Christ’s Glorious Return :: By Terry James

Author’s note: This is from my file archives. And I want to share again that powerful moment when Jesus—and we who are in His army—comes back to vanquish evil and restore righteousness to Earth.    

Leaders of the forces that met at Armageddon to battle each other will turn to see the brightness that has broken through the darkness that has overcast Earth’s skies because of the judgments of God. Antichrist, supreme leader of much of the forces west of the Euphrates River, will recognize the invading force from Heaven. Perhaps the leaders from the 200-million-man army from the Orient that has crossed the dried-up Euphrates from the east will also know what the brilliantly shining heavenly intrusion is all about. All earthly forces will then turn to concentrate their fire at the descending heavenly army, led by Jesus Christ.

While the sea of humanity on the planet’s surface viciously roars in an attempt to prevent the heavenly intervention, those warring forces will turn from battling with each other to curse God and all His righteousness. Then Jesus Christ, mounted upon a stunningly white steed, will speak words sharper than a two-edged sword.

Master to Calm Storm

I am convinced they will be the same words Jesus of Nazareth spoke to that raging sea of Galilee nearly two millennia ago. (Read Mark 4: 36-41.) They are the same words He speaks today to everyone who turns to Him, acknowledging that there is nothing and no one but Christ who can save them. He speaks those words to all who accept Him and trust Him to save them from their sins and to make them born-again children of God.

Just as His words instantaneously calmed that violent sea, thus saving the men in the little boat, Jesus’ words will instantly end the warfare and rebellion at Armageddon. Christ’s words to the individual’s troubled heart likewise bring tranquility and joy to the soul. A person is never the same when Jesus speaks those life-changing words, “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39).

Bloody Peace

When Jesus speaks the words “Peace, be still” at Armageddon, His command will be against all the vileness that has been building in humanistic rebellion over the thousands of years since God last judged in such a mighty way. All people died in the Flood except Noah and seven others. Christ’s words at Armageddon will apparently cause most, if not all, of the soldiers of the armies of the world gathered there to literally burst open, so powerful will be His command!

The plains of Armageddon will flow with a flood of blood! The Scripture says of this event:

“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).

The point is, when Jesus speaks, His words are sharper and more powerful than a two-edged sword. When Christ speaks, all opposition by Earth’s armies will instantly cease and desist. All will lie horribly bloody—but peaceful—upon the vast killing field called Armageddon.

Jesus on the Throne!

Jesus, following His stunning victory over the enemies of God, will proceed to get the people of Israel who have, during the Tribulation, come to believe in Him. He will rescue them from the place God has hidden them. This hiding of believing Israel (all Jewish people who have accepted that Jesus was and is their Messiah) is revealed in the following verses:

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:13-17).

The Hiding Place

Satan’s Antichrist forces will try to completely wipe the Jewish race from the face of the earth. They will try to fully implement Satan’s Final Solution. But God will intervene with great supernatural catastrophe and prevent the Antichrist from finding the Jews. God will have hidden them somewhere. As we’ve looked at before, many prophetic scholars believe the hiding place will be in the Jordanian desert, in the “rose-red city” called Petra.

Jesus will retrieve these believing Jews from their hiding place, and will use this remnant of the Jewish Race to be His nation of Israel during His 1000-year rule on Earth called “the Millennium.”

Israel Saved!

The Bible says one-third of Jews alive during the Tribulation will recognize their Messiah, Jesus Christ, at the moment He returns in the Second Coming. It will be a real eye-opener for them.

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).

Jesus will then move, with His saints of the Church Age and with his chosen people (all of saved Israel), to Jerusalem. He will set up His throne upon a topographically changed Mt. Moriah in the Millennial Temple He will build.

More Judgments

Antichrist and False Prophet Judgment

The Lord Jesus will judge Antichrist and the False Prophet, who have persecuted Tribulation saints, and, particularly, the Jewish race (Israel). We learn of these two beasts as follows:

“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).

These two will be the first to be cast into Hell. They will have it to themselves until a thousand years later, after the White Throne Judgment.

Satan’s Confinement

The devil will next be grabbed and confined for a thousand years.

“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).

The bottomless pit is the same place from where the rich man, in torment, looked into paradise to see Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom, according to Jesus’s teaching. (Read Luke 16:19-31.)

Sheep and Goat Judgments 

>Christ will judge the nations. Their fate will hang upon how they treated His chosen people, the Jews. The “goat” nations will stand on Christ’s left while He judges, while the “sheep” nations will stand on His right.

>All in the goat nations will be cast into everlasting darkness. They are lost for eternity. These nations consist of individually lost souls, each of whom will, apparently, be placed in nations that have persecuted Jews, and, most likely, Tribulation saints as well.  The nations so judged will no longer be part of the nations of Earth. (Read Matthew 25:32-46 to learn exactly what the prophetic Word of God has to say about that great future judgment.)

>It is logical to presume that the saved people who have lived in the goat or lost nations will be put into the sheep nations, which will be allowed into the Millennial Kingdom. Likewise, the unsaved people who have lived in the sheep nations will go into the goat nations to meet their eternal fate in outer darkness.

>Saints of the Tribulation who make it through the seven years alive will, individually, go into the nations that have treated Israel kindly.

>However, it must be recognized that the children who will be born during the Millennium will have to make the same decision their parents made to accept or reject Christ for salvation. Millions will not do so and will be as rebellious as the rebels before this time of Christ’s glorious reign on Earth for a thousand years. These unsaved will join Satan in the final rebellion when he is released from the bottomless pit for a brief time. All will be destroyed and will spend eternity in Hell apart from God.

