<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Amazing Facts

Coming World Blackout

Joe Crews

01 Coming World Blackout

02 Coming World Blackout

Current flying saucer reports will be nothing compared to a spectacular future object which millions will see in the sky.

In a moment you'll hear the amazing facts about a UFO that will be identified too late.

Hello this is Joe Cruz in the Amazing Facts Broadcast, facts which affect you.

In our last broadcast, we studied the fascinating events that will lead up to the great millennial age of Bible prophecy.

By way of review, let's notice that this period of a thousand years begins with the resurrection of all the righteous.

Revelation 20, verse 6, "...blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.

They shall reign with Christ a thousand years." But then verse 5 reveals the truth about the resurrection of the wicked.

It says, "...but the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished." Well, now that's clear, friends.

The millennium is a thousand-year period which begins with the resurrection of the righteous and closes with the resurrection of the wicked.

But now when do the righteous come forth to begin this long period of rule with Christ?

I Thessalonians 4, 16 says, 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 at that time when Christ comes, the wicked are slain, and the earth is devastated by a tremendous earthquake.

The righteous are taken to heaven to spend that millennium there, and the wicked are left dead on the earth.

And Isaiah says the earth will be in darkness and a state of utter destruction during that millennial period.

Now many, many people honestly think that the unsaved will have an opportunity to accept salvation during this period.

But you can readily see that it will be impossible for anybody to accept the gospel at that time.

Because the eternal line of demarcation that divides the saved from the lost will have been drawn before Christ appears, before the thousand years even begins.

It will be impossible for anybody to believe the gospel, just as impossible as it would be for a corpse to rise up in his own casket and be converted at the funeral service.

"...the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished." Now friends, in the modern speech translation that says no 1 else who was dead was raised to life until the thousand years were at an end.

So instead of any of the unsaved being alive and hearing the gospel during that period, they are all dead.

They will not have any chance whatsoever to be saved during that millennium.

But now let's consider where the great adversary Satan will spend this long period of the millennium, and we read about it in Revelation 20, 1-3, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is a devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season." Yes, the devil will be bound or confined during this period in a place called the bottomless pit.

Now, where is that bottomless pit, friends?

God clearly defines it and describes it for us, and He tells us it is a dwelling place of Satan for the millennium.

The word bottomless pit comes from the Greek word abousos which is translated abyss in our own English language.

In fact, the word is actually transliterated from the Greek language.

But now listen, that very same word Abusos or bottomless pit is used again in Genesis 1 verse 2.

In the Septuagint version it actually describes this earth and its chaotic state before it was molded by the Word of God.

And listen to the words, "...the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Now that word deep is the very same word of boussas which means literally the bottomless pit, and it is the same word that is used in Revelation 20, verse 3 to describe the place where Satan will be bound.

In other words, friends, this earth in its broken down state and its disorganized condition is actually called the bottomless pit in the Bible.

And that is exactly what it will be, of course, during the thousand years.

And Satan will be bound here by a chain of circumstances right to this planet.

There'll be no human beings alive here for him to tempt during that period.

They've all been removed from his influence, and that's what binds him during the period, so that he can deceive no 1 until that thousand years is over.

We read in 2 Peter 2, 4 that wicked angels are reserved in chains of darkness for judgment.

So during the millennium Satan will be bound by a chain of circumstances, a chain of darkness you might call it, which will prevent him from tempting a single individual during that time.

He will be able to look on the ruin that his program has brought, and no doubt that will be the most terrible punishment for the devil, to be confined with his own evil angels, and for such a long period having to live with himself, and thinking upon the ruin and misery that his rebellion has caused.

Now let's think of the events at the close of the millennium.

Notice carefully certain events that will mark the end of the thousand-year period.

In Revelation 20, verse 7, And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

What will release the devil from his confinement here on this earth?

What will free him now to go forth and do his work of deception once more?

Why nothing else but the resurrection of those wicked dead would permit him to take up his deceptions again?

In Revelation 20, verse 5, it said, "...the rest of the dead live not again, until the thousand years were finished." And so they do come up at this time, and Satan is also released by that event.

