Is it possible to see into the future? What's in store for planet earth? Crime war and national disasters appear to intensify with every passing day. Do they herald some approaching cataclysmic event? Could the ancient texts of Scripture reveal events yet to come? Discover secrets in the Bible that will change your life as we explore, "the most amazing prophecies." Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome on a night here in Michigan that is cold and wet. Hallelujah. I love autumn in Michigan. I think we're ready to go.
Almost ready to bring Pastor Doug out, but let's bring Pastor John back out and let's sing that theme song. I love it. "Give me the Bible." What's the next line. You haven't learned it yet, but you're learning it. Good to have jamie with us tonight as well.
Let's all stand together to sing our theme song, "give me the Bible." Are you ready? Let's go... Amen. Remain standing as tonight, jillian lavoss who is the assistant chaplain for campus ministries in-reach is going to have our prayer tonight. So let's bow our heads together. Let us bow our heads.
Dear Jesus, I thank you so much that you have brought every member here to the pmc tonight, lord, that you are working miraculous miracles all around this world, that you've opened up doors that now we have different countries and nations that want to learn more about you, father. I just praise you for the things that you are doing in our lives and that you're always there for us know matter what. God, just please be with Doug Batchelor tonight as he just preaches your word. May you just completely talk through him and use him, lord, for he is your tool. In your name, I pray.
Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, the three "J"s, John, Jamie and Jillian. By the way, Jillian is one of our top spiritual leaders on this campus. So we are delighted to have her representing our student body tonight.
And without any further adieu, let's give a warm welcome to our lecturer and speaker, Doug Batchelor. Bring him on out. Hey, doug. Amen. Welcome.
Evening. Good evening to you. You're telling stories. You said this is my favorite weather. He said that just to make me laugh in the back because I was just shivering back there.
Hey, we got a great collection. And by the way, our question fielder, reagan, tells me we got hundreds more of these. And so those of you who are calling them in, e-mailing them in or handing them in, please understand, we're not intentionally avoiding you if we don't get to your question. It's just that, whoa. You know, and Pastor Doug, here's one.
The other night when you and I were talking about, can satan--somebody asked the question, "can satan affect the weather?" Remember that? "Does God cause the weather? Does satan cause the weather?" You learned from a student, an interesting point today and I thought you ought to share that with the audience here. Yeah, right after that question was asked, you heard we had a technical glitch where our main satellite feed was interrupted? It was interrupted right after that question was asked by weather. Isn't that amazing? The question was, "can satan affect the weather?" And we went off the air for a brief moment because of bad weather in Illinois. I'd like to believe it wasn't the Lord-- yeah. At that point.
But one of our viewers in new orleans heard the audio through that little blank video feed and sent a long e-mail, three-page e-mail that I got today and saying, "hey, now listen, my house had four feet of water in it. We lost everything, but we're rebuilding. And could it be that God can even take what is evil and bring good out of it. I.e., Kind of loosening our grip on things of this life." And so I thought that was a good kind a correction. Good balance.
Yeah, yeah, good balance. Yeah, okay. "Dear Pastor Doug. As far as I know, in martin luther's day, not everyone had access to the Bible. So here's the question, who had access to the Bible in the old testament and then in the new testament?" Good question.
It was Moses intention-- the reason he wrote out the Scriptures, they were to be read before the people on a regular basis. And the job of the levites was to not only scribe or to produce copies of them, but they were to teach them through the land of Israel. As time went by, as often happens with the church, they sort of lost sight of the Bible. Matter of fact, during the time of king josiah, it's almost a shame that the priest comes and says, "hey, you know what? We found a book in the temple. It's the Bible.
" It's like they had lost--they were going through all the ritual and they knew all the ceremonies but they had found the books of Moses that had been lost. And so sometimes even the church loses the word. But it was always God's intention that the scribes and the levites were to be teaching the people the word. Good answer. Okay, here's a question from an individual that is asking about Revelation 12:17 which was your text last night.
"And the dragon was enraged with the woman who went to make war with a remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus." And his question is, "doesn't that verse--can't it also be translated, 'who wash their robes in the blood of the lamb?'" And what he's done is he's confused that with Revelation 22:14 and Revelation 7:14, but here's the point. His bottom line question, "those two sound like they're interchangeable. In other words, we don't need to keep the commandments if we wash with the blood of the lamb. Please explain." Well, I believe those who are washed in the blood of the lamb won't want to do that which sheds the blood of the lamb. When a Christian deliberately disobeys God's law, why did Jesus shed his blood? If somebody murdered your child, would you wear a t-shirt with the knife on it? When it's sin that kills Jesus, why would we deliberately continue to disobey? And when a person is washed by the blood of the lamb, are they then to parade disobedience? You know, I just don't understand that.
Well, I do understand some aspects of it. People chafe with certain commandments. But Christians, when they are saved--let me use the context of the Exodus experience to teach this. When the children of Israel were saved from the slavery of Egypt, God saved them based on the blood of the lamb. They were not saved by Mount Sinai.
They were saved by the passover. They got out of Egypt, they were freed. Then he brings them to Mount Sinai. After they're saved, he says, "if you love me, here's my law." This is how salvation works. But those who refused to obey after they were saved from Egypt, didn't make it to the promised land.
Jesus said, "those who say, lord, lord and do not the things that I say," he says, "I'll declare I don't know you." So it's a big diversionary tactic Christians say, "grace under the blood. We don't need to obey." No, that's the wrong kind of thinking. Something's wrong with the spirit when a Christian thinks that way. Good answer. "Are there true prophets--" this is, again, harkening back to last night.
"Are there true prophets now like there were in biblical times?" I think you said last night, the Spiritual gifts are still operative in the end time community of faith. Yes, I believe 1 Corinthians -14 indicate that the gifts of the Spirit are for the edifying of the church up until the coming of the Lord. And one of those gifts is the gift of prophecy. Now, the gift of prophecy does not always mean a person is going about predicting the future or calling fire down. In 1 Corinthians 14, prophecy often means to proclaim.
And, technically, pastors fill that office when they preach the word. But the prophets on the caliber of John the baptist and Elijah, I believe you're going to see those again. Do I know any of them? No, not personally. Is it possible there are some in the world today? Likely that they are. Many time, God gave people the gift of prophecy for a specific message for a specific people.
And I do believe you're gonna see more of it as we near the end. Here's a question from Mexico that reagan jotted down on a card for me. "When Jesus returns to earth, why won't we see the trinity altogether? Well in a sense, you do. Christ told caiaphas, the high priest. He said, "hereafter you will see The Son of man coming on the right hand of power.
