Step Into The Millenium

From an empire. So what I was thinking last week was that stone, was that indicative of iron in any sort of way? Because it's going to take out the, the whole statue, but in particular this revived Roman Empire. No, the, the stone is not. However, there are quite a few references in the Old Testament of empires and nations that are opposed to God. And iron is the word that, that's used to describe them. Chariots of iron, things, things of that nature. And the iron, it was just simply the, the strongest metal of the day. And the iron just represented strength and authority. And ultimately as Jesus comes back and he's the king of kings, and he destroys all the, the, these kingdoms on earth and, and these kings and rulers during the tribulation, just as he's king of kings, I just simply believe that him ruling with the iron scepter, all these, these worldly earthly kingdoms, all the power that's represented by iron, it's just like, no, Jesus coming back and ruling with a rod of iron. So just as he's king of kings, it's like his iron, his rod of iron is like the iron of all iron, just declares his supremacy over it all. So that's what I came back with, Leslie, is, is that sufficient? I want to make sure I pass, pass the test?

Yes.

Thank you so much. No, I was, I was kind of looking into it myself and I found, not as much as that, but kind of, I found stuff along the lines. I actually want to thank Roger for the Ramphaya, the sword of Christ. I actually went down a rabbit hole on the rump fire and what that looks like. And that was super cool. So thank you for that, Roger.

