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Amazing Facts

Coming World Blackout

Joe Crews

01 Coming World Blackout

02 Coming World Blackout

Some time ago, a failure of electric generators threw much of the United States into total blackout.

But the amazing fact is that the entire world will soon be thrown into pitch darkness for a thousand years.

Hello this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

Say how would you like to be seated before a gigantic stage about 2, 000 feet wide and see there portrayed before you the final destiny of every man, woman, and child in the world.

Well that is exactly what God is going to do today as we enter into the study of the great millennial period of prophecy.

God will actually draw the curtain aside and give us a graphic view of the final destiny of every human being who has lived since time began.

Now many people think of Christianity as growing and increasing until the very end of the age.

In fact, multitudes believe that eventually all people will be converted in some golden age of millennial peace.

Now I wish this picture could really be true, but it is exactly the opposite of what the Bible actually teaches.

We are told that the world will become more God-defying and sinful until finally God has to intervene and destroy it.

Jesus said, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

And then in II Timothy 3, 1-5 we read of 19 prevailing sins that will mark the last days of this earth's history.

And Paul says perilous times would come, men would be lovers of their own selves, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.

No the picture of a temporal millennium is just a dream, and we are not interested in dreams and fancies.

We want to know what the future really holds for this poor old sin-wracked world of ours.

We are not going to make any great startling claims today, but every point will be established on the plain Word of God.

Why don't you mark it down and read these things in your own Bible as we go along in our study today?

Now the word millennium is not even found in the Bible at all.

It is a word taken from 2 Latin words, mille and anum, which really means literally a thousand years.

And we read mostly about this event in Revelation 20.

It describes the wind-up of things earthly, and there are 2 points we want to establish clearly by the Word of God.

When will the Millennium begin, and when will it end?

Now we will discover that this doctrine of the Millennium clusters closely around the Bible doctrine of the resurrection from the dead.

In Revelation 20, verse 6, we read, Verse 20, Revelation 20, verse 6, we read, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such a second death hath no power.

But they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

So here is the beginning of the millennium, and it takes place with a resurrection.

Certain people are brought from their graves and begin their thousand-year reign with Jesus.

The Bible describes them as blessed and holy.

In other words, they are the righteous ones of all the ages who will be raised up to begin their thousand years of rule with Christ.

Now this clearly establishes then that only good people will have a part in the first resurrection, and it also establishes that this resurrection of the righteous marks the beginning of the thousand years.

But friends, if the good people only come up in the beginning of the millennium, I mean if only the good people come up at that time, when do the wicked people come forth?

Let's read another verse now in Revelation 20, verse 4.

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.

And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, in which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Now here again we find that only the good people who do not have the mark of the beast will be brought forth to reign with Christ for this thousand years.

But now go on to the next verse, verse 5.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.

Well That has to be the wicked, of course.

The good people came up first, and now the rest of the dead will come up at the end of the thousand years.

We have a period of 1000 years with a resurrection at the beginning and a resurrection at the end.

The good people are raised at the beginning, the wicked people are brought up at the end of that millennial period.

Now this agrees perfectly with what Jesus had to say in John 5, 28 and 29.

He said, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, and to which all that are in their 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 damnation." So here we have the resurrection of good people and the resurrection of wicked, But there is a thousand years in between.

It is so very, very important to remember.

Now our next question is this, When will the first resurrection take place in which all the righteous are involved.

Reading now in 1 Thessalonians 4, 16, we find the answer to that question.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." So there it is.

It is at the second coming of Jesus that the good people are brought forth out of their graves, and it says that they rise first.

In other words, that is the first resurrection.

When Jesus comes down from heaven with a shout and all the angels with Him, the trumpet blows, the graves are opened, and all the righteous are brought forth at the same time.

And this actually introduces the thousand-year reign of Christ.

It begins, in other words, at His Second Coming.

Now at this time there will be 4 groups of people to deal with, and we would like to know what happens to each of these groups at the coming of Jesus, the righteous living and the righteous dead, the wicked living and the wicked dead.

What happens to all those groups at that time?

First of all, let's think of the righteous dead.

Now we have already discovered that they come forth from their graves.

Will they come forth in the same weak, diseased forms in which they went into the graves?

I Corinthians 15 tells us of a tremendous change that will take place at that time.

Beginning with verse 51, Behold, I show you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.

For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Oh, friends, we will be given new bodies that can never die, spiritual bodies that will be like that of Jesus after His resurrection.

So there will be no more pain, no more suffering after this glorious resurrection takes place.

But now we ask, what about the righteous who are living here on the earth when Jesus comes?

And the answer to that is found in 2 Thessalonians 4, or rather 1 Thessalonians 4, 17.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Oh, what a reunion day this pictures for us, friends.

All the righteous people going up there to meet Jesus in the clouds.

You see, the feet of Jesus will not touch the earth at that time.

He comes in the clouds and all the good people are caught up to meet Him there in the clouds.

The resurrected righteous with their new immortal bodies will be there, and then the righteous living, who will also be changed into the same glorious form, they'll go up to meet Him in the clouds, and to be reunited with their loved ones for all eternity to come.

Well I can't begin to picture the rapture of that moment, friends, when loved ones are going to see each other again after a long separation.

Where do these righteous ones go after they meet Jesus up in the air and the clouds?

That of course is a very good question because it has been often misunderstood.

In John 14, 2 and 3, Jesus made this wonderful promise, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Now, please notice that Christ promised to come back and take His people to a place that He would get ready for them.

Well, That place, of course, is the beautiful New Jerusalem in heaven itself.

So after His coming, He actually takes the saints with Him to that heavenly home that has been prepared especially for them.

Now this explains it for the righteous people.

They will spend their thousand years right there in heaven with Jesus.

Now I have heard some people say that the righteous do not really go back to heaven at all with Jesus at this time.

Some have said, well, they just go over on the other side of a hill, they come back down onto this earth again and remain right here during the thousand years.

Well this is not what we have discovered so far in our study.

Jesus said He would go to get a place ready and then He would take those faithful ones to that place.

But now what about the wicked people who were on the earth at the coming of Christ.

Now first of all, let's think of the wicked people who were in their graves at that time.

We have already discovered that they will not come forth until the end of the thousand years.

Remember, Revelation 25 said, the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished.

So they simply remain in their graves without any change whatsoever taking place at the coming of Jesus.

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Series

Coming World Blackout

01 Coming World Blackout

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Millennium

The Millennium Part 3

14m

Identity Questions

32m

Planet In Distress, Part 3

1h 46m

Every Wind of Doctrine

Every Wind of Doctrine - Part 6: Gospel Clarity for the Last Days

1h 1m

Preparing our Hearts for the Events of Today

18m

Last Day Events Explained

01. The End-Time Prophetic Catalyst

34m

True Education

True Education- Part 8

1h 2m

Evening Plenary

05 Joyful Christianity: An Attitude of Thanksgiving

1h 10m

The Necessary Experience

1h 18m

Sound Asleep

46m

GYC 2013 Seminar: Planet in Distress

05-Man’s Flawed Plans

1h 5m

A High Time to Wake Up

40m

Sound Doctrine