" What power could possibly be greater than Christ that he could be stationed at the right hand of it? This is God The Father. He's seated at the right hand of The Father. And so, Jesus is there. The Father is there. Then people want to know, will the Holy Spirit be there? Well, he's not staying back in heaven by himself.
But keep in mind, the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit is omnipresent. So the better question to ask is where is the Holy Spirit not? So how could God The Father and The Son come and not have the Holy Spirit present? So, yes, the whole trinity's there. ExcEllent. This question we get a lot, whenever there is q & a time. "How do I know that I have not committed the unpardonable sin?" Good question, a sobering question.
First of all, it's usually the people who are troubled about that that haven't. That means the Holy Spirit is striving with their hearts and that indicates that there's this yearning inside, there's this concern. The greatest concern is for those who have lost their interest in spiritual things and have no desire to find out about the relationship with the Lord. How do you know? Well, I think that when a person gets to the place where they feel no conviction for sin and they have no interest in serving God and committing their lives to God, that's not a good sign. Some people worry because there are stories in the Bible like king Saul.
When he grieved away the Holy Spirit, God would not speak to him, not by prophet or priest or urim or thummim. When Judas grieved away the Holy Spirit, he despaired and took his life. And there are some who are thinking, "I've grieved away the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna fall on my sword." Don't do that, friends. Just--sometimes we lose sight of the Lord.
Our relationship with the Lord, even for good Christians, it has its high points and its low points. But God is always willing to accept those that come to him. When you've grieved away the Holy Spirit, you probably are gonna lose any interest or capacity to want to come to him. Here are three questions, and I'm just thinking as we're standing here that they all do deal with islam, muslims and, of course, very much in the news today. And you're not gonna have a lot of time to unpack this, but let me just run this first one by you.
"Are muslims in any part of the prophecies? Do they count in any way with this end-time scenario that you've been painting?" Well, I believe--are they part of the prophecies? A resounding yes to that. We're not gonna have a lot of time--pastor dwight's doing a series where you're gonna touch on that at your own church. A week from this Saturday, I'm gonna plunge into the whole issue of islam and the east in apocalyptic prophecy. I will be taking careful notes as I watch it on tv to plagiarize all I can. Yeah, right.
I will, I use his stuff. Okay. But when I'm done, you don't recognize it anymore. Was that your answer to that question? Yeah, they're in prophecy. That was a very weak answer.
Let me go to the second one. Tell me how you really feel. All right, all right. "Do you think that the current tension--" okay, this is really hot now because this is current news-- "do you think that the current tension between islam and the vatican might be a fulfillment of end-time prophecy?" Well, I think the current tension--when I first got wind of what was happening, my antenna shot up because I could see where a scenario like that could become a very volatile prophetic situation. Whether this one will be the one, I don't know that.
But I can see a scenario where the--someone who's considered to be one of the supreme leaders of the Christian world, if he makes a blatant statement that enrages the islamic world, that could really bring about a lot of spiritual heat. And so, whether it's gonna happen now, I don't know. Personally, I don't think so. I think this will settle down. But it got my attention.
The front page of the south bend tribune this morning, a big picture with a fire and a riot going on somewhere in the middle east over this. Okay, lets leave the--I'm gonna leave that other one out. "If satan is accusing us day and night and has already been cast out of heaven, where is he accusing us from?" Good question. The devil is certainly alive and well. He is the accuser of the brethren.
If you read in the book of job, God said to satan, "where did you come from?" Not that God doesn't know but God asks questions so others listening will know. And the devil said, "I have come from the earth from walking to-and-fro and up and down in it." And so, satan is here on the planet. Some of our lesson tonight touches on that. Thank you, Pastor Doug. We'll do it again tomorrow night.
We have some follow-up material that is gonna go along with our study tonight. We're dealing with the subject of the millennium, talks about the resurrection, death, the lake of fire, a big subject. Often I take 3 or 4 nights to cover. But by God's grace, I'm gonna try to compress into one presentation. So those who are following the storacle lessons, number, what is it? Ten, eleven, and twelve.
No, 9, 10, and 12 dealing with the subjects of the witch of endor, the cities of ash and resting the land. That would be the lessons that complement the presentations tonight. I always like to begin with an amazing fact. Our study tonight, of course, is the millennium of peace. And based mostly on Revelation 20.
We call it the millennium, you don't find the word "millennium" in the Bible. It's really from the thousand-year chapter there in Revelation 20 and this judgment that takes place. An amazing fact: now let me see, I've been practicing this gentlemen's name. Have you ever heard of baron fabian von schlabrendorff? I think I did that right. Very interesting individual.
Born about 1907, was inducted into the german army just before world war ii, quickly moved through the ranks. He was a brilliant guy, trained as a lawyer. Quickly realized that adolf hitler was insane, even though he's in the german army, became an officer. Became part of the resistance that attempted to assassinate hitler; realized that he was destroying germany and thousands--millions of innocent lives. Well, the plot backfired.
He was captured by the gestapo, brought into a court. They planned on making a quick work of him. He's in this court in berlin. The judge and all the jury tried him, declared him guilty. He's being led out to be executed immediately.
They were gonna have appeals on death row. That day, an air raid as he's leaving the courtroom sounds. The courtroom receives a direct hit. Everybody in the courthouse was killed except baron fabian von schlabrendorff. He eventually was apprehended and he bounced around through a few prisoner-of-war camps, survived the war, ended up becoming a very respected judge in germany.
Talk about a reverse of fortune. Talk about God's intervening providence. There is a judgment coming that you will participate in. We all think about the great white throne judgment and that's in our study tonight. But do you know that you're gonna participate in an aspect of judgment? And sometimes, it's interesting the way things are gonna turn around.
Let's start by going to our Bibles and turn with me to Revelation 20. Now, I don't have time to read all of it. I'm going to read the first few verses. I think our screen is gonna have verse 1 and 2. I made read all through verse 6.
But I want to give you the background for this most amazing prophecy that we're going to study. It sort of ties together so many subjects. That's one reason I chose this. Revelation 20:1, "then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And 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. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones and they that sat upon them and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those that had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God who had not worshiped the beast in his image and had not received his Mark on their forehead or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousands years were finished." This is the first resurrection. In other words, those who are living and reigning with Christ, they're the ones from the first resurrection. And maybe I should pause there. We'll be going through much of the chapter in our study today, but a lot of it will be on your screen. Now, the subject of the millennium, as I said, millennium is a composite of two words, two latin words.
A lot of the Christian terms of theology were named--like "trinity's" not found in the Bible. The concept is there. You don't find the word "rapture" and a number of other teachings that come from latin words when the church spoke latin. Mille annium comes from, of course, thousand years is what that simply means. And the teaching of the thousand years is certainly there in Revelation 20.
