EPILOGUE:  END OF THE END OF THIS


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdBws54ZHyY

In the beginning.  We started there.  The blog, that is.  Way back two plus years ago.

Adam and Eve walking in the cool of the day with God.  Perfectly designed for the Earth. Doing the job they were meant to do at that time.  One rue to obey.  But the First Flesh was tempted and fell. Even being perfectly designed, even walking with God every day, in his presence every day, unfallen, they fell.

With no written rules, their children still had God available.  They couldn't go back to Eden, (itnwas there, off in the distance to view somehow but the fiery sword  of an angel kept it away)  but they could have followed His orders, built a nomadic life until He ordered them go find a home.  Instead they settled their own home and:

Ge 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. {Enoch: Heb. Chanoch}
 18 And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. {Lamech: Heb. Lemech}
 19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
 20 And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
 21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
 22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah. {instructer: Heb. whetter}
 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. {I have...: or, I would slay a man in my wound, etc.} {to my hurt: or, in my hurt}
 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
 (KJV)


If you read the list of the things these people introduced to civilization, you get a surprise.

Lamech:  he takes two wives.  If you follow God with one wife then two must be even better. The worship of the female form and the use of the woman's body was the foundation of the goddess worship culture which seems to have been the first form of organized idolatry. The first man to add to God's word so he could get gratification he wanted for himself, worship he wanted for himself, a power as a leader.

Jabal:  tent dwelling, trying to follow God's rule in  the "curse" about living by the land, having no place to rest. Yet Jabal did it without seeking God as Enoch on the other side of the family tree would.  So he had much cattle.  He went after the wealth which god bestowed on a man trying to obey.  Except, if we look at the history of those outside of the Hebrew Bible listings, worship of the bull was the first male centered religious cult. He went from following the instruction to following a false god of money and cows who brought in the money.

Jubal: creator of music and musical instruments.  These are the jot of many lives. Yet they became used in religious ceremonies and in the following of false gods.  Today, we see demonic use of rock music and the leading of folks to follow after love rather than the Creator who is love.  We see we have to use the music of the world and give it a kind of cleansing with god's word to present it to the people who are not saved and to please those who are.  One of my obvious weaknesses as a Christian.  I grew up listening to rock and it still stays in my mind,  I will even use it here to demonstrate a point or present an emotion.

Tubalcain:  master of working with brass.  His art would have crafted the first metal idols, the ones who were the most enduring.  The golden calf of Aaron would have been a direct descendant.  Metalwork also created the most powerful hand-to-hand weapon of it's time, the sword and would have put powerful metal points to the wooden shafts of arrows.  Made the first armor to protect during war.  War will be the final thing unsaved man engages in as Jesus returns as a blinding botl of light in the clouds, returns with His bride. His sister (whetter) would have been the one who honed those initial blades with the edge of war.

Note that these are mentioned as their mother's children.  The worship of the goddess was underway.

Lamech again:  The sin of Cain had come fully down to his children.  Lamech has murdered and murdered more than one.  The multiplier of murder is war.  And the worship of the strongman ruler arrived.  If the idols and the religions couldn't make people do what the ruler wanted, if people would reel despite having all their desire temporarily met by their stone idols, by their sexually available women, then the ruler himself would enforce his will with blood.  People would do what they were told.  The ruler would become the god himself.  The living idol.

Human history without God distilled into a few paragraphs.

(This by way of  introduction to the blog The Approaching Kingdoms.  Among other things we'll present the ways for the virgins to keep their oil lamps lit as the Lord's arrival nears while we also discuss the things that reveal He is arriving soon.)

Humanity  kept falling, one by one until Enoch was lifted out and only Noah remained as honorable and the rest were wiped away in the Flood.

To begin again.  Only to fail.

God gave new rules.  Sacrifices specified.  Circumcision. Direction to Abraham to go to another country which he didn't immediately obey.  Then to Isaac, then to jacob who happened to take two wives due to misleading.  To Joseph who walked with God and had visions that got him in trouble and obedience that got him in  trouble and then troubles that got him to the leadership of his country.

Then the slavery of those whose leader was once seen as a deliverer and the slaves waiting for their deliverer.

Moses.

And the complex new law.

Wandering in the wilderness where disobedience to God always leads.  Following every rule but still not achieving anything, lost in the wilderness until the last of the original disobedient died out as those long ago in the flood.

Fighting to get their home.  Doing the battles God directed and succeeding:  going off on their own and failing.  Never getting the message that to follow Him was to succeed.
,
Obedience, disobedience, years as captives in Babylon and under the Meads, because following God was too easy?  No.  Because they would have had to let their fields rest for a year every seven years and following God would have meant trusting him completely for those years.

Returning, hearing again the Word from a man of God,  having a man of faith rebuild the wall to protect them, as faith will always build a wall of protection or direction into some risk that is meant to build new walls of faith. So long as God is allowed to lead the leaders.

The Kingdom reformed  only in Judea, named only Israel.  The long history of struggle, of loss to the Romans.

Jesus arriving in the kingdom formed by Rome, overseen by false leaders who could only keep their rule by pleasing the most idolatrous empire to ever  exist.

The death of the Savior.  Only Caesar could be god. Only the Law could be god. that way humanity could dictate its own fate. Because our idols have always been, will always be about the killing of the Lord.  In our lives and in  the life of others.

Death be not proud.  Death always be self-involved.  Self-involvement always leading to death.

And then the ultimate idol, the living Satan who has always ruled from behind the scenes , saying "Pay not attention to that angel behind the curtain."  Held back by the power of God's Holy Spirit  living in the true Church.  Hiding on the things we love best and on the depths of our Old Man inside. resisting the change which would throw him ff the throne he stole from Adam long ago.  A being meant only as the winnowing device for human obedience once he himself disobeyed.  A lost cause to be tossed aside in  the final hour of the Earth and universe he corroded.