Now he has somebody to work on, and he goes forth feverishly to mobilize these countless wicked ones in his warfare against God.

Verse 8 tells us that he shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the 4 quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." Oh, what a scene that will present, friends.

All the wicked men of all ages are recruited by the evil genius of Satan for that final great battle and the controversy with God.

They will be like the sand of the sea for number, we are told, and all the sinners who have ever lived will be in that number, those who have lived from the very beginning of time, and all will be gathered at 1 time and place under the leadership of Satan himself.

And where is that battle to be fought, friends, and against whom will it be fought?

Revelation 20, verse 9 says, And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city...

Oh, listen, something else has happened at the end of that thousand years.

The holy city of God has come down to this earth.

In fact, it is described for us in Revelation 21, 2, And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

So the object of Satan's wrath will be that beautiful city in which the saints have been living for a thousand years in heaven, but now that new Jerusalem comes right down to this earth.

You talk about flying saucers and UFOs, friends.

This will be the most spectacular sight that human eyes have ever seen, a gigantic city floating in space.

In Zechariah 14, 4 and 5 we have a description of that tremendous event.

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.

And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south, and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Now notice that the saints are coming with Jesus on this occasion.

Now really this is the third coming of Christ, you might say.

He came the second time in power and glory to catch His people up to meet Him in the clouds, and now He returns with the holy city.

And this time his feet will actually touch the Mount of Olives, and that great mountain will cleave in the midst, and make a mighty plain, on which the holy city can descend.

Now Satan is going up with great anger to lead the host of wicked ones against that city.

He convinces them that they will be able to capture the city and reclaim it for Him.

Well, what is the result of this last attempt of Satan to overthrow the government of God?

Revelation 20, verse 9 says, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

And there is the end of the controversy, friends.

The devil will enter the last battle of his war against God, but the evil host will be overwhelmed by a flood of fire that devours them like stubble.

But not quite, for the fire that devours the wicked will also purge and purify this earth.

The very curse of sin will be burned out of it, leaving an atmosphere that is clean and pure without any trace of evil.

2 Peter 3, 12, 13 describes it, "...looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the element shall melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Well, what a picture this closes on, friends.

Sin and sinners will be completely, utterly, and irrevocably wiped out of God's universe.

There will be no more rebellion, no more signs of discord or unhappiness.

God will create a new earth that will rival the Garden of Eden for beauty and perfection.

Verse 21, Revelation 21, verse 1, And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea." Revelation 21, verse 1.

So the saints of God will inherit this recreated earth as a home throughout all eternity.

The holy city will be here, of course, as the capital of the earth, and at that time the beatitude of Jesus will be fulfilled.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

The Lord's prayer will be completely answered then also.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So right now the meek, of course, don't inherit the earth at all.

The wicked man has most of it in hand, but then it is going to revert to the first dominion.

The saints of God and the meek of God will possess this earth.

But friends, here is a solemn thought for us to consider today.

When the fire comes down, you and I must either be inside the city with God or outside among the host of the lost.

No 1 can avoid that moment and that division.

There can be no question whatsoever about it, and we must now decide where we shall be on that occasion.

Series

Coming World Blackout

02 Coming World Blackout

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Millennium

The Millennium Part 1

14m

The Millennium

The Millennium Part 2

14m

Heaven

Heaven Part 1

14m

Bible Answers Live 2022

According to the Light

58m

The Accountability Factor

29m

InVerse 4th Quarter 2024: The Gospel of John

09 Preparing the Disciples

29m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2021: The Promise, God's Everlasting Covenant

04 The Gospel According to Moses

27m

Bible Answers Live 2022

Don’t Die Before Your Death

58m

InVerse 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

02 The Genesis of Satan

29m

Five Minutes After Death, Then What?

Five Minutes After Death, Then What? Part 1

14m

The End of Time

11 The End, at the End of this Week

59m

Biblical Missionaries

03. Biblical Missionaries: The Unlikely Missionary

42m

Sound Doctrine