Good stuff. Good stuff, Roger. You get a new car today or you just signing up all these car dealerships with your processing? Okay. Okay, cool. All right, well, we're going to jump into Revelation chapter 20 and we ended last week chapter 19, obviously with the return of Christ, when he cracks the sky on a white horse and the armies of heaven, which will include us will be on white horses behind him. And that's when he, he throws the, the beast, the Antichrist, into the lake of fire along with the false prophets. But we're going to read now that the devil himself, he doesn't go into the lake of fire because quite yet it's not going to be for a thousand years after this. And we'll, we'll talk a bit back, talk a bit about whether or not this thousand years is a literal thousand year millennial reign of Jesus. I'd love to hear your Comments and feedback and kind of what the Lord's giving you on that. And why, if Jesus has an opportunity to just destroy the devil, all evil, and let's get this new earth, new heaven popping at this point, why, why do we have this thousand year millennial reign? So I'll, I'll read through chapter 20, it's only 15 verses. And then we'll break it down. Revelation, verse 20, chapter 20, verse one. Then I saw the eye, being John, of course, who you know, going back to the beginning of Revelation. He's on the isle of Patmos and he has all these visions that God gives him to, to write for us, to write to the church. John saw this angel, an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, in case you weren't sure who he's talking about right now, he covers all of it. The dragon, the serpent of old, 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 the seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them. And judgment. We'll talk about who they are. They sat on them and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who have been beheaded for the 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. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. 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. Now, when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breath of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Where the beast and the false prophet are, they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Okay, so 15 verses, one short chapter. About a thousand year stretch in history to come. And there's not much mention about what's actually going on in the millennium here. We have to rely upon passages in Isaiah and Zechariah to kind of see what the earth will look like, what it will be like during this thousand year reign. So just to jump into it, there's typically three perspectives when it comes to the millennium. The first will be those. They will be called amillennialists, meaning just no, millennial. That this thousand years is purely symbolic. And they believe that we're actually in this millennium right now. That the thousand years just represents, it's symbolic of just a great period of time. There's some issues with this amillennial stance. One would be, if we're in this now and Satan is bound, then how long is this chain that Satan is bound with? Because when you look around, there's quite a bit of evil in the world today. And we may not be privy to as much where we live in America, here in the west, but if you ask some of these Christians who live in Nigeria that are, are being slaughtered by these terror groups like Boko Haram, they would certainly believe in the evil of the enemy and that it still exists. When you look at, I mean, you don't have to go far even here in America, you see that there's a lot of wicked hearts still here in America. Even amongst us as believers. We're kidding ourselves if we believe that we still don't have wicked hearts until we're, we shed these earthly tents, right, and get our glorified bodies, we're still contending with our, our wicked hearts. But in the first 300 years of the church, really nobody had this stance and there's actually historians that will say verbatim like all the, the 12 disciples, they, they believed in what would be called a, a pre millennial reign of Jesus. A pre millennial stance which simply means that Christ returns at the end of the seven year tribulation and there's a literal thousand year reign here on earth. Millennial those who hold to an amillennial stance even, even as Isaiah describes and Zechariah, like I said, the, the time, the way the earth will be when Satan is bound. That's when you know lions and sheep will be able to coexist. It says that your children could go play with cobras and vipers, right? They're not going to bite you. So some, the way the world is today, it's not going to look like this. So to say we're in the millennium now, I don't think there's really any biblical context that would support that. During the Great Awakening in particular, George Whitfield in the early 1700s who was just today, if you were alive today, he would be. Or some great preachers that we know he would be like Billy Graham plus gosh, who are some great preachers like it like TD Jake. Not to say I subscribe to everything TD Jake says, but just this big powerhouse preacher, right where if you hear this guy talk, he's leading you to Christ. It was said at the time when these Ivy League institutions were established that if he preached to a hundred unbelievers, 90 of them would get saved. Ben Franklin, he would go and hear George Whitfield speak. And George Whitfield would always raise money for, for orphans and widows. And there's a particular time Ben Franklin said I, I'm going to hear George speak again, but I'm not bringing any money because every time I go I give him everything I have. And he didn't bring money. And at that particular meeting, Ben Franklin at the end, he asked his friend to borrow money to give to George Whitfield for his ministry efforts and then had to pay him back. So George Whitfield, one of his proteges was Jonathan Edwards. And