Destined to fall


In all this  one important point to stress as we leave:  the reason the Millennium had to happen before the Second Resurrection.  Everyone in the Second Resurrection is judged on their deeds.  they  could have an "out" by saying humans never had the chance to have their deeds tested under the true Lord ruling by the laws he set up.  We all ache to have something special about us.  We all want to find something special in Scripture that no one else ever has in the few thousand years it has existed.  Or we want to find the secret rite that gets us in touch with a deeper part of God.  Or to use our gift in some way that says we have something better than anyone else's gift.  Or so we can judge others better  than the old Pharisees or the old judges or  God.

But there is, always was the one true hope: salvation in Christ.

We pointed out that all our flesh came from that one flesh, Adam and Eve.  We mentioned that science had that idea  as a corollary to our relationships to each other found in DNA and they  say they have traced t back to being true.  Science also suggested a female could exist who had all those initial DNA  markers which led us to the idea Mary may well have been such a female since God took it on himself to set the Hebrews aside and to only carefully introduce new DNA markers along the way.  Jesus then would have been the second Adam, coming from Mary who offered only her DNA in the virgin birth and Jesus would have been the physical clone of her ad Eve was the clone of Adam.  Jesus came to recapture what was lost to humans years ago and did it in a fleshly vessel that would tie every human that ever lived to him BOTH physically and Spiritually.  He can literally call parts of himself from the tombs of the world, from the ashes on the wind, from the belly of the sea. And he can literally remake that flesh to be like Him. If quantum theory has it right, He could easily step into the past as far back as He would like and grasp the atoms of those long ago lost and bring them back from the moment of their death, the failed flesh intact and reshape it completely. He can resurrect everyone as He promises.

And bring them up to be with Him to live in the New Jerusalem in the new universe.

In Final Flesh, able to walk through time and space, through walls and walk on rivers. as easily as we walk through the air, as easily as we walk down the block.  Created to reflect God as his Son reflected Him.  Created to serve as kings serving under THE King.

And the verses which lead from this blog to this blog    https://approachingkingdom.blogspot.com/      :

 1 Corinthians  15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? {grave: or, hell}
 56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
 (KJV)

And I conclude with a song that is as much an introduction to the themes of the next blog as it is a reflection of my wishes about the Lord.  This long and winding road has been a lifetime and yet seems only a second now and the feeling I've been left behind in my following it sometimes overcomes me.  Yet I know every second is mine to claim for Him and not myself, not my Fallen Flesh, but a building block toward my Final Flesh even as this song of unsaved calls out to the something it cannot perceive, the yearning for the Final Flesh, the yearning for the true home we abandoned long ago and blame the Lord for taking from us.  The new Jerusalem, the sacred city in the Eden of our  heart.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0u_qjq2fM


Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly. 

                                    AS FINAL FLESH BECOMES... FINAL

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_forms&hsimp=yhs-pty_forms&hspart=pty&p=youtube%3A+shakin+the+house+petra#id=2&vid=8d12a56cb02849eb17c22384811fb76a&action=click

We arrive at the last chapters, the last verses, the winding up of all that went before it.  The culmination of the plan Jesus set in motions eons ago, thousands of years ago, moments ago to God.  Everything now is being shaken as that end approaches, nears like the end of a movie or a novel.  Always closing in. Always nearing.  Has been all our livers so many of us are numb to it, or never had the sense of it.  But that doesn't stop it rolling up on us.

Start with Solomon.

Ec 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
 4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. {hasteth: Heb. panteth}
 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. {return...: Heb. return to go}
 8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
 11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
 12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
 13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. {to be...: or, to afflict them}
 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
 15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. {that which is wanting: Heb. defect}
 16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. {had...: Heb. had seen much}
 17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
 18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
 (KJV)


Sol had all the money in the world and all the joys and pleasures it could bring and he ended his life with the mistakes of idolatry and the disillusionment, the jading of worldly satisfactions.  Nothing seemed new.  Everything seemed less, became meaningless.  Even his wisdom led to more sorrow.

Today he would have had every satellite network, every connection to the world.  He would have eaten at every great restaurant around the world.  He would have had women on every continent, every possible drug and drink and event.

Vanity would have continued.  As it does in us today.  We still want every sensation sated, every dream come true, every lotto win on our record, every win on our bridge rubber. All things us.

And we arrive every so often at the realization that the next Marvel movie, the next step in drugs, the next woman or man, the next wild party, every so often we see that it does nothing, will solve nothing, will not make it all better, will not set things correct. We realize we want out of the pain. We think we can end the pain with the pleasure or we get all de Sade and think the pain is the pleasure.

Like Solomon, only some of us realize the pain comes  from not being with God and only some of us find the real God in Jesus and stand with Him. We flux, fade in and out, come back, hold strong.  We aim to end the best we can in being with Him and walking his way.  We get lost in the Law and we get lost in regressions that stroke the old ego and point us to the Solomon mistakes.  In the end, we come whimpering back like lost puppies and, if we are lucky, if we cling to our new self and walk with the Spirit, walk in the Spirit and not in the ghost of Law, we can say we held strong at last and finished the race,  We witnessed well this once, then  once and again.   We shut off the music and the video and we listen to the Lord.  We stop the Fox News and the PBS and we turn to Him beyond the politics of human mistakes and concocted solutions, of laws that name morality over the founder of morals.

We end up His and we end up moving toward this:



Re 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. {all things: or, these things}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMK5AceJYwU


And at the end of grief:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6l1kpJ0x5k

 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.


