From Armageddon To The New Earth! : Part One

FROM ARMAGEDDON TO THE NEW EARTH! : PART ONE

Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Net

Last Updated : July 23, 2006

Second Coming, Resurrection And The Rapture, Marriage Supper
Of The Lamb, Battle Of Armageddon, The Arab-Israeli War And
Captivity Of East Jerusalem, Titus's Invasion In 70 A.D.,
Winepress Of God's Wrath, Jordanian River Of Blood, Beast
And False Prophet Destroyed, Feast of The Vultures, Satan In
The Bottomless Pit, Judgment In This Life, Persecution And
Faithfulness To Death, Literally Beheaded?, The Two Swords,
Our Millennial Rule, The First And The Second Resurrections

Some time ago, someone inquired of me concerning the purpose
of the Millennium, that is, the coming one thousand year
reign of Jesus Christ on Earth when He will rule with a rod
of iron. In order to properly answer this question, I feel
that it is important for me to first provide you with some
background information concerning this event. Prior to the
beginning of the Millennium, it is my understanding that the
world will experience the Second Coming of the Lord, and the
Resurrection and/or Rapture of both the dead and the living
Saints. This event will transpire immediately following the
Great Tribulation, that is, a period of great persecution
which will occur during the final three and a half years of
wicked man's rule of the Earth. The Lord Himself spoke of
these events in the following verses:

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of
the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of
the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he
shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other." (Matthew 24:29-31)

The Apostle Paul and John, the beloved Disciple of the Lord,
also wrote about these most inspiring events for which every
Christian awaits with eager anticipation:

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, 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.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
(1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to
subdue all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:20-21)

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he
is." (1 John 3:2)

"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the
earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."
(Revelation 1:7)

Following the Lord's glorious and triumphant Second Coming,
and the long-awaited Rapture of the Saints, among other
things, the Apostle John describes the Marriage of the Lamb,
Jesus Christ Himself, to His spiritual Bride, that is, we
the Believers, in the Courts of Heaven:

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the
marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself
ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write,
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper
of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true
sayings of God." (Revelation 19:7-9)

Jesus made a veiled reference to this very same wonderful
event in the parable of the marriage feast found in the
twenty-second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew:

"And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables,
and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king,
which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his
servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and
they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants,
saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared
my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all
things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made
light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another
to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and
entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies,
and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but
they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into
the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the
marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and
gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and
good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when
the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which
had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind
him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into
outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen."
(Matthew 22:1-14)

Following the Marriage of the Lamb in Revelation chapter
nineteen, only a few short verses later, the Apostle John
describes the Lord's Return to Earth with His raptured
Saints and the Heavenly Host for the Battle of Armageddon in
the country of Israel. While I currently believe that the
Second Coming will only be aerial in nature, that is, that
we will ascend to meet the Lord in the air, as I explain in
'The Triumphant Touchdown Of Jesus Christ!', this Third
Coming will be quite different. It is in the ancient battle
plain of Esdraelon, the valley of Jezreel, near the hill or
city of Megiddo, located to the northwest of Jerusalem and
not far from Mount Gilboa, that the Lord will confront the
armies of the demonic leader referred to by both the Prophet
Daniel and John as the Beast. It was in this same place that
both Barak and Gideon wrought great victories against their
enemies. It is also here where kings Saul and Josiah both
met their deaths, and where the evil Queen Jezebel was eaten
by dogs as had been prophesied by the Prophet Elijah. The
Scriptures plainly tell us that once again, it will be the
site of the Ultimate Battle between Good and Evil:

"And he gathered them together into a place called in the
Hebrew tongue Armageddon." (Revelation 16:16)

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he
that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness he doth judge and make war...And the armies
which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean. And I saw the beast, and the
kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to
make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his
army." (Revelation 19:11, 14, 19)

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, whom Jude quotes in his
epistle, also wrote about this coming Ultimate Battle
between the forces of Good and Evil when he said:

"...Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his
saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all
that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches
which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
(Jude 1:14b-15)

