Last Great Day

Ron Weinland

October 12, 2017

This is the last holy day of each year. It follows the seven day period of the Feast of Tabernacles which pictures the millennial reign of God's Kingdom on earth. This is the holy day that is known as the Last Great Day, and also often referred to as the Great White Throne Judgment.

Over the past many years God has been revealing the incredible way in which His holy days are tied together, more so than what was addressed or grasped in times past. We have come to more deeply appreciate the timing of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread with that of Pentecost. And of course, we've always understood the counting of the 50 days, but now we see the tie-in more closely than ever before and why that is so important, and the kind of emphasis that God places on that to understand the meaning, especially when you talk about that which gives the greater meaning of the wave sheaf offering with that of the wave loaf, or the wave loaves offering, because it's two loaves that are waved up before God concerning the 144,000.

So again, we come to more deeply appreciate some of those things sometimes because God continues to reveal more to us and build upon things that we have had given to us in the past. And we continually do that. The more we go through things the more we build, and that's an exciting process.

So we know that there is the same kind of important tying together of the Feast of Tabernacles with the Last Great Day as God has given us an 8-day observance, so they're deeply tied together in that respect because one follows immediately after the other. The Feast of Tabernacles is already over and this is the Last Great Day, the eighth day, a high day of this Feast season. It's about the final hundred years of mankind that follows the Millennium and a short time beyond that as well, because it's all tied together, that period of time about judgment and the judgment that's upon all mankind that comes to a head at that time, that is completed by that time, and also of that of the angelic realm that is completed at that time.

So God revealed the time given for the Last Great Day to Herbert W. Armstrong. It was that which had to be revealed by God's spirit, by God's holy spirit. It wasn't something that could be figured out. It wasn't something that someone could just come up with, and in that respect then there are things that are revealed through scripture. I marvel sometimes, especially when we've gone through the series like we did for the life, the true life story of Jesus Christ and the things that Christ oftentimes said that referred to very specific things in the Old Testament that you can't know unless God says this is what it is, this is what it's about, this is what it means. So God has to reveal those things by/through His holy spirit.

Let's turn over today to Isaiah 65. We'll begin there and we'll begin reading here in verse 17. Isaiah 65:17, it says, For behold I create new heavens and a new earth. Now, this is an awesome thing that God is talking about because even here this is very much about the future. This is about that which reflects everything that God is doing and the purpose of why God is doing all the way up through time.

He says, For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem,

and joy in My people. And the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Now, this is the purpose of it all. This is after. This is beyond the hundred years. So that's what God is working toward.

Once the hundred years, this Last Great Day is complete, once it has been fulfilled this is what we have come to. God says, "I create a new heavens and a new earth: and the former is going to pass away." It's an awesome thing to understand God's great plan and to understand the incredible change that takes place after that time, finally peace restored, the meaning of Jerusalem and the importance of Jerusalem finally there, finally accomplished. That's why He says, "I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My people. And the voice of weeping shall no more be in her, nor the voice of crying." It's an awesome time, an exciting time because it says, "the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind." Time goes on way, way, way beyond in a way we can't even begin to comprehend.

Our lives are so short in the scheme of things. We're here and then we're gone. Life was not meant to be a long time in a physical body. Even those who lived before the time of Noah, in the scheme of things it's a blip in time. It's very fast, but it's not for us as we're living through it, but time is something we really can't grasp and that which we're going to be doing into time, into all the things that God has planned and purposed that are so far beyond, filled with richness, excitement, and joy of things we can't even begin to comprehend yet. He hasn't revealed it all yet, hasn't revealed much of anything yet, in that respect.

And verse 20—There shall no more be from that time forward, so here's the verse Mr. Armstrong was given to understand. There shall no more from that time forward, there will no more be an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. So there is only one way for this to be accomplished, that there's something to happen within 100 years. God makes it very clear here that there is that which is going to be fulfilled and fills in all the pieces together with other things that we grasp and understand now, but this was given to Mr. Armstrong to understand that the Great White Throne, that period of time that is called the Last Great Day is for a period of 100 years. "The child shall die a hundred years old." So there are things we grasp about that hundred years. A child that is resurrected has a hundred years of life to learn, to live, to choose, to make choices, to enter into a period of judgment, a final judgment period for all of mankind and yet life will end at a hundred years. "And the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed." So it's a judgment. Those who do not repent, if anyone does not repent, being a hundred years old, that's the cessation of life. That's the end.

