Sequence of Events at the End of the Age

The most dangerous people to listen to in life and in bible interpretation are those with an agenda, people who are affiliated to a particular sect or cult or group with pre-established notions and doctrines . This matter is no exception. The End of the Age, and the return of Christ and the events that follow, is described in many parts of the bible. To get the whole picture one needs to be unbiased in their thinking and combine these in a logical and straightforward manner. All pre conceived notions and church loyalties should be ignored.

A few of these are in Rev 19 and 20, Matt 25, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thes 4 . From these passages the following sequence of events can be seen:
1. The Great Tribulation is finished. Jesus returns with the righteous Christians both dead and alive [the first resurrection [Rev 20:6 ] Dead are raised and alive Christians meet Christ in the air {I Thes 4 : 16-17]
2. Satan is bound for 1000 yrs [Rev 20:2]
3. Millennial reign of Christ begins with the Christian Saints ruling with Christ [Rev 20]
4. During the 1,000 yrs, Christ restores the earth and puts all enemies under his foot, including death [1 Cor 15]
5. After the 1,000 yrs Satan is loosed and deceives nations [ Rev 20:7]
6. Battle of Armageddon takes place and Satan is cast into his permanent place in the lake of fire [Rev 20:8 Rev 16:16 ]
7. Judgment Day - all people raised from the dead, books are opened [Matt 25:31 / Rev 20:12 - 14]. The righteous are given eternal life. The evil people, death and hell, are cast into the lake of fire. The second death
8. Old Earth passes away.. New Heaven and New Earth
9. New Jerusalem arrives [Ezek 48/ Rev 21]

Several important points everge here:

1. There is ONE JUDGEMENT DAY for ALL people, and this is at the END OF the 1,000 reign of Christ.
[i]... God .... hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; ... (Acts 17:30-31 KJV)

2. At the start of the Millennial Reign of Christ there is no judgment of the wicked. Rev 20:4 and 1 Thes 4, is clear that only the dead Saints in Christ, are raised to rule with Christ, along with the living Saints in Christ. The rest of the dead stay dead until the end of the 1,000 yrs.

3. The Matt 25 judgment day description is at the end of the 1,000 yr period. The books are opened and all people dead and alive are judged according to their works. Sonship trying to differentiate between The Great White Throne and The Throne of Glory is a silly childish differentiation the aim of which is to claim that there are two judgments.

Claims that these are people escaping the Great Tribulation period and the sheep are helping Christ brothers, while the goats are not helping is also unbiblical nonsense of the highest order.

In the Matt 25 scenario the righteous are judged and given eternal life. Eternal life is given to the righteous at the end of 1000 yrs.
The unrighteous are cast into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels and this only happens at end of the 1000 yrs.

There is no judgment of the unrighteous until Judgment Day and this happens at the end of the 1,000 reign of Christ. The Matt 25 description therefore occurs AFTER THE !,000 yrs

@rajk999 said
The most dangerous people to listen to in life and in bible interpretation are those with an agenda, people who are affiliated to a particular sect or cult or group with pre-established notions and doctrines . This matter is no exception. The End of the Age, and the return of Christ and the events that follow, is described in many parts of the bible. To get the whole pictur ...[text shortened]... e end of the 1,000 reign of Christ. The Matt 25 description therefore occurs AFTER THE !,000 yrs[/b]

@pb1022 said
You forgot about the Rapture.

@rajk999 said
Did you read point #1? Are you looking for the word Rapture? That word is not in the bible. If you notice I rarely if ever, use words not found in the bible to describe events. I use the bible words.

@pb1022 said
My bad. I believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture.

@rajk999 said
Well, that might be fine as well. That is not a matter cast in stone. The point here is that one judgment day is cast is stone for all people, dead and alive. Only Christian Saints in Christ are raised to rule with Christ, prior to the 1000 yr reign. No judgment takes place then.

So if you want to post some pre-Trib info I would be happy to take a read of that.

@pb1022 said
To be honest, I’m not as interested in the End Times as many other Christians are, but I always thought there were two judgments - the Great White Throne Judgment for unbelievers, and the Judgment Seat of Christ for believers.

4. During the 1,000 yrs, Christ restores the earth and puts all enemies under his foot, including death [1 Cor 15]
5. After the 1,000 yrs Satan is loosed and deceives nations [ Rev 20:7]
6. Battle of Armageddon takes place and Satan is cast into his permanent place in the lake of fire [Rev 20:8 Rev 16:16 ]

20:1 - And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand."

verse 2 "And he laid hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years."

The binding of Satan is at the end of the battle of Armageddon.
It does not precede that battle.
Rajk999 must mistake the rebellion AFTER Satan is loosed as involving Armageddon. But that is a different rebellion with a different and final vanquishing of God's enemies.

verse 3 - "And cast him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed; after these things he mist be loosed for a little while."