The fearful.  We seldom acknowledge it but that is the first thing the angel dwells on.  Fear.  We act out of fear so often it becomes comfortable.  People fear Putin and rightfully so, yet he has admitted in an interview with Oliver Stone that he thought long and hard about becoming president because of the fear of what would happen to his children if he failed.  he doubtless still has that fear which is why he holds to his office and kills others so often via poisons and other methods.  He rules with fear but we seldom realize it rules him as well. We fear the bully;  we fear the accident around the corner: we fear the pain of an injury or a failure to think things through; we freeze in our tracks in the wrong job, the wrong relationship, the wrong church for fear a move any which way will be worse.

We fear that there is no God and we don't want to look foolish before our friends by accepting an illusion.  We fear that there is a God because we know we are ugly fallen sinners.  We fear there is really  no mercy in Him when we see giant icebergs ready ti flood Icelandic villages and see our President cowtow to another world leader.

We fear...we fear...We FEAR!

Let it go if you once feared.  It is almost over.  This world that holds our attention so adeptly.  The video idols cannot stop the end.  The child facing starvation is slowly become you and me.  His emaciated face that haunts all those charities begging for funds to help him now slowly become our own face.  We starve for the Truth , for the Word.  We can be fed.  We need nly open the Book or find it online.  We can publish it here and feed others.  God will feed us by it and end our starvation and fear.  See clearly in the last moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnY2oAi8v7Q


Understand now that fear is what powers all those listed above.  The abominable and the murderers.  what powers the strong man rulers and those who support them and cower from them, the ones seeking whores and adulterers seeking as many conquests for money as they can, so they can be in control, have the illusion of safety in control.  understand god will take the time of the tribulation to make it clear to them that they are NOT in control, to their followers that the leaders are NOT God.

Sorcerers with magic and drugs can't prevail because they last but a mayfly's life to God.  They can numb the pain of no God, but they can't really be God no matter how much we worship them.  That is the human flaw, the belief that we give a god power by our worship.  God is love.  He asks our love and worship but He will never force it.  He asks to fill us with himself, but He would never rape us spiritually.  (Do you see the sacredness of the act of sex when we look from His perspective?)  He wants so much for us not to taste the brimstone of eternal burning.


The sing "Gypsy" performed by Fleetwood Mac has been following me on pop radio stations when I go somewhere or ride in a car with the radio on pop XM stations. Apparently they are like regular stations in that they have a playlist of songs and don't vary.  The song is actually about reincarnation written by Stevie Nicks who fancied herself a witch at the time. "Back to the gypsy that I was" explain some of the feeling expressed there.  reincarnation ideas exist so we don't see the truth:  that our sin puts us at eternal risk. Risk of losing this life without Christ's gift of salvation and the next life because we didn't take the gift.  Please read these passages and know that you can talk to others about Him and that He can redeem them.  Remember that He has redeemed you now, if you have accepted Him and that this glorious vision awaits your future life. You are a gypsy no longer.

But, in fear, many of us will lose Him.

 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
 13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

This is a moment that some legalists have where they argue who that number twelve apostle will be since Judas went rogue.  We really shouldn't care,  We really need to just be in awe of what Jesus has built for us, what we may have added the finishing touches to while He rules in the Millennium.

 15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
 16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
 17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

Read that last verse again.  There will be kings on the Earth then.  C. S. Lewis focused on this idea in Narnia even as he used mythic creatures and allusions to show how they pointed toward Christ. There will be nations then.  But the kings are his people and the nations are all as Israel was meant to be.  Since we are all equal, all will be some sort of royalty.  Who or what we would rule over is not clear.  Nature? Animals of some sort?  Not each other since we are all in Him, but over something.  And that rule will be a full reflection of Christ himself ruling. A rule of love and authority and honor to God.

 25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

The gates being open signifies safety, absolute safety. In the days Revelation was written, gates were closed against enemy foes, shut at night, sealed against attack.  But now no enemy exists.  As we see below, no one in this kingdom who does not belong to God, is not indwelt by the Spirit.


 26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

I recall a story from decades ago.  A young man committed suicide because the TV show Battlerstar Galactica went off the air.  No longer televised.  This was the first show by that name, starring Lorne Greene, an actor famous for the TV show Bonanza.  It was widely regarded as cheesy among SF fans.  Nothing like the great Star Trek.  And people were surprised that anyone would commit suicide over that show.  Which missed God's point in allowing it  that so many of those mockingly deriding the lost young man's choice were, themselves, committing long term suicide by worshiping the other SF show and Star Wars as if they were anything different. Imagine then now in God's eyes, with every eye on a video of some sort, on the massive HDTV. on 3D screens,  on, for goodness sake the cel phone. Massive stories played out on a 2 inch screen and people pay hundreds of dollars for that little phone.  Or the TV reserved for gaming and video wars and car theft and young women with disproportionate body parts shooting and exploring caves.  Out idols become much more sophisticated and the fact we cling to them shows they have more power as well because they aren't made of frozen wood but moving electrons.

And our fear is so much easier to quell if we are wrapped up in the story of killing all the latest monsters or zombies or bad guys on the other side of war.  Imagine the distractions in the Tribulation because of all the REAL killing.

We all need to search our hearts and let the Spirit take away ther desire for the things that pull us from the Lord.  Too much work.  Too many idols of electrons, too much time reading stuff even here in this electronic world if it doesn't rouse you to listen to Him over the world.  If it keeps you from a relationship outside the electrons.

If Westworld keeps you from the true Tomorrow World of God.

And then the further discussion of the tomorrow world.


 22:1 And he shewed of me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

Understand now why the 666 of Satan could not be on the brow of any human there.  There is only room for one brand.

