A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Hal Lindsey once speculated that at his
judgment Satan hurled two accusations at
God. “You’re not just and You have no love.”
In past studies we have seen how God
demonstrated His perfect justice through
Israel and His perfect love through the
Church. In this study, we’ll talk about a time
in the future when both perfect justice and
perfect love will govern the lives of people on
Earth.

Israel lived under an absolutely just system of
law. It was clear and concise, made no
exceptions, and showed no favoritism. There
was blessing for obedience and punishment
for disobedience in an obvious cause and
effect relationship. What they did determined
what they got. God said to them, “Now if you
obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of
all nations you will be my treasured possession.
Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for
me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6 )

The Church has showcased the incomparable
riches of God’s grace. We’re the most blessed
of any group of humanity and the only thing
asked of us is that we accept by faith the free
gift of salvation, purchased in advance for us
with God’s own life. Yes, God is pleased if we
live our lives in a manner that expresses our
gratitude to Him, and rewards us for doing so,
but the only thing He requires is that we
believe in the one He has sent. Then they asked
Him, “What must we do to do the work God
requires?” He answered, “The work of God is this,
to believe in the one He has sent” ( John
6:28-29 ).

In the Kingdom Age believers will be saved by
faith, like the Church, but will be required to
keep the Law as evidence of their belief, like
Israel. I say this because it’s pretty clear that
salvation by grace through faith alone will end
with the rapture of the Church. Otherwise
there would be no need for a temple in Israel
during the Millennium, with all nations being
required to make an annual pilgrimage to
Israel to observe the Feast of Tabernacles
( Zech. 14:16-19 ). Also, Isaiah 2:2-3 says all
nations will stream to the Lord’s Temple. The
Lord will teach them His ways and they will
walk in His paths, and the Law (Torah) will go
out from Zion and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem.

Therefore, perfect justice and perfect love will
be combined. This will be God’s final answer
to Satan and His final attempt to dwell among
His people in peace. Will it work, or like Israel
and the Church before it, will the Kingdom Age
end in failure?

We’ve only talked about Law and Grace but
there were actually four other attempts at
peaceful coexistence between God and man
leading up to them. For a complete
understanding of man’s history with his
Creator, we’ll need to review these others as
well. They’re called dispensations, or
administrations, and all together there are
seven of them.

The 7 Dispensations

Throughout history God has dealt with His
people in different ways as part of the process
of revealing His character. Each of these
dispensations has begun with an agreement
between God and man that man subsequently
violated, ending the relationship in failure and
requiring a judgment from God.

1) Innocence … Between the Creation and the
Fall of Man God interacted freely and
personally with man. Man was created
immortal and while he had agency (the power
of choice) he didn’t have a sin nature. God
placed Adam and Eve in His garden and gave
them only one restriction. They were not to
eat from the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. But they violated this restriction and
were expelled from the Garden. Adam, Eve,
and the Serpent were all judged, the Creation
was cursed, and sin entered the world.

2) Conscience … Between the Fall of Man and
the Great Flood God allowed man’s
conscience to rule without Divine interference.
Because of man’s newly acquired sin nature,
the result of this was “the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually.” (Genesis 6:5 ) After repeated
warnings, God destroyed all but 8 members of
the Human race in the Great Flood.

3) Human Government … from Noah to the
Tower of Babel. After the Flood, God allowed
man to establish his first system of
government. But the people disobeyed God’s
commandment to go forth and replenish the
Earth, setting about instead to build a great
city and a tower to protect themselves from
another flood. They also used the tower to
study astrology, a corruption of the Gospel
that God had written in the stars using the
names of 12 constellations. So God gave each
of the 70 families of man a unique language
that other families weren’t able to understand.
This caused confusion and distrust among the
people and they drifted apart to be scattered
through out the world, and God destroyed the
tower.

4) Promise … God set Abraham’s
descendants apart as His Chosen People and
promised Abraham and Sarah a son through
whom He said He would bless the world. But
they grew tired of waiting for Him to keep His
promise, and produced a son on their own,
calling him Ishmael. Later, when God gave
them Isaac, the son He had promised, Ishmael
was sent away causing bad blood between
Ishmael (Arabs) and Isaac (Jews) that
continues to this day.

