After the triumph of Jesus’ government is completed, Satan is going to be bound for the most part of the millennial reign of Christ, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he will be loosed for a little season. That’s the schedule for Satan.
If, as some posit, there will be no mortals in the millennium: Who will Satan deceive? He certainly will not deceive the resurrected Saints. We are the immortals who have returned with Christ, we were changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye, never to sin again, never to even be tempted to sin again, because that was our desire before, that’s why we walk in God’s kingdom now, crucifying the deeds of the flesh, fearing God and keeping his Commandments, out of obedience to Christ, because he loved us first, because he saved us from our sins, because he washed us in his blood, and we love him and desire to please him. When we’re changed, we will never even be tempted to sin again! Satan won’t be able to deceive the resurrected glorified Saints who are like Christ, who will never know death, sorrow, suffering, temptation, or sin again!
But it is written, that he should deceive the nation’s no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed. At the beginning of the millennium, Satan is bound immediately after Christ vanquishes those beast nations that were deceived by him. Satan is going to be loosed out of this prison for a little season, obviously to deceive the nation’s like he did before the millennium, as he does even now. He is an organizing power for evil in the world, he’s going to gather them together, he’s going to sort them out, because those that are not Christ’s at the end of that thousand years when Satan is loosed, they will easily follow Satan when he appears. Those that believe not the gospel of Christ, even with Him ruling and reigning with His resurrected Saints on the earth, they will not follow Him, nor will they believe in Him. They will rebel as soon as Satan is let out of his prison for that little season, because they have harbored and nurtured rebellion in their hearts.
They will join him and easily fall into the temptation, the very temptation that the man of sin and the governors of this world have fallen for in the past. “All of these kingdoms will I give to you if you will fall down and worship me,” and they will fall down and worship Him and join him, and the evil thought will enter into their mind, that they can overthrow the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and the government of His Saints centered in Jerusalem. So even after experiencing the perfect government during the reign of Christ, when Satan is loosed out of his prison to deceive the symbolic Gog and Magog for a little season, those people will go over to his side, and will start making plans to take over and conquer Christ and His Immortals. And they will try, they will compass the camp of the saints about, but they will fail. Never again will they have power over the saints as they did before the millennium, they will not be able to kill us!
What is the true post-apocalyptic world going to be like? The scripture gives us some clues, a little insight into the reign of the Immortals, how we will humbly rule the earth without the contrary influence of Satan and his rulers of evil. We have all these post-apocalyptic fantasies and TV shows that depict how after some contrived catastrophe, it’s just a terrible and destroyed world. But it’s not going to be like that at all. These authors and video producers have not read or understood the Apocalypse of the Scripture. Their post-apocalyptic world is a world without God, it is created without a biblical world view, it is a figment of their sad imaginations. The post-apocalyptic world revealed in the Bible is going to be a wonderful world without Satan and his rulers of evil to spoil it. It is going to be a world ruled by the One who laid down His life for the world.
But still, some people will fall and not follow Christ. After a hundred years many will not even believe, just as it was in the beginning, when Adam and Eve had children, and by the time of Noah, when he’s building the Ark as a last witness to a world that has forgotten all about the Creator, so they will also forget. But they will do it without the organizing spiritual power of Satan and his demons. Therefore, it will be much more peaceful for the most of that thousand years, until that little season, then it will enter in their minds to gather themselves together with an army for one purpose: to overthrow His government. They will compass the camp of the Saints about, but they will summarily be destroyed, fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them,[1] even as Sodom and Gomora.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Rev 20:5-6)
This is the First Resurrection.
When Christ returns, everyone who is part of His Elect, saved by His blood, from Adam nearly six thousand years ago, to all of the Elect alive and remaining at His return, all will take part in the First Resurrection! The second death will be reserved only for those who are resurrected for judgment at the end of the millennium, for all of those who died without Christ before or during the millennium. All of those who received Christ’s atonement during the millennium, will also join the First Resurrection Elect in glorified bodies to enter into the New Heaven and Earth in the eternal state.
The earth is going to become very populated again, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea; there will probably be more population on the earth than at any other time in history. The millennium will have the most perfect government under Christ, and under his servants, the saints of God. So, the earth is going to be filled, and apparently, it’s going to still be the many and the few. There’s going to be a few in the second resurrection that will join us in the new heaven and new earth, in the New Jerusalem, after the millennial reign. But most of them, as the sands of the sea, the number of them, spiritual Gog and Magog, they’re going to be destroyed.
