Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor: I just finished reading a book about Napoleon who was quite a character. Famous and infamous, he conquered much of Europe in the 19th century. He started out as a brilliant corporal dealing with artillery from Corsica; he wasn't from France. He rose through the ranks of the French army during the French Revolution. He was extremely intelligent. He was a prodigy. He managed to work his way into control of the nation of France and the army, and then he went from battle to battle until he had conquered much of Europe.

He implemented some good changes in the government that are still kept, some of the Napoleonic laws, but thousands of people died in those wars. Ultimately, some of the other nations in Europe, led principally by England, fought with him and he was defeated. Then they banished him to the island of Elba in 1813. He was defeated and sent there, and he was supposed to live out his days. They gave him a certain amount of a budget and some freedom. He abdicated.

But he could not stand his isolation. He was so used to being the emperor, to having all of that power, and suddenly to lose it all. After about a year, he managed a daring escape. He had about a thousand soldiers that joined him. He entered back into Paris again, retook the government, and managed to fight another hundred-day war against Europe. It looked like he might take over again, but he was finally defeated. Even after given time to think about it, he could not change. He wanted to be the ruler of the world. Then they banished him to the island of St. Helena, the most remote outpost in the British dominion, out in the middle of nowhere, where he ultimately died.

It makes me think about a story in the Bible. So, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Revelation, chapter 20. Obviously, we're getting near the end of the Bible. Revelation 22 is the end of the Bible. Chapter 20 talks about something called the Millennium, and it is connected with the great judgment day. Revelation chapter 20, verse one: "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years."

"And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while." Verse seven: "Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison. And he will go out to deceive the nations once again, which are on the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is like the sand of the sea."

"They cover the earth like a cloud. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints, the beloved city." This is the New Jerusalem that comes down in the next chapter. "And fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

What is this talking about? How is it that the devil is bound for a thousand years? And if you have the devil tied up, why in the world would you ever let him go? Some are wondering why did God make a devil? We have studied that. We realize God did not make a devil. We are going to get into that, but before we do, sometimes it's fun to find out what people on the street think about these subjects. We have a few comments on the subject of the Millennium and the thousand years.

Guest (Male): Jesus said to us the kingdom is at hand. If something is at hand, does that mean it's far away or right here? It means it's right here. So if he says the kingdom is at hand, the heaven that most people think of in the sky with angels is nonsense. We're talking about something we do here and now. It's a practice, a commitment, and a behavior that we either adhere to or don't. It's a state of being.

Guest (Male): Oh yeah, that's my next stop.

Guest (Female): I like to hope so.

Guest (Male): Possibly.

Guest (Male): Something exists.

Guest (Male): I think the book of life is the book that you want your name written in so you're saved.

Guest (Male): The names that are written on the book is the people that are saved.

Guest (Male): To teach you different lessons. The lessons that you think are important or maybe not as important.

Guest (Female): I don't know anything about the book of life unless you're talking about the Bible.

Guest (Male): It's like mocha java ice cream. It's really my heaven.

Guest (Male): It's a mythical place where believers think they're going to go when they die.

Guest (Female): I think it's kind of like a positive image for me. I'm a very realistic person, so it's something above.

Guest (Male): A home.

Guest (Female): Heaven, oh my gosh, it's like everything. I'm Christian. I love Jesus and heaven is my future, the future of everyone. We hope we can make it over there one day.

Guest (Male): The Millennium. You mean the afterlife?

Guest (Male): Is that referring to the end times here on Earth?

Guest (Female): Peace after chaos.

Guest (Female): It's the time that the bad people are on the earth.

Guest (Male): Righteous went to heaven with God and in space with him.

Guest (Female): Heaven.

Guest (Male): I'm not really a Christian, so I don't know too much about that.

Guest (Male): In heaven.

Doug Batchelor: A lot of people don't know much about the Millennium even though it's a thousand-year period in the Bible that is very prominent. Some of you were not here earlier and so you may not have seen where I illustrated that there are seven epochs in Bible history. The Bible tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3, a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. Peter is quoting from Psalm 90 where it says a thousand years in his sight are like a day when it is gone.

When you add up the ages in the Bible, it tells us Adam lived 930 years. You start with Adam and then you go 2,000 years and you come to the time of Abraham. For the first 2,000 years, you have the epic of the patriarchs. God shares the gospel through the patriarchs: Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Seth, and so forth.

Then Abraham is called out of Ur of the Chaldees. God calls Abraham and says, "I'm going to give your nation the oracles of truth. The Messiah will come through your descendants." For the next 2,000 years, from about 2004 BC to 4 BC, is when Jesus is born. For the next 2,000 years, you have God preaching the gospel through the Jewish nation. They're the guardians of the word. They introduce Jesus as the Messiah to the world and the scriptures then spread everywhere.

Christ is born about 4 BC. You're wondering how Jesus could be born four years before Christ. When they established this dating method, they took an educated guess. Years later, they found out they were off because we know Herod the Great that wanted to kill Jesus as a baby died in 2 BC. Christ had to be born before he died and we know that Jesus was baptized in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, 27 AD, when he was 30 years old.

Total of 6,000 years if a day with the Lord is like a thousand years. Then we live and reign with Christ for a thousand-year Sabbath. The Jews had a program where you farm your land for six years and then you leave it desolate for one year. Let me read something to you in the Bible. In the last chapter in 2 Chronicles, there is a very interesting statement where it talks about what was going to happen to the children of Israel.

The children of Israel are carried off to Babylon. They had not been keeping the annual seven-year Sabbath. Every six years they would farm their land and they were supposed to then let it rest. Every six years they could have a Hebrew servant but they were supposed to let him go free. They had not been letting them go free. They'd not been resting the land. God said, "If you're not going to do it voluntarily, I'm going to force it."

For those 490 years you've not been resting the land, I'm going to take one year and put you in captivity and make the land keep Sabbath. 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verse 21: "To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate for 70 years she kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years." When the land of Israel was desolate, the Bible says it's keeping Sabbath. During the Millennium, this world is desolate; it is keeping Sabbath. That means we're on the verge of sundown for the world. Then there's going to be a thousand years we will live and reign with Christ.

Question number one, what events mark the beginning of the 1,000 years? 1 Thessalonians 4:16: "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will rise." The Millennium beginning is marked with the coming of the Lord. This is that supreme event in history that's going to mark that out. In Acts chapter 1, it said that the disciples saw Jesus go up in the clouds and he's going to return in the clouds the same way he came, but his feet do not touch the ground.

He told the disciples in John 14, "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 you may be also." We have a vision of the second coming. I'm wondering if I could jump in that hole what would happen. This is amazing though, the reality that they have going on here. The second coming of Jesus. What are the clouds? Is it H2O?

In Psalm 104, it mentions the angels, his ministering spirits. He's coming in clouds of glory. Angels are shining beings; it's clouds of light. Angels are sometimes called stars. What do you think the star was that the wise men followed? It wasn't an asteroid or a comet that was hovering over the house in Bethlehem. It was a band of angels that looked to them like stars. Christ is coming with all the angels with him. How bright do you think that will be?

But his feet do not touch the ground. We are caught up. If someone starts walking around saying they're Jesus, didn't Christ say there'll be many false Christs? Don't be deceived by that. The Lord himself will descend from heaven. Dead in Christ rise. In Revelation 20, they live and they reign with Christ for a thousand years.

We believe it's a literal thousand years for a couple of reasons. Once Jesus comes, we have entered eternity. We have our glorified bodies. God is not using the Bible to talk to us anymore; we are talking to him face-to-face. This is a literal thousand years just like it is a literal 6,000 years from the time of Adam to our present day. No man knows the day or the hour of Jesus coming. It could be later than you think because the Bible says he's long-suffering to us, not willing that any should perish. He's waiting as long as he can to save as many as he can. It may be sooner than you think, for he said in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man comes and he will cut it short in righteousness. Don't try to peg the day or the hour of Christ coming.

The word Millennium doesn't appear in the Bible. It's just a theological term. It's a composite of two Latin words, mille and annum, and it just means thousand years. So if you hear me say Millennium, it just means the thousand-year period that we're talking about. It's principally found in Revelation chapter 20.

They live with Christ for a thousand years, but the rest of the dead do not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. If the dead in Christ rise first and they're the saved, who are the rest of the dead? They're the lost. There's only one other group left. If all the good are saved, then what's left? The bad. So they don't come forth until the end. Jesus said there are two resurrections. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth: they that have done good to the resurrection of life, they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation or the resurrection of condemnation. You find this also in Daniel chapter 12. At that time, Michael will stand up, the great prince that stands for the sons of thy people, and there'll be a time of trouble such as there never has been since there was a nation even unto that same time. At that time, many that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. The Bible separates these resurrections by a thousand years.

Question number three, who will be raised in the second resurrection and when will that take place? All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth: those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of evil. So who's in this resurrection? The lost. They have not confessed and turned from their sins.

The resurrection of condemnation. All of us have sinned. So our only hope is to have our sins forgiven. If we're not under the blood, if we've not surrendered to Jesus, we are in the wrong resurrection. If you come out of the grave and you still have wrinkles, it's not good. You are in the wrong resurrection. If you come out of the grave and you look in the grave next to you and there's Adolf Hitler, it's not good. You're in the wrong resurrection.

Jesus said, "I didn't come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world." We're already condemned by our sin. We must be saved from that condemnation. We're under the law; Jesus wants to save us from the penalty of the law. The rest of the dead, Revelation 20:5, do not live again until the thousand years are finished. When the thousand years are finished, the wicked are raised for a judgment, but it's more than just the judgment.

Question number four, what is the condition of the world during the 1,000 years? We talked about the events that begin the 1,000 years. Jesus comes, we're caught up to meet him. If we're alive, we get our glorified bodies. The dead in Christ rise with glorified bodies. I remember showing a picture of a mother embracing her baby in the resurrection. After the program, a lady came to me in tears and she said, "Can you get me that picture? I've lost two children and my hope is that I will see them again in the resurrection." There'll be some great reunions in that time.

What's the condition of the world during the 1,000 years? Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste. Wait, some of you are saying, I thought we live and reign with Christ down here. There are good Christians out there; there are two principal camps. One group believes that we are here on the earth. If you read the Left Behind books, they believe we're here on the earth during the 1,000 years. Traditional Protestants believe that we are living and reigning with Christ in glory during the 1,000 years.

The Bible says that we're with him; the wicked are destroyed. The Left Behind group says you have the righteous who have eternal life reigning over the wicked who are still dying. I don't know about you, but I don't want to reign over the wicked. I want to be with Christ. Let's find out what the Bible says. The Bible says what is the condition of the earth? Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty. He makes it waste. Jeremiah 4:23: "I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form and void." That sounds like Genesis. Have to keep reading.

"And the heavens and they had no light. I beheld the mountains and indeed they trembled. And there was no man and all the birds of heaven had fled." That means they were there, but now they're gone. "The fruitful land was a wilderness and all of its cities were broken down." The earth is covered with broken-down cities. Why? At the presence of the Lord and by his fierce anger. The Lord, when he first started creation, the earth was without form and void, and he's going to make it without form and void again before he recreates it. This earth is going to be a dark, desolate, broken-down place. The devil's going to have to look at the results of his government for a thousand years.

He's bound. Jeremiah 25:33: "At that day, the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They will not be gathered or buried." That's not a very pretty thought, but what could account for that? The Left Behind scenario of prophecy, there is no time in their scheme when the earth is desolate. There's no time in their scheme where it's covered with slain and no one to mourn or bury them because everyone's gone; everyone's dead. The cities are broken down; all the birds have fled.

Jesus came into our world for three reasons. First of all, he came as our example to live a life that we might follow his steps. He came to show us the Father. He said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." And then he came as our sacrifice. He died on the cross as a substitute for all our sins. But we must come to him. We repent of our sins, we confess, he'll receive us with loving arms. Why don't you ask him now?

Hi friends, I trust you've been blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the Prophecy Odyssey study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides; they're beautifully illustrated and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen. You will be glad you did.

Our study of last day prophecy would not be complete without understanding the Bible truth about the Millennium. To learn more about this important end-time topic, make sure and request 1,000 Years of Peace, the Amazing Facts study guide that explains what takes place immediately after the second coming of Christ and why. To get your copy, simply follow the instructions on your screen and we'll send it to you quickly and absolutely free of charge. What you've seen just now is only part one in this presentation. Make sure and join us for part two in our next broadcast for some of the most important points on this topic and to complete the corresponding study guide. Until then, God bless.