EXPLAINING HUMAN DESTINIES IN BIBLE PROPHECY (CHARTED)

Part IV: Explaining Human Destinies In The Millennial Kingdom

 

I.               Introduction

A.    After our initial, single lesson on “Human Destinies In Bible Prophecy (Charted),” feedback from class members revealed the need for a five-part follow-up lesson series to explain key details of that initial lesson.

B.    Thus, we are teaching a follow-up series, using the chart of our initial lesson for clarity and detailing key subjects of that chart, and this fourth lesson in the series handles destinies in the Millennial Kingdom:

II.            Explaining Human Destinies In The Millennial Kingdom.

A.    At Christ’s Second Coming, Satan will be bound and cast into the bottomless pit, and following the 75-day interlude that occurs after the Tribulation and Christ’s Second Coming, Christ’s Kingdom begins, Rev. 20:1-3.

B.    Believers from all past eras of history are then rewarded by the Lord to enter Christ’s Kingdom at its start:

1.      Christ will gather believers who survived the Tribulation in natural bodies for His Kingdom, Matt. 24:31.

2.      Tribulation era believers who died or were martyred will be resurrected for the Kingdom (Rev. 20:4-6).

3.      Old Testament Enoch who was raptured before the Genesis Flood (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah who was raptured in the dispensation of the Mosaic Law (2 Kings 2:11) will enter the Kingdom (Matt. 16:28-17:3).

4.      Old Testament saints who died in history will be resurrected to enter the Kingdom (Daniel 12:12-13).

5.      The Church that was raptured before the Tribulation to be with Christ forever and has thus returned with Him in His Second Coming will participate in the Kingdom (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Jn. 14:2-3; Rev. 5:8-10).

C.    Believers from all past eras of history will then reign with Christ in His Kingdom:

1.      Saints who survived the Tribulation and resurrected martyrs of that era will reign with Christ, Rev. 20:4.

2.      Believers of the Church era will reign on the earth with Christ (Revelation 5:8-10), with Christ’s apostles ruling over the twelve tribes of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom (Matthew 19:27-28).

3.      Israel’s patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob will likely have rule over all Israel (Gen. 13:14-15; 28:10-13).

D.    Believers from all nations all over the world who have lived in all eras of history up to that period of time will enjoy spiritual fellowship with one another (Matthew 8:11 and Luke 13:28b-29).

E.     Life in the Kingdom will be a great blessing for believers as revealed in Micah 4:1-8 with Revelation 7:14-17:

1.      The mountain of the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem will tower over all of the neighboring mountains unlike today, and the peoples of the world will flow into the city, Micah 4:1.

2.      Many Gentile people groups will come and urge one another to go up to the mountain of the Lord to be taught God’s ways that they might walk in His paths of righteousness and peace, Micah 4:2.

3.      Christ will judge many people and rebuke strong nations so that they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and war and the training for war will end, Micah 4:3.

4.      Instead, every man will figuratively sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, a picture of the peace, economic vitality and agricultural bounty that will characterize the Kingdom, Micah 4:4.

5.      The ancient cities of Israel will be rebuilt (Amos 9:11-12a, 14), and believing Gentiles participating in the Kingdom will also likely see their lands and cities rebuilt after the Tribulation Period (Amos 9:12b).

6.      God will gather the lame and assemble the exiles, those He had brought to grief in the Tribulation Period judgments, and He will make the lame a remnant and those who had been driven away a strong nation, and God will forever rule over them from Mount Zion, Micah 4:5-7 NIV.

7.      As for Jerusalem, her former dominion under the Davidic Kingdom will be restored to her, Micah 4:8.

8.      Believers who survived the Tribulation in natural bodies will need nurturing due to the traumas they had faced, so Christ will shepherd them, and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, Revelation 7:14-17.

F.     The New Jerusalem that is now in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-23) will likely descend to hover above the earth in the Kingdom, with God’s angels descending and ascending over Christ when He rules on earth (John 1:50-51).

G.    People will still die in the Kingdom, for some believers will survive the Tribulation in natural bodies with sin natures (Isa. 65:20), and they will repopulate the earth.  We thus believe that the souls of such believers at death go to the New Jerusalem over the earth while those who are born to them who die in unbelief go to Hell.

 

Lesson: Christ’s Millennial Kingdom will be the blessed reward of believers in all the previous ages who have been saved by faith (cf. Romans 3:20-4:25), and they will participate in that Kingdom, ruling with the Lord in blessing.

 

Application: (1) May we who believe in Christ look forward expectantly for our participation in Christ’s Kingdom.  (2) As we will be rewarded based on heeding the Lord in our present lives, may we abound in God’s calling for us.