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Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
| Let's ask God to grant us His assistance during this lesson: |
| O Lord, our God, You have guided us in our previous explorations of Your Word. We want to continue to study Your Holy Book, and this is why we implore Your presence once again, so that we may understand the prophecies You have given us, which will soon be fulfilled. This is our prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Revelation 1:3 |
Comments |
| Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. | A special blessing is granted to the students of the
book of Revelation: so much the better, since we will now study the 1000 years described
in the twentieth chapter of this prophetic book. Let us investigate this period of 1000 years (also commonly called the «millennium», a Latin word meaning «1000 years»), and discover the events which will take place: - before the millennium; - during the millennium; - after the millennium. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: |
Comments |
| The sun will be darkened, and
the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. |
First, let's look at the events which will precede the
millennium. Jesus must first return and gather His people before the beginning of the millennium. Let's remember that the signs of the times, which we can see nowadays, foretell the imminence of Christ's return. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: Revelation 20:4 |
Comments |
| And I saw the souls of those who
had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not
worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on
their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. |
The next event to take place before the millennium
begins: the resurrection of the righteous believers, who died in Jesus Christ. Now, let's carefully read the verses following this passage in Revelation... |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: |
Comments |
| But the rest of the dead did not
live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. |
As we have studied in our lesson «After Death», there will be two resurrections: - first, that of the righteous in Christ, which will take place at His return and mark the beginning of the millennium; - next, that of the wicked who rejected Jesus, which will take place at the end of the millennium. The following two verses show that the Bible truly teaches that there will be two resurrections. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
John 5:29 |
Comments |
| Those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. | So there will be two resurrections. Note that Daniel, Jesus, and John placed them in the same order: - first that of the just; - then that of the wicked. |
Daniel 12:2 |
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| And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 |
Comments |
| Behold, I tell you a mystery: We
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. |
The third event to take place just before the millennium begins: the transformation of the just who are still alive at the return of Christ, giving them incorruptibility and immortality. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 |
Comments |
| For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of
God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. |
Once the dead in Christ are resurrected and the living are transformed, Jesus will gather them all to His side in the clouds, that they may live forever with Him. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: |
Comments |
| And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. | As we can see, the scenario remains the same wherever
we look in the Scriptures. Maybe all this seems too beautiful to be true, but Jesus Himself confirms that these events will take place very soon. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: |
Comments |
| (...) when the Lord Jesus is
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who
do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (...) And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. |
The last event before the millennium begins: the
unjust will be destroyed, being unable to bear the brightness of Jesus Christ's coming. They will then remain dead until the end of the thousand years. |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Before the millennium: Zephaniah 1:2,3 |
Comments |
| «I will utterly consume all
things from the face of the land», says the Lord. «I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land», says the Lord. |
There will be no man left alive on the earth during the millennium. |
| Before the millennium: Jeremiah 25:33 | |
| And at that day the slain of the
Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
During the millennium: Revelation 20:1-3 |
Comments |
| Then I saw an angel coming down
from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. |
As the millennium begins, Satan is bound on the earth
(we will study the word «bound» in a moment). The words «bottomless pit» («abussos» or «abyss» in Greek) mean «desolate land», as the next verses will show us. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
Genesis 1:2 |
Comments |
| The earth was without form, and
void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. |
The deep («abussos» in Greek, «tehom»
in Hebrew) refers to the same thing as the bottomless pit: the earth before Creation. During the millennium, the earth will return to a state of total desolation. |
| During the millennium: Jeremiah 4:23-25 | |
| I beheld the earth, and indeed it
was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light. I beheld the mountains,
and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
During the millennium: |
Comments |
| Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it. | Since all the wicked will die at Christ's return,
Satan will no longer be able to deceive people on earth during the millennium. This is why the Bible says that he will be «bound a thousand years»: he will actually be bound by circumstances, being able only to see the sad results of his rebellion against God. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
During the millennium: 1 Thessalonians 4:17 |
Comments |
| Then we who are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. |
During the millennium, Jesus Christ will
reign in heaven with His people. And what will they be doing all that time? |
| During the millennium: Revelation 20:6 | |