Jonathan Edwards saw this and was like that. Imagine seeing just revival everywhere, everybody being led to the Lord. And for Jonathan Edwards he saw this and was like we have to be in the millennium right now because there's like no evil. So obviously 300 years later from that we see that there still is plenty of evil. But in just the, the small very subjective point of view that he had, everywhere he's looking, seeing George Whitfield Preach, everybody's getting saved. He said, okay, the devil must be bound, because I don't see any evil here. I don't see any, any power of the enemy. So there are some, some notable Christians throughout history that in my opinion, are a bit misguided to have this amillennial stance. But you, you kind of see from their perspective why they might have that. But out of the amillennial stance came the post millennial view. And that's just that Christ returns after a thousand years. And it's seen as there's a Harvey harvesting of souls leading up to Christ returning after the. Again, very contrary to what we just read throughout the book of Revelation. And if there's a harvesting of souls leading up to, if this thousand years is just, you know, evil is bound. And there's this great revival again, the harvesting of souls, well, that's contrary to what scripture teaches. We're taught in Scripture that in the last days there's going to be a great apostasy. There's going to be a falling away of the faith. There's going to be those who, there's going to be false teachers come in and they prey on those who have the itchy ears right where they, they're receiving what they want to hear. And I, I surely believe that that's where we are today, where there's this great falling away, this movement of deconstructionism. And again, you don't have to look very far to see evil around us. So if Satan is bound and the millennial period, this thousand years is a time on earth where it will kind of go back to before the flood where animals will, will coexist, get along with one another. It wasn't until after the flood where, you know, Noah was granted permission to eat meat. Some people think that we'll all be vegetarians at this time because we're not gonna kill animals. I don't know if that's the, the case specifically, but it's going to be a time where. Will there still be evil on earth? Yes. And we'll get into how and why there still will be some evil. But will the world be different than what we see today? Yes. Now, when John sees this vision, when it says that it was an angel that came down from heaven, what I love is this angel isn't named. Doesn't say it was Gabriel, doesn't say it was Michael. It could be the lowliest of all the angels. But it wasn't even Jesus himself that that bound Satan. It just said it was an Angel. And he had the key to the bottomless pit. He had a chain and he laid hold of the dragon, he laid hold of the devil, and he bound him for the thousand years in that bottomless pit. Now we know that we read a bit about the bottomless pit. Your translation may say abyss. During the tribulation, God is going to give the devil power to unleash some of the demons that are, that are already in that bottomless pit. If we read in Jude verse it says that says an angels who didn't, did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He being God, has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So there, there is this bottomless pit, there is this abyss, there's demons. Thank God, because when you feel spiritual warfare now, if you ever come across a demon possessed person, it's a little scary, it's a little fre. As much as demons are roaming throughout the earth, there's, there's a number of them that are already in this bottomless pit. They're going to be unlocked for a period of time during tribulation. They're going to swarm the earth like locusts. One of the many reasons you don't want to be here during the tribulation. But this, it's not symbolic that this chain, right, it's not symbolic. It's a real thing. But it kind of takes faith to, to believe in it. Because what kind of chain could keep the devil bound? I don't know. It's a, it's a godly chain from, from heaven. It's a real thing. But what it looks like, we don't, we don't actually know. But we can't say that. It's just simply symbolic. We know that things in scripture, especially revelation, are symbolic, but there's a real bottomless pit. There's going to be a great chain in the hand of. And the devil is going to be bound for the thousand years. Is this abyss at the center of the earth? It's hard to say. But ultimately the devil's going to be shut up in this abyss. There's going to be a seal set on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. Deceive the nations. That's what the enemy does. He deceives. He's the father of lies. And the, the enemy, he's very good at deceiving. Every time we talk about the devil, I'm quick to point out that we should be aware of his Tactics, they, they're the same now as they've always been. They always get us to, to question if God is real. Going back to the, the garden. Okay, did God really say that? Did God really say that? Even if God gives you a direct word to yourself, you're praying about something and God says, I, I should do this, right? If, if that's the case, you do it, and then it doesn't turn out the way you, you absolutely thought it would, or if you just believe. Okay, I know God said, you know, let's say get married. We're going to get married today. I, you know, we're going to the courthouse. We're going to honor God. We're going to get married. We're young, we haven't known each other long, but God. I know I heard God say get. And then maybe, you know, first week of marriage isn't what you thought it was. You thought you were. Everything would be sunshine and rainbows because you're honoring God, you're following his word. And then, you know, it finds out, you find out that, wow, this woman's got a lot of hair care products.