 5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

On a perfect Earth lite by His glory alone.  Filled with his life anf power and truth.  Perhaps even with the ones we have known and loved here.  You with those you have lost and may lose before the end of things.  Me, even with the son I never knew, with the parent and others gone before.

 6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
 7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
 8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
 9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
 10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
 11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

He made us.  he shaped us.  We are the human clay of the world who resists the Potter and struggles to return to being  a lump. We forget the shaping is meant to return s to what we were meant to be all along:  His children and His people.   Never the lump on the spinning wheel.

 14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

https://christcommandments.blogspot.com/


 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Long ago sent to the giant black hole.  Dwell on the levels of sin again.  The loving of the lie, that is, anything that is not of God.  Loving and making lies.  The false prophet, the false leader.  the one who says :Only I can solve this."  Some of the liars are even fooled by their own  lies into believing what they have said is true:  that only they can detect other liars and murders and they can protect their own from those liars.  They come to believe the liar sitting across from them as the leader they would like to be, as a petty god in a small world throttling truth to keep their power. Some  even fool themselves into thinking they can see that that false leader is better than that other false leader because he tickles their ears.  We forget that it ALL is lies.  God reminds us constantly.

 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

First the Master speaks, the Creator.  Never forget He created us.

 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. {out of the book...: or, from the tree of life}

The Spirit and the Bride speak together.  Here we have the final proof of what i have been saying, that we are merged to Him by His Spirit.  We are with Him eternally by His choice and ours.  There is no divorce so He has forbidden it here unless someone is so evil they are the snake and we must realize our true Husband wouldn't have us stay where He wouldn't be welcome.  We need to realize we are married to each other in the Church, one body as he describes the husband and wife as one body, meant to serve differently for eternity.  Each a king and queen but too eager to claim their throne and, in this world, losing our power and true voice because of it.  We will be able to create like Him, but only in the true voice of eternity, not in the selfish voice of this world.  Satan will tempt us to the end to claim what may well be ours before it is ours, as in Eden, as so long ago.

 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

"Surely I come quickly."

We perceive the week of Creation as millions of years so our perception of his "quickly", hardly a couple days to Him, can be seduced away from the truth quite easily.

He will come quickly.  His return nears like the rising of the sun on a new day.  We need to shed the skins we wore here as willingly as we would shed sleep to see the dawn and be rejuvenated to have a cool drink on a light spring day when the winter of cold emptiness and freezing drizzle is being moved aside by the gentle unceasing hand of time.

We need to look to the sky.  Our oil lamps filled to dimly light the path before us until the dawn.

And be ready.  To be together.

 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen!


(As sung by someone gone before)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTy_rgPI4k


(Next week: our final post for Final Flesh and a preview of the next blog..)  

                                                             ABOUT THE END

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfiYWaeAcRw


The question may arise because Jesus says we will be with Him forever, where are we during the Millennium if we are not by His side and ruling?  Well, I suggest that that is exactly what is going on even as I say the 144,000 are the co-regents.  Ponder how that can possibly be right while read a look at the last war:

http://christinprophecy.org/articles/another-thousand-years-before-gog/


The Abolition of War

The Second War of Gog & Magog will be the final war of history. Following it, God will take the Redeemed off the earth and place them in the New Jerusalem He is now preparing. He will then consume the earth with fire to burn away the pollution of Satan’s last revolt. Out of that fiery inferno will come new heavens and a new earth — this earth redeemed and perfected (2 Peter 3:10-13). He will then lower the Redeemed down to this earth inside the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2-7), and He will come to earth to live in their presence eternally (Revelation 22:1-4).

Eternal peace is coming. War is going to be gone forever. This hope of Mankind will not be achieved by diplomats. It will be a gift of God through Jesus Christ who died to redeem Mankind and all the Cosmos.
                                                                                                                                                                   


Stop again and recall who we are today, in this minute, in this flesh.  How we are so arrogant and self-centered.  I'll let James talk to us:

Things to Avoid

4:4 [a]What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? [b]Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask [c]with wrong motives, so that you may spend it [d]on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “[e]He [f]jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 [g]Yet you do not know [h]what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 [i]Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your [j]arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the [k]right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Hold that advice to our Fallen Flesh in mind still as we approach the end of wars:



The Second Battle of Gog & Magog — Revelation 20

Mercifully and joyfully, the “battle” of Armageddon will be followed by one thousand years of peace as the reign of Jesus from Jerusalem results in the world being filled with righteousness and justice (Isaiah 11:4-5,9). Swords will be beat into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and “nation will not lift up sword against nation…” (Isaiah 2:4). All the money that is spent today on armaments will be spent on agricultural implements. The world will be flooded with agricultural abundance (Amos 9:13). There will be no homeless or hungry people. Every man will have his own vineyard and orchard (Micah 4:4).

                                                                                                                                                                   
Revelation 20

7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the [c]seashore. 9 And they came up on the [d]broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the [e]saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and [f]brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Judgment at the Throne of God
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose [g]presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and [h]books were opened; and another [i]book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the [j]books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if [k]anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.



The old selves of those in the Millennium will not have been cleansed and that war will likely dispose of almost everyone.  One of the complaints by some Amils is that people will get saved AFTER the first resurrection and this offends them since there seems to be no room for faith there. God says there is no name by which we can be saved except Jesus.  I would point out that will be the ONLY name allowed in the Millennium.  I would point out that the Second Resurrection is that of a judgement of deeds.  If there were no possibility of salvation by deeds then it would not be needed at all.  But God knows we all believe pour deeds have something to do with us being saved.  they do as an outpouring of the Spirit THROUGH us, as a sign of our submission and of our salvation working itself out in us,  by giving humanity the Millennium, He offers the chance for deeds alone to save.  But, again, no cleansing of the Old Man. The Millennium exists to prove that deeds alone fail. However deeds done in the "legalist" Millennial regime for Love of Christ, not for obedience to a code, would certainly qualify under our current terms of repentance.   I would further point out God must have made a special case judgement  for those who never heard of him.  We may have seen it reflected in the early judgement allowing  people into the Millennium. He can see any of us and know the whole story, know that, had they heard of Jesus. they would have chosen Him. Paul himself says in Romans:

Romans 1:18-21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth [a]in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident [b]within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not [c]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.