Let's begin with our first question as we dive into this. "What events Mark the beginning of the 1,000-year period that we just read about in Revelation 20?" You can read about it in Thessalonians 4:16. We've seen this verse before, "for the Lord, himself, will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will rise." So one of the events that Marks the beginning of the ,000 years, of course, is the Lord coming back, the dead in Christ rise. We just read in Revelation 20, it said, "these are those who are part of the first resurrection." And it goes on to say in verses 4-5, "and they live and reign with Christ for a thousand years." Now, a little later in the study, I'm gonna focus, specifically: where are they living and reigning? A lot of confusion about that. Some are saying, "do we live and reign with him? Wait a second now, Jesus comes back and we are caught up to meet him but we reign with him.
Aren't we supposed to reign here? Isn't the millennium here on earth or is the millennium in heaven? What's happening on earth?" And there's so much confusion on this subject, friends. Now I've got a chart here that just shows you a little bit of the millennium. It begins with the first resurrection. It says, "the rest of the dead," if the dead in Christ are in the first resurrection-- ya'll with me? You at home, wake up, listen. You've gotta catch this part or you're gonna get--your eyes are gonna glaze over.
Jesus coming, first resurrection. You realize the two resurrections don't happen at the same time. Wherever you've got a first resurrection, what does that indicate? Somewhere there's a second resurrection. The dead in Christ rise first when Jesus comes. Then it says in Revelation 20, the rest of the dead--if the dead in Christ, if the saved are in the first resurrection, who are the rest of the dead? The lost, the wicked.
Is that safe to say? They don't live again until the thousand years are finished. That's what we just read. All right, question number two, "what else will happen at the first resurrection?" Answer, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. For the trumpet will sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. It says again in Philippians 3:21, "the Lord who will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
Now I want to pause right here and talk about that for a second. We've just read that when the lord comes, the dead in Christ rise. What about those who are alive? They're changed in the twinkling of an eye. Some people think that twinkling of an eye is the secret rapture. It never says that.
The twinkling of an eye is when those of us who are alive and remain, our bodies are transformed from these corruptible bodies that have all the aches and pains and they get old, to glorified bodies that are meant to dwell with Christ in heaven forever. Are we ghosts? No. The Bible says, "we will get bodies--" I just read it to you in Philippians. "Like unto his glorified body." When Jesus rose from the dead, what kind of body did he have? Was he a ghost? Could they touch him? Could they hug him? They held his feet. Did they eat in front of them? Those of you who know your Bibles know he ate with them, he was very real and very tangible.
But he had a different kind of body in that it was a glorified body. He could appear and disappear, for one thing. See, when adam and eve sinned, they lost a dimension of their nature. Adam and eve used to have these garments of light. I think man used to live in four dimensions.
We lived in a spiritual dimension. There are angels in this room now. Why--how come we can't see them? Man, because of sin, has been stunted where we only can see these three dimensions. When the Holy Spirit comes on a prophet, he can then see the angels. He can talk and the Spirit realm is open to him.
So when we get our glorified bodies, it's not making us just spiritual. It's adding the missing dimension. We still have our physical bodies, but there's the Spiritual dimension that we lost because of sin. Did that make sense? And so, we're gonna have these real bodies. They're changed in an instant, real bodies like Jesus had.
And then it goes on to say, Thessalonians 2:8, what's gonna happen to the wicked at that time? "Then the wicked one will be revealed whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." What happens to the wicked who are alive when Jesus comes? They are destroyed by the brightness of his coming. There are four kinds of people. You got the good living and the good dead. You got the bad living and the bad dead. Let me say it another way.
You got the dead in Christ, you got the living in Christ. You got the dead without Christ, the lost, and you got the living who are without Christ, isn't that right? There's four groups. We just covered what's happening to those four groups. In this room and some who are listening, we have two groups. Hopefully there are no dead listening right now but at least the two groups are represented, right? I'm hoping that all listening will choose to be in the first group, the dead in Christ.
No, no, not the dead in Christ. [Audience laughing] a lot of churches are filled with the dead in Christ. I want the living in Christ. Oh, man, I'm digging a hole. All right.
So the wicked who are alive when the Lord comes, what happens to them? They are destroyed by the brightness of his coming. The wicked who are dead when Jesus comes, they stay dead until the second resurrection. You know, the Bible's very clear. There are two resurrections. Jesus said, "the hour is coming into which all that are in the graves will hear his voice.
They that have done good, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life. They that have done evil, the resurrection of damnation. And Daniel 12:1, "Michael will stand up, thy great prince that stands for the children of thy people, there'll be a time of trouble such as there never has been since there was a nation unto that same time. And at that time, thy people will be delivered. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.
Some to everlasting life," resurrection of life, "some to shame and everlasting contempt." Resurrection of damnation. You've got two different resurrections the Bible speaks of. You want to be in the first one. Just take my word for it. The wicked who are destroyed by the brightness of his coming, they're the ones who are described in this grizzly passage you find--i don't like to read some of these things, but I want to be faithful to read the verses.
Revelation 19:17-18. It says, "then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, 'come and gather together for the supper of the great day of God.'" So the wicked who are destroyed by the brightness of his coming--the whole earth is covered with a slaying at that point and speaks of the feast of the birds of carrion, not a very pleasant picture. But that's why you want to be ready to go up when Jesus comes. Now, the devil is bound in this bottomless pit. What is the bottomless pit that the Bible speaks of? You know, that's not the best translation.
In Revelation 20 there, it comes from a Greek word, "abussos." And that word, "abussos," you can find it in the septuagint when it describes the world before God began creating. When it says, "in the beginning the earth was void and without form." In the Greek translation it says, "the earth was abussos." Satan is bound here on earth and a lot of people have been confused. They think that the Lord's got some worm hole out there in the cosmos and satan is gonna get locked up in this cosmic, bottomless pit somewhere that they can't understand. That's an unfortunate translation. If you have any doubts about what it is, the answer's in the Bible.
In Luke 8:31, it tells a story about these demoniacs filled with a legion of demons. And when Christ was preparing to cast the demons out of these men, they said, "please, do not cast us out into the abussos," the exact same word. Of course, it's translated, "don't cast us into the deep or the abyss." But it's the exact same word you find in Revelation 20. And what is the abyss? It's when the devils don't have anyone to tempt or manipulate. They were still here in the world, but they just didn't have anybody to possess.
