Prophecy Chart Series: The Millennial Kingdom

Tom Hughes

Nathan Jones: And once all this craziness is done and we’re in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, what part of it are you looking forward to the most?

Tom Hughes: In the Millennial Kingdom? I’m looking forward to seeing Jesus the most.

Nathan Jones: Amen. Amen.

Tom Hughes: It blows me away to think we, the three of us, and everybody else, we are going to see Jesus in person. We’ve all been to Israel; we’ve been to Jerusalem. But I remember talking about the Temple with you one time, and the coming Temple, how big it’s going to be in the glories of the Millennial Kingdom, but seeing Jesus, that blows my mind.

Pete Garcia

Nathan Jones: During the Millennial Kingdom, and this is my hope, is that will we get to go and explore all these planets? Will we get off planet during the Millennial Kingdom?

Pete Garcia: I mean, we’ll have glorified immortal bodies. I mean, there’s not going to be anything. We won’t be hurt by anything.

Nathan Jones: We won’t need spaceships or spacesuits…

Pete Garcia: We can go to the bottom of the deepest ocean if there’s going to be ocean still at that time. We can go to outer space. We can sit on the rings of Saturn. You know, we’re not going to be limited by anything physical.

Part 2

Tim Moore: We’re talking about the Millennial Reign of Christ, and yet there’s a controversy. So let’s tackle it right up front. There are some who deny that there is yet to be a future Reign of Jesus Christ on the Earth.

Nathan Jones: Well, they’d have to deny the promise that God gave King David in 2 Samuel 7. It’s called the Davidic Covenant. It’s the promise that a descendant of his, an eternal descendant, would rule and reign forever on the throne of David. That hasn’t happened yet. We could say that Jesus is up on His throne in Heaven, but the throne of David is an earthly throne over an earthly kingdom. And He hasn’t taken that yet.

Tim Moore: On the other hand, Post-Millennials will say, “No, there’s no thousand-year reign,” because they believe that Jesus will reign through the Church, which will ascend in power and authority until it subdues the entire world. And once that Church-led reign is over, these Post-Millennials believe that we, the Christian world, will hand over to Jesus the kings, the keys of the kingdom, I should say, of that man-established kingdom.

And yet, we who are Pre-Millennials say yes. And frankly, we take God at His Word literally. And again, He says six times in Revelation 20 that Satan will be bound and Jesus will reign for a thousand years. And I think it’s important for us to understand that this promise of the Millennial Reign is not just found in Revelation. This is so important. The Lord reiterates it six times in one chapter of Revelation. And yet, there are other passages that point to this.

You mentioned the Davidic covenant. I would also point to even Jesus’s own proclamation at the beginning of His ministry found in Luke chapter 4 when He went to the synagogue to teach. The passage for that day just happened to be from Isaiah. But He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel, the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim the release of the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who were oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

And verse 20 says, “And He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.” And yet, there’s an important passage that Jesus did not go on to read. Jesus did not read the final phrase of verse 2, which says, “And the day of vengeance of our God.”

Nathan Jones: That’s a good point. Well, what is the purpose of the Lord coming to set up His kingdom on this Earth is that He’s made a promise that the time of the Gentiles, the fallen Gentile kingdoms that rule over this Earth, must come to an end. And you read that in Daniel 2:44. It says, “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

Well, Tim, how could we be living in the Millennial Kingdom if we have all these fallen Gentile empires and all endless wars and suffering and famine and disease that they can’t control? Is that the kingdom? That’s not the kingdom.

Tim Moore: No, it certainly is not the kingdom. We don’t see the animal kingdom living in harmony with itself. The plants stopping thorns and thistles, the wolf lying down with a lamb. We don’t see children playing at the hole of the adder, or snake without fear of being bit. All of these promises will be fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom that is to be ushered in when Jesus comes to reign on the Earth.

We know that Satan has reigned upon the Earth because even in the New Testament, we’re told that he roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom to devour. We know that he was able to offer the kingdoms of the Earth to Jesus, and Jesus didn’t say, “Hey, those aren’t yours to offer.” They were at that time. And we know that he still is the prince of the powers of the air. So that will change.

Nathan Jones: When you read the Bible and you read prophecy, it shows a powerful King ruling and reigning with justice and peace from Jerusalem. We’re not living in that time period.