This Revelation 20 Gog and Magog war is not going to happen next week, or before Christ returns, this is the one that happens at the end of the millennial reign of Christ. Neither is it a mere recapitulation of the Battle of Armageddon as the Amillennialist would require. This is the final rebellion of mankind before the New Heaven and New Earth, before the second resurrection to judge everyone who didn’t make the first resurrection. And all of those who were born and lived and died during the millennial reign of Christ, the second resurrection will be for them to be judged.
The first resurrection and consequent seventh millennium is a gift to those who faithfully lived and suffered under the evil times of Satan and his rulers of evil during the first six millennia. Now we who are The Immortals, we will not be having children or given in marriage, we will be like the Angels as the scripture says. My advice to all of you that are living now: if you’re young, get married, have children and be blessed, and you will have tribulation, along with the joys and the sorrows that come with married life. But raise up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And spread the gospel, that is to raise up a godly seed for His kingdom, there’s no higher calling for men and women on the earth than to plant and sow into the kingdom of God. Most can do that simply through having families, by living in the kingdom and being a kingdom example to your family and to the world around you.
The Blessed Epoch.
There is an alien invasion soon coming to earth in which the governments of the world are going to gather themselves together in a place called Armageddon to fight against this alien invasion. Jesus Christ and his immortal army will be coming to take over the earth, and they’re not going to like it very much. All I can say about the governments of this world, whoever will be President of the United States at that time, whoever’s going to be sitting in the seat of the man of sin at that time, whoever’s going to be a head of Russia, or all these governments of the EU, and the United Nations. Few of them are going to be happy to see Jesus when He returns.
By that time most of the people in government that we know, because they’re mostly older, like Trump’s in his 70s, and the present Pope is in his 80s — so those guys aren’t likely going to be around for another 35 to 40 years. So, it’ll be different, and it’ll probably be worse, from what the scripture says, and especially the Revelation tells us, with these three frog-like spirits that had been loosed on the earth since the French Revolution, since the sixth vial, in preparation for that great day of God Almighty. These spirits are going about the earth to infect the minds and hearts of men, to gather them together, that organizing force for evil that Satan is, and those evil spirits are, and we can readily see that it simply gets worse and worse!
It is astounding how much worse the world has gotten just in my lifetime, how much they’ve separated themselves from the things of God, how much they’ve broken the bands asunder, and cast the cords of righteousness, of the word of God, and His law from them. So, we can see that day is coming and the present trend will to continue until that day. As a matter of fact, the Bible says the earth will be filled with violence, it will be as it was in the days of Noah. So, it’s going to get much worse before Christ comes, and they gather themselves together to battle that alien invasion.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. (Zec 14:16-20)
The condition of the nations during the millennium as expressed in the above verses will be some of the many blessings of having Satan locked away for the millennial era, that he not deceive the nations during his incarceration. This passage confirms the literal understanding of 1,000 years in Rev. 20.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth (Isa 25:8)
Death will be swallowed up in victory for the resurrected saints who rule and reign with Christ for this epoch. Unlike this present era, His “kings and priests” — His people, will no longer be the reproach and rebuke of the mortal world around us.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isa 2:2-4)
But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Mic 4:1-3)
These two passages, almost identical in content, depict not the Zionist dream of Judas or first century rebels that thought to overthrow the Roman government of the day, nor the Zionist dream of the 21st century Jewish nation, but rather a time of unparalleled peace when Jesus reigns over the whole earth, absent any of the rulers of evil that make up the nations under Satanic deception today.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 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. (Isa 11:6-9)
Here we see some return of the blessed state of the natural world and creatures living in harmony as before the fall.
There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. (Isa 65:20)
The return of longevity for mortals as was before the flood will be the new normal during the millennial epoch, a new normal mankind can eagerly look forward to.
What will us immortals who make the first resurrection be doing? We will be governing the world, we will be His kings and priests, rulers and governors in the world, we will be pastors and we will have all of the administration of the government of Jesus Christ over the whole earth during that millennial reign. Now the historicist method of interpreting the scripture makes it clear to me what is symbolic and what is not. And I believe as H. Grattan Guinness believed, as E.B. Elliot, as many other of the reformers believed, that the millennial reign is not merely symbolic, but rather as literal as were the 70 weeks of Daniel, the 1,260 years of the Apocalypse, and 390 and 40 years of Ezekiel 4.