So today is about explaining more and expounding upon those things and giving the bigger picture of things that God has given us over time since Mr. Armstrong was given this. He built much more upon it and gave us much understanding that God had revealed to him, but there is so much here. There truly is. Incredible, this day, and what it pictures.

So let's look at the period that leads up to that final hundred years, the period of the Millennium. Because they are tied together, that thousand years and then the hundred years afterwards. They are so closely tied together they follow immediately, one follows the others and they have great meaning in what God is accomplishing. That whole thousand years is about preparing for that final hundred years. It's about getting ready. We are at a period of time that's ending a period of 6,000 years and being made ready on a small scale, very small scale as the Church, the remnant, the small amount that's left is being made ready, getting ready for the return of Jesus Christ. Here millions upon millions and billions through a thousand years will be preparing for, planning for that hundred years. That will be the focus, the overall focus of what it's leading to and where it's all going and so what is ahead of us is astounding. It's incredible. We really can't grasp it all. So we have a day here to talk about a portion of it that God has given to us, a portion of this day to talk about a portion of this period of time

Let's turn over to Isaiah 2, we'll begin there. There have been a lot of ideas over the years as to what this period of time will be like, this final hundred years. There have indeed been many misconceptions and a lot of confusion, candidly, about this period and even the Millennium, and confusing the two together. But they're separate though they follow; one follows the other right away, right on its heels. But there have still been a lot of misunderstandings and things about the Millennium and what it's going to be like, a lot of misunderstandings. There have been many through time here within the scattered Church and before that, people had this kind of a concept that the Millennium and the Great White Throne were going to be a time of utopia; especially the hundred years would be a utopia.

Human beings still have human nature and there are still things to address in life. You think about those who are going to be resurrected, a lot of things have to be addressed early on that are going to be astronomical to confront and to deal with. We can't grasp that fully yet by any measure. But even the Millennium people have felt was going to be like a utopia. That's far from the truth. It's not a utopia. Human beings have free choice and free will. So we're going to see a lot of things. It's obviously going to be a very changed world and great changes are going to take place from the very beginning and it's going to be awesome and beautiful, but human beings have human nature. It's just that finally we'll get rid of this vast confusion, and God is really the one who is really bringing this to light in the world now. And the light, in that respect, is not a good light of what is being brought to light in that respect. God brings to light things that are wrong, things that are bad. He makes manifest that which is in error, and He's doing that at this time. He's allowed human beings to live many things through time, but this is a period of time where it's being brought to a head to be dealt with, to be addressed as one period goes into a new period before the Millennium and as the Millennium is brought into being, as the Kingdom of God is established on this earth.

So what an incredible thing to grasp and to comprehend at the very beginning of this period of time and the changes that will take place. One government on the earth. Today God is making it manifest more than ever. That's why these things are allowed. That's why this has been brought to what it has been. And who makes more noise than this country in the world? Because it has been so great. God has brought it to such greatness in time. God has made this nation great. God has given us what we have, the power and the might and the wealth and we make noise, too much noise in so many ways as far as the world is concerned. God is showing now we can't govern ourselves. The world can't govern itself. Nations can't govern themselves well at all and there's mass confusion. Eventually everything comes to war because man can't govern himself. Things come to a head and eventually things break out in war and people try to reset various things, reset the economy. Especially in the last 150 years, they try to reset the economy of the world, try to reset various things in governments in the world. They do it through war.

We're right at the doorstep right now of those things happening again, except this time thankfully God's going to intervene and stop the devastation, the complete devastation of all mankind, the annihilation of all mankind. He has to intervene to save us from ourselves, but He's the one that's letting mankind come face to face in a very dramatic way through the kind of technology that's available today out here, just how inept we are as human beings. We can't agree, can't solve problems, can't bring about meaningful change, can't answer difficult questions, can't address difficult things in life. It's incredible what's taking place, what you are witnessing and seeing take place.

There will be one government. Awesome! One government. One Church. There aren't going to be other religions allowed on the earth and there aren't going to be a lot of different governments that work against God and God's government and those things, we have addressed in part at this Feast. There are things that God's not going to allow in life. People are going to learn to come under a single world government. Jesus Christ is going to be and become, through a period of time, transition, and change, the King of kings. All don't accept that immediately, but in time all will be brought into subjection to that one government ruling the earth.