So they said, "don't cast us out of the man into nothing. Let us, at least, possess those pigs." And so they didn't want to be bound in that way where they couldn't tempt anybody, couldn't manipulate. See, the devil's a spirit. How does he manifest himself to the world? Through people he possesses, through his demons. People talk about haunted houses.
You know, I really don't think demons enjoy haunting, possessing 2x4s in plaster. They get a lot more entertainment out of possessing people or living animals. We know the devil can possess animals. Did he do it with a serpent? We know he did it with pigs. Some of you who have pets, you've probably seen episodes where you wonder.
We know the Lord can possess animals, right? Did God tell the ravens to feed Elijah? Did a donkey talk to balaam? Yeah, so they want to possess these living creatures that, at least, have some element of intelligence. I know mosquitoes are all demon processed, all of them are. Flies, all of them. Matter of fact, one of the words they've got for flies, beelzebub isn't that right? That was--the Lord of flies. Question number four, "who will be raised in the second resurrection and when does it take place?" Now this is reinforcing what we just touched on.
It tells us that in John 5--oh, actually--yeah, this verse tells me what I said. "All that are their graves will hear this voice that have come forth." It tells us, the good, "the resurrection of life." But in the second resurrection, the evil, "the resurrection of damnation." And again, Revelation 20:5, "the rest of the dead do not live again until the thousand years are finished." Turn with me in your Bibles-- I don't have all the Scriptures on the screen. I just don't want you to get lazy. Luke 14:14 is another example. There's so many verses I could give you if time permitted that to reinforce these teachings.
Jesus said, "you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Didn't Christ make it clear? There is a resurrection of the just and there is a resurrection of the unjust, two resurrections. I was surprised when a read the Bible and discovered that. I thought everybody was raised at the end when the Lord came. That's not what the Bible teaches.
Questions number five, "where do dead people go when they die?" Now this is a night I normally take a whole study. There is so much confusion. "Pastor Doug, we know that if you're good, when you die, you go to heaven. If you're bad, when you die, you go right to hell." But if you think about it, that's kind of confusing because we all know the resurrection hasn't taken place yet. The general resurrection, the Bible speaks of so many places at the end of the world, the Lord's day, the last day.
It always talks about the Lord coming: his resurrection. Why would people go to their rewards before the resurrection? And furthermore, why would they go to their rewards before the judgment? And then some church haves developed sort of these various limbos. The saved, they go to the bosom of Abraham, or the lost, they go to some form of purgatory. It's like a holding tank until they can be judged. Part of the confusion comes from reading verses where Paul says, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
" How many of you have heard that quoted before? Well, in effect, that's true. If you're a Christian, for example, and you die, your next conscious thought is the resurrection of the just. It might have been hundreds of years ago, but it doesn't seem like that to you. It seems like the moment, the twinkling of an eye. I've got some examples of that here.
Job 17:13, where do the wicked stay until the resurrection? He said, "if I wait, the grave is my house." There is a waiting period. They don't know it. It's not like restless sleep. It's a dreamless sleep. Acts 2:29.
Now keep in mind, Peter is preaching here. Peter is preaching after Jesus has ascend to heaven. Some people say, "well, the new testament, things are different. Yes, in the old testament, they stayed in the graves. But now that Christ went to heaven, everybody's in heaven.
" No, no, no. Peter's preaching long after the resurrection. Listen to what he says, "men in brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch, David." This is good king David, the one who killed Goliath. He's gonna be saved, a man after God's own heart. "That he is both dead and buried and his grave is with us unto this day.
" "Oh, yeah, well that's his grave, but he's in heaven, isn't he, doug?" Keep reading. Verse 34, "for David is not ascended into the heavens." So Peter says, "he's dead, he's buried, he's not in heaven." Now, David died about ,000 years before Christ. So that's about 3,000 years ago. And it says, "David slept with his fathers." How long has it been for David? If you were part of king David's family, when you laid him in the grave, you didn't have to feel sad for David because his next conscious thought is being with the Lord. So if you could put yourself in his shoes, there is no time.
That's what confuses people. You and i--does God live in anyone? Can God go forever in the future and see it? Can God travel into the past? God is not only omnipresent geographically, God is omnipresent in time. He is so great, he can be forever this way and forever that way from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. You and I live in a dimension of time. And as far as the time our world occupies under, they're not there yet.
If they are there, you don't need a resurrection. And then some say, "well, yeah, you need a resurrection so he can come back and get the body." We've just learned, they're not getting the old body. It just doesn't make-- some many people are confused. All you gotta do is walk through a cemetery and see how confused people--read the tombstones. Walk through the cemetery, you see a tombstone, "our dearly beloved mother is now singing on the golden streets with the angels," one tombstone.
Same church cemetery. I went to Texas. They got baptist, church of Christ, methodist churches everywhere. And a lot of them have dwindled, but some of them still have the cemeteries and you can walk in the same church cemetery and it will say, "our mother's on the golden streets singing with the angels." Same cemetery, "our mother resting in the arms of Jesus waiting for the resurrection morning." Confusion. Well, the Bible's clear, they're asleep, a dreamless sleep.
They're not spying on you right now. Some people--there's a lot of spiritualism in our world, people trying to communicate with their loved ones. And you've got to know, the dead are asleep until the resurrection. Let's keep going. "How much does a dead person know before the resurrection?" Answer, it says in Ecclesiastes 9:6, "the dead know not anything neither have they anymore a reward for the memory of them is forgotten.
Also their love and their hatred, their envy is now perished. Neither have they anymore a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." That means they don't have anything to do forever with anything that happens in this life. "How did Jesus refer to death?" Question number seven. Remember when Lazarus, his friend, died? What did Jesus say? He said, our friend Lazarus what? Sleepeth. And they said, "oh, that's good, lord.
He was sick. He needed some rest. He'll feel better." Jesus clarifies 'cause they don't understand. He said, "Lazarus is dead." Now, if you read John 11, how long was Lazarus dead? Four days. And when Lazarus--when Lazarus was brought back to life, he'd already begun to decompose.
If you had been living in the world back then and you met somebody who had been dead for four days and you wanted to know what happens when you die, wouldn't you want to ask Lazarus, "what was it like? What did you see? Where did you go? What did you feel? What did you sense? Who was there?" Right? The big question--if that happened today, somebody'd been dead for 4 days, you would have microphones from every news agency in the world shoved in that person's face and the big question would be, "what's on the other side?" What did Lazarus say about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You know why? 'Cause they knew back then that it was like a sleep. Lazarus got sick with his fever, he died. Next thing he knows he's in grave clothes and he's trying to stumble out of this tomb.
