To witness and to give you assurance of these things. Revelation 22:16.

 Why did Jesus have to remind John that His words are meant to give assurance of these things?

Because, He knew, somewhere down the road, that the enemy and those that follow the voice of the enemy will play into the enemy's hand and do their best to disenchant and distract you; and you will stagger at God's promise, our hope of heaven and a life with Christ.

Hear what Jesus said.

Revelation 22:16 AMP “I, Jesus, have sent My messenger (angel) to you to witness and to give you assurance of these things for the churches (assemblies). I am the Root (the Source) and the Offspring of David, the radiant and brilliant Morning Star.” [Isa. 11:1, 10.]

Since the Revelation spent a tremendous amount of time spelling out the horrors. The Prophet Isaiah also spends a good deal of time, but in this case, it spells out the beauty and the benefits.

“And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.”
(Isaiah 11:6-10 NASB)

Allow me to ask you a few questions.

Does the wolf dwell with the lamb, or does the leopard lie down with the young goat? How about the little boy leading them all?

Not a chance, as yet, but it will happen when the millennium begins. Isaiah tells us that “they will not hurt or destroy in My holy mountain,” and although there are references to Jerusalem being God's holy mountain, during the millennial reign His mountain will be in the center of it all.

Why?

Because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. This statement just as easily could say, “The End,” but it doesn't; it prompts us to visualize the vastness of the ocean by saying, “as the waters cover the sea.” Try to imagine this, in all the areas in which the waters make up the sea, are there any holes through which you could look through and see the sea bed? That borders on the impossible. Well, this is how God sees the knowledge of who He is, His nature, and His character.

Full seems like such a simple word. If I filled a pitcher with water, it would be assumed that you could not, reasonably, put any more liquid in the pitcher. If you look the word up in Hebrew you will find that there is more to it than that. There are two possible spellings of mâlê', maw-lay' and mâlâ', maw-law' but the meanings do not change. The Word Study Dictionary only focuses on mâlê. While full is typically first on the list there is also fulfill, to finish, and to satisfy.

So if I changed one word in the sentence “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea,” A simple word can change the impact and meaning of the sentence, and, since we are aware that there are known issues with many of the Bible translations, it could be that God wanted us to open our eyes and read it in the alternative form, “For the earth will be satisfied with the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.” Currently, there is no way you could say that.

Some details from Revelation 22:16, and to do that I will put the verse before our eyes once again.

“I, Jesus, have sent My messenger (angel) to you to witness and to give you assurance of these things for the churches (assemblies). I am the Root (the Source) and the Offspring of David, the radiant and brilliant Morning Star.”

• Who is doing the talking?

  Both Jesus and an angel messenger.

• Why are they talking?

  To bring a witness.

  Ah, but a witness of what? A witness is often an eyewitness of an event or substantiation of something overheard. In either case, you should be able to understand why God emphasized two or more witnesses.

  Since the prophetic, to the Jew, and this includes the Apostle John, is a repeated pattern. Why is this repeated pattern so important? Because the prophecies given by say, Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, just to mention a few, are now being repeated in Revelation. The law said that NO single witness is capable of bringing about a conviction of a crime; there had to be two or three, and we have, in many cases, three witnesses.

  And to give you assurance of these things …

  Give me a moment, and I will finish the sentence, but first I want to point something out. We are bombarded, mostly by the mouths of religious zealots, although they don't see themselves that way; who will say to you, why do you persist in talking about these things; this, in their minds, is important because some of us, have been preaching the soon return of Jesus for over two thousand years. I suppose their statement implies that we are wasting our time. Do you find any assurance in attacks like that? No, I don't, either. A worship song has the line in it, I remind myself of all that He's done. Why would I repeatedly remind myself of all that He has done? Because we forget after time; because people will try to verbally beat the sound word out of you.

  What does the word assurance mean? The reality is that most of us reading this have an idea of what assurance means. Many might say this tells me that I can trust the person or witness standing before me. Webster's dictionary defines assurance as:

  1. The act of assuring, or of making a declaration in terms that furnish ground of confidence; as, I trusted to his assurances; or the act of furnishing any ground of full confidence. 2. Firm persuasion; full confidence or trust; freedom from doubt; certain expectation; the utmost certainty. 3. Firmness of mind; undoubting steadiness;

  The dictionaries definitions exude confidence. Now, internally, take a poll.

  How many of those people in your mental poll have a confident hope and assurance of what God has in store for them? Not very many were there.