Tim Moore: No, we’re not. And it promises, back to the promises, it makes a promise in Scripture to the Church and to the saints of the Church Age that we will co-reign with Jesus. And you can say, “Well, we’re supposed to be doing that now.” Nathan, the problem now is I don’t yet have a glorified body, I don’t have a glorified mind. But in our glorified bodies, we will now be prepared and ready to co-reign with Christ. And so that glorious promise to the Church will be fulfilled during the Millennial Kingdom.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely.

Tim Moore: Back to the question of why. Why does Jesus reign? Because God has made a promise to His Son. But let’s review just a little bit of what we touched on last week, Nathan. Why will Satan be bound? And then why in this world would Jesus release him after the thousand-year binding?

Nathan Jones: Well you did a good job of explaining what the conditions of the Millennial Kingdom will be like. A time of peace, righteousness, and justice. No war between humans, peace between animals, they’re not killing each other. Endless food and bounty. Lives into the hundreds of years. And those Tribulation saints who survived the Tribulation; they will go through the Sheep-Goat Judgment of Matthew 25. And those who have accepted Christ, they’re called the sheep, live into the kingdom, and they are in their human, mortal bodies, they have children. And we, in our glorified bodies, will rule and reign over them and take care of them.

They will have many, many children. But this is the key that the Lord uses throughout human history: we always have free will. He wants to populate Heaven with people who choose to be with Him. So how do you get a people to have a choice unless there’s actually an opposite thing to choose?

At the very end of the kingdom, He releases Satan. So Satan immediately goes out, and he immediately starts deceiving those children born, promising them that they could be gods. And if they could just overthrow that joker in Jerusalem, there’ll be peace among them because they can then do whatever they want. They can sin to their heart’s desire as long as they worship Satan.

And Tim, one of the tragic, if not the most tragic stories in the Bible, is how people in a perfect utopia will turn on Jesus, join Satan, and attempt to overthrow Him.

Tim Moore: And all we have to do is go back to the very beginning and see that there was a man and woman. There was only one rule instituted by God. Adam and Eve were living in a utopian setting, the Garden of Eden, and yet they rebelled. So beginning and end. It’s because of this free will, which praise the Lord we have been given, when we can choose to worship Him. But tragically, some choose to rebel against Him. They refuse to accept His offer of salvation. So let’s talk about the fate that awaits those who have rejected Jesus Christ.

Nathan Jones: Those who’ve rejected Him, who think that they are freeing themselves from the shackles of morality, are instead enslaving themselves to death here. And this is where, after the Lord comes and He just sends fire down upon those armies that are attacking, since there’s no war, Satan’s immediately cast into the pit, which we talked about in the last episode.

But then we get to the Great White Throne Judgment where the Lord puts down the satanic rebellion quickly and once and for all. And then He will resurrect all those who have rejected Him out of Hades, which is the holding place of the damned, out of the seas. Wherever they are, their bodies will be resurrected into and combined with their spirits, a second resurrection, but a second resurrection to death. Because what they’re missing is the salvation Jesus could have given them if they had accepted it, that would’ve purified them and then allowed them to go into the Eternal State.

And so this is where we’re getting to the very end, because now there’s no more chance for anyone to come to salvation. The Millennial Kingdom is over. The Lord resurrects all those unredeemed to face Him at the Great White Throne Judgment. They’ll be found guilty; they’ll be judged based on their works but found guilty because they’re missing the only work that matters: the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And they will be sent to the Lake of Fire.

Tim Moore: Even those who Scripture declares to be righteous. Righteous, how? Righteous, A, in comparison perhaps to the rest of the world, righteous in that they are obedient to God and therefore credited with righteousness as Abraham was. Even those who are declared to be righteous need a Savior.

We have no better testimony than that of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. In her song beginning in Luke chapter 1, verse 46, Mary said, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in…” Who? “God my Savior.” Even this wonderful young woman who said, “Let it be done according to your word to thy bondservant,” who was declared righteous among women, needed a Savior. If Mary needed a Savior, Nathan, all of us certainly need a Savior.

And yet, we know that some will reject the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that when Satan is released at the end of the Tribulation, he will deceive the nations, and so many who have been obeying Christ’s rule and reign through clenched teeth, so to speak, and they will rebel against Him.

They will be fulfilling once again the prophecy of Psalm 2, in essence saying, “Let us tear His fetters apart and cast away His cords from us,” so that they will take their stand against the Lord and His counsel, and they will be obliterated as Revelation describes in a very quick moment.