If my understanding of these events is correct, this Great
Battle will occur sometime after Arab/Muslim military forces
have surrounded Israel and have captured the eastern half of
the city of Jerusalem. As I point out in some of my other
Endtime articles, notice that in these verses, the Prophet
Zechariah specifically tells us that half of the city shall
go into captivity:

"For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle;
and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the
women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut
off from the city." (Zechariah 14:2)

Even as I write this, hostilities continues to grow between
the Palestinians and the Jews, while at the same time,
patience continues to shorten due to Jewish belligerence and
their insistence on populating Arab East Jerusalem, which
Yasser Arafat has openly said he will declare the capital of
the Palestinian State in less than a year from now. The fact
that even the government of the United States was unable to
broker new peace talks between the two parties after many
attempts at doing so, is a clear sign of how deteriorated
the situation has become. Unless the government of Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backs down and offers a
larger percentage of the West Bank to the Palestinians, and
soon at that, war is inevitable, and everyone knows it. In
the Gospel of Luke, the Lord also pronounced some
interesting statements concerning Jerusalem:

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then
know that the desolation thereof is nigh...And they shall
fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
(Luke 21:20, 24)

It is possible that the above verses from Luke may have had
a partial fulfillment when Jerusalem was destroyed in
approximately 70 A.D. by the Roman General Titus, the son of
Roman Emperor Vespasian, and his legions. From the material
I have read, it is said that the destruction was so complete
that the Second Temple of Solomon was burned with fire after
the Jews had run into it hoping that God would protect them
from the Roman forces. So intense was the heat of the flames
that all of the gold inside the Temple melted down between
the blocks which formed the Temple. Titus and his men then
tore down the Temple one stone at a time in order to recover
the melted gold. This event was in direct fulfillment of
Jesus' own words some forty years before when He said:

"...See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you,
There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down." (Matthew 24:2)

Following this event, it is reported that possibly as many
as one million Jews lost their lives due to this exercise of
Roman justice on a rebellious nation. It was only a few
years later that Titus became the next Emperor of Rome. What
is so amazing about this is that we may see a repeat of
these events in coming years when the Jewish dream of a
Third Temple is finally realized; only to be crushed some
three and a half years later when Jerusalem is once again
invaded by foreign forces. When the Beast and the False
Prophet have gained confidence by securing Jerusalem, and
have begun to spread their political and military power
throughout the Middle East, it is my understanding that it
is at this time that the Lord will return to meet them for
the Final Showdown at Armageddon. In the book of Isaiah, we
find the following prophecy describing the wrath of the Lord
against the wicked as He destroys their military power:

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from
Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in
the greatness of his strength? I that speak in
righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in
thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in
the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the
people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine
anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of
my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to
help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:
therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my
fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine
anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down
their strength to the earth." (Isaiah 63:1-6)

This prophecy appears to be repeated in slightly different
words in the fourteenth and the nineteenth chapters of the
Book of Revelation where we are given additional clues
concerning exactly how terrible the Lord's revenge will be
in the day that He pours out His Wrath upon the wicked:

"And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood
came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by
the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."
(Revelation 14:20)

"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his
name is called The Word of God." (Revelation 19:13)

If all of the above is meant to be taken literally, that is
a lot of blood from a lot of people! In fact, it is a river
of blood about two hundred miles long by modern standards of
measurement! Is such a thing really possible? Well, consider
these facts: Edom literally means 'red' in Hebrew and refers
to the descendants of Esau. Today this land area forms a
part of the country of Jordan. Bozrah comes from a Hebrew
word meaning 'sheepfold' or 'fortress' and is a city in the
same land area. The Jordan River, the primary river of
Israel and Jordan, finds its origin in northern Israel in an
area once known as Anti-Lebanon. This river is just over two
hundred miles in length and flows southwest through the Sea
of Galilee, and finds its head, or termination, at the Dead
Sea! The Lord made the Dead Sea extremely salty for a
reason. Could it be that the blood from the Battle of
Armageddon will flow, or will be washed by rain into the
Jordan River, thus literally turning it into a river of
blood two hundred miles long as it flows down the valley
towards the Dead Sea? It would certainly seem to fulfill
this ancient prophecy. Time will surely tell. For more on
what is in store for Jordan, please refer to my series
'Satan: King Of Tyrus, King Of Empires!'.