  For the believer, the fulfillment of this hope and this life with the Father begins with the catching away of the church. For those who come into a relationship with Jesus during the time of wrath, it begins with their death during the seven years. millennial reign.

Why do you suppose (assuming that many of these heard the message of hope) they could not grasp the hope and make it theirs? 

Do you think it is merely the cares of this world, or has Satan blinded their eyes so that they cannot perceive the hope afforded to the believer in Jesus?

Maybe it is the faulty teachings that remind us that we are sinners and, therefore, not worthy of the Father's love.

All these questions are irrelevant if you have a tongue that can speak, eyes that can see, or a hand that can express the character and nature of the loving God that waits for us.

I wrote out a portion of verse sixteen and said, give me a moment, and I will finish the verse. That moment is here.

“ to give you assurance of these things for the churches.”

The messenger, even if it is me or the Word of God which you may have stumbled upon, is giving witness to and testifying that these things spoken about Jesus, the Father, heaven, our salvation from the wrath that is to shortly come, are our hope and promise. Our directive is to share this information, as best you can, with the church. I have thought about these things (as I remind myself of all that He has done,) and I am confident that you should also. These things are the evidence we have where Jesus fulfilled His promises about rising from the dead and that He would come back and collect His bride and take that bride back to the Father.

If you are in relationship with Him, then you too are His bride.

Everyone who loves and practices lying. Revelation 22:15.

 In the last post, I focused on Revelation 22:14 and people outside the Holy City who could not enter through any of its gates during the millennial reign because their robes were NOT washed. We have to make the assumption, and it is a good one, that this washing is an allegory to the blood of Jesus Christ and NOT some disgusting Satanic practice, to a demon that is working very hard to dominate the world.

It is through the acceptance that Christ's blood has been shed for us so we can be cleansed and sanctified for service in His temple. Two good examples of washing in the blood were given in the Revelation (I have pulled both from the KJV.)

In the first passage notice that the verse is filled with descriptions of our King:

Revelation 1:5  “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,”

• Jesus Christ – Christ meaning the Messiah;

• He is the first begotten from the dead – there is no doubt about it, and others are rapidly following, and, therefore, also begotten from the dead; (The KJV used begotten instead of born. Jesus had been born through His surrogate mother, Mary, but this verse references death. Jesus had to be reborn and brought back to life as God's Son.

• He is the prince of the kings of the earth – to be a prince is to be the Son of the King, and yet it uses the earth as a reference. If you think you are a prince on earth, it would only be because you have His life in you;

• The verse acknowledges that He loves us, which is why we gain the right to be washed in that blood spilled on the cross that day. 

• And finally, that it is Jesus that washes us from our sins in His blood.

  He had no sin, so, as an old church song says, He paid a debt He did not owe because He loved us and paid it with His own blood.

I hate to admit that I don't know all the answers, but here is an exciting thought. When it says He washes us from our sins, is His forgiveness an all-encompassing thing, like a flood? 

(I have contended that the forgiveness of sin happened at the cross; therefore, no one is to be judged for sin; they will be judged for what they did with Christ. Those following Christ will be caught up in the church's rapture, and this discussion becomes a non-issue. Assuming that many will reject Christ, they would then have cast their allegiance for Satan and, therefore, follow him to the hell awaiting him and his followers.) 

The alternative thought is that our robes are washed when we come humbly to Him and admit that we are sinners. If you have ever been around people in recovery, who are far enough in their recovery to speak with you openly, you will find that those who have gained the most from recovery have done so because they were humble and recognized their need for help. Unfortunately, not everyone comes humbly; some are forced by the courts, in denial, or unwilling to take the walls down.

Talking about this with my wife, she mentioned the thief on the cross. That man yelled back at the other man who was being disrespectful, “We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” ⁱ I will add that the thief on the cross, in a sense, came to Jesus.

My other example of being washed in the blood comes from Revelation 7:14.

Please pay particular attention to the terminology used, especially since I opened this discussion about forgiveness.

Revelation 7:14  “... These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

“...These are they which came out of great tribulation,” as though they walked through it unscathed, Hardly, as they were killed because of their testimony. In the previous post, I touched on the idea that separating the soul from the body may play a role in our being changed. You should see some keywords and phrases in this quote from Paul.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.”
(1 Corinthians 15:51-54 NASB)

Mystery, this is the Greek word mustērion, and its meanings include Something hidden or not fully manifest; a thing not obvious to the understanding;  or a secret – much like the Masons' practice.