Nathan Jones: You know, Tim, I love this passage in 1 Corinthians 15 that sums up the final sinner, “That he first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” I’ve always wondered if Cain, then, will be the last person to be sent to Hell.

But it says, “Then comes the end, when He,” Jesus, “delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power. For He must reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Now, when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him, the Father, who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”

So what we’re reading here, as we get to the end of chapter 20, is the final victory of God over all His enemies, including death and Hades. Now, I don’t understand how death then can be thrown in the Lake of Lire. Maybe there’s an angel of death or something like that. But Hades is a real place. It’s a holding place of the damned where if you have rejected Christ as Savior, you will go there and be waiting until that resurrection at the Great White Throne Judgment. But that place, too, will one day be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Tim Moore: So let’s be very clear about one thing. Even as you look through our Overview of the End Times Prophecy Chart, you see us stepping through seven periods of time. We end with the Millennium and the Eternal State. We’re about to get to the Eternal State. Right now, we’re still talking about the Millennium.

Below that, we have Satan bound in the pit. That happens at the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ. And then the Millennium is ushered in. At the end of the Millennium, Satan is released. He is able to deceive very briefly. And then just in one verse there in Revelation chapter 20:10, it talks about the devil being cast into the Lake of Fire.

And immediately following that, beginning in verse 11, we have the Great White Throne Judgment. And following that in our rendition is the Lake of Fire, where all those who have been found not to be written in the Book of Life are consigned to the Lake of Fire. So that’s where we’re talking about. And then we’ll return to the Eternal Kingdom.

It’s hard to sometimes fit all this in one graphic. So let’s be very clear. The binding of Satan happens at the beginning of the Millennium. The Great White Throne Judgment happens at the end of the Millennium, and then the Lake of Fire is where all of those who rebelled against Christ are relegated.

Let’s touch on for just a minute this concept of forever, because we live in a temporal existence where we are marching through time. You and I were born a few decades ago, and over time things are starting to degrade and deteriorate.

Nathan Jones: That death part, yeah.

Tim Moore: They will continue to deteriorate in this lifetime until we receive our glorified bodies, which will never decay, will never deteriorate. We are so fixed in this scale of time that it’s hard for us to imagine eternity. It’s a different realm that doesn’t have seconds and minutes and hours and days and years in the way we think of them. And yet, there is a past, a present, and a future. I can’t conceive of it. I just trust what the Lord says.

But when we talk about this Lake of Fire, this eternal damnation, there is a permanence and yet an everlastingness to it.

Nathan Jones: To put it another way, we would not wish the wrath of God or Hell or the Lake of Fire on our worst enemy. If you have the heart of Christ, we understand that He came to die on behalf of all of us while we were still enemies of Christ. Since He gave Himself to offer eternal life to us, shouldn’t we urge others to flee from the wrath to come and into the loving arms of our Savior?

Tim Moore: So with that in mind, let’s hear from a couple of our ministry partners who offer clear insights on the horrors of the Lake of Fire from a biblical perspective.

Don Perkins

Tim Moore: Well, we know that the Antichrist will usher in the worship of himself, indwelt by Satan, because Satan has always wanted to be worshiped. He’ll have the Beast, the False Prophet, and that system of religiosity focused on a satanic Antichrist mentality.

But moving to the very end of even the thousand-year reign, the Millennial reign, we know that Satan, the Beast, and the False Prophet will be cast into a lake of fire, and that others who have rejected Christ will also be cast. So who are those folks, and what is the fate eternally for those who have rejected Christ? Somebody asked me this just today: is it an everlasting torment? How does the fit with what the Bible…

Don Perkins: Well, the Scripture’s quite clear, and it is one of those messages, again, that’s not taught in the Church. I have a message called “The Reality of Hell,” and I go in-depth to look at it. The Lake of Fire is a literal place. It’s a real place. The Scripture says in Matthew 25:41 that Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. You know, the Lake of Fire is a prepared place. I even made a statement that really shocked people when I said I believe that Hell is holy. Now, holy means it’s set apart.

Tim Moore: Set apart.

Don Perkins: It’s a place. This is a place that God set apart for the devil, his angels, and rebels. There’s a place. Now, what’s amazing about the Lake of Fire, you know we do know that the Bible talks about Hades and Sheol. That’s Greek and Hebrew for the word Hell. But that’s a compartment of Hell when a person dies today without Christ. His flesh is in the Earth, but his spirit and soul immediately go to Hades and Sheol. Scholars call it an intermediate body. So spirit, soul, body. But they can feel, they can think, they have reason, they have compassion.

