CHAPTER 17
PART THREE
What Comes After
The Millennium
Jayden typed: What happens during the thousand year millennium?
AI➤ Revelation 20:4 identifies two specific groups as living and reigning with Christ during the thousand years. Not a mass gathering of all the saved. A specific judicial council. The twelve apostles on thrones — Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:30 make that explicit. And the beheaded martyrs of the final conflict. Those who had not worshipped the beast or received his mark.
AI➤ The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. Revelation 20:5. Notice the phrase — the rest of the dead. This only makes sense if those raised were already dead. The two groups of Revelation 20:4 reign during the millennium. The rest of the dead — including the general saved — remain at rest until the thousand years are complete. There is no mention of any living in the first resurrection. Matthew 13:29-30 — let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.
J➤ No rapture. No living saints caught up. The first resurrection is exclusively the dead. Two specific groups. The twelve apostles and the tribulation martyrs.
J➤ The rest wait. Why haven’t they been teaching this for years?
Jayden typed: What happens at the end of the thousand years?
AI➤ Satan is loosed from the abyss for a short season. He goes out to deceive the nations — Gog and Magog
Gog and Magog — the nations Satan gathers at the end of the millennium.
AI➤ to gather them to battle. The final demonstration that even after a thousand years of peace under perfect governance the heart of sin is unchanged. Fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. The cup argument complete.
J➤ After a thousand years, Satan can still deceive people. I suppose a wicked heart has difficulty being changed.