Whatever Satan doers, whoever he deceives, whatever other conflict occurs AFTER the thousand years, the war at Armageddon will be in the PAST, having occurred in a previous age.

verses 4 - 6 describe the time of the millennial kingdom.
And verse 7 - 10 show the result of Satan being loosed again this time to go into the lake of fire.

verse 7 - "And when the thousand years are COMPLETED, Satan will be released from his prison.

verse 8 - And will go out to deceive the nations which are in the which are in the four corners of the earth, God and Magog, to gather them together for the war. Their number is like that of the sand of the sea."

This is AFTER the battle of Armageddon which occurred 1,000 years before.

verse 9 - And they went up upon the breadth of the erwth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city; and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them."

This is AFTER Armageddon and the binding of Satan for one thousand years.

verse 10 - "And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the kale of fire and brimestone, where also the beast and the false prophet were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

The beast and the false prophet have been there for 1,000 years following Armageddon while Satan the Devil was bound in the abyss for as long.
This time his defeat means his joining them in the eternal fire of the lake of fire.

Though it is a war, it is not Armageddon.

@sonship said

4. During the 1,000 yrs, Christ restores the earth and puts all enemies under his foot, including death [1 Cor 15]
5. After the 1,000 yrs Satan is loosed and deceives nations [ Rev 20:7]
6. Battle of Armageddon takes place and Satan is cast into his permanent place in the lake of fire [Rev 20:8 Rev 16:16 ]

Rjk999 puts the battle of Armageddon after the ...[text shortened]... Armageddon at the end of the time of the great tribulation.

NOW WHAT? (The next chapter - 20):

Armageddon is the war before the start of the millennium.
Satan is only put in prison in the abyss for 1,000 years as a result.

The nations of people born during the millennium must get there chance to choose. Satan is loosed after the thousand years. Some people born during a time of blessing, plenty, bounty, peace, justice, well being, living full lives to one hundred years old will be deceived even after THESE paradise times.

The result of this loosing of Satan for a little while is a huge number of humans will be deceived, led by the northern most nations of God and Magog. This time the result is Satan goes to the lake of fire and the multitude deceived is devoured by fire from heaven.

It is hard to believe now that after 1,000 years of beauty and blessing man could be deceived. It proves that the rebellious nature is still in man. It also proves that Satan will never repent.

It seems more likely that Armageddon is the last one, where Satan and his armies are finally and permanently destroyed. The one before the 1000 yrs only kills off the beast and false prophet and their followers.

The utter FINAL defeat of all the opposition against the Lord Jesus Christ and His overcoming army is in verse 10 -

" . . . and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also the beast and the false prophet wer3e: and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." (9b,10)

"THEY" means that the beast and the false prophet thrown into the lake of fire 1,000 years previous were not annihilated. They are still there. Joining them now is their leader to whom they sold themselves. Maybe they will be happier to see that one who duped them is now JOINING them for everlasting punishment. I said "maybe".

They may be lying to each other for eternity. "We're not being punished here. We still have a chance to overthrow God and usurp Christ. Why, this fire is not hot."

Maybe the liars will be lying to each other for eternity. I said "maybe". It is clear that they who followed Satan to the last are unredeemable, beyond recovery, beyond mercy, beyond any remedial correction. Perhaps they harden and harden more and more like wet cement. The process of their becoming more like the ultimate rebel himself, the Devil, may set in irreversibly.

An entire thread could be opened up on the expresion the Day of the Lord.
We my want it to be a simple matter. But what we want and what is involved in the Bible are not always the same thing.

"The Day of the Lord" throughout the whole Bible is not a matter of a simple 24 hour day.

@sonship said
The utter FINAL defeat of all the opposition against the Lord Jesus Christ and His overcoming army is in verse 10 -

" . . . and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also the beast and the false prophet wer3e: and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." (9b, ...[text shortened]...
[b]"The Day of the Lord" throughout the whole Bible is not a matter of a simple 24 hour day.

During the millennium the majority of the saved people are catching up to the transformation that they missed during the church age. The details of this are not much known.

We know that the restoration is not total because the total number of sons of God are not perfected. The remnant were. The minority overcomers were. So at the end of the millennium the others have been matured by God under a different scenario.

That perfection of the majority is also called "the outer darkness" . Christ reigning in Jerusalem over the earth is a realm of glory and light. To be disciplined and kept away from that would be to eternally saved but lose the reward of the kingdom and being in "outer darkness" .

By the time of the end of the thousand years ALL of God's redeemed people are tranformed, conformed, sanctified and glorified. All are ready - the early ready and the late ready - to join the New Jerusalem in her completion.

Then the restoration is concluded and it is time for an entire new heaven and new earth in which only righteousness dwells.

Before the eternal age the millennial age was placed because God knew in His wisdom that some of His people would cooperate in the age of grace and some would procrastinate.

Eventually none saved by Jesus can avoid finally being conformed to His image as this is the eternal purpose of God.

"Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified." (Rom. 8:29.30)

The chain cannot be broken.
And from God's eternal point of view it has already all taken place.
Hence Paul uses the past tense all the way through.