As a result of their sound defeat at the Battle of
Armageddon, the political/military leader known as the
Beast, and his fellow cohort in rebellion, the false
religious leader known as the False Prophet, will be cast
alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone:

"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived
them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that
worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake
of fire burning with brimstone." (Revelation 19:20)

Concerning all of the armies who foolishly follow the Beast
and the False Prophet into battle against the Lord and His
Heavenly Army, they will be slain by the Word of the Lord,
which is symbolized by a two-edged sword proceeding out of
His mouth. These people are the totally incorrigibles, the
hardened criminals in God's eyes. Just as we believe in the
Sword of the Lord, that is, in the Words of Truth which
proceed out of His mouth, these worldly armies will be
totally deluded by the lies of the Beast and the False
Prophet. Notice the contrast between the following two
verses:

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper
than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Within certain circles, there are those who speculate that
this satanic duo will be able to accomplish this delusion by
claiming that the Lord's Return is really an invasion from
outer space by evil space aliens. If you read my articles on
aliens, UFO's and New Age thought, you will see that this is
not such a far-fetched possibility. For many years now,
public opinion of, and belief in, aliens and UFO's has been
shaped by those in power as they carry out their agenda for
world domination. Somehow, either through demonic delusion,
or possibly through Islamic religious fervor, this satanic
pair is going to convince these armies that they can defeat
these invading forces from 'Outer Space'. What they don't
realize now, is that they are going to be invited to a
special dinner; not to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb
reserved for the Lord's spiritual Bride; but rather to a
dinner for the buzzards of the air who will devour their
dead bodies once the Lord utters His Word against them:

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a
loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of
heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper
of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and
the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the
flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh
of all men, both free and bond, both small and great...And
the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon
the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all
the fowls were filled with their flesh."
(Revelation 19:17-18, 21)

It is immediately following the above event, or possibly
during the height of the Battle of Armageddon, that we are
informed by John that that old serpent Satan will be thrown
into the Bottomless Pit for one thousand years. This time
period just so happens to correspond to the length of the
Millennium, which seems to indicate that during Christ's Rule
on the present Earth, demonic influence will be completely
removed. In this manner, no one will have anyone to blame
but themselves for their rebellion against God:

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of
the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he
laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the
Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast
him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal
upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till
the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he
must be loosed a little season." (Revelation 20:1-3)

Exactly what is this Bottomless Pit? It doesn't seem likely
that it is the same thing as the lake burning with fire and
brimstone. According to the Greek lexicon, this term is
derived from the Greek word 'abussos'. It is used nine times
in the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Of those
nine times, in five instances it is translated as
'bottomless pit', in two cases as 'deep', and in the final
two usages it is translated as 'bottomless'. Following are
the definitions provided by the lexicon:

----- Begin Quote -----

1) bottomless
2) unbounded
3) the abyss
3a) the pit
3b) the immeasurable depth
3c) of Orcus, a very deep gulf or chasm in the lowest
parts of the earth used as the common receptacle of
the dead and especially as the abode of demons

----- End Of Quote -----

If you are interested in a more in-depth study of this
topic, I encourage you to read my companion article entitled
'Hell And The Lake of Fire', and the series 'The Seven
Heads', specifically part five of the latter. With Satan
temporarily out of the way, and the evil armies of the Beast
destroyed, John next tells us that the Millennial Rule of
Jesus Christ and the Saints will finally begin:

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was
given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,
and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in
their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years...Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign with him a thousand years."
(Revelation 20:4, 6)

