Origin
Origin
The Millennial Reign & The Final Defeat of Satan
Join us at the table of Origin where we discuss the Second Coming of Christ, the Millennial Reign and the Final Defeat of Satan. Hear the contrast between 7 years of tribulation and 1000 years of blessings. A true reset to the Garden of Eden. Righteous rule with no Tempter roaming the earth. Satan is bound forever and finally will never have the freedom to work his evil on earth again.
Welcome to the Table of Origin with my friends, Kyli Rose and Jina McAfee. I'm Regina Johnston. Today we're going to discuss the Millennial Reign and the Defeat of Satan. We've been in this study called The End. It's a Revelation study. We've been looking at a series of contrasts. You'll hear some of that today because we are going to talk about the Tribulation versus the Millennial Reign. We're also going to talk about the Final Defeat of Satan. So the title of this episode is War and Peace, Part 2. We're going to dive right in. Jina, catch us up. Where were we last week?
Jina McAfee:Last week, we talked about Christ's Second Coming, how He returned on a white horse in Revelation 19, and how the armies of Heaven are with Him. That's us! We ride in with Christ. And He defeats the entire enemy army. What is so interesting is that God gathers the armies for battle, and then, He defeats them all with a Word, with one Word. The power of the spoken Word. We're with Him just to watch. It is a horrific battle. It's blood and gore. This is the battle of Armageddon. That's a battle which many people have heard about even if you don't know the Word. At the end of the battle, we see that the Beast that we call Antichrist and the False Prophet were captured and thrown alive into the lake of fire. Today we're looking at the contrast of the Tribulation, which was seven years of wrath, with 1000 years of blessing in the Millennial Reign.
ReGina Johnston:We're going to break that down a little bit more here as we go, but that is something to really think about. Only seven years of wrath. Realize that is judgment for all of time. And then, 1000 years of blessing. There are many things that can be said about the one who controls the narrative. I've
heard:He who controls the narrative controls the people. When people look at the Word, they may not see it in its He who controls the narrative has the power. Here's another
one:Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. I want you to know that if you're listening today, as we move into this portion of God's Big Story here at the end of the book, this is God's narrative. And He's sticking to it. It's His story. It's going to play out just like He said it would. Whether we believe it or not doesn't really matter. I have heard people from another time say, "God said it, that settles it." Initially, it was, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." But now, "God said it, that settles it." That's where we are. He controls the narrative. It might raise a question, "Why does God tell His story the way He tells it?" I've wondered that too. Some may even have a really strong feeling about the way He's told His story. Have you? Have you ever met someone who's been mad at God? Have you ever been made at God? Do you have a story to tell about that? totality. They may not see the overarching story. They might look at the God who is bringing wrath or the God who does this or the God who judges sin, and they can come to some really unbalanced conclusions about who He is, so much so that some have even walked away from their faith. They may ask themselves,"Why would I want to serve a God like that?" As we lazer in on the wrath of the Tribulation, we may miss the grace of the Millennial Reign. That can happen all throughout Scripture. So I think people sometimes don't see the full story, the full meta narrative of what He's doing and who He is. And maybe not even just mad at God. Some people may not say,"I've been mad at God." That might make them shake in their
Jina McAfee:I've been thinking about that question. I know a boots. But they could probably say, "I've been disappointed in God." couple of fairly young women who lost their husbands during COVID. I think they really did go through a season of grief, a season of anger, a season of questioning. I think some of them have questioned or are questioning like, "God, why did You let this happen?" They had prayed and were faith filled.
ReGina Johnston:They really believed that God was going to do something entirely different.
Jina McAfee:They believed He would supernaturally heal their husbands, but He didn't. When that happens, we have some of those questions. People can be disappointed in what's happened in their lives. That's real and normal. And we can ask God questions. He can handle it.
