In our generation, most people simply scoff when it comes to things like the Rapture of the church or the literal establishment of the reign of Jesus upon this earth. Those things are unreal to them, so they stay in the comfortable realm of fantasy and mock whatever threatens that fantasy. The New Testament anticipated such skeptics:
"Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation" (2 Peter 3:3).
If you make light of the end times—if it is not real to you—the probability is that you will indeed fulfill the lusts of your flesh. You will not reflect nor participate in God's will for you or the majority of His blessings.
God's Greatest Harvest
Many Christians wonder why so much time has passed since John penned the words of Revelation and the complete fulfillment of the prophecies he recorded. The fact is, God is waiting until the greatest possible harvest of souls can be received into the kingdom.
Even though God is omniscient and knows precisely when the day of complete fulfillment is, it has not been set. The fullness of time is dependent on the gospel being preached to all of the world—"the precious fruit of the earth" being ready (2 Peter 3:10).
You can know the times and the seasons, but you cannot know the day. The Day of the Lord signals the 1,000-year period of time when Jesus is in literal residence on this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords; it signals the millennial reign of Christ—the last millennium.
Digging a Little Deeper
The Bible has a startling warning for the people of this generation: The things the world says are important are going to be dissolved in a blink, consumed by the fire of God.
"Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter 3:11-12).
Considering that, shouldn't we be living a life separated unto God? Living for God? Walking with God?
Now, it is not coincidence that the Holy Spirit said the day of the Lord in verse 10 and the day of God in verse 12. Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords; His "day" represents the 1,000 years of His reign upon this earth. God is eternal, and with Him there is no time. So the day of God is speaking of the beginning of the eternal state.
We find a remarkable truth in this passage. We are encouraged to be looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. In other words, our attitudes and lives have an effect on the return of the Lord!
The hungrier you are for this present age to end and for the millennial reign of Jesus to begin, the quicker these things will come to pass. I think you will see the connection between these two things. It is one of the elements having to do with the "fullness of time" which must arrive before the end times begin.
The Greek word translated "looking" in this passage literally means an earnest anticipation and expectation. God wants you to have a great anticipation of the eternal state—the day of God. He wants you to be mindful of and motivated by an understanding of your eternal destiny.
The Word says this life here is but a blink of an eye in time—nothing but a vapor. There is an eternity beyond the veil of death awaiting each one of us. The difficulty is that we do not have enough of an understanding of our true eternal destiny to be eagerly anticipating and looking for that day.
The truth is, you will be ruling and reigning with Jesus for an eternity—and not over just a few square feet of terra firma either but over the vastness of a universe yet to be explored. And we get to explore it!
We get to explore galaxies by the billions, each galaxy containing millions of suns and planetary bodies. Who knows how many other kinds of life are present in this universe?
People ask me all the time, "Do you believe in extraterrestrial life?" They're often surprised when I answer, "Of course I do; the Bible teaches it." It mentions winged creatures and four-headed beasts, not to mention the angelic hosts. They are out there, and God says He needs us to rule and reign with Him over the vastness of this creation for eons to come. It is going to put science fiction movies to shame.
I am not saying this just to be sensational. This is what the Word of God says. We just need to let our minds and expectations move beyond the parameters of religious tradition. You have an eternal destiny awaiting you that is so magnificent in its scope that it is impossible to embrace right now. But we get glimpses of it in the Word.
This destiny is going to be determined by the way we live our lives now. This life is but a blink of an eye, yet it determines our experience of eternity.
Raised to Rulership
In Matthew 25, Jesus relates a parable in which a lord returns from his journey to a far country. He had entrusted all of his belongings to three of his servants, and two of them have brought increase to the lord's estate. He says to each, Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things (v. 23).
The wonderful reality is that you are called to rule and reign with Jesus. But the amount of responsibility you are given on an eternal scale depends upon your stewardship of the resources God entrusts to you in this life. It does not matter how much he entrusts to you; it only matters what you do with what you receive.