There will be one Church, what an awesome thing! No more confusion of religion. No more confusion. There is vast confusion in Christianity, what's called Christianity. It's not Christian. It's not of Christ. There is so much confusion in the world today. Those things are being brought more to light, that there are those things that cannot mix. There are things of religions that can't mix because of the ideologies because of the thinking of the mind and so those things are being made manifest. They don't dwell together in peace and so it is even in the world of traditional Christianity – so much confusion, so much confusion, so much that is untrue, so much that is so far off base it's mindboggling.

So just because of those two changes alone, government and religion and people are going to hear the same things about marriages and families and how we're to live life and how companies are to be and how they are to exist. All the way through society, things will be changing in ways that are going to be beautiful and wonderful, but still not a utopia. It's just going to be hundreds of times better than what it is now, but human nature is still there, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life that still exists in human beings will still be there for that thousand years and need to be dealt with. But it won't be like it is today in Satan's world because even Satan is removed, and the demonic world is removed. So the opportunities that people have in living in a world, indeed more akin to a utopia than the mass confusion we have today and the evil that exists today, but not a utopia because human beings are human beings. So we need to understand that.

People are going to be allowed to make false decisions, bad decisions to sin. There’s not going to be someone there tapping them on the shoulder and saying, "Oh, you can't do that." So there are going to be things that happen that aren't good, but they will be addressed speedily. Justice is quick.

So there is that great transition then in time when the Millennium is established. Let's notice Isaiah 2:1. Backing all the way up to Isaiah 2:1 here. The word of Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning, or the word that he was given concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Eternal's house shall be established in the top of the mountains. So, "In the last days," so in that last full day of seven days, that's what it's talking about. You have seven days; that last day, that period of time, God's government's going to be established. That's what this is talking about. "The mountain of the Eternal's house shall be established in the top of the mountains." So God's government will be over all governments of the earth. So this is what it's discussing. …and shall be exalted above the hills, smaller governments. Wherever government exists it's going to come under one. God's is going to be lifted up and esteemed and established. …and all nations shall flow unto it. So the way they will function, the way they will deal with things is in that manner.

So going on, Isaiah 2:3—And many people shall go and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways. So it's about government, that they want that, they desire that. They are full of the oppression of man's government and they learn and come to grasp and appreciate and embrace the righteousness, the justice, the soundness of mind of that which comes from God and that which they're able to have then in their lives, the freedom, the true kinds of freedoms and peace, and not the oppression and the hardship that governments and so forth put on people, put on families, put on society, put on business and everything else. God does it in such an awesome way. These things will become manifest and people are going to embrace it mightily. So they're going to say, Let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, and the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. There is this desire to change. They begin to learn. They begin to learn basic things about religion, about God, and that there is a Great God and that Jesus Christ did live on this earth, he walked on this earth and he was the Messiah, he is the Messiah, and that indeed he came to be our Passover and had to die out of necessity.

They begin to learn these things and its like, "Oh, that makes so much sense. Now I understand. I understand my purpose. God has a purpose for us." It's not going to heaven and not going to hell. So they have all this confusion that begins to be taken out of their lives and they want that, to live differently, but they still have human nature, but it's so much better. It's like a church, the Church being magnified throughout the world where people are striving to do better, where they're striving to live right, where they're striving to fight against sin, and striving to fight against their own nature in ways that have never taken place on earth. Never!

So it says, He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, the law, the laws of God. That which people have tried to put away, tried to get rid of in what they call traditional Christianity. They try to do away with God's laws and those things will be given to people, to understand the seventh day Sabbath, the purpose of it, the 7,000 year plan, and on and on it goes, things about the holy days before the holy days ever begin. The Passover. They're going to learn about what took place 2,000 years before in the life of Jesus Christ, and the death of Jesus Christ.

So, out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word, the Logos, God's Word, of the Eternal from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people:

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, a totally different mindset for mankind. Obviously here it's symbolic of tools for agriculture rather than tools for war. Today war is glamorized. Nations build up militaries and they glamorize it, they advertise it – to join this, or to join that – and this kind of patriotism that our way is right and to defend our right, wherever that nation is. And they don't all agree. So that's why wars come out of it all and they fight against each other and fight for their motherland, wherever that motherland is, you know, wherever their nationality is and all the prejudices that go with that and the evils of war and the games, the games that people play and the things that are geared, again, toward fighting and toward war. Things that are going to be gotten rid of, that they're not going to be taught war anymore. They're not going to be taught how to kill each other anymore, all the hideous things that are available in technology today to young minds and to have things glamorizing wars and fighting and the like. That's going to change.

