jesus would be. God had told his step-dad Joseph to run to Egypt so Jesus wouldn’t be killed. Satan thought he had it made when Jesus died on the cross, but since God raised him from the dead, Satan has resumed his fight against Israel and used dictators and armies to kill as many Jews as he could. And when the church was formed, he started in on the people of the church, and has done so ever since.

All these millennia, God has allowed Satan to have an appointment in God’s throne room and allowed him to accuse God’s people. This is going to stop and Satan and all his followers will be permanently kicked out of Heaven right in the middle of the seven year Tribulation. He will be furious, and will put himself inside the world leader and use him as a puppet to rule the world and destroy as many of God’s people as he can. And he is going to use the body of the one world ruler to have the people of the world worship him, just as he wanted to be worshiped before the beginning of time.

Next post – that most terrible time of great tribulation.

The Seal Judgments

Shortly after the disappearance of a large number of people, God will begin to deal with Israel’s unbelief in his Son Jesus, and with the rest of the people left on earth. These people either outright rejected God, or didn’t bother to give it a thought and have found themselves left behind in a world that will soon resemble a blockbuster disaster movie for seven years.

I’m sure you have heard the world’s politicians talk about a new world order. Even George W. Bush spoke of it, and started NAFTA, which would put the United Stated grouped with all of north and central America. In the Book of Revelation at the end of the Bible, that would be one of the 10 kingdoms spoken of. In order for one person to rule the whole world, it would have to be divided in larger groups than it is now. Many countries must be grouped together – like the European Union – in order to manage the people, wealth and resources more efficiently. With the invention of the computer and the RFID chip (you’ve seen them in the packages you’ve brought home from the store), anyone can be tracked anywhere in the world today. The technology is already in place. The RFID chip emits a radio signal that can be tracked – in the stores it must be deactivated once the product is paid for or else the receiver at the door will sound an alarm when you leave. The technology is already in place to have that chip – the size of a grain of rice – implanted into people. That is how people will be tracked.

There are 7 Seal judgments which make up the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation period on earth. You’ve heard of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse? This is where they came from. They are images of 4 things that will happen at the beginning of the Tribulation period. The first horse depicted is a white horse with a rider carrying a bow with no arrows. That means that a leader will arise (a white horse signifies conquest and generals like Napoleon rode them into battle) who will come to world power through peaceful means. That world leader is alive now and waiting in the wings to be revealed. The disappearance of many people (the church) will cause the already unstable world markets to go over the edge and probably cause a cascade effect in the banking system. We all know that many countries, the US included, is printing money in their efforts to keep their monetary systems stable. This catastrophic disappearance will likely trigger a great world stock market crash. This leader will come up with ways to fix these systems, though temporarily, and the people left on earth will demand he be their leader.

Of course, the second horse/seal judgment is the horse of war. There will always be someone who can’t be pleased, and there will be countries that won’t like the solutions, so they will go to war. Probably an escalation of war in the Middle East against Israel will be part of that war.

With war comes famine – the black horse or the third seal judgment.  Even now there many parts of the world under severe drought like the state of California. Food prices here have skyrocketed because of it. Once the bombs start dropping the the tanks start rolling all over the countryside, there will be very few crops left to feed the world’s population and many will starve.

This brings us to the 4th Seal judgment, or the 4th horse of death, the pale horse. Between the wars and the lack of food, many will starve to death and die of diseases on a scale never before seen in history. These judgments are natural judgments which come from man’s actions.

The 5th seal comprises of the saints (those who have given their lives over to Jesus) being killed for their faith. The one world leader will have his own religion and it doesn’t involve God. As I see the rapid rise of the Muslim religion and their demands that one must either accept that religion or die, it makes perfect sense to me that this would be the religion of the world leader and his religious leader.

The 6th seal is made up of turmoil in the heavens and a great earthquake. Revelation chapter 6 and verses 12-17 describe it pretty well.  The great earthquake comes at the same time that the sun turns black and the moon turns red. Stars fall from the heavens – which may be meteorites. The whole effect is so catastrophic that the rich and rulers will hide in the caves and dens, and know in their hearts that it is God’s doing. This is in preparation to the second half of the Tribulation, which is also called the Great Tribulation, when God pours his wrath down on planet earth.

The final seal judgment is two-fold. There is silence in all of Heaven because of the realization of what is to come, and it also starts the first Trumpet judgment, when God intervenes and begins to destroy the earth, one segment at a time. This will cause the death of millions of people, Jew and Gentile alike, who refused to believe God. The people who remained true to God will also be killed, since these final judgments will be worldwide.

At the very center of the 7 years two things happen. Here on earth, the world leader shows his true character. He travels to the temple in Jerusalem, which has been built in the past few years, and demands that all the people of the world worship him as a god. At this time Satan is cast out of Heaven for good, and enters into the soul of the world leader, which the Bible calls the Beast, or Antichrist.

Next post I will elaborate on these two.