5) Law … from Mt. Sinai to Pentecost. After
God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He
gave Moses the 10 Commandments and
offered the Israelites the land He had promised
to Abraham along with a life of peace and
plenty if they obeyed His Law. After 2000
years of vacillating between obedience and
rebellion that resulted in them rejecting the
Messiah, God finally had enough, expelled
them from their land, and dispersed them
throughout the world. (But not forever. The
Dispensation of Law was interrupted seven
years short of its allotted time. After the
Rapture, during the final 7 years, also known
as Daniel’s 70th Week, Israel will have one
final chance to live in obedience to God and
accept their Messiah.)

6) Grace … The Church Age. No longer
requiring that righteousness be earned
through obedience to the Law, God imputed
His own righteousness to man by grace
through faith in the completed work of the
Lord Jesus, promising eternal blessing and a
place in His own house to all who accept. It
was the most outrageously lavish gift ever
bestowed, free for the asking. But by the end
of the Age of Grace most of humanity will
have rejected His gift, choosing instead to live
on their own terms, betting that either God
doesn’t exist, or if He does He’ll allow them
into His kingdom anyway. After removing the
relative few who have accepted His gift so
they’ll be safe with Him, He’ll punish the rest
through the most severe time of judgment
ever visited on Earth.

7) Kingdom … the 1000 Year Reign of the Lord,
also known as the Millennium. At its outset
Satan will be bound, all unbelievers will be
expelled from the planet, the curse will be
removed, and God will once again dwell in the
midst of His people. You’d think that finally
man could live in a manner pleasing to Him.
Whether he will or not is the subject of our
study.

Who Are You Calling A
Failure ?

Some in the Church might question the view
that the Age of Grace has been a failure, but
that’s because we’re among the few who have
accepted the Lord’s free gift of pardon and will
therefore enjoy its benefits. Remember, God’s
desire is to reconcile us to Himself
( Colossians 1:19-20 ). He doesn’t want for
any to perish, but for all to come to
repentance ( 2 Peter 3:9 ). And yet over the last
2,000 years most people have turned down
His gift and gone their own way. After doing
everything He could, short of violating man’s
free will and forcing him to accept the pardon
He offered, most of mankind will have rejected
Him. Can you blame Him for being so angry
as to unleash the full fury of His wrath against
them?

Even in the Church, the response to God’s gift
of eternal Life has been more apathy than
adoration. When less than 10% of people who
claim to be born again have adopted a Biblical
world view, it’s clear that there’s been a
serious disconnect between His gift and our
gratitude. When compared to God’s desire the
Age of Grace has been a failure.

This is no more of a surprise to God than the
outcome of His previous attempts. He doesn’t
do things so He can see how we’ll respond.
He already knows that. He does things so we
can see how we’ll respond. Paul said every
thing that was written in the past was written
to teach us. (Romans 15:4 ) So far the lesson
has been that no matter what God has done to
draw us near, man is untrustworthy and
rebellious, pushing God away and bringing
judgment upon himself as a result.

Now For The Kingdom

Before we go on, let’s remind ourselves that
the Church will be in the New Jerusalem
during the Millennium and not on Earth. The
people on earth will be Israel and surviving
Gentiles from the Great tribulation, all
believers, who will populate the nations. Still
being in their natural state, they’ll soon be
joined by the children they will bear.

OK, so what about the Kingdom Age, will it be
a failure too? A study of the Kingdom Age
shows that at the beginning, life will be as
close to heaven on earth as one could
imagine. There will be peace on Earth and
goodwill toward men, just like the angel
promised to the shepherds on the night of the
Lord’s birth (Luke 2:14 ). The creation, freed
from the bondage of the curse, will be
responding eagerly to mankind’s husbandry,
with harvests so plentiful that it will be time
for planting a new crop before they can finish
bringing the old crop in (Amos 9:13 ). Perfect
weather and overflowing bounty will make
work a joy instead of a burdensome toil. Long
life spans will return as sickness and disease
again become rare occurrences ( Isaiah
65:20 ). “Once again men and women of ripe old
age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with
cane in hand because of his age. The city streets
will be filled with boys and girls playing
there” (Zech. 8:4-5 ). This will be true
throughout the world because the Lord will
settle all disputes between the nations. They
will not take up arms against each other, nor
will they even train for war anymore ( Isaiah
2:4 ). Every man will sit under his own vine and
under his own fig tree and no one will make them
afraid ( Micah 4:4 ).

