Foundations of Faith
THE END TIMES (VI)
In Jul02 we saw that at the end of the tribulation period, the 12 tribes of Israel will be restored as God’s special people on earth and the raptured and resurrected believers will reign with Christ over the earth. During this period Satan will be bound and it will be a time of unparalleled righteousness and peace.
Here are a few additional features of the 1,000-year reign of Christ:
8. It will be a time of great beauty and fruitfulness:“The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (Isa. 35:1). “They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them” (Isa. 65:21).
9. “Weeping shall be no more heard in [Jerusalem], nor the voice of crying” (Isa. 65:19).
10. Open sin will not be tolerated, but will result in death (Isa. 65:20). (Note that sin occurs even when Satan is bound; let us not use the excuse that “the devil made me do it”!)
At the end of the 1,000 years “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations … to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea….
And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone … for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:7-10). These human rebels stirred up by Satan likely will be numbered among those born during the millennium, not the “sheep” of Matthew 25. Such is the human heart that even 1,000 years of peace and righteousness will not endear people to the Lord!
Following the final rebellion at the end of the millennium we read of the judgment of the dead:“And I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat on it…. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened … and the dead were judged … according to their works” (Rev. 20:11,12). This judgment is to be distinguished from the judgment of the sheep and the goats that will occur at the end of the great tribulation (Matt. 25:31-46). On that earlier occasion, the Son of Man shall come in glory and judge all of the living nations, with the “sheep”—the saved ones— inheriting the millennial kingdom on earth and the “goats”— the lost—being sent “into everlasting fire.” At the great white throne, on the other hand, the unsaved dead are raised to stand before the Son of God to be judged according to their works. (See Assignment 11)
“Death and hell [or Hades] delivered up the dead that were in them” (Rev. 20:13). In other words, death (or the grave) will give up the body and Hades will give up the soul of each unsaved dead person to be reunited “unto the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29). All of the dead who are saved will have been resurrected previously (1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:15-17; Rev. 20:4). At the great white throne, the degree of punishment in the lake of fire for those who died unsaved will be determined according to their works. (See Assignment 12)
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). This brings us to the end of the end times. What a solemn conclusion this is to the history of self-centered, self-loving, self-satisfied, self-confident, Christ-rejecting men and women.
Running the Race
IS YOUR NAME WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE?
How would you answer this question? You think so? You hope so? You are not sure?
Let us review God’s way of salvation and eternal life according to the Scriptures. The Bible has both Bad News and Good News. We need to understand the Bad News about ourselves before we can enter into the Good News of the Bible.
1. You are a sinner. “There is none that does good, no, not one…. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10-23).
2. God is holy and hates sin. “[God] is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity” (Hab. 1:13).
3. One sin is enough to separate you from God and to cause you to be spiritually dead. Your “iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you” (Isa. 59:2). “You … were dead in trespasses and sins … and were by nature the children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1-3).
4. Because of your sins you deserve the death penalty. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). This is not just physical death, but eternal separation from God. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). “The wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
Have you, dear friend, come to the point in your life where you realize that you are a lost, helpless sinner who deserves God’s eternal punishment? If so, you are ready to hear the Good News.
1. While God hates your sin (Prov. 8:13; Zech. 8:17), He has great love for you personally.
2. Stop a moment and think about this: What is the greatest way in which God has shown His love for you? Yes, he has kept you alive and safe and healthy all your life. Yes, he has given you a loving family and friends. Yes, he has helped you out of tough situations and has at times answered your prayers. Anything greater yet?
3. “God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6-8; John 3:16). “[Christ] bore our sins in His own body on the tree” ( 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3).
4. If you place your trust, your dependence for your salvation, not in your own works and merits (Eph. 2:8,9), but in the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ for your sins, you will “not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16,36; 5:24).
5. What about “good works”? They are produced through us by the Holy Spirit in appreciation for God’s great love in saving us (Eph. 2:10).
If you have lais hold of the Bad News and Good News of the Bible, you can be sure that your name is “written in the book of life.”Assignment 11: Write out two verses in John 5 that show that “God” in Rev. 20:12 is referring to God the Son.
Assignment 12: Write out a verse in Matthew 11, two verses in Luke 12, and one verse in Romans 2 that show that God’s punishment of the unsaved will be according to their works.