FOR FAIR USE EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES

Link of article or video : www.churchofgod.net/booklets-church-of-god/why-the-millenial...

Hello all,

Part 4 of this study includes four more valid reasons why the millennial doctrine is not Biblical. Reason number 17 gets into an area that I feel needs to be given more supportive studies, as it is a very crucial factor in rightly dividing the Holy Word, and for understanding the total picture of the Lord's Kingdom and Redemptive Plan for all mankind. Therefore, I am also posting a study about the FIRST RESURRECTION,( PLEASE CLICK ON LINK FOR FIRST RESURRECTION: http://pub39.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3330765498&frmid=8549&msgid=921006&cmd=show ) that I hope you will read in conjunction with this. It should help one further understand the concepts addressed here.

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Why the Millennial Doctrine Is Not Biblical (Part 4)

By Albert J. Kempin

Reason Number Fourteen

It Contradicts Paul’s Verdict that “Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God” ( 1 Corinthians 15:50 )

Premillennial teachers associate the establishment of the kingdom of God with the second coming of Christ. Paul shows clearly in this chapter that when Jesus comes those who have died will be resurrected, and those who are alive when Jesus comes will be changed from mortality to immortality. Millennial teachers ignore this fact and say that after Jesus has come and established His earthly kingdom, life will go on much the same as it goes on now. This is due to a literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecies and the putting off of their fulfillment to the second coming of Christ. Such teachers say that in the millennium people will be married, rear children and die. They will ride trolley cars, sit under fig trees, raise vineyards, and carry on missionary work. That is a carnal conception of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is primarily a reign of righteousness in which redeemed, spiritual people who are in the world and yet not of it reign in this life by one Christ Jesus. See Romans 14:17 and 5:17.


Reason Number Fifteen

The Millennial Doctrine Ignores the Kingdom of God as a Present Reality

Men and women, very often sincere, cannot see the fact that Jesus is King of kings now, or that there is such a thing as the kingdom of God. They say that Jesus was a prophet, is priest now, and is our coming king. Such leaders fail to notice that Zechariah said, “He shall build the temple of the Lord; and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:13 ). Two New Testament passages answer this prophecy: Acts 15:15-17, which associates the inclusion of the Gentiles with the building of the New Testament temple or church, and the picture of Christ seated at the right hand of God the Father making intercession for his saints (Hebrews 7:25 ). As we have pointed out before, that throne upon which Christ is seated is the throne of grace (4:16).

The fact that the kingdom of God is a present reality is summed up beautifully by Paul when he says: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13 ). This is too plain to need any comment. Every person who is born again sees that kingdom (John 3:3 ).

When Jesus comes again He will be the judge of all mankind and His redemptive reign will be ended: “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). “He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26 ). Paul states that death is destroyed “at his coming” at the resurrection, at “the end.” Hence, if we are to reign with Christ we ought to do it now. When He comes again the redeemed will enter the realm of endless praise and adoration.


Reason Number Sixteen

The Millennial Doctrine with Its Many Comings and Many Judgments Renders Ineffective the Actual Second Coming and the Judgment Day

The minds of men have been beclouded and confused by the strange twists which millennial teachers give to God’s holy Word. The plain teaching of Jesus concerning His second coming is, “I will come again” (John 14:3 ). The writer to the Hebrews said, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28 ).

Millennial teachers disregard these plain teachings on one future coming and have Jesus coming secretly in a supposed rapture, then coming with His saints, and after the millennium coming for the last or white throne judgment. That does not sound like one future coming; it sounds like many comings.

We might note that Jesus comes with His saints for His saints, because all who have died in the faith are said to be with the Lord. Since the church or the family of God is composed of all true believers both in heaven and on earth, it is easy to see how Jesus can come with His saints (those who have died before His second coming) for His saints (those who are alive when Jesus does come again). No, these saints with whom Jesus is seen coming are not “the tribulation saints.”

The New Testament points to only one great judgment which is still future—a judgment in which both the righteous and the unrighteous are brought before the great tribunal of God. The fancied introduction of judgments for sin, for nations, for saints, and for sinners is not only unscriptural, but confusing. Such interpretation takes the spotlight of conscience and of truth from that one great event toward which all creation is moving. Paul assures us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10 ).

Our Lord Himself assured us that “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life: and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of ****ation” (John 5:28-29 ). We should so live that we will be found dressed in God’s righteousness when we stand before His throne.