ReGina Johnston:I had this flashback as we were talking. This is going to come out of left field for you guys, but I had a flashback to a time when I showed up at an event with Elwyn. We were newly married in ministry together, and I had on white pants at this outdoor picnic we were at. They decided we were going to do a three-legged race. What could go wrong? They were going to tie my leg to Elwyn's leg, and we were going to do a three-legged race. Now you know my husband. He's going to win at all costs. He's scrappy, and he's going to win. So I'm telling him quietly, "I have on white pants, and it's muddy. Please consider the fact that we do not have to win." The whistle blows, he takes off and the first thing I do is wipe out in my white pants and get mud on them. And I'm immediately aggravated. I'm so aggravated with him. The people watching don't know what is taking place. They don't know I asked him very nicely to please consider this situation. And so they could tell I was a little aggravated. And one of the ladies said, "I'm just going to pick up my jacks and go home." You think I was a little aggravated before, now I was really mad. I have had that feeling sometimes with God, where I'm pouring out and pouring out and pouring out and out of left field comes a hit that I totally did not expect. And much of it may not even be true. But I'm going to pick up my jacks and go home. For a moment, I probably could say I was mad at God. I'm thinking I'm not putting myself out like this for You anymore. I'm done. You know. And of course, I would go through the process of reconsidering and dealing with my heart and reestablishing myself as a daughter who loves Him and deal with my feelings, but maybe there was a moment. Sometimes I've had a moment in ministry or in my personal life where the pain has been so great that I'm thinking, "God, I can't even hear You through this fog."
Jina McAfee:I'm remembering a word that was spoken over me and my husband years and years ago. We've seen it come to pass, but it was years and years and years in coming. We started to wonder if we had really heard from God. It was probably 15 years in coming. God's timing is not our timing. We're very temporal, and we're not very patient. And sometimes we just don't see what He's doing.
Kyli Rose:He's got a plan. He is trying to get us to the place where we are seeking Him. In the midst of every circumstance, we want our way. And sometimes we want our way more than we want
Jina McAfee:He's trying to get us beyond that. That's how we Him. get to know Him. It's hard, but we get to know Him when He comes through for us in the difficulty.
ReGina Johnston:Recently, I was talking to my grandson, Kobe. At the time, he was two years old, and we were FaceTiming. He had just begun to put sentences together. He's so funny, he makes us laugh. He said, "I'm so mad." I asked his mom about the first time she had heard him say that and why? She said, "He got his foot stuck on a toy and said word for word, 'Ouch. It hurt me. I'M SO MAD.'" She laughed at him, so he said it all day long, because he thought it was funny. He thought he had made his mom laugh. When he said it to me, too, this big smile came on his face. That's why I wanted to know the context. I thought about his statement and his anger towards the toy, and realized it was misapplied. He left the toy out, and he stepped on the toy. So really, it was his doing. I know that we may get disappointed at God, we may get mad at God, we may be wanting to blame God, especially for the way this story that we're about to talk about plays out. We wonder why would a loving God would....just fill in the blank. Why would He do what He does? And perhaps we're like Kobe. We're mad at the toy that we stepped on. God is telling us His story. He's been telling us His story for years. It's not like we have no idea what's going to happen. We can know exactly how this is going to play out. We don't know the timetable, but we know how it's going to play out if we'll just read His story. He's wanting to tell us His story. Loving God allows the Tribulation. That's hard to hear. But Jina, you said seven years, right? He allows seven years. And some people won't turn to Him without tribulation, until things get tough. We hear that the kindness of the Lord leads people to salvation, but not everybody. Not everybody responds to kindness. And it's God's will that no one should perish, no one. So in that time of Tribulation, there are going to be people who come to Him that would never have considered it before. So we're going to talk about some seven years of Tribulation, but we're going to talk about the 1000 years of Blessing. So consider the scales--on one side is the weight of seven years of Tribulation, on the other side, 1000 years of Blessing. His scales are weighted. So Jina, tell us about the Millennial Reign. What is it? And what are we going to see?
Jina McAfee:When we talk about the Millennial Reign, we're talking about the reign of Christ on earth during the Millennium. Millennium is Latin for 1000. It's 1000 years. This will be a world-wide kingdom of the most perfect peace, order, and harmony the world has ever known. Here's a scripture that prophesizes about this time period. It's from the prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah 11:9 says, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." We long for the knowledge of the Lord described here. This is going to be abundance. It's going to be a knowledge of God throughout the whole earth because Jesus reigns. People looked for Him to be King at His first coming, but He's going to be King during the Millennial Reign.
ReGina Johnston:My team is the Aggies. I yell for the Aggies, or I should say, I used to yell for the Aggies because they don't win very much anymore, and I've gotten really disappointed. I grew up in College Station and that was my team forever, but we've had a lot of losing seasons. Maybe that's how you feel, those of us who are listening today, that we've had a lot of losing seasons. I want us to know that the enemy, our enemy, is the father of lies. He wants us to believe he's going to win. But in the end, hey, this is a spoiler alert, he does not win. And sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of that. So throughout the day, throughout the time that we're going to share today, we're just going to remind you, "Jesus Wins!" So, Kyli, tell us what happens during the Millennium.