The living know they'll die, but the dead don't know anything. And there's just a lot of confusion in the church on this subject. Oh, Pastor Doug, but I know somebody, they died on the operating table? These near-death experiences, have you heard about that? And their body came out and they saw everyone in the surgical room and they saw their body on the table and they started going towards the light. Or people have these dreams and they say, "I died. My heart stopped.
And I had a vision, and I was on my way to heaven and there were the angels. And when they tried to punch me into the computer, they said, 'oh, we've made a mistake, you're here too soon,' and I'm supposed to come back now." You hear all kinds of bizarre things that people say about their near-death experience. You ask most doctors, they'll tell you that when there's a build up of carbon monoxide in the brain, you begin to hallucinate. I always get carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide mixed up. I don't know--the one that you exhale.
You get too much of that mixed up. All I know is you don't want to suck on your car exhaust pipe. You know, I go camping sometimes. Any of you ever use those air beds? I go camping with my family and my boys. We got these four wheelers and we take an air bed.
I'm getting soft in my old age. And a quick way to air one of those things up is you just stick the nozzle on your four wheelers, your little motor scooter where you turn it on, it just fills it up right away. The problem is if it runs out during the night, you get exhausted, so-- number eight, "what is the condition of the earth during the 1,000 years?" So if you have questions about death, turn them in. Pastor dwight and I want to answer those with you. "What is the condition of the earth during the 1,000 years?" Isaiah 24:1, "behold the Lord makes the earth empty, he makes it waste.
He turneth it upside down." Now this is where people get confused. "Pastor Doug, I thought when he live and reign with Christ, we are living and reigning here on the earth. The righteous are reigning over the wicked." Turn a camera around in the studio. I want to get an audience reaction here. How many of you want to reign over the wicked? Anyone here want to reign over the wicked? Why would the Lord have the saved reign over the wicked? Would a person with the Spirit and mind of Christ enjoy that? "Ha, ha, ha I'm reigning over you, wicked people.
" But that's what some churches teach. No. Reigning with Christ doesn't mean you have to reign, you have to subjugate somebody bad. Reigning with Christ means we're glorified with him, we're declaring his praises to the unfallen worlds. It's a glorious reign.
It's not a some despotic tyrannical reign. When Jesus comes back--think about this for a second-- when Jesus comes back, first let's just remind you if you've forgotten, "I go," John 14, "to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself." We go up. We are caught up to meet the Lord. The dead in Christ will rise.
We who are alive and remain, what direction do we go when Jesus comes? Up. It's very clear. Then we live and reign with him for 1,000 years. The wicked are destroyed by the brightness of his coming, the wicked who are alive. The wicked who are dead, they stay dead.
How many humans are alive on the planet at that point? None. You know, in some of the popular left-behind scenarios of final events, they've always got someone alive here on earth. And all these prophecies in the Bible that talk about the earth being decimated and totally wiped out of life, they don't fit anywhere. Let's read this one, Jeremiah 4:23, now let's read the whole thing. "I beheld the earth and, lo, it was without form and void.
" If I stopped there, you'd think he's talking about Genesis. But keep reading. "And the heavens and they had no light. I beheld the mountains and, lo, they trembled and all the hills moved lightly." There's this is seismic activity. I beheld and, lo, there was no man--" how many men? That means no humanity, man, woman, no man.
"And all though birds of heaven were fled." Those birds that did the feasting, they're gone too. "The fruitful place was a wilderness and all the cities are broken down." In other words, there used to be cities, but now they're rubble. What causes it? "At the presence of the Lord and by his fierce anger." So this prophecy clearly describes a time when the earth is totally barren and broken down with no humans on it. The only way these prophecies fit together is the scenario we're sharing with you tonight. We live and reign with Christ in heaven.
And you know, that make sense. God works on a principle of days, you work, day you rest. A day with the Lord is like ,000 years. For 6,000 years, Jesus said, "I've been sowing the gospel seed." Revelation says, "I'm coming to harvest the earth." We're gonna go spend 1,000 years Sabbath with the Lord in a holy place. That all makes sense.
By the way, the jews had a program, 6 years you farm the land. The seventh year, you leave it desolate. Do you know that's how the old testament ends? Children of Israel were carried off to Babylon so the land could keep Sabbath. And while it kept Sabbath, it was desolate. That will be the condition of this world, this world that's been abused by man who is to be the steward of God's garden is gonna rest for 1,000 years, nothing happening down here.
"The slain of the Lord that day--" condition of the earth again-- "shall be from one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth." This is one vast cemetery. "They shall not be lamented, neither gathered nor buried. They shall be like dung on the ground." Why? There's no one alive to bury them, no one to mourn, no funerals. So what is--is the planet totally vacated of any intelligence or is anybody here? The devil is bound in a bottomless pit. We've learned the bottomless pit is the earth with nobody for the devil to tempt and manipulate.
Satan is bound in this lazar house of ruins for 1,000 years. Boy, what a punishment. How appropriate can it be if you want to really bother a workaholic, give him nothing to do? And the devil is a workaholic. I feel sorry for anyone that sits next to me on an airplane. You can ask my wife, she'll be here tomorrow.
I'm a workaholic. I just--i gotta be doing something. And just sitting doing nothing drives me bonkers. And I have to have an aisle seat because I'm up and down. I think, I would have been on some kind of medication growing up if they had it back then.
They just didn't have it. I was one of these attention deficit hyperactive children. The devil is a workaholic a thousand times over. And for him to be able to spend a thousand years with nobody to tempt and manipulate, no audience. And he told all these angels in heaven, before they followed him, "you follow me.
I've got a better idea. We can win against God." And he's gonna have a billion angry demons chasing him around the planet saying, "we listened to you. Now look where it got us." It's gonna be a very interesting place during that thousand years. The other thing it demonstrates is he's had a thousand years to think about the results of his government. He'll have a thousand years to look at the results of his government.
God's government is love. The devil's government is based on self, sin and selfishness. And that will be the fruit of it. This destroyed world is what he's gonna have to behold. He is bound by circumstances imprisoned in this dark, void, chaotic--the other thing is satan wanted to be God, didn't he? He wanted to be God, God says, "okay, you want to be God.
I'm giving you the world like it was when I started with it. Let's see what you can do? I've give you 1,000 years. I did it in 6 days." God comes back after ,000 years, he hasn't been able to do anything. He is not God. There's so much in this, I wish I could tell you.
