.
1,000 Years—the Millennium
“What is the Millennium?
Is the Bible’s prediction about a thousand years of peace on earth real? What is the Millennium, and what will Jesus’ 1,000-year reign mean for you?
The Millennium is the 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ described in Revelation 20. The Old Testament prophets also announced and longed for this messianic kingdom of peace on the earth.
Why is this called the Millennium? “Since in Latin mille means ‘thousand,’ a millennium lasts 1,000 years” (Merriam-Webster.com).
1,000 years of peace
In an unstable world threatened by wars, terrorism, weather disturbances and natural disasters, the concept of a 1,000-year period of peace—often called the Millennium — fascinates us.
It’s not surprising that people should be curious about the future. What is surprising is how little true information is available about the Millennium of peace spoken of in the Bible and how little most people understand about the topic.
The Bible is the only sure source of understanding on this topic; and it, in fact, has a lot to say about an upcoming 1,000-year period of time. Yet the common English translations of the Scriptures don’t use the term millennium. And there are not that many explicit references to a “thousand years” in the Bible.
Even so, the Scriptures do contain much information about the coming Millennium and an absolute assurance that it will come.
1,000 years in the Bible
Let’s take a look at those passages that speak of a “thousand years.”
Psalm 90:4 tells us that “a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.” For God, the passage of time is different from the way we experience it. Being eternal, and not dependent on food, water and other physical factors, God views time differently.
The apostle Peter adds to the thought: “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
1,000 years Revelation
The first explicit statements that the Kingdom of God will reign on earth for a thousand years appear toward the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 19 describes the return of Jesus Christ, coming in glory and power to take over the kingdoms of this world and to institute a new, just reign here on earth (verses 11-16). He will put down rebellion, remove the last human empire ruling on earth and institute the reign of the government of God for the 1,000-year Millennium.
We believe these passages clearly refer to a literal thousand-year reign after Jesus Christ returns. This has been called premillennialism, since Christ returns before the thousand years (compared to postmillennialism and amillennialism, which we don’t believe fit what the Bible says).
Satan bound before the Millennium
Next, we read of one of the first events to take place following the return of Jesus Christ the Messiah: “Then I [the apostle John] saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1-3).
Here we read for the first time of the duration of this initial phase of the reign of God on earth—1,000 years! We are also given insight into why it will be a very good time: Satan the devil, the enemy of God and His plan, will be banished for those same 1,000 years. Welcome to the Millennium!
Jesus’ 1,000-year reign
But let’s keep reading. John writes, “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them [the saints of God]. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (verse 4).
Here we see that the saints of God, those who refused to follow the beast power of the last days, will have the privilege of reigning with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years.
Jesus’ 1,000-year reign is the focus of so many beautiful messianic prophecies. Some favorite descriptions of this age of peace include:
- “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
- “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:5-6).
- “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
“He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken” (Micah 4:1-4).
The apostle Peter summed these prophecies up this way: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21; see our article “The Prophesied Restoration of All Things”). See below.
What happens after the Millennium?
Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/revelation/1000-years-millennium/?
______
We Don’t Want The World To End. Or Do We?
“The “end times” or the “end of the world” is typically said with a frown. So how could something so negative be something anyone would want?
We’re usually left hanging after anyone mentions the end of the world. There’s no silver lining; it’s just the end. But in “End of the World—Why It’s Good News!” we talk about what comes next—the Kingdom of God, which the Bible describes as an age of:
- Peace.
- Plenty.
- Love.
- Obedience and good.
- Liberty and glory.
- Leaders who are true servants.
The good part isn’t the destruction. It’s what comes after the destruction. Here’s to new and better beginnings!” See below:
_______
The Prophesied Restoration of All Things
“Bible prophecy foretells the times of restoration of all things. What will be restored to its former state? When will this longed-for renewal occur?
The apostle Peter spoke of the coming “times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). The word restoration implies “a return … to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition, or the restitution of something taken away or lost” (Dictionary.com). Just what is this prediction about?
Peter was speaking of a future time when things would be restored to their original state. The apostle explained that God had spoken this prophecy “by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” and that Jesus would remain in heaven until it was time for this event to unfold. Christ’s return and the times of restoration are thus linked together, and many Bible passages point to these events happening in various stages, right here on earth.
The Day of the Lord must come first
Numerous Bible verses describe the coming Day of the Lord as a prerequisite to the first phase of the “restoration of all things.”
Find out how the book of Revelation is relevant to our lives today. Download the free booklet.
God warns that a dreadful time of punishment will come upon the inhabitants of the earth because of disobedience to God’s laws (Isaiah 13:11; Malachi 4:1-3; Joel 2:11; Revelation 6:15-17). This short, agonizing period will climax with Christ’s return to earth in great glory, to be witnessed by the whole earth (Matthew 24:29-30).
Then, as people humble themselves and repent of their sins, an era of global peace will begin. As God told the ancient Israelites, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).