Kyli Rose:We've been wading in the deep waters of the Tribulation. We saw in the Tribulation, evil abounds. There's demonic activity everywhere. But we see here in the Millennium that evil is removed. We're talking about things at this point, that our minds have no context for. So just sit in that for a moment. What would it feel like to live in a world where there is no pain, where people aren't exploiting each other? It's a beautiful thing. And I want us to feel it. Evil is completely removed. The Beast, the False Prophet, and the enemy army were removed in Revelation 19:20-21. And we see in those Scriptures, how they were removed. It says,"And the Beast was captured, and with him, the False Prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the Beast--miracles that deceived all who accepted the mark of the beast and who had worshipped his statue. Both the Beast and his False Prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Their entire army killed by the sharp sword that came from the mouth of the One riding the white horse." That is Jesus. So we see that evil was removed. We also see that in this portion of Scripture, Satan is bound and imprisoned. It says, "Then I saw, an angel coming down from heaven [Again, this is John speaking] with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. He seized the dragon--that old serpent, who is the devil, Satan--and bound him in chains for a thousand years. The angel threw him in the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan cannot deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished" (Re 20:1-3). So we see that during this Millennial Reign, Satan is actually imprisoned.
ReGina Johnston:So here we are. Eden is restored. And I can just imagine that world, Kyli, as you were saying, to sit in that for a little bit. I can imagine it would be like a long season of drought, where everything is brown and dry. But a nice gentle, extended period of rain will cause the grass to green, the plants to awaken and the air to cool and be crisp. And you know, it's going to feel like the curtain has been pulled back. And beauty is restored, really. And so Jina, tell us what happens during this 1000 years of blessing.
Jina McAfee:I want to set the context. In the Tribulation, billions of people will lose their lives. In seven years, billions of people will die. As many as 4 billion people, it's estimated. It will not compare to the numbers of COVID, which is six or 7 million as a high estimate. We don't really know exact numbers, but we know it was only millions. In the Tribulation, there will be catastrophic loss and depopulation. Let me set the stage even more. Let's look at World War 1 and World War 2 which we spoke of being "Total Wars" last session. We said World War 1 and World War 2 affected much of the earth. In World War 1, it's estimated that they were 17 million deaths, million, not billion. In World War 2, it's estimated that there were about 70 to 73 million who died. So, that's more than World War I and realize some of these are civilian populations. So it's armies and civilians. We know there were non-combatants exterminated by the Nazis, like 11 million, 6 million of those were Jews. But in the end during the Tribulation, if there's eight billion people in the world which is where we are now, and some of us leave for the Rapture, possibly a billion, we know that early in the Tribulation, one-fourth of all the earth dies. If you have 7 billion after the Rapture, we might be down to five billion or a bit more. Later in the Tribulation, we hear that one-third die which could mean 3 or 3 1/2 billion are left. We don't really know, but the loss is huge. Then at the very end, we hear the entire enemy army is wiped out. One of the things you've got to understand is that the earth will be repopulated during the Millennial Reign. It's the coolest thing. If you think about it, the people that are going to be here for the Millennial Reign are the believers that have been raptured and return at Jesus' Second Coming. They come back and they have glorified bodies. Revelation 19:14 says this: "The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest pure white linen, followed Him on white horses." We will follow Him in our glorified bodies. There will also be people with earthly bodies, people that are saved during the Tribulation that haven't died yet. They'll have earthly bodies. Isaiah 65:23-24 says, "No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people[people will live longer] and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. [It will be like it was in the beginning, in the garden. They worked but there was no stress--no thorns or thistles.] They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord--they and their descendants with them. Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear." So get this: While Satan wanted to depopulate earth, with Jesus, His people will repopulate it. That's the original mandate given in Genesis. God told us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And that's what's going to happen.
Kyli Rose:And then the story paints this picture. Genesis says how they would walk with with God in the cool of the day. This is a picture of friendship, right? And it's wholly restored. The veil of sin will not keep us at a distance any more.
Jina McAfee:God's original plan for us. How cool is that. So guess what? Jesus Wins!