The mystery implies that most will never know what is being discussed, and God never wanted that. He has always been open and straightforward in His dealings. Yes, there have been things that were not beneficial or necessary for humanity to know at the time, and we see comments to that effect when we read Daniel or when Jesus responded to the jealous disciples by saying, what is that to you? Until Jesus rose from the dead, this whole redemption thing was a mystery to Satan. Scripture implies that he might have thwarted God's plan if he knew. (That possibility seems so outlandish to me, as. God's plan was airtight and perfectly designed to redeem humanity).

When you read the Apostle Paul's writings (His letters to the churches in Ephesus, Galatia, Corinth, Thessaloniki, and Rome), he tells you, repeatedly, that the mysteries are for you to know and that they have been made known. (Read Ephesians 1:9; 3:3, 3:5; 3:10.)

How then, are we to understand?

Paul, like John, wrote to Jewish believers. Those words now apply to you, but you must grasp a Jewish perception of God and the world. When Paul, in 1 Cor 15:52, says, “at the last trumpet,” this is exceptionally Jewish and Holy and leans heavily to Rosh Hashanah. When John talks about death, you must ask yourself, whose image were we made in? The answer is God's, and Jesus told us that God is a Spirit and nobody has seen Him, but you have seen me. By the way, the Father and I are one, so yes, you have seen the Father.

In studying Revelation, we have been reading one of the most mysterious books of the Bible (next to Daniel's prophecies), and the God of the universe has been so excited to see someone else with the desire and heart to unlock this mystery in their spirit. Praise God.

Sleep is the Greek word koimaō. This word means to put to sleep. Figuratively, it means death.

I think of Adam when God put him to sleep to extract the rib from which He made Eve. If God made him die, then God brought him back to life.

Did you know that to the Jew, the soul remains in the body for three days?

This concept of death played a huge role in why Jesus did not go to Lazarus' grave until the fourth day; this is why Jesus spoke of Jonah as a symbol of His death and why He stayed in the tomb for three days. So again, God was putting their beliefs back in their faces and proving that NOTHING could hold Him down.

What about this idea of being changed? How do you change something that is built into the body? 

Maybe the primary method is to kill it and make it new; this may be what happens to us during our rapture. I noted it above, but I need you to see what Paul said again.

“For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.”
(1 Corinthians 15:53-54 NASB)

What is imperishable? Having already died in Christ, we would no longer be subject to death, sin, and the draw from fear associated with those things. Paul says, “this mortal, (having moved to the imperishable – physical death,) must put on immortality.” I only recently started using the term immortal. I hesitated to use it because it is associated with comic book characters. We are NOT talking about fictional characters, but something that God has planned for ages; the result is that we would be, as He is, immortal. 

Can you kill an immortal? 

No, unless you have some comic superpower, and NO ONE has that. Our best examples come from Adam, Eve, and Satan. Adam and Eve lost their physical immortality when they ate the fruit. Satan lost his position, not his immortality when he tried to overthrow God. Satan is immortal and cannot be killed; therefore, his punishment will be an eternal, fiery exclusion from God's presence. Hell was created for Satan and the angels that followed him. Now, we have the choice to follow him as well. Not a wise decision.

With all this to think about, why do you think Paul would say, “death is swallowed up in victory,” unless death played a role in our transition?

The Ultimate Cross-Reference Treasury gives this definition of death.

“Those who believe that death is the utter extinction of being, a concept utterly incompatible with the use of the word throughout the Bible, must logically deny the possibility of future existence by means of resurrection. If man is all mortal and death returns the whole man "to dust as it was," then man is extinct—there is "dust" but no man. Before man was formed it was all dust, and after he returns to it, it is all dust again—all dust, no man. Hence, under this view, a resurrection of man is impossible. All is dust "as it was" before man existed, and there can no man exist again except by means of creation.”

While scriptures do not directly say that we are created again, Paul alludes to it in 1 Corinthians 15.

He supposes that we have solved the great mystery of what becomes with these who have NOT washed their robes. Since we know that God wants all humanity to be saved, we must assume that He wants them in the Holy City as well; but there is this very peculiar statement.

Revelation 22:15 NASB “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”

I have sat under “Bible teachers” that told us that only Christians make it into the millennial kingdom. Revelation 22:15 makes it very clear that this is NOT true.

The Greek word for dogs is kúōn; The Word Study Dictionary defines dogs in this manner.

