~
The Coming Millennium ~
Introduction ~
Biblical prophecy is a lot like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The creators of each have provided a clear
picture of the end result. As the puzzle
is being put together, the completion is increasingly anticipated. However, the placement, sequence, and timing
of the remaining pieces is not as clear.
This series of posts would be better entitled Remaining Future Events; however, Second Coming (or Second Advent)
is the common terminology which tends to lump a wide range of future events
together.
The
Reign of Christ Predicted
~ “Behold, a king will reign in
righteousness, and princes will rule with justice” (Isaiah 32:1). “He will be great, and will be called the Son
of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father
David. And He will reign over the house
of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).
The
Reign of Christ Postponed
~ “But his citizens hated him,
and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign
over us’” (Luke 19:14). “See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say
to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:38-39).
The
Reign of Christ Fulfilled
~ “Give the king Your judgments,
O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s Son. He will judge Your people with righteousness,
and Your poor with justice” (Psalm 72:1-2). “But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God,
is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your
kingdom. You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil
of gladness more than Your companions’” (Hebrews 1:8-9).
The
Reign of Christ Characteristics
~ “His delight is in the fear of
the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the
hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide
with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and
with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
and faithfulness the belt of His waist” (Isaiah 11:3-5). “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” (Revelation 20:6).
The
Reign of Christ Blessings
~ “They shall fear You as long as
the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the grass
before mowing, like showers that water the earth. In His days the righteous shall flourish, and
abundance of peace, until the moon is no more. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and
from the River to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:5-8). “He shall judge between the nations, and
rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).
“Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and
those who turn many to righteousness
like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).
The
Heavenly Sphere
~ “And I saw thrones, and they
sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then 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” (Revelation 20:4).
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high
mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven
from God, having the glory of God. Her
light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve
gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east,
three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the
west.
“Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on
them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked with me had a gold reed to
measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth.
And he measured the city with the reed:
twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth,
and height are equal. Then he measured
its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man,
that is, of an angel. The construction
of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were
adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the
second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx,
the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz,
the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each
individual gate was of one pearl. And
the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are its temple. The city had no
need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated
it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall
walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into
it. Its gates shall not be shut at all
by day (there shall be no night there). And
they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything
that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written
in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelation 21:10-27).
The
Earthly Aspect
~ “For the creation was subjected
to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because
the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My
holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
~
Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT
LIFE NOW
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