The first phase
Once Christ returns and establishes His Kingdom on earth, the times of restoration can begin. The Bible often uses terms like “in those days” and “in those days, and at that time” to introduce explanations of what will occur during the reign of Christ on earth for 1,000 years and beyond (Joel 2:29; 3:1; Jeremiah 33:15).
The “restoration of all things” includes changes to the earth, the way it is governed and the relationship God will have with humanity. Regarding this last change, God desires to have a close relationship with all humans similar to what He had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned. Genesis 3:22-24 shows that their sin led God to banish them and the rest of humanity from the tree of life, which symbolized the opportunity to receive eternal life.
The first group of humans to experience a fully restored relationship with God will receive eternal life at Christ’s return (1 Corinthians 15:22-23, 51-52).
Describing this wonderful event, Paul wrote, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the [entire physical] creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption [decay and destruction] into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-22).” Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/end-times/restoration-of-all-things/
_______
Heart Disease Starts In Childhood.
“By age 10, nearly all kids have fatty streaks in their arteries. This is the first sign of atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death in the United States. So the question for most of us is not whether we should eat healthy to prevent heart disease, but whether we want to reverse the heart disease we may already have.”
Transcript of YouTube: https://youtu.be/AkWd0R05ZEs
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
“It was this landmark article, published in 1953, that radically changed our view about the development of heart disease forever. A series of 300 autopsies performed on U.S. battle casualties of the Korean War, average age 22. 22 years old, but 77% of their hearts had “gross evidence”—meaning visible-to-the-eye evidence—of coronary atherosclerosis, hardening of their arteries. Some of them had vessels that were clogged off 90% or more.
As an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, “This widely cited publication dramatically showed that atherosclerotic changes appear in the coronary arteries years and decades before the age at which coronary heart disease…becomes a clinically recognized problem”—before symptoms arise. Follow-up studies on the hearts of thousands more soldiers over the subsequent years confirmed their results.
How young does it go? Fatty streaks, the first stage of atherosclerosis [were] found in the arteries of 100% of kids by age ten. What’s accounting for this buildup of plaque, even in childhood? In the 80s, we got our first clue, with the now-famous Bogalusa heart study, looking at autopsies of those dying between the ages of 3 years old to age 26, and the #1 risk factor was cholesterol.
You could see the stepwise increase in the amount of their arteries covered in fatty streaks as the level of bad cholesterol in the blood increased. As powerful as this was, this was only looking at 30 kids. So, they decided to study three thousand—3,000 accidental death victims, ages 15 through 34.
After thousands of autopsies, there were able to produce a scoring system, able to predict advanced atherosclerotic lesions in the coronary arteries of young people. The higher your score, the higher the likelihood you have these lesions growing in your heart.
So, if you’re in your teens, twenties, early thirties, and you smoke, your risk goes up a point. If you have high blood pressure at such a young age, that’s four points. If you’re an obese male; six points. But, high cholesterol was the worst. If your non-HDL cholesterol (meaning your total cholesterol minus your good cholesterol) is above, like, 220, that’s like eight times worse than smoking.
So, let’s say you’re a young woman with relatively high cholesterol, but you don’t smoke, you’re not overweight, your blood pressure and blood sugars are fine. At your sweet sixteen, there’s just a few percent chance you already have an advanced atherosclerotic lesion in your heart. But, if you don’t improve your diet, by your 30th birthday, there may be like a one in five chance you have some serious heart disease. And, if you have really high cholesterol, it could be closer to one in three.
Bringing your cholesterol down to even just that of a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and you’re down to here. And, if you exercise to boost your HDL, you can extrapolate down a little further. So, what this shows us is that: “Even in 15- to 19-year-olds, atherosclerosis has begun in a substantial number of individuals, and this observation suggests beginning primary prevention at least by the late teenage years, to ameliorate every stage of atherosclerosis and to prevent or retard progression to more advanced lesions.”
You start kids out on a low-saturated fat diet, and you may see a significant improvement in their arterial function by 11 years old. “Exposure to high serum cholesterol concentration [even] in childhood may accelerate the development of atherosclerosis. Consequently, the long-term prevention of atherosclerosis might be most effective when initiated early in life”—as in seven months of age.
“Atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries] begins in childhood…” Remember, by age 10, nearly all kids have fatty streaks, the first stage of the disease. Then, the plaques start forming in our 20s, get worse in our 30s, and then can start killing us off. In our hearts, it’s a heart attack. In our brains, it’s a stroke. In our extremities, it can mean gangrene. In our aorta, an aneurism.
If there is anyone watching this video that is older than ten years of age, the choice likely isn’t whether or not to eat healthy to prevent heart disease; it’s whether or not you want to reverse the heart disease you already have.
Ornish and Esselstyn proved you can reverse heart disease with a plant-based diet. But we don’t have to wait until our first heart attack to reverse the clogging of our arteries. We can start reversing our heart disease right now. We can start reversing heart disease in our kids, tonight.” From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/heart-disease-starts-in-childhood/
_______
No comments:
Post a Comment