In the parable, one servant was given five talents, one was given two talents and the third was given one talent. To the ones who increased their talents, the lord gave the same commendation. So it is not a matter of amount but what you do with it that's important.
What are you doing with the time and resources you have? What are you doing to bring increase to the kingdom of God? It's not a matter of finding the highest yielding mutual fund for your money; the way you bring increase to God's kingdom is through the principle of sowing and reaping.
The Purpose of Revelation
The purpose of the book of Revelation is to make us aware of our need to be mindful of eternity awaiting us and to live our lives accordingly.
This life, which seems so demanding and consumes our attention, is nothing, friend. We have to become eternally minded. We have to focus on the unseen realm revealed by the Word, not the temporal realm we live in, which is subject to change.
There is no other spiritual principle in the Word that has this kind of effect on a person's behavior. Earnestly anticipating and expecting those things as a part of life's present experience will motivate you to elevate your quality of life and enable you to become the glorious church. This kind of reality must be born in your heart. That is why it is vital to study the last millennium.
An Overview of the Events To Come
Let me give you a brief summary of the chronological events the Word gives us to mark the end of this millennium, the transition to the last millennium and on into the eternal state.
The Rapture of the Church
The age we live in is typically called the church age or the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. According to the Word, it ends with something commonly called the Rapture, or the catching away of the church. Jesus will appear in the clouds, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are the believing church will rise to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:16,17).
Daniel's 70th Week—The Tribulation
After the Rapture, a seven-year period of time often referred to as "Daniel's 70th Week" begins. This is the uncompleted last seven years of the Jewish dispensation in which the Lord will finish his dealings with Israel.
That seven-year period of time is also called the Tribulation, and it represents the greatest outpouring of God's judgment and wrath upon this world the earth has ever seen. The Tribulation will end with the Second Advent, or the coming of Jesus Christ.
Armageddon
The principle events in this season of time will be the battle of Armageddon, the defeat of the Antichrist and the establishment of Jesus' earthly reign. This marks the beginning of the last millennium.
Satan Cast Into the Abyss
The Word shows us that at the beginning of the last millennium, Satan is going to be cast into the bottomless pit and chained there for the majority of this period so that he should deceive the nations no more till 1,000 years were finished (Rev. 20:3).
A Thousand Years of Peace With Jesus as Ruler
We will experience life in the last millennium free of the deception that has harassed mankind ever since the Garden of Eden. Mankind is going to experience life on this planet under a divinely appointed system of government.
For 1,000 years, God is going to give mankind every opportunity possible to exercise his freedom of choice without the distracting influence of Satan and deception in order to allow man to align his life and his purpose with God's purpose.
Satan Released After 1,000 Years
Then at the end of 1,000 years, Satan will be released from the bottomless pit for a short while to deceive whom he may. As astounding as it may sound, he will deceive multitudes in that short time frame—even people who have lived on this earth with Jesus for 1,000 years without deception but with freedom from all the schemes of the devil and the world's curse.
The point of all this is to bring the earth to a place where as many human beings as possible can be secured for God's eternal purpose. Then the end of the world as we know it will come.
The Great White Throne Judgment
At the end of the millennial reign, we have what is called the Great White Throne Judgment. Everyone alive and all of the dead—who will be raised to life again—will have to stand before this judgment seat.
All of those who have aligned their lives with Satan and his demonic host will be cast into the lake of fire to dwell there in utter torment for all eternity.
Purification by Fire and a New Heaven and Earth
The earth at that time will be so corrupted by the sin and deception that has been in it since Satan's release from the bottomless pit that it will be destroyed and purified by the fire of God.
Then a completely new heaven and new earth will be formed, at the end of which God will transplant the New Jerusalem, the capital city of heaven right now, onto the planet earth. He will then forever take up residence with His creation (mankind) here on earth.
This marks the end of the last millennium and the beginning of the eternal state.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