But that’s not the end of the story. Because what’s going to happen at the close of the Millennium, the last resurrection will be the resurrection unto damnation. What God is going to do, He’s going to resurrect the unredeemed. These are people who died without Christ. They will be resurrected to go back into their flesh. The reason why He’s going to judge them, spirit, soul, and flesh, because they sinned in the flesh. Paul said in Thessalonians, I think it’s 5, Paul said, “I pray that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of Christ.”

So what God’s going to do at the close of the Millennium, He’s going to deal with Satan. Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Him, he’ll be cast there. But before he gets there, a thousand years before Satan gets to the Lake of Fire, at the Second Coming of Christ, the Bible talks about God when He judges the Antichrist and False Prophet. Those two men will be taken alive from the Armageddon theater of war. These men won’t even go before the White Throne Judgment. The Scripture says from Armageddon’s theater of war, they will be cast straight to the Lake of Fire.

Tim Moore: Well, let’s close out the understanding of the word forever regarding the Lake of Fire or what we generically refer to as Hell. Scripture is quite clear about the finality and the unending nature of that tormenting existence. And like the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and Satan, those whose names are not written in the Book of Life will be cast in the Lake of Fire.

Now, fair is not a word that we would use in describing this. We know that claiming that sin is not infinitely offensive to a holy God minimizes the infinite sacrifice that God made through Jesus Christ at Calvary. We actually do try to grapple with the concept of eternity, even though we realize that somehow time in Heaven and Hell does not flow as it does here on the Earth. We all know that in the end, Jesus spoke about Hell even more than He did Heaven. And He does not want any to perish, and so neither should we.

And finally, let’s just face it, because we take God’s Word at face value, we believe Him literally. And that’s why I think I lean in the traditionalist perspective.

Part 3

Nathan Jones: And it all comes back down to John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Tim Moore: Amen. And here again, that’s the bottom line. Nathan, I don’t stand in judgment of anyone. We can’t. We don’t have that authority. We don’t have that wisdom, but we trust the One who does, the One who is the righteous Judge, Jesus Christ. And folks, there is a mischaracterization of Jesus as just this innocent baby in a manger. As you’ve said, that’s how people envision Him, as the meek and merciful Savior who came. Yes, He was. But He’s also coming back as the roaring Lion of Judah, with eyes of fire, with a sword wielded to execute judgment on the Earth and to be that righteous King, that righteous Judge.

Nathan Jones: We’re entering the stage of Eternal Life. This human story is ending. We’ve got a new one, but only Eternal Life is filled with those who are saved and are purified. Hell is going to be for those who’ve rejected God.

Tim Moore: Amen.

Nathan Jones: There are only two destinations that we are born to be going to. There’s not a third, as some people wish. There’s not this Earth that’s going to keep going forever. We’re not going to be annihilated; the Bible’s very clear on that. There are two destinations, and that’s why in this life we must make a decision for Christ or not.

Tim Moore: As we turn our attention to Revelation chapter 21, it describes the new Heaven and new Earth. And we’re not going to get into great detail today because we have talked about those in other episodes. But this concept that Jesus will make all things new and that He will wipe away every tear. And our friend, Erwin Lutzer, in a tremendous message that is linked to the long-form version of this video, talks about this Bema Seat Judgment. And he makes the claim, and I tend to agree with him, that there will be regret at the Bema Seat Judgment.

We will not be condemned because we stand on the righteousness of Christ. We are credited with His righteousness. But as all that wood, hay, and stubble I’ve mentioned multiple times is burned away, I think people, including, dare I say me, will regret all the time I’ve wasted, all the opportunities I’ve missed in this life. Instead, I was doomscrolling, or I was doing things that were a waste of time, energy, and talent. And I think those will bring about a degree of remorse that will lead to tears. And yet, when Jesus finally burns away all those regrets, no more tears in Heaven.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely. So that’s where some people question, “Well, while I’m in Heaven, will I mourn my loved ones who are in Hell?” Well, it would seem, according to Isaiah 65, that these things of this Earth, of this time period, will be forgotten.