Wow.

You know, her face lotions. How many faces does she have, like, with all these lotions for her face and scrubs, Right? Well, just because you're in God's will doesn't mean that it's easy, right? It doesn't necessarily. It's easy. But ultimately there's a reason why God declares something to you, whether it be through his word or something, that he speaks directly to you. And just a little pro tip for, for you believers, if you get a direct word from God and it's something contrary to the word of God, then that wasn't from God. Right? He's never going to speak to you directly, something that's contrary to his word. But the enemy, he's very good at deceiving. He will get us to doubt. Did I really, did I really hear God right? And I remember Lucy and I, we went through this when we got married, we knew that God was saying we were going to have a child together. And it was going to be a bit of a process because her tubes were tied. When we got married, she was in an abusive relationship. When she had our youngest daughter Mooch, she got her tubes tied. And then lo and behold, a couple months after we get married, Christian doctor walks into our life and basically declares, oh, I, you know, I'm an obgyn and I believe God's given, given me this as a ministry to restore women's bodies. Back to the way he designed them. And she wound up getting her tubes reversed, which she was able to. I found out that if you get your tubes tied and you don't, like, burn the ends, you could reverse them. And thank God that was the case for Lucy and say, okay, this is happening. And then it was years of trying and nothing. And then got pregnant and miscarriage, then got pregnant again, miscarriage number two. And it wasn't ultimately till eight years after being married and knowing we're gonna have a baby, our son Ezra was born. You don't think there was times of doubt in that, that eight years, especially when we lose two babies, where it's like, okay, we must have heard God wrong. We must, you know, I don't know what was going on, but clearly we were wrong. And then you start to doubt your relationship with the Lord. Say, okay, if I was wrong about this, what else am I wrong about, right? But that's the enemy. Anytime things don't go specifically according to your plan. And look at, I mean, the whole Jewish faith. Jesus came, their Messiah came, but it didn't look. He didn't look exactly the way they thought he would look. He didn't, you know, he didn't have the government upon his shoulders right away, right? He came as a humble servant. And ultimately he's going to rule and reign. And it starts here in this Revelation 20. But the enemy is very good at deceiving us. And keep in mind that we could easily be deceived if the lie looks a lot like the truth. Think about it. If somebody's trying to pass counterfeit money, there's a chance it'll pass this counterfeit. Somebody will be deceived because it looks very close to the real thing. If you walk into a store with some monopoly money and try to pay with that, it doesn't look like the real thing at all. It's going to be exposed as fraudulent very quickly. But the enemy is very good at being a counterfeit and just sowing these seeds of doubt within us. And he's going to be bound from that. He's not going to be able to deceive the nations, deceive anybody for these thousand years. Now he's going to, after those thousand years, and I. I want to open it up right away. As we go through this, we read the 15 verses. There's a lot in there. But why do you guys suppose that the devil is going to be bound for a thousand years? And why the heck did God just not wipe him out at this point? Why is he gonna come back and rear his ugly head in a thousand years from then and deceive the nations? Right? So who is he actually deceiving and why would God give him that opportunity?