For many years I was under the impression that the above
verses describe the judgment of the Saints, followed by the
Millennial Rule; however, I now realize that this may not
necessarily be the case. According to what we read here, the
Saints will have apparently already been judged and found
worthy of Salvation, Resurrection and a position of
authority in God's Millennial Government. If this is true,
then when were they judged? The following verse from the
first Epistle of Peter may provide us with an important
clue:

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house
of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be
of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17)

If my understanding is correct, our judgment as Christian
Believers is an ongoing process which occurs in this life.
From Peter's words above, I am given the impression that
this judgment of the Believers began the minute Jesus
returned to His Throne of Glory as the Firstfruits of the
Resurrection. In other words, we are judged on a daily basis
by our actions as Christians. After all, we already know
what the Truth is and have accepted it. To add further
support for this idea, consider what Jesus said regarding
the Rapture of the Saints:

"I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one
bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be
taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field;
the one shall be taken, and the other left."
(Luke 17:34-36)

As can be seen by these verses, a decision, a determination,
a judgment will have already been made regarding the
worthiness of the Believers at the time of the Resurrection.
Those who are raptured will have already been judged, and
will have passed the final grade. They will have been found
to be faithful witnesses in this current life. As the above
verse from the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation
states, these are they who will not have loved their lives
unto the death. They won't worship the Beast, or the Image
of the Beast, or receive the Mark of the Beast; but will
rather choose to die for the Lord as their final testimony
to an unbelieving world. Despite all obstacles, ridicule and
verbal and physical persecution, just like the heroes of
faith mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Paul's Epistle to
the Hebrews, these brave souls won't be ashamed of the Lord
or His Word. Here are some additional verses which lend
weight to this idea:

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto
the death." (Revelation 12:11)

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall
save it." (Luke 9:23-24)

"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall
the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of
his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38)

"And they departed from the presence of the council,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for
his name." (Acts 5:41)

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

If you are interested in reading more on the topic of
Christian persecution, I encourage you to read the article
'Civil Disobedience And Christian Persecution'. It is my
most thorough article on this topic to date. What I also
find rather interesting regarding the First Resurrection
scenario, is that John specifically tells us that these
Saints are beheaded because they will refuse to deny their
Christian faith; and they will continue to faithfully
witness right up to the very end of their Earthly lives. As
Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew:

"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he
that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:22)

As I point out in other of my Endtime articles, I believe
that this word 'beheaded' is meant to be taken literally. It
is translated from the Greek word 'pelekizo' which means to
cut off with an axe, or to behead someone. Based upon my
current understanding, there are only two possibilities that
I can envision: either the demonic forces of the Endtime
Government are going to be setting up guillotines in order
to execute the Saints of the Most High; or else this ties in
directly with my own speculations concerning the Beast, the
False Prophet, the Ten Horns, and the invasion of Israel all
being Arab, and more specifically, Muslim related. This is
covered more fully in other of my Endtime articles such as
the series 'Satan: King Of Tyrus, King Of Empires!', 'The
Kings Of The North And The South', 'The Seven Heads' etc.

Despite Muslim attempts to downplay this, it is a fact that
the Qur'an clearly states that it is an honorable act to
defend and kill for the faith. A study of Islamic history
will clearly demonstrate that this is true. If you are
interested in reading some direct quotes from the Qur'an
which clearly reveal the Islamic attitude towards Judaism
and Christianity, please refer to my highly-controversial
article, 'The Holy Qur'an: Doctrine Of Devils!'. Exactly how
might this 'honorable killing' be accomplished? Once you
have read the aforementioned article, it won't be difficult
for you to envision the Muslim faithful being stirred up by
the rantings of their mad False Prophet, who will encourage
them to raise their swords against the Christian and Jewish
'infidels' to behead them. When Israel is surrounded, and
East Jerusalem invaded, it will truly be a time of Great
Tribulation. Consider Jesus' own words concerning the
urgency of this time of upheaval and immense human
suffering:

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
(whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be
in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the
housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take
his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to
them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your
flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For
then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be
shortened." (Matthew 24:15-22)