Our nature testifies as well.  We CAN repent; We can be moved by the Holy Spirit now. With Jesus on our ruined Earth, that Spirit may be occupied with Him and the 144,000 ruling.



We consider only ourselves most of the time, but nature has a good deal to do with the Millennium as well:

Romans 8:18-25 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, [a]in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.


Hold onto the fact of the Fallen Universe.  We made EVERYTHING fall with us. We took the moon and stars and the vacuum and dark matter and comets and planets and...everything fell BECAUSE OF US. When someone asks about the Tribulation being so bad,  about regular life having tragedy,  you can explain it is because we ruined everything.  You can cite Jesus saying we should truly ask why we all weren't swallowed up by the event's destruction.  Think f the depth of mercy allowing us every form of opportunity to repent and knell before God and still keep our free will.

Now imagine the power humans will have when in the Final Flesh. How one sin might effect everything again. eternal humans who could at any second ruin the newly created universe. Understand how they could not be allowed to enter that universe and destroy it as we  have destroyed this one.  Understand yet?  Understand how that blot, that stain of  sin retained by the ones who never accepted Christ could not enter?  Understand the burden we bear NOW?  We have the responsibility to now live by the Spirit and prepare for an eternal life without sin and with the burden to never sin again with the Spirit in us with God's Spirit guiding us and not our own desires.




                                                                                                                                                                  

The Abolition of War

The Second War of Gog & Magog will be the final war of history. Following it, God will take the Redeemed off the earth and place them in the New Jerusalem He is now preparing. He will then consume the earth with fire to burn away the pollution of Satan’s last revolt. Out of that fiery inferno will come new heavens and a new earth — this earth redeemed and perfected (2 Peter 3:10-13). He will then lower the Redeemed down to this earth inside the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2-7), and He will come to earth to live in their presence eternally (Revelation 22:1-4).

Eternal peace is coming. War is going to be gone forever. This hope of Mankind will not be achieved by diplomats. It will be a gift of God through Jesus Christ who died to redeem Mankind and all the Cosmos


                                                                                                                                                                   

We begin to see the truth, that something much better awaits beyond all the pain, beyond the Eden fall, the captivities, beyond the pain and hurts those who try in our own power, their own ideals, those who learn slowly to follow the Spirit and follow the Word. Something there as we finally enter into His Presence, into His Spirit fully, as we walk as Him in the eternal, Final Flesh. Read the Word below. Savor it for itself, for the parts that reach you now.  We will be back next week to provide  commentary.



So we arrive at Revelation 21:


Re 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.



 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. {all things: or, these things}
 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.




 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
 13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
 15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
 16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
 17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
 25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
 26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
 (KJV)

.Re 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
 5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
 6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
 7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
 8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
 9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
 10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
 11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
 14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. {out of the book...: or, from the tree of life}
 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
 (KJV)

                                          THE THING ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5rZx-iogyg

The Millennium.  Let's begin at the logical place:  back at the 144,000.  I know.  Trust me, we are going someplace special with this.



The Lamb and the 144,000

Revelation 14

1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 

3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 

4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 

5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

NIV

https://www.gotquestions.org/144000.html

The book of Revelation has always presented the interpreter with challenges. The book is steeped in vivid imagery and symbolism which people have interpreted differently depending on their preconceptions of the book as a whole. There are four main interpretive approaches to the book of Revelation: 1) preterist (which sees all or most of the events in Revelation as having already occurred by the end of the 1st century); 2) historicist (which sees Revelation as a survey of church history from apostolic times to the present); 3) idealist (which sees Revelation as a depiction of the struggle between good and evil); 4) futurist (which sees Revelation as prophecy of events to come). Of the four, only the futurist approach interprets Revelation in the same grammatical-historical method as the rest of Scripture. It is also a better fit with Revelation’s own claim to be prophecy (Revelation 1:3; 22:7, 10, 18, 19).

(The Hyper preterist is that of the Post mil believer who says ALL the prophecies were fulfilled at the cross  in the first century.  It doesn't even get consideration nor mention here.  It has that lack of respect from anyone who knows the book of Revelation.)



So the answer to the question “who are the 144,000?” will depend on which interpretive approach you take to the book of Revelation. With the exception of the futurist approach, all of the other approaches interpret the 144,000 symbolically, as representative of the church and the number 144,000 being symbolic of the totality—i.e., the complete number—of the church. Yet when taken at face value: “Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel” (Revelation 7:4), nothing in the passage leads to interpreting the 144,000 as anything but a literal number of Jews—12,000 taken from every tribe of the “sons of Israel.” The New Testament offers no clear cut text replacing Israel with the church.

These Jews are “sealed,” which means they have the special protection of God from all of the divine judgments and from the Antichrist to perform their mission during the tribulation period (see Revelation 6:17, in which people will wonder who can stand from the wrath to come). The tribulation period is a future seven-year period of time in which God will enact divine judgment against those who reject Him and will complete His plan of salvation for the nation of Israel. All of this is according to God’s revelation to the prophet Daniel (Daniel 9:24–27).