ReGina Johnston:When we first started this Bible study, we had a guest speaker. Her name is Amy Farley. She's a missionary. She shared the story of how she had been viciously, molested in her own home while she was overseas. The dark days that followed that event in her life, that tragic event in her life, were long and hard. She shared during that first session with us how she felt like evil was winning. One time in prayer, people were praying for her and she was so overcome that she said, "It feels like evil is winning." As she repeated that phrase over and over, at one point it was like her ears heard her mouth saying, "It feels like evil is winning," and it was like the truth was highlighted that evil is not winning. It's just what she was feeling right then. We feel that way because unrighteousness is on the throne of this earth. That's really
hard to fathom. We say:Jesus is over all. Jesus reigns above it all. Jesus is on the throne. But actually on this earth, it's only through believers that we can take territory that the enemy has claimed as his own. So there's coming a day though, after the Tribulation, when righteousness will rule. Kyli, can you talk to us about that for a little bit?
Kyli Rose:We see that righteousness rules because Christ reigns. And we see that now. Isaiah 33:20-22 says, "Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander; its tent pegs will not be pulled up, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there the Majestic One, our Lord, will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals, where no galley with oars with row, and no majestic vessel will pass. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King. It is He who will save us." I love that. Then we're going to look at at a commentary, Elliot's Commentary. It says, "Here, we have an echo of Psalm 46: 'There's a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.' These words help us to understand the symbolism of Ezekiel's vision of the 'river that could not be passed over,' flowing out of the
Temple" (Ezekiel 47:1-5). So you get this picture of His glory just flowing. It's so wide and so vast, almost like the glory that spilled out of the Temple. We're going to get to see that, experience it, that river flowing in this new place. It's profound. It's powerful. And we see that the believers will reign with Christ. Revelation 20: 4-5a says, "Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the Word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years." I love this. We are not here yet. We're still living in a very broken world. But these Scriptures are laced with hope. Do not stop. We don't live for this side of eternity. We live for the next, but it changes how we live here. We can definitely live full of hope because we will rule and reign with Christ and the reward will be so great, beyond anything we could ever imagine. He will reward your faithfulness. You do not quit. Do not quit. It's too soon to quit.
ReGina Johnston:It's always too soon to quit. So, Jina, tell us more about what this new world will be like.
Jina McAfee:There's going to be peace and blessing, refreshing. There will be peace and blessing with animals, people and nations. When I first read it, I wasn't visualizing there being nations. But there will be nations.
ReGina Johnston:Those who have warred against one another will no longer fight with one another.
Jina McAfee:It won't be allowed. That will not happen.
ReGina Johnston:They won't even have it in their hearts. There'll be no reason, no guile in their hearts.
Jina McAfee:One of the things I saw is that the LORD will be King over all the earth. His name alone will be worshipped
(Zechariah 14:9). Only His name will be worshipped throughout the whole earth. We don't see that now but we long for it? That's powerful. We have many prophecies of what's coming.
ReGina Johnston:Like He's telling us.
Jina McAfee:Prophet after prophet after prophet. Isaiah
11:6-7 says, "In that day, the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with a baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow." So there's not going to be enmity between animals. It's going to be totally different. Isaiah 2:4 says, "The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. [So there will be nations, but He's gonna settle the disputes.] They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore." They won't even plan for it. So when we talked about Armageddon last week, they took their farming tools, and they made weapons out of them, right? Now they're going to take those weapons and make farming tools again. They'll still have work to do, but it'll be fruitful work. So we're going to have long life and fruitfulness. Isaiah 65:20-22 says, "No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred.[Because they're going to live a long time.] In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For My people will live as long as trees, and My chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains." So guess what? Jesus Wins!
Kyli Rose:If you've ever wondered what the heart of God is like, this is it. If you want to know who He is, He is painting you this landscape of His heart, that people won't hurt one another. There is peace and blessing and fullness and abundance. That is who He is. That is what He has always wanted for us.
Jina McAfee:It is His plan for us and existed before men and women sinned.
Kyli Rose:And He loves us so much that He gives us a choice.
ReGina Johnston:Origin is all about looking at the elephants in the room through the filter of the idea that there is an original design. This is it. This is what He planned all along.
Jina McAfee:It's like full circle. We begin and end with life in the garden, with peace and blessing and abundance.
ReGina Johnston:We see something that happens at the end of the 1000 years of blessing that may bring up a question. It did for me. So, Kyli, what do we see?