The Bible only mentions one Temple in the
Millennium. It will be in Israel and daily
sacrifices will again be the norm, administered
by the Levitical priesthood. The Millennial
Temple will be quite different from the
historical Temples. There will be no incense
altar, no menorah, no ark of the covenant, and
no wash basin. The veil between the Holy
Place and the Holy of Holies will be replaced
by a wooden screen, and the entire interior will
be covered in wood rather than gold, as in
former temples. Of the Levitical feasts, they
will celebrate only Passover (no lamb),
Unleavened Bread, and Tabernacles, with
world wide representation only required for
Tabernacles (Ezekiel 40-46 ). Although the
Bible doesn’t say this, I imagine the rest of the
world will utilize some form of the synagogue
system of worship, first developed by Ezekiel
during the Babylonian captivity and still in use
today.

We’re only given glimpses of the beginning
and end of the Kingdom Age, but because of
the shocking difference in the two, we can
surmise that after a period of time things start
going downhill fast. The Lord’s administration
will be just but inflexible. He’ll rule them with a
rod of iron and His punishment for
disobedience will be harsh and swift. For
example, nations who refuse to participate in
the annual Feast of Tabernacles will not
receive any rainfall (Zech. 14:16-19 ).
But natural man has a sin nature and will
eventually rebel against the Lord’s
rule. Psalm 2 tells the story.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot
in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together against the LORD
and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw
off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord
scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his
anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I
have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
( Psalm 2:1-6 )

Once again created beings will presume to
free themselves from the rule of their Creator.
But the King ruling the Earth was put there by
God Himself, and that makes Him the King of
their kings. Then He’ll remind them of their
position in the hierarchy.

I will proclaim the decree of the LORD : He said to
me, “You are my Son; today I have become your
Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations
your inheritance, the ends of the earth your
possession. You will rule them with an iron
scepter; you will dash them to pieces like
pottery.”

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you
rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be
angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his
wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all
who take refuge in him. ( Psalm 2:7-12 )
In an event that was later modeled in the
Biblical adoption ceremony (Galatians 4:4-7 ),
the Father formally named His Son heir of His
estate and bequeathed His inheritance to Him.
All the nations are His, and He has the
authority to rule them as He pleases. Man’s
choice will be to obey or suffer the
consequences. Obedience will be rewarded
with blessing, but rebellion will bring
destruction.

We’re neither told how many will be saved
during the Millennium, nor what their destiny
will be. What we are told is at the end of the
1000 year Kingdom Age Satan will be freed
and will have no trouble recruiting a large
army from among the nations for one last
attempt to regain his lost empire. He’ll find a
ready audience for his deception and his army
will soon be as numerous as the grains of
sand on the seashore. From all over the
world they’ll come to surround God’s people
and His Holy City. But in one sudden burst of
flame from Heaven they’ll be devoured and
Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire for
eternity ( Rev. 20:7-10 ). Once again, man
rebels, God judges and another Age ends in
failure.

Then the end will come, when he (Jesus) hands
over the kingdom to God the Father after he has
destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For
he must reign until he has put all his enemies
under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is
death. For he “has put everything under his
feet” (Psalm 8:6 ).

Now when it says that “everything” has been put
under him, it is clear that this does not include
God himself, who put everything under Christ.
When he has done this, then the Son himself will
be made subject to him who put everything under
him, so that God may be all in all. ( 1 Cor.
15:24-28 )

At that point, God’s response to Satan’s
accusations will be complete, and His
judgment will be final. Heaven and Earth will
be purified. Eternity will begin, and God will
reign supreme. Hallelujah! 02-28-15

https://gracethrufaith.com/end-times-prophecy/life-on-earth-in-the-millennium/#more-9086

afternoon

noted...

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