“ In the East, dogs were not usually pets and were without masters, wandering at large in the streets and fields and feeding upon whatever they could find (1Ki_14:11; 1Ki_16:4; 1Ki_21:19; Psa_59:6, Psa_59:14). They were looked upon as unclean, and to call one a "dog" was a stronger expression of contempt than even today (1Sa_17:43; 2Ki_8:13). The Jews called the Gentiles "dogs." It is used metaphorically for an impudent, shameless person in Php_3:2 where it is spoken of Judaizing teachers (cf. Isa_56:11).”

In talking about the Holy City, Revelation 21:27 conveys that only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of Life. The implications of this are that God has allowed many from among the nations, whose names are not in the Lamb's book of Life, into the millennial reign.

As you see above, dogs are a very derogatory comment. Sorcerers are the Greek word pharmakos. The noun form is pharmakeía. Aside from sorcerers, the term also means the preparation and giving of medicine. Think that through for a few seconds. What is the deadliest “vaccine” going around the globe currently? If you guessed the C19 vaccine, you would be correct. So what are these people doing living in the millennial reign? I don't know, but I do know I serve a merciful God.

Also, living outside the Holy City and quite possibly unwilling to change are immoral persons. Immoral is the Greek word pornos. Honestly, for most of us, this word needs little definition. The Greek word pornos means a (male) prostitute, fornicator, or whore-monger.

We also find murderers, idolaters, and everyone that loves and practices lying. Murderers? Why not? We have everything else. 

Idolaters are those who continue, in the face of the almighty, continue to worship other gods. And everyone that loves and practices lying. Unfortunately, several of this group live in my home.

The resounding message that I hear in my head is that there will be peace. We are told that the martyred saints will be seated on thrones and help to keep the peace. However, seeing as the seven years of wrath initiated with the two witnesses from God that come down out of heaven and spew fire upon anyone who tries to harm them, why stop that process? There are so many possibilities, and it is easy to see how quickly any form of violence will be quelled.

As usual, I realized it was worse than I imagined. The reality is that I will be immortal, and none of this will matter to me. I might become a mix between Ray Comfort and the apologist Seth Gruber. Do you think there will be forced sex changes there? Not a chance. How about abortions? Unheard of. For the most part, we will sit on our plots of land, grow a few crops, and worship the God we have come to love.

iLuke 23:41 NLT

So they may have the right. Revelation 22:13, 14.

 One of the points I tried to make when I wrote about Revelation 22:12 was that Jesus and the Father are one.

Let me ask you a question, do you have to understand gravity to be impacted by it?

The answer is NO, but it does not stop us from trying to comprehend why gravity works. Assuming that you paid attention in your science classes, then you know that gravity depends upon a combination of things that make the gravity on earth a perfect environment, as far as these bodies are concerned. For example, too much gravity, and we would all be squashed like pancakes, or worse.

If I were to attempt a logical explanation for how Jesus is God, I would probably mess it up, as I have moments in which I merely accept He is God. However, I understand the relational aspect, where a father who learned from his father to be a tradesman for centuries taught their son(s) that same trade.

An example we like to fling about is how the Bible translators stated that Jesus' father, Joseph, was a carpenter. We then attribute that trade to Jesus. The problem with that assertion is that the Jewish leaders who disputed Jesus' heritage that day did not say, “Is not this the carpenter's son?” The word they used was generic and required another associated word to define it, and they did not give us that definition in their rant. The Greek word was tekton, and it means craftsman. It is so loosely defined that it can apply to a poet. So our reasonably valid assumption would be that Jesus learned whatever trade or skill His father, Joseph, had. (Read Mark 13 for the background on this. We have a significant clue as to what Jesus' craft was when we read about Jesus at the wedding in Canaan of Galilee. When His mother, Mary, alerted Him that they were out of wine, how is it that Jesus seemed to know that they had massive granite water pots; pots that were not included in the material description that God Israel when it came to vessels that could become unclean and granite, was therefore deemed to be a material that could not be contaminated, which is why these servants that transferred the water into the vessels did not cause the vessel, and it's contents to be unclean. Read Numbers 19.)

But, fathers have taught us many other things, like beer drinking, cussing, or how to be abusive toward the family. One might say, as the father is, so is the son. In many ways, my character and nature are very much like my father's, not because I wanted it to be that way, as things happened in my house that I did not want to repeat if and once I had my own children, and yet I did. There was a day when my father asked, why do you have to be like that? I replied that I thought you would be proud of me because I am just like you.

Jesus did not have these issues, as He was sin free.