Reason Number Seventeen

Millennial Teachers Invent Another Physical Resurrection

According to such teachers there are two physical resurrections yet future. One resurrection will be for the righteous just before the millennium, and the second resurrection, for the wicked, will be after the millennium. The New Testament is very plain on this matter. Let the reader read John 5:22-29 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 to see that only one general resurrection is still future.

Advocates of such doctrine fail to see that the first resurrection is spiritual and the second one is literal. This is where all the confusion originates. All will admit that sin causes a spiritual death: “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” Only a spiritual resurrection can recover such persons from that spiritual death. That is exactly what the New Testament teaches. Let us see if it does. “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24 ).

John describes the spiritual resurrection which takes place now as a result of believing on Jesus as Savior: “Verily, verily the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25). Note that Jesus speaks of both the spiritual and physical resurrections in this fifth chapter of John.

Paul taught that those who were redeemed by faith in Christ were already partakers of that first resurrection: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). Other scriptures could be cited to prove this point but lack of space will not permit doing so. The reader can trace this teaching through the New Testament himself, having been given this start.


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As explained above, I have posted another study about the issue in reason 17, it is called FIRST RESURRECTION, and it gets deeply into this subject and how it relates to the millennium. Reasons 18-21 next time.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!

Patti C.

FOR FAIR USE EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES


Link of article or video : http://www.churchofgod.net/booklets-church-of-god/why-the-millenial...


Reasons 18-21

Hello all,

Here are the continuing reasons why a future Millennium is not Biblical. I hope you are finding that these reasons are valid and are biblically supported. I have had little feedback as to whether or not these studies are having an impact. If no response is indicating that most are seeing the falsehood of this doctrine, then I am happy with the silence.

But, if anyone is having a problem seeing this, I hope you will speak up and ask questions, or support the view you do take on this. I know so much is happening, in the world at present, that is extremely intense, and focusing of this issue is not a high priority. Yet, as one falsehood exposed leads to seeing how others are also false, I hope this study is aiding in revealing some of the lies that have crept into the Body of believers, and we take back our power as His People and realize we are in His Kingdom and can do mighty works in His name, right up to the moment He Comes, again.

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Why the Millennial Doctrine Is Not Biblical

By Albert J. Kempin

Reason Number Eighteen

The Millennium is Based Upon an Erroneous Interpretation of the Twentieth Chapter of Revelation

The passage in question is found in Revelation 20:1-10. The language of this section, and in fact the whole book of Revelation, is highly figurative and symbolic and so it must be interpreted in harmony with the plain teaching of the Bible. A symbolical or allegorical passage must not determine the sense of the clear and literal passage, but rather, a clear and literal passage will help us to determine the sense of an enigmatical passage.

First of all we find the dragon bound with a chain and cast into the abyss. The reader will please turn to Revelation 12:7-9 and there see that the same dragon is there introduced. It was the dragon who was being bound and not the devil himself. The word “devil” is an epithet of the dragon, as is also “serpent” and “Satan.”

This dragon was as cunning as a serpent, as cruel in its opposition as Satan, and as relentless in accusing the saints as is the devil. This dragon-power represented pagan Rome which persecuted the woman, or the church of God. The overthrow of paganism in the Roman Empire by the mighty power of Christianity was the struggle which the Revelator described in chapter twenty. The result of this struggle was the limitation of the power of idolatry and paganism in the Roman Empire. The chain which bound the dragon was the preaching of the gospel; nothing else can defeat the powers of wickedness.

During the thousand years (which are a symbolic expression for a long period) the departed martyrs who “were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands,” lived and reigned with Christ. This presents forcibly the fact that human personality survives the death of the body. The body may be killed, but the spirit of man lives on eternally. While the Christian life may be wiped out on earth, it goes on in eternity. This is one of the strongest arguments in the Bible for personal immortality. Men may kill the body but they cannot kill the soul. Even though the kingdom of God seems to be defeated on earth, yet its hosts are shouting victory on the other side of this vale of tears.