Number nine, "where will the saints be during the 1,000 years and what are they doing?" This is where it gets interesting. John 14, he says, "I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, you might be also." We're going to those mansions he's prepared. Just take a deep breath and say, "amen." Isn't that nice? Don't you want to be in those mansions that Jesus has prepared? And it says, "I saw thrones." Revelation 20:4, we're back in our chapter. "I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
" Now, what kind of judgment are we going to be participating in? "Wait a second, Pastor Doug, when the Lord comes, it says, 'his reward is with him.' The saved are saved, the lost are lost at that point. There's no changing teams. So what kind of judgment are we doing?" Well, we're not involved in the judgment of who's saved and who's lost? And we should say, "amen," again because I don't want you making that decision and you don't want me making that decision, right? God makes that decision. But there's other aspects of judgment. You ever heard someone use the expression, "that person's got good judgment?" That doesn't mean they walk around all day long going, "saved, lost, lost, lost, saved, lost.
" Judgment means they're evaluating evidence. During the 1,000 years, we're gonna have a lot of questions. For instance--well, someone said, "there's gonna be three surprises when we get to heaven." Surprise number one, you're there. Surprise number two, there may not be some people there that you thought would be leading the parade. And so when you get to heaven and after you're first hundred years, you're looking around, you nudge your angel and you say, "where is elder smith? And I thought for sure he'd be here.
You know, I realize there's a billion people, but is he here somewhere?" And they'll take you to the heavenly database and the angel will say, "I'm sorry, he's not here." "But he was such a good man. How come he's not here?" And the angels have records. The Bible talks about books. And keep in mind, God uses terminology that we can relate to. I don't know that God's got a great big ol' prayer library up in glory somewhere.
I think God's has something better than that. I mean, if you and I have dvds now, probably, God gave us a vision. It'd say, "the dvds played and they saw the record." But it's even better than that because when God takes a prophet in vision, they're not reading it out of a book. It's three dimensional, isn't that right? So they'll go to this database and the angel will press play--and you know I realize this is kind of a crude analogy. But Jesus said, "those things done in secret will be proclaimed from the housetop.
" If your sins are not under the blood of the lamb, then they're open for review. It's public knowledge, public access. And they'll see where elder smith, he was able to fool everybody but God. There was something in his life that he was hiding, he wouldn't surrender to Jesus. And they'll--they'll see over the course of his life that God did everything he could to save him, but he was more interested in impressing people than impressing God.
There's a lot of folks who make the same mistake that the scribes and pharisees made. Jesus said, "they were fasting to be seen of men. They were giving to be seen of men. They were praying to be seen of men. They looked so pius and holy on the outside.
" But Jesus said, "they're like whited sepulchers." On inside, they're full of corruption and sin and selfishness and covetousness. And that will all be laid bare at that time. That's one reason I know I gotta get to heaven 'cause I don't want you to know what I did. By the way, some people have asked me the question before, "what about a person who serves the Lord for awhile, they confess their sins, they ask Jesus to forgive and then they turn away from Jesus and they're lost? The sins that they confessed up to that point, are they covered?" Oh, no, friends. It's either all or nothing.
Amen? They're either all under the blood and you're saved, public review otherwise. So that's one more motive for you to serve Jesus, right? Again, 1 Corinthians 6:2 and 3, "do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" That doesn't mean we're deciding who's saved and lost, but we are evaluating the records of everybody. Oh, wait, I didn't tell you about surprise number three. There are gonna be some people there and you're gonna say, "whoa, what are they doing here? They were infamous on earth." I always like to think about some of the interesting reunions in heaven. For example, if you know your Bible, you'll know that the martyr, stephen, he was executed, stoned to death.
The last thing that stephen saw was Saul with folded arms beaming with approbation at his execution. Now they get to heaven, stephen's there. He's just enjoying the glory and all of a sudden he sees a parade. He says, "what's that?" And these angels are carrying somebody on their shoulders. "Why, why that's Saul!" What in the world is he doing here? He was slaughtering Christians right and left when I died.
" I can picture stephen turning to his angels and say, "you know, I don't want to be critical. You guys usually do really good work but you flubbed. He's not supposed to be here." And the angels will say, "well, we've got good news. Let's come back to that database. Look at what happened to Saul.
Jesus got him, got his attention on the road to damascus and it changed his life." Will stephen be happy? Oh, yeah. And I've got a lot of trivial questions when I get to heaven, don't you? Things I read in the Bible, I say, "I know I'm never gonna get this answered until I get there. Like, how could Jacob not know that it was leah and not rachel until the morning of the honeymoon?" Am I the only one that's wondered that? I don't want to be inappropriate here but I just said, "well, lord, I'm gonna take Jacob aside. I don't want to put him on the spot." There's gonna be a lot of questions. Number ten, "what will happen at the close of the 1,000 years?" Answer, "behold, the day of the lord will come and his feet will stand on that day on the mount of olives.
Which is before Jerusalem on the east of the mount of olives and it will cleave in the midst thereof." Some of you have read there in Zechariah 14 and it pictures the Messiah coming down and touching the mount of olives and it says, it cleaves, it splits and it forms this huge valley. It needs a big valley 'cause that valley becomes the foundation to receive the new Jerusalem. That is 375 miles on each wall. And we've got a study coming on that. One of the most amazing prophecies is certainly on heaven, amen? Why the mount of olives? It's interesting that Jesus' feet don't touch the earth again until he comes back to the same place where he left.
You know, the angels told the apostles, "this same Jesus is gonna come the same way you've seen him go. He was visible when he left, he'll be visible when he comes. He was physical and real when he left, he's real when he comes. They saw him leave, they will see him come. He left from the mount of olives.
When he comes back at the end of the 1,000 years, that's the next place his feet touch." If you ever meet anybody that says, "I'm Jesus," all you've got to do is look at their feet. If their feet are on the ground, that's not Jesus because his feet don't touch the ground again. We are caught up to meet him when he comes next, right? His feet don't touch the earth again until after the thousand years are finished, and that makes sense. It was on the mount of olives he wept over Jerusalem. It was on the mount of olives where he began burying the penalty for the sins of the world.
It didn't start at the cross, you realize. Jesus said, "now is the hour when he was sweating blood in the garden." It was there on the mount of olives when Judas betrayed him and they began to punish him for our sins. So the next place his feet come down is that spot. It makes sense. "I John," Revelation 21:2, "saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
" And who is in the new Jerusalem? Is God marrying a bunch of buildings or is it the church that's in the city when it comes down? We talked about the bride of Christ in our previous study. That's because in those buildings we've been in these mansions for a thousand years now. We're gonna do space travel. It's a space city, right? Coming back to the planet. Number 11, "what will happen next to free satan from his prison?" "The rest of the dead don't live again until the thousand years are finished.
" By implication, we can see they do live when the thousand years are finished. That means that when Jesus comes back, the very fact of his feet touching the earth gives that vitality. He calls the dead from all ages, all the lost, back to life. Now the dead in Christ are raised with glorified bodies. People always ask, "what kind of bodies do the wicked get when they come back?" I don't really know, but I just know God puts them together enough so they know what's going on.