| Blessed and holy is he who has
part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
During the millennium: Revelation 20:4,12 |
Comments |
| And I saw thrones, and they sat
on them, and judgment was committed to them. (...) And books were opened. (...) And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. |
Jesus' people will assist Him in judging
the wicked and the fallen angels. They will then understand the reasons for their condemnation. |
| During the millennium: 1 Corinthians 6:2,3 | |
| Do you not know that the saints
will judge the world? (...) Do you not know that we shall judge angels? |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Revelation 20:3,5 |
Comments |
| He cast [Satan] into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the
nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. (...) But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. |
As we have just seen, Satan will be «bound» during
the millennium, being unable to deceive people anymore. But, after the thousand years, the wicked will be resurrected, and Satan will be «released», being able, once again, to deceive them and encourage them to persist in their rebellion. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Revelation 20:8,9 |
Comments |
| And [Satan] will go out to
deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather
them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. |
Satan's goal will be to invade New
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. But why does the prophecy speak of «Gog and Magog»? |
| After the millennium: Zechariah 14:3,5 | |
| Then the Lord will go forth and
fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. (...) Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Ezekiel 38:2,3,7,8 (NIV) |
Comments |
| Son of man, set your face
against Gog, of the land of Magog; (...) prophesy against him and say: (...) «Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety.» |
The names Gog and Magog refer to this prophecy, describing how Satan will lead the nations to besiege New Jerusalem. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Ezekiel 38:10,11,15,16 |
Comments |
| On that day it shall come to
pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: You will say, «I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.» (...) Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. |
Seeing the Heavenly City coming down from heaven, Satan will decide to besiege it, and to do so he will gather all the nations and deceive them. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Ezekiel 38:18,22,23 |
Comments |
| «And it will come to pass at
the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel», says the Lord God, «that My
fury will show in My face. (...) I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.» |
And this is how the tragedy will end: Satan, his angels and the wicked will receive their judgement, and will then be destroyed by a rain of fire and brimstone. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: |
Comments |
| It shall come to pass in that
day that the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the kings
of the earth. They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; after many days they will be punished. |
The prophet Isaiah also summarizes the course of these
events: - the wicked, killed by the brightness of Christ's coming, will remain captive in death for «many days», that is 1000 years; - after that, they will be resurrected for their judgment and «will be punished». |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: |
Comments |
| And I saw the dead, small and
great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. (...) And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (...) [They] shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. |
Before being destroyed, the wicked will receive their
judgment. Having rejected God's call during their life, their name will not appear in the Book of Life. They alone will be responsible for their bad decision. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Malachi 4:1,3 |
Comments |
| «For behold, the day is coming,
burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly, will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,» says the Lord of hosts, «that will leave them neither root nor branch. (...) You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.» |
As we have seen in the lesson «Is There Really a Hell?», the destruction of Satan, his angels, and the wicked will be total and complete. |
| After the millennium: Revelation 20:9 | |
| And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
After the millennium: Revelation 21:1-3,5 |
Comments |
| I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more
sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, «Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. (...) These words are true and faithful.» |
Finally, New Jerusalem will come down onto the new
earth, and will become its capital city. This will be the subject of a future lesson. Now, let's draw up a summary of this lesson. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
| What will happen before, during, and after the millennium? |
| Before the millennium | During the millennium
| After the millennium =======================|=======================|========================= -Jesus Christ returns. | -Jesus reigns in hea- | -The wicked are awakened -All the dead in Jesus | ven with His people. | thus releasing Satan. Christ resurrect. | -The case of each un- | -New Jerusalem comes -The righteous still | repentant person is | down out of heaven. alive are transformed.| reviewed. | -Satan, his angels, and -The Church is caught | -Satan is bound on | the wicked all receive up in heaven for the | the earth, being the | their judgment, and are marriage supper. | only one alive there.| then destroyed. -The glory of Jesus | -The earth remains in | -God makes a new Crea- kills the wicked. | total desolation. | tion for His people. |
Lesson 25 |
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The 1000 Years of Revelation |
| Let's thanks God for His blessings: |
| Lord, How can we thank You for the loving call You send us patiently, day after day, so that we may take a stand for You? We want to invite You to dwell in our hearts, to transform us and make us worthy, in Jesus Christ, to have part in the first resurrection, at Your Son's return. In His precious name we pray. Amen. |
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The
1000 Years of Revelation