Tim Moore: I think it will be burned away at that Bema Seat Judgment. And you’re right, I think that there wouldn’t be known lingering memories of regret, otherwise that would weigh on us throughout eternity. And all we’re going to be doing is focused on Christ. It’s almost like in the purity of the glorious blazing light of His majesty, everything else burns away, and all we can do is worship Him. So that’s what I look forward to doing.

Nathan Jones: Amen.

Tim Moore: Well, let’s talk for a moment about what happens to the Earth after this Great White Throne Judgment. After all the evildoers are relegated to the Lake of Fire along with Satan himself, the only people that remain are those who have trusted in Christ. And so He is going to reform Heaven and Earth. Give us a little description of that, Nathan.

Nathan Jones: Well, it’s interesting that we talk a lot about Heaven, but there’s only really two chapters in the entire Bible that tell us about the Eternal State. And that’s chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation. Verse 1 says, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” We’re going to get a new Earth. Whether this Earth is refurbished or its brand new altogether. It tells us of a super city that’s 1,500 miles cubed. That’s the New Jerusalem. That’s Heaven coming down to Earth. When we read in John 14 about the Lord preparing a place for us, that’s the place.

And so this new Earth to hold a city of that size, I’ve read it had to be the size of Jupiter just to hold a city of that size. So this new Earth is going to be so much bigger. It is going to be the capital of the universe. So the Lord God will rule and reign in the city. It has twelve gates, we can go… You know, somebody once said, “Well, are we going to be locked up in that city?” I’m like, “Well, it’s going to be a pretty nice place to be locked up.” But no, there’s twelve gates that stand open all the time. And Tim, you and I love outer space.

Tim Moore: We do.

Nathan Jones: And we know that it’s this big blank canvas. God’s a God of creation. Who’s to say that He’s not going to move on to the next planet or the next solar system, or He’s not going to teach us—if we’re going to rule and reign, maybe we don’t just rule and reign over people groups during the Millennial Kingdom, but over solar systems and galaxies. And who knows? The mind can’t comprehend what God has prepared for us, as it says in Ecclesiastes. But frankly, I think that it’s going to be beyond our imagination, and we have forever to grow and flourish during that time.

You know, I struggle with worship. I don’t have that good singing voice you have, but to think in Heaven, worship will be so natural to us because it’s a response to love.

Tim Moore: I liken it to this. You mentioned singing, and I do love to sing, but that’s only one form of worship. I also love to work with wood. And can you imagine if I had the ability to work with wood and never make a flaw to the glory of God, or someone who gardens and loves to produce vegetables and flowers. My wife is a gardener at heart, but to be able to garden to the glory of God and produce beautiful flowers, someone who has artistry, not just in song, but in art, in painting and sculpture, and to be able to do that to the glory of God, and to use all of our talents in their glorified capability to the glory of God. I think it’s going to be an eternity of utilizing all these skills.

So Revelation 21 ends where the book begins, with an anticipation of the imminent Rapture of the Church. The bondservants of Christ, those harvested from every age, will see His face. His name will be emblazoned on their foreheads, meaning that we will have our ownership signified because we will belong to Christ forever and ever. The purpose of this entire series has been to invigorate your anticipation for Jesus’ soon return. Even as we lay out an overview of the End Times, our prayer is that you finish these programs echoing John’s prayer of, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Closing

Nathan Jones: We hope this series has been a blessing to you. We also hope you’ve already been able to get your own copy of our Prophecy Chart, either as a Bi-fold article in the format of our Lamplighter magazine or as the large poster. If you haven’t gotten a copy yet but would like one, just call the number on the screen.

Tim Moore: If this series has blessed you, please share it with people you know. We’ve purposely designed it for use by Bible Study groups and Sunday School classes, or for deep-dive study by individuals who want to understand what God has chosen to reveal about the End Times. If you’re watching this on television as a Christ in Prophecy program, there is much more content available at our website, including long-form versions of each of these seven teachings. The QR code at the center of our Prophecy Chart will take you to that page with these and many more resources.

Nathan Jones: We want to thank you for joining us these past seven weeks. If Lamb & Lion Ministries is a regular blessing to you and you want to pay it forward into the lives of others, please consider joining us as a Prophecy Partner. We’d welcome you to co-labor with us as we share the message that Jesus is coming soon.

Tim Moore: From all of us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries, we echo John’s blessing on each of you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen! Maranatha, and Godspeed!

End of Program