When the thousand years are expired, satan is loose from his prison. Why is he loose from his prison? He now has this massive army to manipulate and to tempt. And by the way, they're all the people that listen to him anyway, right? It's all the wicked from all the ages. He's got their number. He was their master and they didn't even know it.
'Cause you're either with Christ or you're with the devil. There's no middle ground. "What will satan do when the wicked are raised?" He's desperate now. It never fails to amaze me how he responds. Instead of the devil repenting--we got a question in tonight.
People feel sorry for the devil. They say, "if lucifer repented, will God forgive him?" Some people are so loving. And you know, bless your heart, I love people like that. They want everyone to be saved. It's like this guy I heard about worked in an office and he worked with some office mate.
This lady was just always blowing sunshine all the time. She was just happy, bubbly, carbonated all the time. He'd walk and say, "oh, man, the rain out there. It's cold, miserable." She'd say, "oh, but the flowers will be so nice." She was always so positive. It used to irritate him.
She's just not in touch. He knew she was a Christian, so he went to the office one day, he said, "boy, that devil, isn't he bad?" She said, "oh, he's just busy." Positive all the time. So it says, "the devil shall go out to deceive the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth, gog and magog." Now, people wonder, who are gog and magog? And they try to say, this represents russia. Well, it is true that you first find in Genesis 10, reference to magog. And there were these people that they believed descended-- Josephus says that they were the sidions that lived in the north and the east up in that country, north of Israel.
They were enemies of God's people, long time historic enemies of God's people. Gog and magog means from the matrix of God. I learned that from a professor here at andrews. Magog means gog. These enemies of God's people and their descendants.
It's like Babylon and her daughters is what it's saying. It's talking, simply, about the enemies of God's people. The wicked are all raised. That's gog and magog. People are trying to say, "is that russia? Is it china? What nation is this that's going to--" it's just the wicked.
Remember the names in Revelation--this will help you-- the names in Revelation are generally symbolic. It talks about dragon. Its talks about Egypt. It talks about pharaoh, balaam, jezebel, and it's taking old testament stories and characters to teach truth. Gog and magog go to the old testament, they were enemies of God's people.
That doesn't mean he's gonna resurrect this instinct nation, okay? "And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints." That's the new Jerusalem, the beloved city. And it tells us that fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. Now, before that happens, when they surround the city of God, just to give you a little picture. There is an episode that we insert here. It's called, "the great white-throne judgment.
" You know, there's an amazing fact from history I thought might fit in here. Napoleon bonaparte, for a 10-year period, he was basically fighting on every front of europe. For awhile there, it looked like he was gonna regain the territory of the ancient roman empire. But he abdicated, was sent off to elba. And for just about a year, he was held a prisoner in this island.
He managed to escape and he staged a brief 100-day comeback. And you know what happened during that 100-day comeback? He showed that he hadn't changed. Finally, he was permanently defeated at waterloo, sent to saint helena, died there. Sort of reminds me of what's happening to the devil. The devil makes an attempt for a brief comeback.
After a thousand years, does the devil repent for his sins or does he try to rally all the wicked to fight against the city God? And at the point--and we don't know how long this period is where they muster their forces to fight against the city of God. But just before that happens, Christ and The Father, I believe, ascend up above the city. This is where the great white-throne judgment takes place. Question number 13, "at this crucial moment, what will stop everything?" Revelation 20:11, we're still in our chapter. "And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works." They're now about to receive their sentence. They don't receive their sentence, God doesn't pull them out of hell, judgment, stick them back in hell again. That wouldn't be very fair. Picture this scene for a minute; here you've got everybody present. Christ and good angels and all the saved are in the city.
The devil and all the fallen angels and all the lost are outside. Remember, Jesus shares a parable about the sheep being separated from the goats? This is that moment when everybody's gonna be separated one side or the other. And at that time when Christ is elevated above the city, this great judgment takes place. Some people will picture the judgment and they're thinking, "Pastor Doug, are you saying that everybody's gonna get in a line that will wrap around the planet six times and one by one, their cases are gonna be reviewed and finally, they'll say, 'guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty?'" 'Cause, obviously, the saved aren't being judged. We're saved, right? Our judgment's taking place now.
Judgment begins at the house of God. No, can God save a thousand people at one time? Pentecost, can he save a thousand people at one time? Can he judge a thousand, a million at one time? It's an individual judgment for every person because he will make their lives pass before them in the heavens. They will see a panorama of Christ and the great controversy. They'll see their place in it. They'll see their influence for good or for evil on their family, their work associates.
Whatever decision you make for Christ or against him, you're not alone in his. You're gonna take people with you, either to heaven or to the lake of fire. That will all be clearly portrayed. It's a sobering thought. That is the great white-throne judgment.
How long it will take, I don't know. But that's when everything is laid open for everybody to see. Those who have been persecuting the righteous, they're gonna see the righteous in the city and there will be some vindication at that point for the righteous. And--well, I don't have time for all that. At the end of this judgment, finally, everyone declares that God is good, tells us that the lord reigns fire down from heaven, ultimately.
But before that--oh, I've got to rush ahead. I don't have time for all my slides 'cause I'm looking at the clock. Let's keep going here. Is my button working? "I saw the white throne from whom the earth and the heavens fled away and there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life.
" I hope your name is written in that book. "And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books." And again, they're probably not books looking like that, but I don't have a photograph of what God's books looked like so I used that one. Number 14, "what will happen after the wicked are judged?" Philippians 2:10-11, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of The Father." At that moment, everybody is gonna bow before the Lord and declare that God is just. "And I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, 'true and righteous are his judgments.
'" See, after God's judgments are declared--during the 1,000 years to some extent, the righteous have been judging God's judgments. We've been evaluating why he did things he did. They'll declare at that time, true and righteous are thy judgments. And then we enter into the last battle. The last battle is when God--there's three phases of judgment.
The judgment takes place before Jesus comes. The righteous pre-advent investigative judgment. If the Lord is giving judgments out--I'm sorry. If the Lord is rewarding people when he comes, is there some evaluation that takes place before he comes? Then there's the judgment that takes place during the 1,000 years, we just talked about. Then you have the executive judgment where sentence is executed.
Number 14, "what will happen next?" It tells us Revelation 20:15, "whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Friends, we need our names in that book, amen? It tells us again, verse 9 of chapter 20, "and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them." And again, Isaiah 24:21, "it will come to pass 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 prison. And after many days, they'll be punished." This verse describes, perfectly, an overview of what we've just described. All the wicked will be held in the pit, the bottomless pit. They'll be brought forth after awhile and punished. This is when they're cast in the lake of fire.
