The Coming Kingdom

Commentary

Sadly, many Christians do not study the prophetic passages of Scripture, nor are they taught about these by their pastors. It’s an absolute shame, as these prophetic passages regarding the end of this age were extremely important to the first-century Church. The apostles talked about these things many times in their epistles because it’s the hope that we have as followers of Christ, the promise of creation being made new forevermore.

In the passage above, we see the description of Jesus’ return at the end of the 7-year Tribulation on this Earth, what is also known as the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy. The first coming of Christ was in humility, as a sacrifice for all, but His second coming will be as a King who wars against evil and establishes His Kingdom.

Christ will come again in the future to take what is rightfully His, this world which He bought with His blood on the cross. With Him come all the saints, all who love Jesus. We’ll be already perfected in body, soul, and spirit. We’re the ones who are on white horses, wearing pure, bright linen, the Bride of Christ.

This devotional study will take you through some of the prophetic verses of the Bible and will try to help you understand the amazing and hopeful future that God has planned for us and has told us about.

Commentary

Once Jesus destroys the evil army along with the final Antichrist and the False Prophet, He will bind Satan up for 1,000 years. This will be what is known as the Millennial Kingdom. This is a literal 1,000-year period of time, when Christ fulfills remaining prophecies regarding His reign on Earth, like Zechariah 14:9.

Sadly, many in the Church take these passages as allegory or spiritual in nature. But that is not what the Bible teaches. In His first coming, Jesus fulfilled every single prophecy regarding the first coming of the Messiah, even the foolish-sounding prophecy of Him riding on a donkey’s colt into Jerusalem. If He literally fulfilled all of those first-coming prophecies, I think we can understand that His second coming will be fulfilled in the same way, just as the Bible teaches.

The OT Prophecy

The NT Fulfillment

What Scripture tells us is that Jesus will judge the evil nations who came to attack Jerusalem along with Antichrist and the False Prophet. He will have an instant victory over them using the Word of God from His mouth. This 1,000-year reign is possibly God’s way of showing people that Satan was not the one who made them sin; sure, he deceived Eve to help usher sin into this world, but ultimately our choice to sin is all on us. This will show that Satan and his demons didn’t make anyone do anything; it was all by choice.

Commentary

Once Satan is locked away and the evil army destroyed, Jesus will begin His rule of this Earth from Jerusalem. If that isn’t exciting enough for the believer, verse 4 states that we’ll be reigning with Jesus in this Millennial Kingdom.

It’s important to understand what this passage calls the “first resurrection”. From Scripture, this looks to mean the snatching away (rapture) of the Church, described by the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:51-53), which seems to happen before the Tribulation, plus this resurrection of the saints who come to faith in Jesus during the Tribulation and are killed for rejecting the Antichrist. These are two distinct events that are at least 7 years apart, but are collectively called the “first resurrection”. These first resurrection events are only for the believer in Jesus.

This will be a time when the Earth won’t yet be free from the sin curse, but will be a much more righteous place, with Jesus as the King, being perfectly righteous and ruling over all. We will be glorified, body, soul, and spirit, there to help govern the people who made it through the Tribulation, who didn’t take the Mark of the Beast and didn’t come against Jerusalem. From Scripture, it would seem that the unglorified people will be from the “sheep” nations (Gentiles) and the remnant of Jews who are saved at the end of the Tribulation.

The Gentiles Who Survive The Tribulation

The Jews Who Survive The Tribulation

Commentary

Though we don’t know every detail, God has given us some details in the Bible as to what the Millennial Kingdom will be like. Scripture tells us that there will be babies born, and life spans for those Tribulation survivors and their offspring will increase, like in the early days, people will live hundreds of years and quite possibly the entire 1,000 years. It would seem that sickness and other issues which cause death will still be in play, as the passage above tells us that those who only live 100 years will be considered cursed. Perhaps this alludes to the effect of their sinful life. Those Tribulation survivors and their offspring will need to accept Jesus as their Savior, just as every generation past did. Even with Jesus in the flesh and on the throne of this world, there will still be people who are unsaved and those committing sins, likely to a much, much lesser degree than now, but it will still be there until God makes new the current heavens and earth by fire, after the Millennial Kingdom is fulfilled (Revelation 21).

Scripture also tells us that animals will no longer eat each other, that the fierce predators of today will live among the animals who were once their prey. This will be the most peaceful time this Earth has seen since before the fall of Adam and Eve, so peaceful that children will be able to play with what were once dangerous animals. It will be a time when all the Earth will have the knowledge of God and there will be true justice, equality, and equity. Which will be nothing like the false justice, equality, and equity that man has tried to force on this world through socialist ideologies. People will labor and reap from their own hard work; nobody will be freeloading off of another.

Understand that many of these details pertain to those who survive the Tribulation and their offspring. We, as followers of Christ now, will be fully glorified in perfected bodies, being just like Jesus and will not marry or have children, nor need to worry about death anymore. But we will be on Earth during that time to take part in Christ’s Kingdom.

Commentary

Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon this Earth will be an amazing time for all who are involved, from the believer in Jesus today, who will return back with Him to this Earth after the Tribulation period and rule with Him; to those who survive the Tribulation period, in faith, and are blessed by God to enter into this Kingdom. This will certainly be a time like no other time in human history. But once that 1,000 years is fulfilled, God will release Satan one last time. Satan will yet again amass an army from among the nations who will attempt to come against Jesus in Jerusalem. This army will likely be comprised of the generations of offspring of those who survived the Tribulation. Humanity will see that even though God was once again present on this Earth, in bodily form, that many will still choose to reject Him and follow evil. This war will last for only a moment as God will destroy the army in an instant and Satan will finally be cast into his eternal destination, the Lake of Fire.

What comes next is the resurrection of the dead who rejected Jesus, they will give their account to God and then be thrown into the Lake of Fire for eternity (Revelation 20:11-15). God will then renew the heavens and the Earth, making them like they were in the beginning, before Eve sinned and Adam transgressed. The Millennial Kingdom will be a taste of the eternal order that God has planned from that point forward. No longer will there be sin and evil, but the end will be like the beginning, mankind living in peace with their Creator.