>Millions of others who are the children of the saints that go into the Millennium will accept Christ, and will, ultimately, live eternally with God. These offspring of the Tribulation saints who go into the Millennium will be the peoples who will continue to repopulate the earth for a thousand years. All these individuals will be saved for eternity.

Fantastic changes!

Jesus will assume the throne that belongs to Him alone. It is called the “Throne of David.” David, apparently, because of God’s own choosing, will, in his supernatural state, also rule over the nation Israel during the millennial era.

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Matthew 25:30).

The terrain of Jerusalem and the whole world will supernaturally change in accordance with a masterful sweep of King Jesus’ majestic hand.

We are given a glimpse of those astonishing topographical and environmental changes prophesied to take place in that day. (Read Zechariah 14: 4-9.)

Like in Eden

Jesus will make the earth like it was in the time of the Garden of Eden. It will be a crime-free world for the most part. Anyone who commits a crime will be dealt with immediately, and from a righteous justice system that has perfect knowledge of all things involved in the crime.

Many prophecy students believe Church Age saints will be officers of the Supreme’s Court of Justice in the administration of King Jesus. As supernatural officers of the Court, they will certainly be equipped to handle such a duty.

But crime will be almost nonexistent, compared to our present hour. Christ’s saints, both flesh and blood saints and supernatural saints, will doubtless have wonderfully creative things to do for those thousand years. Anticipating that time of glorious service should empower us for our Royal Ambassador service here on Earth!

Wtjames1@swbell.net

 

 

 

Post-Rapture Scenario in Heaven :: By Terry James

There is really no way to truly fathom what that moment of Rapture will be like. Our finite minds, no matter how close our Holy Spirit-centered hearts are to God, just don’t have the capability of fully understanding things of that eternal leap into Glory.

Paul comes close to explaining what that instant transposition from earth to Heaven will be like. His explanation isn’t as thorough as we would wish, perhaps, but he does give it an excellent try under Holy Spirit inspiration:

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

That is both a thrilling promise and a frustrating one, if taken as it stands alone. Believers in God’s Word trust that a time is coming when things will be so wonderful we can’t even comprehend the marvels.

The frustration is taken out of the promise, to some extent, by Paul’s next pronouncement:

“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1Corinthians 2:10).

Indeed, this deeply etched certainty that a moment of change from the earthly into the heavenly is coming particularly comforts Christians who believe in the pre-Tribulation Rapture. They are so certain this instantaneous change is imminent (can happen at any tick of the clock) that they have trouble thinking about future earthly schedules.

Believe me, some of these believers are my very close brothers and sisters in Christ. No matter how those around them believe regarding the Rapture—that it might be years in the future, et cetera—they plan as if they will hear that shout, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1) before the week or even the day has passed.

While it is prudent—and, I believe, expected—for believers to move ahead with life in an orderly and scheduled manner, planning for tomorrow to some extent, I have to think our Lord smiles any time those Rapture-ready Christians of the fanatical sort, as some believe them to be, display their beliefs without ceasing.

This anticipation of the soon-to-happen event can be likened to a bride and groom awaiting the moment they are forever together in holy matrimony. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly how God’s Word defines the relationship of the believer in Christ to His Son Jesus Christ. The Rapture of the Church that began building as given in Matthew 16:18 is likened to a marriage of most majestic order. It will be a marriage that cannot be broken, and it will forever grow in glory throughout all of eternity.

Dr. John Walvoord explained this heavenly marriage as follows:

Taking this figure as a spiritual picture of the relationship of Christ to His church, it is evident that for individual Christians, the marriage, as far as its legal character is concerned, is consummated at the moment an individual puts his trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. In the case of the Christian, the dowry has already been paid in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and the bride has been purchased and claimed in a legal way by the Bridegroom. The church is, therefore, already married to Christ as far as the technical relationship is concerned.

The day will come, however, when the Bridegroom will come for His bride, and this is fulfilled in the rapture of the church. At that time the Bridegroom will claim His bride and take her to His Father’s house. This is the background of the statements in John 14:2-3 where Christ said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”

This passage contemplates that Christ in the present age is preparing a place for His bride. When this is complete, and the bride is ready, He will come to take the bride to her heavenly home which will be accomplished by the rapture and translation of the church. (John W. Walvoord, The Nations, Israel, and The Church in Prophecy, Zondervan, 1967).

Jesus indicated when construction of this home will be complete. He gave a series of “birth pangs”—things that will be happening in frequency and intensity as the time of His coming for the Church will be near. He then told believers the following:

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

We look around today and see the building storm of the end times. I constantly hear from fellow believers that they are ready to leave—to hear that shout: “Come up here!”

When it is made—in less time than it takes for light to enter the eye and strike the retina, in an atomos of time—we will find ourselves looking into the eyes of our Lord.

These are the eyes of the one who ransomed us from sin on that cross at Calvary, who loved us so much that He agreed with God the Father to become the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).

The shoutings of heavenly ecstasy made by we who have just been instantaneously transformed from mortals to immortals will fill the clouds of Glory. We will then, with minds like the mind of Jesus Himself—our Savior, our Bridegroom—understand the mysteries of all the ages and why our Heavenly Father and His Son have moved Heaven and Hell to bring us to this moment of everlasting life.

Paul’s prophetic words will at this moment of Rapture be fulfilled!

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 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. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:50–55).

Wtjames1@swbell.net