Some may ask how people could reject Christ even while He is physically ruling in the earth. To answer that, let’s go back to the beginning: Adam and Eve were created by God, they saw God, but after a few generations people forgot what the truth was, that God created everything. And the whole world fell away, things became so bad that God destroyed everything with a flood. When Jesus is ruling and reigning from Jerusalem, and his immortals are ruling and reigning; that will be the norm then, after a while people are going to forget, they’re not going to believe even what they see or what is true around them, so they’re not going to have faith even in the present reality. And they still have to believe in the resurrection, because they’ll know they’re going to die. So people are going to lose faith in the same way that they lost faith in the past, it’s demonstrated from the creation account, it’s demonstrated from the flood, and Noah and his family who came out of the flood. Everyone should have known. Then God created a nation, Israel, led them through the Red Sea miraculously, but they all forgot and apostized. Nothing’s going to change, people are going to forget, even while Jesus is reigning from Jerusalem with his immortals. They’re going to question everything: Who are these immortals? Because the truth is not in them, they’re not going to believe. They will still have to believe by faith that they’re going to be resurrected, because people are going to be born and die. They will not be immediately resurrected, so faith will also be essential then
After the millennium this creation will be destroyed, and we’ll enter into the new heaven and new earth. God is not going to simply recreate what we have here, is it’s going to be a new heaven and new earth with no corruption whatsoever. It’s not going to be the same, all of this is going to pass away. I can believe that by faith now. It’s going to take faith on the part of even those who are born, live and die during the millennial reign of Christ, they’re going to have to believe by faith just like we believe in the resurrection now. And all of the same promises that will follow are going to require faith.
This is the hope of our resurrection from the dead. Without the resurrection — if Christ be not resurrected then we are without hope in the world, even as others that have no hope at all, so eat drink and be merry! When people die without faith in Christ, because they don’t believe it for whatever reason, likewise people living during the millennial reign of Christ, even then there will be people that will not believe. They’re going to see the world around them, and it’s all going to seem very normal to them just as everything seems very normal to us now. People who live through the second coming of Christ, they’re going to know like no one else, they’re going to know like Adam and Eve knew, they’re going to know like the children of Israel going through the wilderness looking for the Promised Land knew. They’re going to know that it was real. But some people are going to forget, and then the generations that are born on down the line will forget. They will question, who are these guys with all the power, some may become disgruntled, jealous, or whatever their fallen nature will invoke for unbelief.
Then when Satan is loosed for a little season at the end, he’s going to gather all those disgruntled, all those unbelievers, all those without faith together, and they’re going to think, well we can overthrow Jesus and his people that are ruling the world. Look at them, they have no weapons or army or anything for defense. And they’re going to compass Jerusalem about, but the scripture says that it’s going to be a pretty quick battle because fire is going to come down out of heaven and destroy them. And yeah, we’ll see how that works out for them.
Mortals who will live through the return of Christ can still sin and even murder each other, however I do believe that murder will be almost unknown, crime will be at an all-time low during the millennial reign of Christ. So if they are still mortal they can still be killed, but will not be able to murder an immortal, because immortals cannot die. But because of the sin nature they could kill each other, but crime will be greatly reduced during the millennial reign of Christ, because there will not be that influence, like the terrible era we are in right now. You can see it in the world around us, how quickly things are changing, how quickly the effect of the gospel of Jesus Christ is losing its hold on the reigns of the world, how they’re casting off the chords and the ties that bind them down to God’s law.
Lawlessness is accelerating, and the rule of His people, the effect that Christ and the gospel and His kingdom has had in the earth seems to be abating as we near the approach of His return. But then it will be different, Satan will be locked up during the millennial reign and they won’t be able to throw His reign off because Christ will be physically ruling and reigning from Jerusalem with his elect, who are resurrected to join Him and govern the entire earth for that thousand years. It is likely that the earth will eventually become more populated than ever before during the millennium. During the blissful millennial reign of Christ there will be far less crime than ever before. Even as murder and other sins can be forgiven, remember Jesus warning, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit won’t be forgiven in this world or the next, and certainly that people will blaspheme in that era, I believe is a direct reference to the millennium. People continually turn away from the Holy Spirit’s prompt to repent so that their heart becomes so hard: that’s the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that I see. Where they just refuse to repent continually over and over again so that they eventually can’t even hear the Holy Spirit anymore.
Question: Will Jesus who will be there in person punish the mortals for each sin as it occurs?
Absolutely not. Sin of course will have individual consequences much as it does today. As to policing power for violations of the persons and property of others there will be some accountability. However, with an incorruptible system of jurisprudence we can expect justice to prevail under the law of God as it would apply to that era. We can expect the sons of Adam to have many of the same failings as they do now, but any system of correction will be much different than what we have now. Many types of sin will be rare in the day of the Lord, but that doesn’t mean that men’s hearts and minds won’t be corrupted, but that it may be somewhat limited as to an outward expression of it, since there will be no organizing spirit for evil in the world.
[1] Rev. 20:9
Excerpts of my upcoming book, tentatively titled, Reformed Prophecy Interpretation. (c) 2020 NIcklas Arthur, all rights reserved.
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