ESCHATOLOGY: STUDY OF THE LAST THINGS, PART 3.

As for the end of this age, Scriptures talk about one day heaven and earth passing away and then there will be a new heaven and earth: in other words, this universe(as here heaven and earth refer to the universe) will be replaced by a new universe! “ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (Revelation 21: 1).

But this won’t happen until 1000 years after Jesus’ Second Coming: “ Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed….And they lived and reigned with Christ for 1000 years…v.4. but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him for 1000 years…v.6.” ( Read Revelation 20: 1-14). These saints(those believers from all generations to that point chosen to judge) are now in an immortal state, to reign from Jerusalem: “ Behold, the day of the Lord is coming…v.1. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east…v.4. Thus the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You…v.5. But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited…v.11 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts….v.16.” ( Read Zechariah 14: 1-21).

In other words, the rapture and the Second Coming has to take place before these 1000 year reign, and it says in Scriptures that the day and hour of this event no one knows even though we can discern times but no more than that! During this 1000 year reign with Jesus, Satan will be bound in Hades : “ Then I saw an angel…v.1, he laid hold of the dragon, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1000 years:…so that he should deceive the nations no more till the 1000 years were finished…after that he must be released for a little while…v.3” ( Read Revelation 20: 1-3). And so the people that remained on earth, still as mortals, will still reproduce and die: for sure they can have a chance to accept Jesus as Savior but it won’t be till the 1000 years end that they will either go to hell or heaven with the rest of the saints, as they choose!

There is some people who believe that the immortal believers during these 1000 year reign can travel from earth and Jerusalem to heaven where they have their mansions as Jesus promised: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14: 2). Some say that in heaven, as I heard one evangelist say, as he had had a transportation to heaven, that just by looking at their loved ones, they will be having continual orgasms!

So for now, the rapture or the second coming of Jesus, which will happen a little after, still needs to happen: One really don’t know when this rapture will take place (even though there will be signs such as increased earthquakes, famines, wars as mentioned in Matthew 24:7) but after this then comes 1000 years more before this universe, as it is, will disappear! So no one should be helping God by thinking they have to nuke it! Of course there is always the fear factor that some nut will go berserk, but that should just alert believers to pray for their nation and the rest of the nations to live harmoniously! For the Word is the Word.