One must remember that the kingdom of God includes all the redeemed both in heaven and on earth. It is this heavenly phase of the kingdom which John portrays symbolically. A careful reading of this passage will show that the only ones eligible for this reign with Christ in this instance were those who were beheaded; no others were included. This had great meaning to the infant church when pagan Rome sought to wipe it out. It gave the Christians of the first century courage to die for the name of Jesus. They had the assurance that while their bodies slumbered in the dust their souls would reign with Christ. This is in accord with what Paul said: “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” To the repentant man on the cross, Jesus said, “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Note that there are two kinds of “dead” and two kinds of “life.” The Revelator shows that the gospel has power to effect a resurrection in the person who is “dead in trespasses and sins.” When the gospel is adulterated or “another gospel” is substituted for it, it loses its life-giving power and deals out death rather than life. “The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life.”

So there are those who, while alive physically, are dead spiritually, and there are those who are alive physically and spiritually also. A person may die a spiritual death which severs him from all that is good and holy in this life, and then he will some day die physically to face the Judge of the universe who will consign all who have died without Christ to what John calls “the second death,” or eternal banishment from the presence of God. However, all who hear the call of Christ to repentance and are truly converted from the error of their ways, receive life eternal now and reign in life, for “he that hath the Son hath life.” Jesus said that the believer who “believeth on him that sent me, bath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

This life in Christ is called symbolically “the first resurrection” because of its priority, importance and superiority over the resurrection of the body. All of the martyrs had part in that first resurrection because they had been saved from all sin by faith in Jesus Christ.

This first or spiritual resurrection made possible through the preaching of the gospel of Christ was to have two parts to it: the martyrs and their period, and those who saw the Reformation being ushered in, including all who accept Christ until the end of time. In between the period of the martyrs and the Reformation, historians bear witness to the “Dark Ages” when the gospel was supplanted by an authoritarian church which made tradition equal to revelation.

During this long night of spiritual darkness, salvation by faith in Jesus Christ was practically an unknown thing save by a few men and women who dared to stand out against the church of Rome. In this long period of spiritual night and death when the wheels of spiritual progress were stalled, salvation was offered by the church of Rome on the basis of “works” rather than faith in Christ.

At the time of the Sixteenth Century Reformation people began to live again because men and women could find salvation just as Luther found it. Those who are saved by faith in Jesus Christ are assured that the second death will have no power over them. Instead of being banished eternally from the presence of Christ, the redeemed of all time will hear words of welcome from the Savior and will then be ushered into the presence of God where through all eternity they shall praise Him who loved them and gave Himself for them.


Reason Number Nineteen
It Limits the Duration of the Kingdom of God to a Literal Thousand Years

The writers of both the Old and New Testaments agree that the kingdom of God is not so limited. Isaiah said, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). Daniel said, “The kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (7:14). “He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33). “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).


Reason Number Twenty

It Points Christians to This Earth as Their Future Home

Our Lord always pointed His followers away from this earth to that heavenly realm to which He ascended. He promised to return to take His redeemed to the place He has gone to prepare for us. If this would not have been so Jesus would have informed us. All the writers of the New Testament point to heaven as the eternal abode of the righteous. This is the place wherein dwelleth righteousness. This is the “new heavens and the new earth.”

The hope of millennialists for a reign on earth after Christ comes is dealt a death-blow by the writers of the New Testament who declare by inspiration: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”


Reason Number Twenty-One

It Accomplishes No More Than Can Now be Accomplished Through Jesus Christ

Every heart may now enjoy righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. No one need wait for a better day because “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). The presence of Christ can be made real through the Holy Spirit. Peace which passeth all understanding may be the heritage of every ransomed soul. The heart full of sin and like a desert may blossom like a rose. Let no one be deceived into believing that a better day than the gospel day will ever dawn upon the earth. When that day is ended there will be no more time, but eternity will roll on endlessly.

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Time is so very short. Jesus told us several times in the Book of Revelation that He Comes Quickly...meaning it will all happen in a short span of time, and many things at once. Is that not what we are seeing happen in this world today??

Let us take back the power of the Gospel that so much false doctrine has stolen from us as His people and His followers. We are supernaturally protected and He will show us what to do and say and it will all add to His Glory. Enough of men wanting to take this glory for themselves as they lead millions astray with their evil agendas. I think the Abomination of Desolation has already stood in the Holy Place.... our very own Christian Churches and in the very hearts of many of His followers.

My dear brothers and sisters, we must make sure that we have eyes to see and ears to hear His Holy Word, and to keep preaching the true Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. There is no greater power than His love for us, and may our love for Him be fully ablaze when He comes to take us Home.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.