Da 9:24 Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
 25 Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times.
 26 And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
 27 And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.
 (ASV)


 The 144,000 Jews are a sort of “first fruits” (Revelation 14:4) of a redeemed Israel which has been previously prophesied (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:25–27),

Zec 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.
 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
 (ASV)

Ro 11:25 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in;
 26 and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
 27 And this is my covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins.
 (ASV)


 and their mission seems to be to evangelize the post-rapture world and proclaim the gospel during the tribulation period. As a result of their ministry, millions—“a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9)—will come to faith in Christ.

(The sidetrack below offers one notion of exactly why the Millennium is misunderstood.  It gets sandwiched into theologies meant for the Church Age. Granted, in the example below, REALLY WRONG theologies, but still, so much of the thinking prior to the Arrival of Israel was based on current events, the current state of salvation that we have a difficult time understanding something like the Millennium where some other standard  seems to apply.  it's very like the scientist today who keep trying to fit creation into their notion of reality and when religious folks try to fit science into our notions of God.  All really ignoring that the reality of science inquiry is supposed to not start with the preconceived, that is that God doesn't exist, and that the righteous shouldn't start with the idea their knowledge he exists immediately make their idea of HOW he accomplishes something the right one.  The JW treatment of the 144,000 follows that same mistaken path.)

Much of the confusion regarding the 144,000 is a result of the false doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that 144,000 is a limit to the number of people who will reign with Christ in heaven and spend eternity with God. The 144,000 have what the Jehovah’s Witnesses call the heavenly hope. Those who are not among the 144,000 will enjoy what they call the earthly hope—a paradise on earth ruled by Christ and the 144,000. Clearly, we can see that Jehovah’s Witness teaching sets up a caste society in the afterlife with a ruling class (the 144,000) and those who are ruled. The Bible teaches no such “dual class” doctrine. It is true that there will be people ruling in the millennium with Christ. These people will be comprised of the church (believers in Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 6:2), Old Testament saints (believers who died before Christ’s first advent, Daniel 7:27), and tribulation saints (those who accept Christ during the tribulation, Revelation 20:4). Yet the Bible places no numerical limit on this group of people. Furthermore, the millennium is different from the eternal state, which will take place at the completion of the millennial period. At that time, God will dwell with us in the New Jerusalem. He will be our God and we will be His people (Revelation 21:3). The inheritance promised to us in Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13–14) will become ours, and we will all be co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).


Read this again:

Re 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
 (ASV)


https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/revelation/related-topics/millennial-reign-of-the-saints.html

As we saw above, Revelation Rev. 20:4+ mentions resurrected saints who rule and reign with Christ. Many other passages, both in the OT and NT, indicate the saints will co-rule with their Lord. Isaiah indicates a coming righteous reign where princes will rule with Messiah:
Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice. (Isa. Isa. 32:1).1

Daniel received detailed revelation concerning the timing and reality of the rule of the saints. It does not occur until after the Beast is destroyed, just as the book of Revelation records (Rev. Rev. 19:20+). We know from Revelation Rev. 19:1+ that the Beast is destroyed at the Second Coming of Christ, therefore the reign of the saints has not yet come:
Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. (Dan. Dan. 7:17-18)

I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. (Dan. Dan. 7:21-22)

Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. (Dan. Dan. 7:27)

Prior to their co-rule with Christ, they will undergo tribulation at the hands of the Beast (Rev. Rev. 13:7+, Rev. 13:15+; Rev. 15:2+; Rev. 20:4+). They are not just given a vague spiritual kingdom subject to ridicule by unbelievers who cannot tell it even exists. No! The kingdom and dominion is both spiritual and literal and there will be no question on the part of anyone concerning its reality when it arrives! In the gospels, Jesus indicated that faithful servants would be given authority over cities (Luke Luke 19:17-19). Numerous times James and John sought the position of being on the left and right of Jesus—positions of shared rulership (Mtt. Mat. 20:20 cf. Mark Mark 10:37). In the book of Revelation, Jesus said that overcomers would sit with Him on His throne, even as He then sat on His father’s throne:
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Rev. Rev. 3:21+)

This particular verse is very important because it shows the high degree of authority believers will have with Jesus. It also indicates that in approximately A.D. 95, when Jesus spoke these words, He was not on His own throne! This is a very important point to understand: the throne He will be taking is the throne of David (Mtt. Mat. 25:31) and it is on earth. Although we have been made kings and priests (or a kingdom, priests to God—see commentary on Revelation 5:10), our reign is future and initially upon the earth:
And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth. (Rev. Rev. 5:10+) [emphasis added]

One of the criticisms that has been leveled against the premillennial understanding of the Millennial Kingdom is that it only lasts 1,000 years, whereas Scripture is replete with passages indicating Christ’s kingdom will be eternal.
The amillennialist sees a conflict here and insists that the eternality of Christ’s kingdom does not permit any place for a thousand year reign on earth. Calvin’s reason for rejecting the premillennial view as his concept that the thousand year reign nullified the eternal reign of Christ. Did the premillennialist limit the reign of Christ to a thousand years, his contention that “their fiction is too puerile to require or deserve refutation” would be true. However such is not the case. An important Scripture bearing on the discussion is 1 Corinthians 1Cor. 15:24-28.2

1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet.
 26 The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.
 27 For, He put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him.
 28 And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all.

 (ASV)


The solution to this problem is found in recognizing the transition which Paul records in 1 Corinthians 1Cor. 15:24-28. Christ rules in the millennium until the Great White Throne Judgment, when death itself is finally vanquished (Rev. Rev. 20:14+ cf. Rev. Rev. 21:4+). Then, He places His kingdom under the Father. Yet His rule continues into the eternal state, where there is a new heavens and a new earth (Rev. Rev. 21:1+) and where the saints will continue to co-rule with Him for eternity (Rev. Rev. 22:5+).