But, in case you don't know, the damage caused by sin passed through Adam to all of us; there is NO escaping its effects. It is almost easier to understand if you see it as a genetic anomaly that is found in all of us. So when scientists began looking at DNA, they realized that we are all identical in this part of the chain; this sin-damaged marker became the baseline for all genetic comparisons.

How does this make Jesus free from sin?

Consider this.

Where did God get the plans to make Adam? He created the man entirely from scratch (so-to-speak,) including the associated organs. Where did God get Eve? He cloned her from the man with some obvious modifications. Their DNA was perfect but got damaged. So to make a Son free from sin, He had to make an ovum, artificially inseminate it with sperm of His own creation, and have Mary, the surrogate mother, carry the Son of God to birth. Jesus was born as a man without special knowledge or ability, yet without sin. If I have upset your apple cart, you will get over it.

Sin (which can show its ugly head in so many ways) is something I struggle with, and so do you.

So, in a sense, I have never known what it is to be free from the compulsions of life, and neither have you. But many of you know that alcohol gives you a relatively sad imitation of life without restraint. The problem is, it kills your brain cells and a few other vital organs; and has such damaging potential on others, and some, think they have no responsibility for their actions as they were out of their minds.
But this is NOT about us; it is about Jesus.

Yes, Revelation reveals Jesus, the Son of God, and Revelation 22:13 is a paramount view into what makes up the nature and character of Jesus.

Revelation 22:13 NASB "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Who is doing the talking in verse 13?

Jesus.

But isn't verse 13 a description of God?

Yes, and it is a description of the Son as well.

Perhaps the Prophet Nehemiah can answer our question.

"You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You. (Nehemiah 9:6 NASB)

Immediately I see the words, “You alone are the Lord.” The phrase “You alone” is the Hebrew word “bad.” The Word Study Dictionary says, "it is a word that functions both as an adjective or masculine noun, meaning alone, by itself." Strong's concordance adds "by implication a part of the body, branch of a tree."

But there is this line that changes everything, “You give life to all of them.”

How does a branch exist without the trunk of the tree?

It doesn't; therefore, the idea of being alone in creation suddenly does not work. So let's look at John's gospel because it is a book that is nothing less than Jesus and His relationship to the Father.

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5 NASB)

Look at these words as they are a portion of the description of Jesus.

“In the beginning was the Word, “

“and the Word was with God.”

“and the Word was God.”

As God was, Jesus was; He was there as the world began; He was there with the Father, and the Word that created it all was Jesus, and Jesus, John tells us, was God.

“All things came into being through Him – Jesus,” “and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

“In Him was life,”

The Prophet Nehemiah (Neh. 9:6) said “ You give life to all of them.”

Pastors are always saying that people ask them, what is the best Bible book to read for the new believer?

While a handful will tell, you read Revelation. (Primarily because the world is rushing toward the antichrist.) Maybe that is not the best suggestion unless you hand out a quick tip list to understand Revelation. The next one they talk about is John's gospel because it talks about how Jesus and the Father are one.

Jesus is God, and you can rest assured that He has never stopped giving and bringing life.

As the Revelation of Jesus Christ began, John heard these words.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
(Revelation 1:8 NASB)

Wow, it seems that Jesus is trying to tell us something.

First note the difference between Revelation 1:8 and 22:13. The end of the sentence is worded differently “the first and the last, the beginning and the end." In verse eight, who is, is present tense. He is always in the now, but there is a point at which He came, momentarily, so it seemed, to an end; and that happened at the cross during those three days. And the side of Him, who is to come, will be seen when He comes back again as the warring Messiah. From that point on, without falter, He shall sit upon a throne next to the Father in glory. (I could use a good blast on the Shofar right now.)

Revelation 22:14, here, the chapter reiterates things we have seen before.

Revelation 22:14 NASB “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.”

Back up to the 30-second mark before the rapture; all those who have accepted Jesus Christ into their lives are washed in the blood of Christ, and their robes have been washed. I can't see why the “Church” would need to access the tree of life for personal purposes, as we have life in us. Besides all that, at 30 seconds before the rapture, there is no tree of life as far as we are concerned.

Okay, within the timeline the rapture has happened.

All those holding to the testimony of Jesus will lose their lives. In a short read of Revelation, you see many people in heaven before God's throne, crying out for the Father to save the others. They may need access to the tree of life, but again, I don't see the logic of that thought as we see them, the first and second group, in heaven, before the throne. 

The problem for the people in Revelation 22:14 is that some DO NOT have the right to enter by the gates of the city. 

