Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out
before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to
possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that
the LORD is driving them out from before you, Deut. 9:4
And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their
descendants after them; and He brought
you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, driving out from
before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you
their land as an inheritance, as it is this day, Deut. 4:37-38
Clearly, God’s
reason for choosing Israel was not because they were more righteous or better
than other people but because of the love with which their forefathers Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob showed toward Him and He reciprocated with His covenantal
promises, Gen 12:1-3. This is normal behavior and in no way negates the love of
God for all people because we all show love in some way toward those who show
love to us—even those without God do this, Luke 6:33. Also, the nation was
chosen for a mission which included taking God’s love for all humanity throughout
the earth. They were to be the messengers, the bearers of God’s standard,
heralds of truth but not in condescension and inequality; for the Lord God love’s
all people equally and desires us to do the same. But this divine concept of equality
has been corrupted and morphed into a society where outward judgment overrules inward
justness. In other words outward appearances and associations overrule what’s
in the heart.
This twisted view
of others has not evaded government either. The Scripture teaches that the
government (which by necessity has rank) is an institution of God for our
civility and welfare, Rom 13:1; for our
good not for evil, Rom 13:4. But as we all know human government by its
nature will never be perfect; because of humanity it will always be stained by
sin. One need not go too far back into history to learn of the horrendous atrocities
that some governments have inflicted upon the people; to wit: Hitler, Mussolini,
Amin, Pol Pot, Stalin, Lenin, Mao Tse-tung and the list goes on and on. All
ages have seen some form of this God-ordained institution corrupted. If Solomon
were alive today he would surely say again, this too is vanity and grasping for
the wind. It seems that everything mankind touches they corrupt-even the good
gifts of God. But alas, there is good news! The day is coming in which equality
will be meted out to all and it will come through the Righteous hand of God:
He will take delight in obeying the LORD. He
will not judge by mere appearances, or make decisions on the basis of
hearsay.
He will treat the poor fairly, and make right
decisions for the downtrodden of the earth. He will strike the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and order the wicked to be executed.
Justice will be like a belt around his waist, integrity
will be like a belt around his hips.
--Is. 11:3-5 (see also Ps. 98:9)
Today we
would love nothing more than to see all war ended and all governments mete out
justice with equity, but we all know it will never happen. Yet the world
continues trying in their own un-godly way. In America, this past week, the news
headlines concerning the Democratic Convention are blasting out the following
headline:
This is the paragraph that was in the 2008 platform:
“We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests
of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to
make the most of their God-given potential.”
Now the words “God-given” have been removed. The paragraph has been
restructured to say this:
“We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle
class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle that
in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and
each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us.”
CBN
If we were
to picture the coming Millennium as the complete end of life on earth and the
commencement of heaven itself then there would be no room for flesh and blood,
instead all things would be spiritual—forever. But that is not what the Scripture
teaches. There is still a winnowing fan to be used to separate the wheat from
the chaff. Consider the following; it is true that all believers of all ages
past will be resurrected and return with Christ from heaven to rule with Him on
earth, Zech. 14:3-5; Jude 1:14, 1 Thess. 4:14 (NKJV). That occurs at the end of
the seven-year tribulation period just prior to the start of the Millennial
Kingdom. At that time we will be in our glorified bodies, the spiritual ones
Paul spoke about in 1 Cor. 15:40-49, that bear the image of the heavenly Christ.
But these passages also speak of judgment that will come at the same time as
Christ descends to the Mt. of Olives and fights against the armies of the world
that have strived to take His name out of any vestige of public life. These are
unbelievers who have chosen to fight against the Lord Himself by enlisting in
the armies of Hell, Satan—via Antichrist, as their one world leader. They also
are still in the Flesh and Blood body
they were born with. Imagine it, a body that cannot even overcome the lusts of
the flesh deceived to think it can fight against the Living God and win! The
power of deception seems limitless. The conviction to remove God and exalt man will
come to a swift end just as quickly as it was elevated to power—just as the
passages above state, (see also 2 Thess. 2:8).
During this
time of judgment it is important to understand not all people will die in this
end-time scenario. As a matter of fact Jesus said in Mt. 24:22 “unless those
days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those
days will be shortened.” Couple that with the revelation of the Holy Spirit in 1
Cor. 15:50, “Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, …” and you will
see that those that survive the tribulation will be awaiting entrance into the
Millennium in their flesh and blood bodies. This is not contradictory when you
consider that 1 Cor. 15:50ff concerns the resurrection/rapture not the earthly
rule of Christ. But concerning this earthly rule of Christ, the Millennial Kingdom,
we are told in Scripture flesh and blood will indeed be present to repopulate
the earth. Just prior it’s beginning the Judgment
of the Nations occurs, Mt. 25: 30-46. It is here that Jesus separates the
Sheep (righteous and obedient) from the Goats (unrighteous and disobedient) and
the righteous enter into the Kingdom—yes, in flesh and blood. In my book Those Who are Wise Will Shine I refer to
the reason that Christ must still wield His Winnowing Fan, I state:
But this time period (Millennial
reign) will also be characterized by the same disdainful, skeptical, and even
cavalier attitude of the people in Nimrods day. Are you acquainted the idiom familiarity
breeds contempt?
At the onset of this new
period of Christ’s physical rule, all the earth’s inhabitants will believe in
Christ. The judgment of the Sheep and the Goats of Matthew 25 will have taken
place. From these believers, the earth is repopulated and several new generations
of descendants will spring up. Those future descendants will have not been
physically privy to having survived and witnessed the great seven year time of
trouble that was inflicted upon humanity—the tribulation. Sure, they will know
of it, and its history will be a big part of their life due to the annual
representative delegations required to visit Jerusalem each year, in order to
keep the Feast of Tabernacles (see Zech. 8:23, 14:16-21; Ez. 40-48). But
predictably as those future generations reach adulthood, many will just see it
as an event of the past—just another irrelevant and sketchy point of history.
Today, we look forward to
ruling and reigning with Christ as priests and kings. It will be an awesome
time. Nevertheless, in that future time, living in a near perfect world where
Christ physically and bodily rules from Jerusalem will be all most of the
populations of earth have ever known, therefore to them it will be the norm of
the day. In a word, it will be as familiar as the rising sun. Because of
this, many will become apathetic and eventually venture away from the Lord and
His form of government:
For unto us a Child is
born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will
be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be
called
Wonderful, Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace. (Is. 9:6)
Many of them will begin
to drift, as many believers were doing at the time of the great persecutions of
Rome, during the first century A.D. (Heb 2:1, 3:12). With the drifting, comes
apathy toward the things that are worthy and holy, soon they begin to rebel
from the Lord and from the teaching that had been handed down to them (see
Zech. 14:17). This time they will not be able to blame Satan, because for a
season, he has been rendered of no effect (Rev. 20:3, 7-10). However, near the
end of the period, he will be released to gather the rebellious nations
together against the Lord in battle. This will serve as the final winnowing fan
that God will use to separate the wheat from the chaff. (Henderson - pp. 121)
After the
final winnowing has occurred and Satan is cast into the lake of fire the earth
will be completely renovated and the New Jerusalem will descend from Heaven as
a bride adorned for her bridegroom and our New home will appear, Rev. 21-22. It
is then that all flesh will be gone and only believers in glorified bodies will
remain. We will be cradled in the arms of God forever and ever. Praise God!
What a wonderful time it will be.
God Bless!!
God Bless!!
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