I guess I'll chime in if no one else is. I have a couple thoughts about it. I've definitely studied this before, but like you had just said a minute ago, is that. Well, the, the Jews kind of expected Jesus to look a whole lot different than he ended up looking at. My gut feeling is that that's usually the way it works, is that we think it's going to look one way.

More.

Miraculous way for it to look. That reflects his character and his overall intent.

Part of it.

There's this, this thought in the back of my mind and I haven't really studied this out. So just a thought is that, well, the Lord didn't really make us in places in heaven, he made us and placed us on the earth. And the initial sin in the garden was an interruption of God's design in that case scenario. So in some way the millennium's kind of living that, you know, we're heaven bound but we weren't placed on heaven, are placed in heaven, we were placed on earth there. So there's that aspect of it. But also if you reinstate that type of a situation, well, I mean his whole design included free will. So if Satan isn't loose on the earth to deceive the nations, if that's what they so choose, well then we don't really have free will in that case, if you remove all temptation or move all possibility of doing ill. So I think it's like, it's a, it's that fulfillment of his initial purpose and, and his overall reflection on this, this earth that he created.

Okay. Okay, Gita.

Yeah, thank you. I mean that's, that's definitely a great answer. And I was just going to say, you know, I think your question was that who was he trying to deceive or who is he coming after, so to speak. And, and it's us really. I think we're tested every day now. Of course we have the victory through Christ. So it's kind of like we're fighting a battle that we already know the outcome of the war, which is interesting type of war. It's almost like, you know, it's prophetic. We already know we win, but we do have the obligation to stand. So, you know, the Holy Spirit does not fight for, for us. He fights through us. And we have a spirit of power, love and a sound Mind, not Holy Spirit. So, you know, it says we don't have a spirit of that, but it's hard to explain. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I think that constantly, our identity, our thoughts, the battles in the mind, and that very much reminds me of Jesus in the wilderness. Because right now, you know, I'm facing some things which. Which are amazing. Like, you know, my biggest breakthrough coming, but I'm fighting like I'm in the wilderness in the sense. Right. But I think we always all are in this world. I think that's what this is, where we're standing in our authority, our identity in Christ to get to the next victory as he takes us from glory to glory.

Amen. Amen. That's good. Jonathan. Jonathan, you got a new look for your hair today. It's like just the. The get out of bed, do this look. But I'm digging it, man. Looks good. All right.

Yeah, something like that. Just put a little product in it and see what happens, I think. Yeah. So I was actually. I don't really have answers. I have a response or more even a question. When you were reading verse three, it stood out to me. It says the word must, at least the new King James. New King James version in verse three says, but after these things, he must be released. And it's interesting that it's not God allowed it or this or that, but he must be released. And so you wonder if. I think like, the hierarchies, the way we set up government, I think we ripped off heaven, like, right? So you wonder what the laws of heaven, the unseen realm, are. You wonder what the hierarchies are and what is set in places for maybe eons from. From past ages, right? Like, what was set in heave heaven. And I feel like we ripped off heaven and set up, that's why. How, where we got kings and, you know, governments and all that. But you wonder just like why it's a must that he must be released and why it's not like God's just allowing this or this or that and kind of. But like, I'm not saying God is under a lot. He's above it all. But I'm saying, like, you wonder why. Why it is a must and why there it has to be this way. And even the way Satan operates, like, he. He can't just do whatever he has to. He has to. He has to obey a order. He has to obey a hierarchy and. And what the. What he does. And so he'll try to, like, backdoor his way into it, I think. But that in the end ultimately still fails. But I don't know if like any of that, it's not really an answer, it's more of like a question. But when you were reading that, that I thought that tied in where there's like, there's just things that have to be this way, but I don't know why.

Yeah, yeah, that's good. Pick up there. He must be released. So what's that must? Leslie, what are your thoughts?