So, within the timeline, we are in the millennial reign.

It becomes rather evident that there are those survivors from among the nations who have NOT washed their robes. Those from among the nations, lacking the effects of the tree of life, will still have a sinful nature and will pass that nature along to their offspring. So, yes, I excluded the Jews in this conversation because scripture tells us that the remnant of Israel, entering the kingdom, will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.

With the temporary removal of Satan from the earth, that nudge we frequently get from him to blatantly sin will also be removed, and perhaps the drive to be evil will not be so dreadful here on earth. However, if I use the story surrounding Noah and the days before the flood as an example, we learn that every human did what was right in their own eyes (contrast this statement against obeying the law of God), and their every thought was evil. (Read Genesis chapter six.) 

Remember where we are in the timeline, the millennial reign of Christ.

How many different ways does this have to be said? This is finally the time when there will be peace. As followers of Christ, we no longer have mortal bodies; this superb condition has been ours since the rapture. The martyred saints were already killed once, changed, just as the church did, and they, too, will have immortal bodies. The Jews that survive and go into the millennial kingdom repent and follow Jesus, so they are no longer subject to death.

All that is left are those from among the nations who survived the chaos of the seven years. You might say that is such a minuscule number; how could they impact the earth again? But instead, their numbers will grow exponentially, and they will have their free will intact. And yet, thousands upon thousands will come to Jesus during the thousand-year reign of Jesus.

If those from among the nations were allowed to join the kingdom of God, why would they pass it up?

I don't know the answer as it requires foolish speculation based upon human nature, so I will leave you to ponder that on your own time. But millions will reject Christ and sanity in the end.

How do I know that?

The end of the thousand years will eventually come.

Seeing as a typical week for me just flies by, I hope we get to lavish in this amazing time. It is almost as though these from the nations are getting their last chance to repent and follow Jesus. The fact that Satan will be released for a time and can deceive those from among the nations, and they are able to surround God's Holy City tells me that the number will be vast, bordering on uncountable.

“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” (Revelation 20:7-9 NASB)

The fact that fire devoured them does prove a judgment against them; why not?

God operates on laws, and Jesus' death on the cross, brought about the forgiveness of all sin, even this pathetic attempt to kill God and His people in the Holy City. They are simply dead at this point. Watch what happens next.

Satan is judged.

“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
(Revelation 20:10 NASB)

Satan had already been judged, but God's plan was humanity's complete redemption, a plan available to anybody who jumped onboard. Therefore, Satan is not thrown into the lake of fire until the completion of all things.

Pay attention to who is being brought before this throne.

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”
(Revelation 20:11-13 NASB)

The first thing I want you to establish in your mind is, who is sitting upon this throne?

Our standard answer is God, and that could be deemed correct.

But who is this book, Revelation, revealing?

Jesus; the firstborn from the dead; the Son of the Living God; the lamb that was slain; the lion of the tribe of Judah; shall I go on?

Who is brought before the throne?

The dead. It is relatively unimportant whether they are great or small. The point here is that God levels the playing field for all. No one gets an advantage.

What is Jesus looking at to pass judgment?

“Books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books.”

Each of these books plays a role in the outcome of their lives. 

Wait a minute; I thought they were dead and, therefore, simply awaiting the passing of judgment. Ah, now we have to go back to the garden, where Adam and Eve stood staring at each other, because God said, in the day that you eat of it, you will literally die. (Look this up in Genesis 2:17. Most translations use the term surely to define the Hebrew word mûth. The problem is that surely sounds so uncommitted. The true definition is that they would literally die.) So when we get to Genesis chapter three, we watch the couple in the garden, like some stalker, and though death began instantly on many levels, they could not see its effects.

On what basis are they judged?

They are judged based on the things written in the books, not simply one book. There is no doubt that Jesus looks into the book of life.

“And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
(Revelation 20:15 NASB)

Here is where I rock your world if I haven't already.

Jesus is not sitting here looking for a reason to send these people to hell; He is looking for an excuse to offer them salvation. I wholeheartedly believe that this is the same scenario that we see in Matthew 25, where we see “the sheep and goat” judgment. It is Jesus that separates this crowd, and it is evident that the number of those whose names are not in the book of life is quite large. Regardless, even without any apparent, church-mandated salvation, these people obtain mercy and access into the kingdom based upon good works.

Do not think that “grace” will allow you into the Holy City with your brokenness and its associated sin. Jesus is wholly capable of taking care of that issue.