Considering the fact that the Saints will be beheaded for
their faith, is it merely a coincidence that in the Book of
Revelation we also find the following verse?:

"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he
that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and the faith of the saints."
(Revelation 13:10)

In the series 'The Seven Heads', I point out that the term
'wounded by a sword' is often used in the Bible to refer to
military defeat. While we can speculate that this is what
John means by the above verse, from my previous comments in
this article, in this particlar case, it may be that John
meant exactly what he wrote. Just as these enemies of Christ
may literally be killing God's children with the sword by
beheading them, the Lord will destroy them with His symbolic
sword, the Words of His mouth; for He is in fact the very
Word of God as I have amply demonstrated in other articles.
Consider the following two examples:

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his
name is called The Word of God." (Revelation 19:13)

As I mentioned earlier, and as I explain in articles such as
'The Kings Of The North And The South', the lies and doubts
of Satan and his demonic horde are also a spiritual sword
which brings spiritual death to those who choose to believe
in them, instead of in the Truth found in God's Holy Word.
This is precisely what happened to Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden, and it has been happening ever since. Thus,
in both a symbolic and a literal sense, we see a fulfillment
of this prophecy.

To continue then, the above scenario described in Revelation
chapter twenty is not of thrones being set up for others to
sit upon and judge us. The word 'they' is referring to us,
the Resurrected Saints, sitting upon those thrones! The
authority to pass judgment is being given to us so that we
can determine the fate of those who remain on the Earth
following Armageddon and all of the other events I have
already described in this article. To add further weight to
this view, consider that the original word used in the Greek
text where we find this word 'given', is the Greek word
'didomi', which means to give something to someone, to grant
or bestow, to deliver, to supply or furnish, to give over to
one's care, to intrust or to commit. So what is actually
happening in these verses is that thrones are being set up
for us the, Saints, to sit upon and rule the Earth with the
Lord as His royal high priests for one thousand years. With
this new understanding, let's read those verses again:

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was
given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,
and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in
their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years...Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign with him a thousand years."
(Revelation 20:4, 6)

As I point out in other articles, the Apostle Peter and
others also emphasized the fact that we the Believers will
one day soon be the Lord's royal priesthood in a very
literal sense. Consider the following example taken from
Peter's first Epistle:

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light:" (1 Peter 2:9)

I will be sharing additional verses on this topic of our
personal future in the final part of the article. It is very
important that you realize that this First Resurrection of
the dead, and the Rapture of the Saints, is only for those
who have already accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Saviour. It is not for the unbelievers. Those who did not
participate directly in the Battle of Armageddon will
continue to live on the Earth in normal human bodies living
normal human life spans. After all, we are going to have to
have someone over whom to rule. The unsaved dead will not be
resurrected for their final judgment until one thousand
years later after the Millennium has been completed. This is
exactly what John tells us in the following verse:

"But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand
years were finished. This is the first resurrection."
(Revelation 20:5)

Just so you don't become confused, John is not saying that
this resurrection of all of the dead following the Millennium
is the First Resurrection. He is simply referring back to
what he said in verse four regarding the Saints who are
resurrected at the Lord's Coming. In order for you to see
this clearly, here are all three verses together:

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was
given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,
and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in
their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again
until the thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4-6)

Thus, we again see that the First Resurrection of the saved
occurs at Christ's Second Coming, and that the Second
Resurrection of all of the remaining dead does not occur
until one thousand years later after the Millennium has been
completed. It is those who participate in this First
Resurrection at Christ's Coming who will rule with Him
during the Millennium. Having now covered the events which
occur prior to this time, we have now arrived at the main
question which inspired this article; and that is, what is
the purpose of the Millennium? To find out what I personally
believe concerning this issue, I encourage you to proceed to
part two of this article. In it I will be discussing such
topics as our Millennial training and glorious future, the
final fate of the wicked, the New Heavens and the New Earth,
the 'Millennial' prophecies of Isaiah, Millennial verses in
the Gospels, and much more. I hope that you will join me.

Go To Part Two . . .