Well, yeah, I mean that's, that's a great point. And I was wondering if I had to do something with the way that God's justice works where God won't go back on his word and somewhere there was an agreement that we know about or don't know about or just the way that, you know, God has set up the spiritual realms that, that the lockup and then the release is part of his justice for the accuser. And that's why I wonder if it's a must because God just has to be true to his word and you know, he's unchanging. So I wonder if it has to do with something like that that we're not really fully aware of or understand, but it's, you know, just the way he operates.

Yeah, yeah. These, these are all good thoughts. Good, good answers, if you will. Well, let's think about this. So who's going to be on the earth during these thousand years? Us as believers. But we're, we're going to be in our glorified bodies at this state, right? Where when Jesus cracks the sky and, and we see the battle of Armageddon and he defeats the, the kings of the earth, he throws the false prophet and the, the beast that who's the Antichrist into the lake of fire. So they're defeated. And now this thousand year stretch, we are going to be on the earth, but there's also going to be mortal bodies on the earth for those who, who live during the tribulation. And there, there's some different thoughts as to whether this battle of Armageddon, if it's just the, the rulers of the nations and the kings of the earth at the time we know they're going to be dead, they're going to be taken out. But then will every single person who's rejected Christ be, be killed at this point? Some say yes, some say no. I would tend to say yes. But either way, we know that there's going to be some people who, I don't know, maybe they're doomsday preppers that are living in some bunker during the Tribulation, and they are believers. And when Christ cracks the sky at the end of Revelation 19, they, they, they had not taken the mark of the beast. They made it through the Tribulation and they're still alive. So now we have this earth where it's immortal bodies, which would be us, and which I pray, I pray every one of you's saved. If the Rapture happens, you're going that none of you live through the Tribulation, but then you're going to have mortals living on earth as well. Now just even backtrack a little more about this thousand years. This thousand years. Do you guys think it's a literal thousand years or you guys think it's just the thousand represents a period of time, a long period of time?

I was not literal, but.