It's often called hellfire. Hell is not a deep cavern somewhere, neither is the bottomless pit. People always think--i remember one of these tabloid magazines said, "russian well drillers go too deep. Demons escape." People have this idea that way down yonder is the molten magma is where, you know, that's where the devil's hanging out. No, hell is gonna burn all over the world, even right here in berrien springs or wherever you're watching, friends.
Hell is gonna be on the earth at that time. "What happens to the wicked in hellfire?" Oh, I need more time for this one. Maybe I'll get some of it in our question time tomorrow. "For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. But the wicked shall perish into smoke they will consume away.
" Everyone is punished according to what they deserve and they are burnt up. Again, Malachi 4:1, I just gave you this answer. "The day that comes will burn as an oven and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. The day that comes shall burn them up." That's a picture there of pompeii. I've been there.
All those people of pompeii and heracleum were surprised when mount vesuvius exploded covered with a thousand-degree cloud of ash, sort of frozen and fried right in position. Sodom and gomorrah given an example of what will happen to the wicked. It says, "they're burnt with eternal fire." By the way, are sodom and gomorrah still burning today? The results of the fire are eternal. These idea that the wicked burned forever and ever, it's something that came from Greek mythology that some in the church adopted because they can manipulate people with fear. But the Bible is very clear that the wicked are burnt up in hell.
They are consumed. That's why it says in Revelation 20:14, this is the second what? Second death. Death means absence of life. I mean, how could you be any more dead then they were when they were raised from being lost? When it says, "this is the second death," they are really dead. You know there's only two choices.
"For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish--"? That's one choice, perish. "But have everlasting life." There's two choices. Perish, death, consume away, burnt up or everlasting life. Number 16, "do the souls of the wicked burn forever?" "Well, yes. Their bodies burn up, doug.
That's clear. But doesn't the soul burn forever?" What does the Bible say? Matthew, these are the words of Jesus. "Do not fear those who kill the body but they cannot kill the soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy--" do what? "Destroy both soul and body in hell." That lake of fire, both soul and body are consumed, destroyed, perish, burn up. I mean, how can God be any more clear? You're thinking, "oh, but, what about the parable of the rich man?" Write it down. We can answer that one.
Or you might be thinking, "doesn't it say, 'forever and ever' somewhere?" There are some difficult verses. We're happy to look at them, but there are a whole lot more verses that say that the wicked are burnt up. How else can God say that he's gonna create a new heaven where there's no more pain? If there's a torture chamber outside our windows through eternity, how could there be no more pain? Ezekiel 18:20; souls, do they live forever? "The soul who sinneth shall what? Die. It's like a dictionary definition. So let's quickly review what's happening both before and after in this millennium.
We got a little chart up here on the screen. The millennium begins with the second coming of Jesus and the first resurrection. During the 1,000 years the saints are in glory. We are living and reigning with Christ. We're going though the cosmos, telling the wonderful things he's done.
Like I said, a thousand years Sabbath, both for us and the planet's, gonna be fallow for a thousand years during that time. We're gonna be doing judgment at that time. You know, it said, "we'll judge angels." What does that mean? We'll be confirming that these fallen angels proceed to be destroyed. And by the way, it even says, the devil; who deserves to burn forever and ever more than anybody? I mean, come on, come on, say it. Satan.
You know, the Bible says, "I'll bring forth a fire from the midst of thee and it will devour thee. I'll bring thee to ashes on the earth in the sight of them that behold thee, thou shalt be a terror and never shall thalt be anymore." You shall not be. The devil's getting burned up. He'll burn longer than anyone else. One place it says, "day and night.
" I hate to think of anyone burning for a minute. How about you? It's awful. They had a replay of 9/11 a few days ago, some of the tragedy and some of these people that were so badly burned. Just--it's awful. And the idea that God is a sadist, that he's gonna torment people through endless ages for the sins of one lifetime, that's a doctrine of devils if there every was one.
So many people have turned away from God as a God of love because of that false teaching. So during the millennium, the righteous are in heaven. The earth is desolate during that time. Number 17, I love this part of the lesson. "After the fire goes out, what will God do for his people?" It says, "you'll go forth from the new Jerusalem.
The wicked are ashes under the souls of your feet. And at that time God creates a new heavens and a new earth." Isn't that good news, friends? "We, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness." You know, righteousness can dwell in us right now 'cause Christ is righteous and he wants to dwell in your heart. Do you want him there, friends? Don't you want to be part of that kingdom? John, why don't you sing. Sing a verse of that familiar song for us and kelly. And then I want to have prayer with you friends, before we close.
[Music] there's a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar. For The Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. So in the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. And in the sweet by and by, we look forward to meeting on that beautiful shore. Amen.
How many of you want to be on that shore by the river of life; be in a world where there is no more pain or sorrow or suffering? Tonight we've looked at a panorama, a big picture, where God's character and name is vindicated, the righteous are saved, sin and sinners are destroyed, the universe is purified. All of us are gonna meet again someday. In that picture of the millennium, every knee is gonna bow down, everybody in the city, all the angels, everybody outside the city, and we need to make a decision where we want to be. If our names are in that book of life, we can be in the city with Christ and with his angels and with the redeemed. Oh, by the grace of God, I pray every day, that's where I want to be.
Don't you, friends? And I ask the Lord to cover my sins with the blood of the lamb, to give me that new heart, to give me a spirit that is willing to do his will in every way, be willing to die rather than disappoint him. I want the faith of Daniel. I want the faith of Elijah and Moses and Abraham. You can have that, friends. He is the same God today as he was back then.
He can give you a new heart and a new mind and you can live forever. There's only two choices, follow Christ or the adversary. Do you want to make your choice right now, friends? Would you like to pray with me and say, "I would like to choose by God's grace to give all I am and all I have to Jesus." Is that your prayer? You, who are watching, lift your hands. I want to pray with you. Father in Heaven, lord, we believe that you sent us this message of hope and warning so that we can flee from the wrath to come into the arms of Jesus.
Save us from our sin, save us from our devils. And I pray, lord, that you will write our names in the book of life. We know what the ink is made of. It's the blood drawn from emmanuel's veins. Jesus has given so much that our names might be written there.
Help us, lord, to capitalize on this opportunity. I pray that you'll be with each person. We know that there are a myriad of struggles that are represented in those that are watching, those who are here. Give them victories in their life. Help them experience the blessing that comes from studying your word and bring us back together again, we ask in Jesus' Name, amen.