Kyli Rose:You'll remember that the enemy armies were destroyed. The Beast and the False Prophet are thrown into the fiery pit, but Satan was put into prison, right? And now we see the final defeat of Satan. He was put into prison. And then we see after this 1000 years, he is released from prison. We see he's released from prison to deceive the nations and gather an army.
Revelation 20:8 says, "He will go out to deceive the nations--called Gog and Magog--in every corner of the earth. He will gather them together for battle--a mighty army, as numberless as sand on the seashore."
Jina McAfee:It boggles your mind that they have this great, perfect world, and they still don't choose God.
ReGina Johnston:We have this great, perfect world that we live in now. We could just as easily be them. Except for Jesus. We did accept the grace of Jesus in our lives. But we could just as easily be people who sit in that season of time and just still don't choose Him.
Jina McAfee:Sometimes we blame Satan. But here Satan is bound so people are choosing not to worship God. So Satan is really not a good excuse for us.
ReGina Johnston:The devil didn't make us do it, did he?
Kyli Rose:It says he's going to go into every corner. He's going to gather them together for a battle, a mighty army as numberless as sands along the sea shores. So he gathers the troops and this is his final stand, and ultimately, we see that he loses the war. The armies are consumed. And finally, the third member of the unholy Trinity is sent to the fiery lake as well. Revelation 20:9-10 says, "And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God's people in the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them. Then the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever." So finally, we see that death and the grave were defeated. Revelation 20:14 says, "Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire." Jesus Wins!
ReGina Johnston:This is all a true story. Here is a true story. It's God's story, and He is going to play it out. He's going to watch over His story, and He's going to perform it before our very eyes. So even as we said a little bit ago, Jesus Wins! Jesus Wins! Jesus Wins! Even with the righteous rule, with the 1000 years of blessing, where nature is in unity, the land is fertile, and people are living longer, Satan and his imps are bound and they're unable to roam the earth for 1000 years...longer than we live these days, 1000 years, even then, people will not choose Jesus. So I just want you to hear me as you're listening to this podcast. I don't want you to be angry. There may be that temptation to be angry. You may be saying, "Why would Jesus, a loving God....fill in the blank?" Why would He do some of these things that we've told you about today? But know that anger could be misapplied. Because we have been told the story for years. It's been told by many different people over thousands and thousands of years. It's a story that's had stay power. A lot of stories get told that go by the wayside. This one has stay power. And the Bible says that anyone whose name was not found recorded in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. So we see very vividly the choice. Yes, we can choose. We can choose 1000 years of blessing and then beyond that. Or we can choose Tribulation. When Satan's released to roam the Earth, there's going to be people who make a choice. They can choose Jesus and live eternally. Or be cast into the lake of fire. So I just want you to know, that sometimes an understanding of how a book ends can really bring us to a sober choice. And this is how it ends. So I'm waiting. I want you to see that beyond the final defeat of Satan and beyond the choice of people and that 1000 years of blessing, there is eternity. There's eternity with Jesus. There's eternity with righteous rule. There's a life beyond that. And I want you to hear that. I want you to know that Jesus loves you. He wants to be in your today and in your tomorrow and in your eternity. And so I just want to encourage you to choose Him today. So Jina, will you pray us out?
Jina McAfee:Let us see clearly, Lord. Let us have our eyes on eternity and not just what's right in front of our faces. And Lord, for the ones who have not made a choice yet, I pray that You would open their eyes and open their ears and open their hearts. Lord, I pray that we would see Your goodness, we would see Your faithfulness. Lord, we would hear Your voice calling us, "Come, come follow Me. I have life for you. I have abundant life right here. And then forever and ever." Lord, You're such a good God. You're good and Your mercy is for ever. Lord, I just ask You to draw people to choose life. Lord, we love Your plan. We love that you gave us knowledge of the end, so that we can see what's coming. And speak it to others. We say,"Have Your way." We say, "Glory to You." Who is like You, God? None. No one in heaven or earth. There's one way, one truth. Lord, reveal Yourself to the people that are living in this time. We love You! In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
ReGina Johnston:I have one final word for those of us who are following Christ. Hebrews 3:14 says, "Be faithful to the end, trust God just as firmly as when you first believed and share in all things that belong to Christ." So thanks for joining us today at the table of Origin. Until next time, follow Jesus.