Yeah, I would take it to be a thousand literal years for the same reason. For me, I'm a young earther, if you will. I believe the seven days of creation were seven literal days. Part of that being, you know, what God created the, the plants and, and the trees and agriculture, and then he created the animals. Well, the animals needed the, the agriculture, but the agriculture was also pollinated by the animals. So if there's long stretches between those days of creation, how did everything sustain? I believe 40 days of rain and the flood was a literal 40 days. I believe 40 days in the wilderness was a literal 40 days. 70 years of exile was, I mean, we could go back historically and see that it was a literal 70 years of the Jews being in exile in Babylon. I believe it was literal three days that Jesus was buried 400 years in Egypt. And a thousand years is mentioned six times in this short passage. Six times. So I, I think we could take the thousand years to be literal. I, I think that's, that's our best shot at it. But also if you look at Isaiah 65, when it's. Remember I said Isaiah and Zechariah are really the, the two prophets of the Old Testament that describe what this millennial reign will be. Isaiah 65:20 says, no more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die 100 years old, but the sinner being 100 years old shall be occurred. So it's essentially saying that you live to be a hundred during the, you're, you're, you're dying young. There's going to be longevity. It will be kind of back to the guard, like atmosphere and if, if you live to only be a hundred at that time, then you're going to be dying young. So it doesn't mean that you can't die during the millennium, but there it could potentially be. And as much as scripture gives us about the millennium, like all things in scripture, God gives us enough. He, he gives us what we need. He gives us enough. We can have conversations, we could have friendly debates for certain. But the fact of the matter is, is there's going to be mortals living on the earth now. Satan will be bound. The, the earth is going to be a monarchy. The, the best type of government period is a monarchy. As long as the monarch is Jesus Christ, right? As soon as man is the monarch, if man, any man who's ever lived with a wicked heart is monarch, then it's going to go south, right? But Jesus is the ultimate monarch. It's going to be a monarch, monarchy, government, and Christ is going to be the ruler of that. It's gonna, he's gonna rule from Jerusalem. That's going to be the, the, the, the hub of all the world's activities for those thousand years. Now if you're alive during the end of the Tribulation, right, and say you meet some other doomsday prepper, right, imagine what life will be for those folks with us. We'll, we'll have already dive, been in the presence of the Lord. It's not the new heaven, new earth yet, but the, the, the veil that we kind of see through now or that, that, that dim mirror, not mirror, window that we look through now. Much more will be revealed to us. Things will make sense. But we're going to have folks on the earth who, who yeah, they made it through the tribulation. But it's probably going to be a little weird for them of living life on this earth, one with no evil. Especially if they've been hiding in a cave for the last couple years during Tribulation. But say a doomsday prepper meets another doomsday prepper during this millennium. They have kids and now there's children being born during the millennium, right? And they're, they're being born into this Eden like atmosphere where Satan is bound. I believe it says that Satan must be released because as we talked about a little bit last week, nobody gets a, a free pass to heaven. Nobody. So even if you are born into this, this monarchy of Jesus Christ, this millennial reign somewhat heaven on earth, you still don't get a free pass to heaven. You still don't get a free pass. You you still have to make a choice. You have to make a decision. That's one thing God has done for all of us. He's given us free will. God knows in his omniscience all of us who he knows the names that are written in the book of life. He knows it. But just because he knows it doesn't mean that he determines our free will. You know those who, those who have reformed theology and yes, we are the elect. Yes, we've been pre destined as far as we've all been predestined to come to Christ. That's God's perfect will. But it's ultimately our choice. This is why Jesus when he looked out over Jerusalem and he, he was distraught, he said, oh how I wanted to gather you all as a mother and gathers her chicks, but you will were not willing, right? When for God so loved the world, he loved all of us that he sent his son to die for us. And, and all who believe will not perish but have eternal life. So God's will is that we all live forever with him in heaven. But for those folks that are born during the millennial reign, they still have to make a decision. Now you would think if they're, they're born into this like perfect, almost perfect utopia that it would be a pretty easy decision for them. But again there's no free passes. So ultimately God will release the devil and he is going to deceive one last, one last time. And for those, it's not going to be us like we're sealed where it's not for us to now make another decision. We, the decisions we get to make are our time here on this earth while we have breath in our lungs. Once we make a decision for Christ, we pass away, that will never change. Our names are in the book of life. We're going to spend eternity in heaven. But ultimately those who are born during this millennial reign, they're going to be deceived because you can't make a decision for Christ unless there's something to compare Christ to. And Satan is going to be unlocked, unleashed. He's going to deceive one last time. And unfortunately there's going to be those that are deceived at that time, which again you think of the deception of Jesus. You could say how could anybody who's living in this just Christian utopia where the world is from all accounts perfect. How could somebody possibly choose anything but that? The enemy is good. The enemy is good at what he does. As far as deceiving. So what are your thoughts on that as far as he must be released for a little while, he must deceive one last time so that there's nobody. God is, is a righteous judge. He doesn't give a free pass to anybody. Jonathan.

Well, I think actually that's a really good thought. That makes a lot of sense. I think that's. Yeah. But then my thought was when you were talking about having kids, are thousand years is a long time, especially if we're living beyond 100 years. Is heavenly. Are glorified bodies. Are, is this going to be like a good version of Genesis 6 where like glorified bodies copulate with your mortals, so to speak?

I don't think that would be the case.

Okay.

Because we're no, there's going to be no like procreating in heaven and.

No.

So I, I don't, I don't think so. I don't think so. No, I think it'll be the mortals that are on earth will procreate with each other.

Okay. Yeah, that was my thought. But yeah, I think that makes sense as far as like what you laid out. I don't know if I buy it, but it makes sense. I'm just kidding. Yeah, that was good.

Nice. Zach.

Yeah. So just a thought I had on, on all of that because after that millennial reign, then you know, Satan's release, well, I think Methuselah lived just a little shy of a thousand years, right? I think 969 years. So at that point when Satan's release, nobody who made it through the tribulation into the millennium, technically it'll still be alive. So just the, the aspect of acquiring faith again, not being able to hear any first hand sources from anyone who experienced anything prior to the phase of the earth that live again. It's just, it's just an interesting thought in that sense where. And again requires faith and how like there's this idea that faith is pleasing to God.