[1Cor. 1Cor. 15:24, 1Cor. 15:28] does not mean the end of our Lord’s regal activity, but rather that from here onward in the unity of the Godhead He reigns with the Father as the eternal Son. There are no longer two thrones: one His Messianic throne and the other the Father’s throne, as our Lord indicated in Revelation Rev. 3:21+. In the final Kingdom there is but one throne, and it is “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. Rev. 22:3+).3



Now read this again again:

Re 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
 (ASV)

This is a clear statement that the 144,000 rule with Him in the Millennium for a thousand years. They are ones after the Middle Tribulation because the image and the mark are on the scene art the time of   their death.  They were impervious to almost all the things around them, indestructible.  Except we know they died.  Rev 14 above shows them "redeemed" in the white robes of glory standing with him on  his arrival.

How did they die?

Marvel Comics has given the False Prophet his way to kill them.  The character of Wolverine has a healing factor and nothing can truly kill him.  A being called Deadpool also has that power.  But in the comics, Deadpool was once killed by having his head teleported off his body.  In the Marvel movie named after him, Wolverine and his brother cut off the head of a mutant who has been given their healing power.

Also these evangelists are compared to Paul in many commentaries.  Paul was beheaded.  The legend of Paul's death will call to the FP  as well.

And those who rule with Jesus will be one's who have been beheaded.  It will be the only way to kill them.

But the important thing is: they only rule for a thousand years. this number is clearly placed on  the earthly domain, over and over, in Revelation.

Now we have a whole selection of churches today. Protestant, Catholic, every shade of gifted and gift-obsessed, that know, KNOW that the Church Age itself, OUR age, was never really revealed.  It was a hidden thing clued at only vaguely but promised, PROMISED to Abraham in that God would bless ALL races through him. (See our last post.) And that's it.  We suggested it was foreshadowed in Judges, but we see that only after the fact. We can see traces of it in the forefathers, the way Jacob so looks like a gentile in every way, but God keeps going after him, pursuing him as he has pursued all of us in the Holy Spirit. But that again is an afterthought.  No one could have foreseen us before we actually came into being.

But here, in Revelation, we have another very specific age, with a very specific time limit, with more clear prophetic details then you will ever find in Scriptures about OUR age and yet we have all these Christians believing it is just a Spiritual thing.   That "it's all over now, Baby Blue."  Or that they need to bring it about and be ruling when Jesus arrives even though they would in reality have to have died and come back and have a Jewish heritage to do it.  The last is blasphemy, but we seem more worried about liberal ideas than blaspheming God's word these days.

Why?  Why is it so hard to get the idea that the End Times are true even as they openly unfold before us? 


Begin with Tradition.   I can see Tevye singing out about tradition even as his is being taken from him by the changing civilization around him, his daughters each marrying someone worse and worse from his perspective even as his love for them refuses to die.   Fiddler on the Roof  is all about changes that make our traditions fall away. Amillennialism is a tradition of the Catholic church that some folks refuse to let go, but should have fallen away decades ago.  it exists in some Protestant churches as well and some grand theologians like the late R. C.  Sproul  have gone there because they couldn't adequately explain to atheists what Jesus meant when He said He was returning soon and yet He is not yet back.   By spiritualizing the event, and saying the Millennium AND Tribulation are going on together spiritually NOW they can say Jesus returned and all the other stuff of Revelation and prophecy has been concluded.  We have all manner of things.  It is far simpler to suggest Jesus was speaking from God's perspective when He offered His return "soon".  Many prophecies come without a time designation because some of the Bible's predictions were literally hundreds of years even thousands from coming true.  But they were always made with a sense of urgency. since God has a sense of time that makes "a thousand years seem as a day", from His perspective, only a couple days have passed and the return will in fact be soon. Plus Jesus saying it would be a couple thousand years would have enforced their human perspective and hardly have given the church the urgency it exhibited at birth.

Look at the lack of urgency the church now feels. Amil churches are profoundly good at social helps and keep falling short on evangelism. Catholicism stressed membership in the church over confession of Christ.  Some Protestant churches keep that tradition and make their baptism into THE only baptism that is correct.  The tradition of popes and bishops and the power of the clergy also echos sometimes softly and sometimes deafening loud in Protestant churches.  Some are founded by a pastor and he keeps total control of who becomes an elder.  Some are founded BY elders and they keep a partnership with the ministers which seems much more the Biblical way.  Then we realize the mistakes of the Sanhedrin and see that isn't always the perfect way either.

Tradition itself isn't awful unless we look on the past as the way the future must unfold.  America and it's Trump fixation fit that error perfectly.  A plurality that elected this President seems focused on his meaningless slogan to "Make America Great Again."   Return to the wild west mentality I talked about months ago here, the one I grew up with in the Fifties, the one based on the false legend of the gun and cigarette smoke, the one so many in my generation seem unable to let go due to all the cloying about the past.  In fact, the Old West proved that guns had to be taken away once the drovers hit town for peace and safety to be kept.  That lesson gets deposed by the message of "freedom" in the gun.  contacted an old friend and he just posted a montage of pictures about the great good old Fifties days, most of them featuring segregated white kids and one with segregated black kids, all playing marbles some climbing chain link fences.  All the kids were wearing what looked like hand-me-downs, were playing in the streets.  I recall my Dad's main bragging right as a parent after we had grown centered around us kids never going hungry.  I'm very much afraid that is where we are headed as we approach the Tribulation: parental pride that their kids didn't starve to death today.  The good old days were largely agrarian and food was cheap but labor go paid, when I started working on a farm part time at 14, a penny for a bale of hay baled or a dollar an hour for farm work.  If the great retro Party wants to drop gas prices to $.10 a gallon and bread to $.25 a loaf, then we can talk.  But all they are promising is to drive wages down. We all have a tradition of lying to ourselves about things in the past.  This one just happens to be what will prove fatal to the USA if it doesn't grow up.

