ARME 1: Soquel, CA - Aug 2009

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ARME Bible Camp

Stephen Bohr

Revelation’s Millenium

You know, I have the privilege of teaching twice a year at AFCO.

How many of you have gone to AFCO, just out of curiosity?

And AFCO always has me come the last week of the semester.

I see Mary Lou saying, yeah, that's right.

And they told me the reason why is because by the time Everybody gets to the last week, their mind is pretty much fried.

And it's interesting to see the reaction of the young people.

When I get up and I start speaking, you know, they're there with their heads down and, you know, let's get through this ordeal.

And after about the first 15 or 20 minutes, their heads come up, and the pens come out, the paper comes out, and now they're fully engaged.

And the rest of the time, You know, in spite of the fact that it's the last week and everybody's tired, there's a lot of excitement in the class.

And it's not because of me, because all I do is present the Bible.

It's because the message of God has power.

The message of God is inspiring, you know, it awakens you.

And so, you know, I hope that that same experience happens with those of us who are here tonight, because we have a very intense subject that we're going to study.

What I want to deal with, and we'll have our prayer in a moment, is the importance of taking into account the literary structure or the order of events in a prophetic passage.

Because Revelation is not written in chronological order.

So how do you study the sequence of events?

Because there are many cycles, repetitious cycles in Revelation.

I'm going to take 1 passage as our example.

We're going to take a look at the Millennium as it's described in Revelation 20 verse 1 through Revelation 21 in verse 8.

We'll fill in the blanks as we go along so you won't have a chance to go to sleep because you're going to be active.

And we'll leave the questions until the end.

Actually, I was told that we don't have to end right on time.

For those of you who are Catholics, you know what a vigil is.

Okay, as I studied, well, we got to pray and then we'll come to this.

Father in heaven, as we study the Millennium, as it's described in Revelation 20 verse 1, through Revelation 21 verse 8, we ask that you will help us to grasp and understand all of the issues involved, the importance, and how this affects our own personal life and our witness to other people.

There are so many ideas out there that are that are totally confused about the millennium and we ask that you will help us to understand this so that we can straighten things out in the minds of people so that they can have this blessed hope not of Jesus coming to dwell with us a thousand years here but that blessed hope of Jesus coming to take us to heaven for a thousand years.

We thank you Lord for the promise of your presence and we ask this in Jesus name, amen.

I've added a few things that are not in your material just at the very beginning.

1 of the things that we need to do when we study prophecy, as well as other passages of scripture, is learn to ask the passage questions.

You see, you should carefully read the passage several times.

And if you have any questions on the passage, you want to write down the questions so that then you can target your study towards seeking answers to those questions.

Now for many years I had read the last chapter in Great controversy where Ellen White describes in much detail the events that take place at the end of the millennium or after the millennium.

And many of the things that she said I wondered where they could be found in scripture.

And so I decided that I would go to this passage and study it very carefully asking it questions looking at the literary structure.

And as I studied this passage several questions came up in my mind and I want to share these with you.

Number 1, why is the Lake of Fire mentioned 3 times in Revelation 20 verse 1 through Revelation 21 verse 8.

And why is the lake of fire mentioned where it is these 3 times?

I mean Obviously Revelation 20 verse 1 through 21 verse 8 is not in chronological order unless there are 3 lakes of fire, which we know there aren't.

Why does the Lake of Fire, why is the Lake of Fire mentioned 3 times in this passage?

A second question was why does the Holy City, New Jerusalem, Why does 1 passage say that it's on the earth when the wicked surround it?

Whereas there's another passage that gives the impression that the wicked are destroyed and then the city descends.

We're going to take a look at all these things.

If you look at Revelation 27 through 9 it says that the wicked surround the camp of the saints, the holy city.

Holy city is descended, it's on the earth.

But then when you get to the end of chapter 20 you find that the wicked are cast into the lake of fire and then the New Jerusalem is seen descending from heaven.

So how do you reconcile the fact that it's on the earth in 1 passage and it descends after the wicked are destroyed in the other.

Why does Revelation 20 verse 12 say that the dead were standing before God?

This is 1 of the most difficult state of the dead passages that we have find in scripture, but once we understand the literary structure this becomes easy to explain to people.

And then I had another question and it was this.

Why does Revelation 20 and verse 5 give the impression that the wicked will resurrect in the first resurrection?

We're going to come back to that, but Revelation 20 verse 5 gives the impression that the wicked will resurrect in the first resurrection.

We're going to come back to that but Revelation 20 verse 5 gives the impression that the wicked will resurrect in the first resurrection, and we know that who resurrects in the first resurrection?

The righteous resurrect in the first resurrection.

So the question is why does it say here that apparently that the wicked rise in the first resurrection?

Those are some of the issues that came up in my mind as I studied this passage.

Now let's go to the introduction, now we'll go to the material that you have in your syllabus.

Will the Millennium be spent in heaven or on earth?

Can we determine that from the text itself without Ellen White?

Take a look at it, you can't use Ellen White when you're giving Bible studies.

Second, what will be the condition of the earth during this period?

What will God's people be doing during this time and where?

Why is there a white throne judgment after the Millennium?

What does Revelation mean when it speaks of second death?

What is meant by binding and unbinding of Satan?

And is it even important to know what will happen during this time because by this time everybody's either saved or lost.

So why even bother to study the Millennium?

Now let's deal with the beginning of the Millennium and some structural matters, the sequence of events.

Revelation 19, 11 to 21 describes the second coming of Jesus.

That's where Jesus is seated on a white horse and he's followed by the armies of heaven and he comes to the earth and the kings of the earth and the beast and the false prophet are arrayed against Jesus who's coming on the white horse.

That's describing the second coming of Jesus.

By this time the plagues will have decimated the population of the planet.

What happens at the very culmination of the second coming?

Verse 21 concludes the scene of the second coming of Jesus, what happens at the culmination of the second coming?

Revelation 19.21 says, and the rest, that is those who remained after the plagues, did their work of destruction, were slain with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse.

And thus those that are not destroyed by the plagues are destroyed by the brightness of the coming of Jesus.

This event immediately precedes the Millennium.

I want you to notice Revelation 19 11 to 21 describes the second coming, Revelation 20 verse 1 the Next verse describes the beginning of the millennium.

This is how we know that the event that takes place immediately before the millennium is the second coming of Jesus, because that's where it's found in the structure of this millennial passage.

Revelation’s Millenium

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