Yeah. Well, keep in mind, I mean as there is procreation, I mean there will be a repopulation of the earth of mortals. So it's not just those who immediately get together after the tribulation. You know, those kids will grow up and probably have kids and more will have kids. So there will be a repopulating of the earth of mortal fleshly bodies. But I, I love all these thoughts and comments for certain again, the, the Bible gives us enough. Right. And I love you. You mentioned Zach or Zach or Jonathan that it does require faith. All this requires faith even. It's like, okay, what is this chain that the angel has. How in the world does he keep the. The devil bound? It requires faith.

And.

I determined pretty early on in my Christian walk that just based on the. The supernatural transformation in myself of what happened when I said yes to the Lord, that and then started diving into Scripture. I may not understand everything that's written in scripture. I may not fully get it. I may want more answers, but if it's written in scripture, I love the Lord. I fear him enough that even if I don't get it, I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. Early on, like, like a lot of people say, oh, well, you know, the, the Canaanites. God wanted to wipe out the Canaanites and the Amalekites and even, even their, Their children and babies. Why would a loving God do that? And at first I was like, I don't know. I. I don't know why God would do that. But I love him enough. I believe in him enough that there must be a reason. And when you come to see that those people were cursed and it's better for, you know, that bloodline to be killed off. And I mean, guess what? If you tell me, and this is going to sound harsh, but if you tell me that our son Ezra, if you told me he is going to hate Jesus, he's going to hate Jesus, he's going to just love the world and ultimately one day not be in heaven. And there's an option for God to kind of wipe him out now, take him away off this earth now, before he's at an age where he can make that decision. And I believe be in heaven based on just a verse in 2nd Samuel where David's child that was killed, he said he would see him again one day. Sounds harsh. You don't want to think about it for your own kids, but I remember Lucy saying that she. She had prayed that prayer for the kids. It's like, lord, if my. My kids don't. Don't live for you, if they don't serve you, then. Then take them now. Like, it's like, whoa. Really? But, yeah, so. So I don't. So in God's loving, just righteous, merciful character, if it means okay taking out a. A baby from this earth before he rejects them, then I see as an act of grace and mercy. So I don't understand. I guess you say I leave these Wednesday mornings facilitate this. I don't know everything in scripture, don't understand it. But in the end, I. I trust God. I certainly trust God. I want to have A hard stop at, at 8 this morning. But I just wanted to mention where it says, and Even though chapter 20, it's so packed. But you got to kind of jump around Scripture to see exactly what's being spoken of. When a thousand years expire, Satan's release, he'll go out to deceive the nations. And then John uses Gog and Magog to, to represent Gog and Magog. Remember in the battle of Ezekiel, chapter chapters 38 and 39 represented. What is that region that would be current Russia. The leader of Russia to gather them together for battle. And it said, whose number is the sand of the sea. So there's going to be people who are, are opposed to God by the end of this millennial reign. When the enemy deceives, there's going to be many that are deceived. And ultimately that's when the devil is cast into the lake of fire, fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet already are. They're tormented day and night, forever and ever. One thing to certainly pull away from this chapter is that hell is real. And we have oftentimes we just say heaven and hell, right? And in the Old Testament, the word shield is the word that's just the, the place for the dead. There, there's, think about it as this until the, the day of judgment. The judgment for us is the be my seat. Judgment happens during the tribulation period because we're going to be in heaven with our crowns. We're going to get our rewards and ultimately those rewards, all that we do is going to determine our status and our roles and responsibilities during this thousand year millennial reign. And I do know when I say thousand year millennium, it's redundant that millennium means thousand. But that's just, I don't know, that's just to clarify the thousand year millennium. But then it's not until after the millennium where we see the great White Throne judgment. And ultimately, you know, again, if we make a decision for Christ while we're here on earth, that decision and then we're, we're dead, we're gone from this earth. We'll be a part of the first resurrection. First resurrection, it kind of comes in waves. The first resurrection starts with Christ as the first fruit, as it says in First Corinthians 15, he, he resurrected. Then us as believers, we resurrect during the rapture. Old Testament saints and those who are martyred during the tribulation, it's, it's after the tribulation period and then ultimately the great White Throne, judgment. There's a resurrection for all of us. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, there's a supper for all of us. We're going to be a part of this great marriage. Supper of the lamb. Are we going to be a part of the supper where the birds are. Are eating our carcasses because we rejected God. So but like I said, one thing to take away is that hell or the lake of Fire is a real thing. Hades is the, the New Testament equivalent of shield. Shield is this just temporary realm of the dead. And then Gehenna is, is really what is the word that's used by, by Jesus in the New Testament. It points towards the, the lake of fire, Tartarus. It's mentioned in First Peter, Chapter 2. And this is not the, the same as the lake of fire, but this would be more that abyss, that bottomless pit that we were reading about here. But the lake of fire is, is distinct from Hades. Hades is more temporary. It says that, that death in Hades is delivered up and the dead who are in them go into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is permanent. Throughout Scripture is described as torment, everlasting torment. We read that last chapter as the false prophet and the beast, that that's what they have to endure. So once the devil goes there to the lake of Fire, those jokers will have already been there for a thousand years, right? And it was only back in 2018, I think it was, where Pope Francis said, there is no hell, there's the disappearance of sinful souls. Right? Imagine the Pope saying this Pope, you know, the Catholics is word is in the same regard and surpasses the authority of Scripture. And just this idea of annihilationism or, you know, either go to heaven or, you know, your soul just perishes. None of our, our souls Paris perish. We're gonna have an eternal resting place. And you know, chapter 20 is a fun chapter to talk about. And this hour is gone rather quickly. But ultimately for me, when I just see this lake of fire, read about this lake of fire and the constant torment and the, the eternal separation from God, it's something certainly I, I don't want to experience at all. And I briefly mentioned this last week, the, the story in Luke, the rich man at Lazarus, where there was this great chasm between the two and they were both in the temporary place of Sheol. It was Lazarus and Abraham's bosom, and it was the rich man in Hades, right? And when we think about that, all of us who are believers, we never have to experience that, however, for our family members, our friends, for those we don't even know, just knowing that, oh my gosh, there's a place that is worse than you could possibly imagine. And you're. You're on the, the road, you're on the highway straight to it. If you don't surrender to Christ, if you don't place your faith in Jesus, for me, it's just a wake up call to recommit myself to Jesus every single day. Whether you believe you could lose your salvation or not, I know whether you can or not. And it's not losing your salvation will be more like giving up your salvation, relinquishing your salvation. Whether you believe in that or not. I know that I, as long as every single day I deny myself, take up my cross and follow Jesus. If I do that, every single day, if I abide, right. Colossians 1. Those who are faithful, those who endure, right. Those who endure to the end will be saved. I know if every single day I do my part, then I don't have to worry about possibly relinquishing my salvation. Why would I want to anyway? When. When the Holy Spirit took a residency inside this earthly vessel, everything changed for me, which I'm sure it did for you as well. No matter how radical or how some people think their testimony is boring. There's no boring testimony. When you have an encounter with God and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, then that's radical. That's radical. That's powerful. You're changed. So I'll leave it to you guys. Are there any closing thoughts? Any? But we kind of dance around this a little bit. Didn't go too in depth, verse by verse, but I don't want to say, not to waste time doing it. We. We certainly can. I love expository teaching of the word of God, but I'm ready to get into Chapter 21 next week, where all things made new. This will be a new heaven, new earth. No more death. Right? So there's still death to Zach's point. And, and what we talked about a little bit. There is death during the millennium. People will die, but there's gonna be no more death. And this is kind of like that big. Aha. Be interesting to see during the millennium how fast it kind of goes for us. Will it feel like a thousand years? I mean, we. I've been alive 44 years. Kind of feels like it's been a long time. Right. Sometimes I feel like, geez, feel like I was a cave yesterday. So how will that thousand years be Right, Raj, how do you feel? You know, you're.

You're.

I know you feel young. It is. It is. Yeah. Yep. So I haven't heard any old jokes from him. I mean, he's. I'm only four years older than him, but he always reminded me of how much older I was, so. But he was a believer before me, so I was born again later. So I'm actually younger, quite frankly, I'm actually younger. Well, with that, guys, going to wrap it up for this week. Love the participation, all the thoughts. Just two more chapters in Revelation. And then if you guys have any, any ideas or any thought as to what book to get into next or maybe some topical studies we could go through, certainly reach out, let me know. I'll be praying about that. There's one book in particular I want to get into. I'll see if, you know, anybody agrees with that in their spirit, and they come back with the same book. So we'll see. But I love you guys. Have a blessed day. Have a blessed week. Any questions, concerns? Prayer requests, Reach out to me before next week. Love you guys. Take care.