But that is the secret of Tradition, it is the egoism that we had it better when we didn't have responsibilities, that our growing up disrupted the otherwise perfect life of our yesterday.

Christianity, though, is about growing up and OUT of "childish things."

I Corinthians 13:

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. 12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.…

Our egos kill us.  They form part of that dark reflection in the mirror.

In the end our egos keep us from seeing the End times clearly(yes, I include myself)  because those times are about the very end of us as we know ourselves.  Those beings wearing Final Flesh will not be us anymore. Today  we are the babies who first burst from our mothers' wombs.  Those children had to grow up as much as they could here, gestating in the womb of this Earth, to be ready to be born by death or Rapture into that new world.

But all the traditions and the trappings of this world get mixed in with the mission each of us is given with our gift.  We struggle with holding to this Earth and to it's perspective, swimming back against the tides of time, telling ourselves we are not getting older, not moving toward the Savior's embrace, even as we sing so happily about it in Church.  We leave churches for something better, because our idea of better always harks back to something we had before, to  better prepare for the eternity ahead that we can vaguely see.

But something else kind of disguises the End Times even to those who claim it.  we seem to think things will be going on there as here.  But they will not.

The Millennium is not the eternal kingdom.  1000 years does NOT equal eternity. The 144,000 group is designed by God to rule  that thousand years then to slide into the eternal kingdom with us, even as we were designed to do service  with our gifts today.

I suspect many of us can't see it clearly simply because we have nothing much to do with it. We seem not to be there for it.  They will be busy cleaning the planet. Cleansing the mess left behind.  But nothing will have happened to clean up the sin.

Think on that.  The Millennium will have only those resurrected 144,000 in their Final Flesh, connected by the Spirit to Christ as coordinator.  And the Law will reign.  Jesus will rule with an iron fist.  Jews will be envied because they will have grown up with that Law and others will be learning it.  Disobedient children will be stoned to death.  Failure to welcome strangers will have consequences.  Those Millennials  will follow the Law implicitly or suffer whatever punishment God laid down in it.  Those who want to enforce the Law themselves today have no real idea of the consequences they bring on themselves by wishing it and how much worse it would be to seize that power against God's will.  It will be absolute power for the rulers, but it is Jesus ruling through them not them empowered by God that makes this a true kingdom of the Lion.

But what the Law does not do is SAVE:


Romans 7:7-25 New Living Translation (NLT)

God’s Law Reveals Our Sin
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”[a] 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. 9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.

Struggling with Sin
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[b] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power[c] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin

Do you see it?

The Law is the beall reason for the Millennium.  It will tell every being on the planet that they are in sin, that they have failed God and Jesus himself will rule over them strictly enforcing that law and our sin nature will still be there.  Thriving despite the perfect exterior condition to scare it away from us.

The Post mil misses the truth and the Amil doesn't understand the necessity of the event.  Post mils would have an eternal kingdom where sin would be a bloated evil hidden waiting for a tempter to turn it loose again even as Satan will at the end of the thousand years.  Jesus' Earthly throne, separate from God's would not please either of them and the dreams of the Post mil are for their own power not for God's will.

God's will has ever been for those who will have the power of Christ to operate in the will of love, for that is the source of all His power.  He longs to again walk in the cool of the evening with us. If he wanted robots he could have had them.  If he wanted trembling serfs, he could have had them.  He prefers our worship to our cringing

Many of us miss the idea of the millennium because it IS the Law incarnate holding sway over sin incarnate in our Fallen Flesh.  It is about the truth that our Flesh IS Fallen, that we have accepted IT as the reality when we walked in a freedom we never deserved.  It s about what it would be like for our fallen selves had we not been given a choice, if the one who gave us that choice had not been so powerful the sacrifice He made reached back in time to Eden and forward to the end of the Millennium.  It tells us there is a prison of the Law that issues demands we could meet but never a love for the issuer that freedom allows.

What we needed was not a book of rules to handle our illness of sin nature.  It is like diabetes today.  A daily shot of insulin can relieve the symptoms, but the disease continues to corrupt the body and can kill by destroying the vital organs even as the insulin seems to make the dying process bearable. But there are those who choose to think that the disease is cured, even many who have the disease.

We treat our sin nature that same way.  we get all wrapped up in being gifted and forget that we can misuse the gift.  We want to rue the world for Him but OUR way.  We belief we know what is best so deeply that we ignore bible verses that tell us otherwise.  Lately, we have come to believe politics solve something despite centuries of proof that human nature undermines every system ever bult.
We refuse to realize we are come down with the illness of death in our Fallen Flesh and that the Spirit can only give us a taste of eternal life.  We have the cure, but we must wait for the final outcome of the treatment. 

Our job, nonetheless, is living for the tomorrow of that perfected flesh, because we have the joy of knowing, knowing that taste and knowing the outcome.  We have it because he gave us the cure.  Because of what Paul described as our healing.


Romans 8

8 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life [a]in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, [b]weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of [c]sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is [d]alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [e]through His Spirit who dwells in you.

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you [f]must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery [g]leading to fear again, but you have received [h]a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, [i]in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Our Victory in Christ
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the [j]saints according to the will of God.

28 And we know that [k]God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was [l]raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of [m]Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(NASB)


But the struggle is not over yet.  Nothing in all our flaws and misunderstandings can overcome the love of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmTmTMcdxOs