AFTER THE TRANSFORMATION
There are more places in the New Testament that give us information concerning what will take place ‘pre-transformation’ than verses mentioning what happens ‘post-transformation’. In II Corinthians 5 we are told that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ for recompense of what we have done in the flesh. But what judgment is this, and when does this judgment take place according to scripture? After the believers are taken up to be with the Lord is the destruction of the nations the ultimate judgment of the Lord or is this a judgment in the flesh and the spiritual judgment is to occur at another time? We know that after the saints are raptured the Lord will deal out retribution upon the nations. Remember, however, He does not reside on the earth while dealing out retrubution. The Lord does return to earth, along with His saints, when the final judgment is executed upon the earth in order for Him to now (after purging the earth) begin His millennial reign. (see Rev 19:14, Isa 13:3-6, Jude 1:14, Joel 2:11). But what events are going to transpire in heaven for the saints before we return with the Lord to strike the nations? Some detective work is needed in determining a chronological order of events immediately after the Rapture. In Revelation 9:4-6 we see that the Great Retribution covers a span of at least 5 months time, and that during this time men will not be allowed to die. We also know that, according to Revelation 16:10-16, the beast and the false prophet are still on the earth being tormented, but they are now given authority to gather the nations together for the great battle of Armageddon. While on the subject of Armageddon I think I should point out, as a time reference, that when this battle takes place it is at the end of the outpouring of God's wrath, as seen by the fact that in Revelation 16 the battle is after six angels pour out their bowls of wrath. The battle of Armageddon is the last chronological event in the reign of the beast and the false prophet before the Lord seizes them and throws them into the lake of fire, when He makes His final descent. In Revelation 20:4 we see thrones, and judgment given to these who sit on the thrones. Matthew 19:28 tells us that those who have followed Jesus will sit on the twelve thrones and judge Israel. We shall also judge angels as we read below:
1 Cor 6:2-3 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?
Another reference, illustrating what transpires after the resurrection and the Rapture, is found in Isaiah 26:19-21. This passage tells us that after the dead in Christ are resurrected, as He was resurrected, they are instructed to wait in their rooms and shut the door until the Lord's indignation runs its course, but what goes on behind these closed doors is not revealed to us. (Although I personally feel that while the Lord's indignation is being poured out upon the earth the judgment of the saints is occurring behind these closed doors). As we read below:
Isa 26:19-21 Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of the morning light, and the earth shall give birth to the dead. Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past. For behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
Zeph 2:3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger.
The majority of information given to determine a chronology after the Rapture, however, is given to us primarily in the book of Revelation. The events in Revelation are not chronologically congruous as with other historical books in the Bible and therefore cannot be read as a consecutive “beginning to end” work. Revelation is not the easiest book in the Bible to understand, so before unraveling the threads of knowledge from the book of Revelation we should establish some guidelines in order to decipher what John, through the Spirit, was prophesying for the future. There are at least five different schools of interpretation for Revelation, but rather than discuss these interpretive schools I would like to take some of their interpretive information and ascertain when and how I believe these futuristic events will play out. It seems to me, as I read the 'visions' in the book of Revelation, that there is a modern familiarity about the setting and events in this book. Let me use a long, drawn out analogy to illustrate what I see in Revelation. Picture the events, from Revelation 4 on, as being viewed on big screen TV's. There are several enourmous, giant big screen TV's around you, with a different program playing on each TV. These shows, and the action scenes shown in them, will have their own program titles. These ‘action stories’, we’ll call them, are not in chronological sequence but are broken up, as if the action would play on TV#1 first, and then all of a sudden TV#1 switches off and TV#2 begins to play a different program with a different ‘action story’. We see this often as we read John saying things like, “And then I looked and saw...”, or “After these things I looked..”. We see that certain visions which are shown to John are repeated again after they are introduced, continuing on with whatever the program was playing out when it was previously shown on that TV. For example, let’s say that big screen TV#2 is showing the program called “Angels of Wrath”. In chapter 9 verses 13-16 the sixth angel sounds the sixth trumpet and the cry is given to release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates. In the next verses we read:
Rev 9:15-16 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.
These verses are really very hard to understand. The sixth angel sounds his trumpet and four angels are released to kill a third of mankind, and then all of a sudden an army of two hundred million appears out of nowhere! These angels are just angels, not symbols of military regimes. To answer the problem of the mysterious two hundred million in this verse we must look to find where the next ‘action story’ on TV#2 is occurring. We see in chapter 16 verse 12 the explanation of the first scene:
Rev 16:12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
Here we are given the explanation. On this "Angels of Wrath" TV program we again see a sixth angel who is pouring out his bowl on the great river Euphrates to dry the water up so the kings from the east can cross, the armies of these kings numbering two hundred million. This now helps us understand the first scene, and the verses to follow tell us that these kings will assemble for war in the great day of God, the battle of Armageddon. Compiling these visions together from different sections of Revelation is necessary in order to visualize these ‘action stories’ in their unbroken dialogue. The final sequence on the TV program takes place in Rev 19:17-20:
Rev 19:17-20 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
From the above verses we are finally shown that the earlier ‘action stories’ lead up to the Battle of Armageddon, and the results of this battle are that the mighty men of this earth become bird food. The "mighty men" of earth, who still are putting their hope in their 'god' - the Beast, are set up for their final fall, and will watch as the False Prophet and the Antichrist are thrown into the lake of fire. Satan, however, is not thrown in yet because God still has plans for him. These plans I will discuss in a moment when dealing with the topic of the millennium. For now, the last dramatic depiction I want to discuss involves several verses which need to be linked together in order to visualize an unbroken action story, viewed on TV#3's program called, "Victory for the Saints of God". These verses are taken from several chapters of Revelation. Rather than discuss each verse individually, I will condense them into one paragraph and draw conclusions at the end.
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.” Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.” God Himself will be with them and be their God. And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” “Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war, and the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of Life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son."
The apparent chronological sequence of events for the saints, after the Great Persecution and the rapture, is to participate in the final cleansing of the earth, at the end of God's wrath, and then begin the thousand year reign with Christ. Following the believers judgment the first order of events is to abolish the Antichrist and False Prophet and to come away victorious from the battle of Armageddon. This battle, and our participation as soldiers of God, is described in Joel 2:1-11 and Isa 13:3-6. Here, a mighty army, never seen before or ever again, marches across the land with the power of God, and nothing can withstand them. After this the kingdom of the earth is now the kingdom of the Lord's and He begins His earthly reign from His holy mountain. The bride of the Lamb (the church) is now clothed in new clothes (our new bodies) and will not experience death, sickness, or the unrighteous acts of the flesh. The saints who are now with Christ will be upon the earth and serve the Lord, along with the 144,000 Jews who were sealed with God's seal and kept safe through the retribution upon the earth. These will dwell in the mountains of Israel and will be living in perfect peace until the thousand years are up. Then, as we shall see, Satan is released to deceive the nations once again. We read below:
Rev 20:1-3, 7-10 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 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 on 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. Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 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.
The events recorded above tell us of several things. First, we know that there will be a literal thousand years of Christ's reigning upon the earth because of the earlier reference to the dead in Christ coming to life and reigning with Christ for a thousand years, the binding of Satan for a thousand years, and the statement “when the thousand years have expired”. There are some out there who are being told that there will be no millennium, or that the thousand year reign is strictly symbolic. If this thousand years is strictly meant to be taken symbolically then the separation of the two resurrections, and the thousand years that separates them, is all symbolic. Then too, you have to take the binding of Satan as being symbolic. The effect of Satan's deception upon the nations is made quite clear from the above verses, however. Also, the fact that there will still be those in the flesh who can be deceived by Satan tells us that the bride of Christ will cohabit with the remnant Israel (and possibly non-Jewish) who will procreate and replenish the earth. Passages in Zechariah 14 and Isaiah 66 imply that other flesh and blood will cohabit with Israel and occupy the Holy Land with Israel. It is these in the flesh who will be deceived, not we who have been resurrected and now have new bodies. Only three verses in Revelation 20 briefly mention this time period of Satan's deception. However, to gain further insight into what will transpire during this period a reading of Ezekiel 38 would be profitable, specifically noting the fact that Gog and Magog are mentioned in both places (the only two places in the Bible they are mentioned together), and the fact that God's fire, in both references, came down from heaven and destroyed those who came against God's people. We can see during this period, according to Ezekiel 38, that Israel, and those who serve Christ during His reign, will be living in peace and safety, without walls, gates, bars, or locks upon their villages or businesses. (Tell me if this situation could ever occur in today's volatile world?) We are also told that when the troops of Gog from the north come against these inhabitants, living in peace in the center of the land, the merchants living in peace will be in total amazement to the fact that someone actually wants to steal silver, gold, and livestock from them! After a thousand years of splendid peace and unselfish desires this concept is now totally unthinkable. Satan has been released here, however, and can still tempt the natural man with greed for possessions and money. At the end of the thousand years, when Gog is destroyed and Satan is cast into the lake of fire, we now see the Great White Throne judgment taking place, and the dead, and those in the realm of the dead (Hades) being judged. Anyone whose name is not found in the Book of Life is now cast into the eternal lake of fire where Satan, the False Prophet, and the Antichrist are. Chapter 21 of Revelation describes the brilliance of the New Jerusalem, with her adorning array of costly jewels and precious metals. But rather than discuss the details of the Holy City, I think it's suffice to say that we believers will immensely enjoy the grandeur of the Lord's amenities while serving Him on the New Earth. There are volumes that can be studied more about the book of Revelation - the various plagues, the two witnesses, and the fate of Babylon to name just a few. But as I stated in the Preface, this book was intended to be a simplified overview of last days events, and for those whose appetites are not quite satisfied from this brief description of Revelation’s events, maybe reading this book will cause them to study further and find eschatological truths on their own.