And they shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. What an incredible change that takes place throughout the Millennium as people are geared toward something different, not toward destruction, not toward war, not toward killing, but toward how to love your neighbor, how to enjoy life to its fullest because of living that way.

Zechariah 14:1, it says—Behold, the day, or the time as it's referring to here, of the Eternal is coming. It's His time. It's His day, figuratively speaking. It's His day. Man has had his day. Satan has had his day, his time and now it's God's time. Behold, the day (the time) of the Eternal is coming, and your spoils shall be divided in the midst of you. So people are going to see things take place, that what they thought they had, what they worked for is going to come to an end. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; this is symbolic of peace being taken from the earth and of things coming upon the Church that was scattered. Peace that's going to be taken. Here, when it talks about Jerusalem, "I will gather nations against Jerusalem," against peace, in other words, this is what it's talking about. It's not talking about just that city, not at all. We tend to think so physically and so we don't understand things of prophecy so often and God's showing us and tells us that no, I'm bringing the world to a point in time at the end, finally when peace is going to be taken from the entire world. I's been taken away at different times and different manners, but never like this one, the one that God is foretelling here, and that which is being described here in Zechariah, of gathering all nations against peace because that's what's taking place. It's like this thing of creating good and evil. He didn't make them do it, but by giving certain things such as technology there's a tendency that people have. So this is what they've done.

…and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity. It's talking here about things that are going to happen on the earth in a very massive way and some of these things indeed may well be referring to some of the things having to do with the scattered Church, which I believe that we're being told, and some of the things they have to go through.

There was that hope and desire before 2012 that there would be more who would have opportunity and begin to be brought back, but because of the timing of events vastly changing and not happening until toward the very end in a magnified way, that period of time where people could change more quickly and acknowledge certain things in their life hasn't happened in that way because we live in a different period of time right now and it's going to be more difficult for people to come to repentance and change and they're going to live through a horrifying time and it's going to be because of that that they're going to begin to come to repentance – whether it be in the scattered Church or whether it be in the world around us that people begin to listen to God. These are some of the things being described here.

…and the residue, the remnant, the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Not cut off from peace. It's talking about peace. There is a peace we have in God's Church, even when we go through the things we're going to go through, and not only that, but that which we're going to have as a result of God's intervention in our lives, of things that are going to take place as God fights battles for us, as God gives us help and intervenes for us. It doesn't mean we're not going to go through times of suffering, but we know where it's all going. We know what's going to come to pass. We know the timing of things that are there and there's a peace that's going to go along with that and a comfort that comes with that. So we're not cut off from that at all while other things are being destroyed, while other organizations and nations and things that are taking place are crumbling. The Church of God continues on and God's people continue on. God intervenes for His people in a very powerful and very meaningful way. So some of these things are included in what is being spoken of here in Zechariah.

Verse 3—Then shall the Eternal go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. So God has chosen this as a battle and He's going to intervene and He's going to bring it to an end. He's going to change the world and He's going to take control of governments. He's going to give His Son reign and power over the entirety of the earth. His feet, now speaking of how God accomplishes this, how the Eternal God accomplishes this is because He's given it to His Son to do, who will become the King of kings on this earth.

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, God in His Son very powerfully so. His Son coming to this earth very powerfully so and accomplishing and doing His Father's will, mightily so to bring this world into subjection, to change this world through the next 1,100 years, in order to bring about that family that it's all about in the first place. And his feet shall stand that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem to the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst 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, things we don't fully grasp nor comprehend yet that can indeed be on a physical plane in so many respects, but we'll know when the time comes. God will reveal specific things to us as we come to them and speculation doesn't do a whole lot of good because generally we're just wrong when we speculate.

So then Jesus Christ then takes control of the earth and begins to nourish it. That's what happens here. There's a taking control of the earth and a beginning then to nourish it, and a timing finally when Jesus Christ does indeed come with his government to specifically that area of the world.

Verse 8—And it shall be in that day living waters shall go forth out of Jerusalem. Again here, it's talking about the source. It's talking about that which is spiritual and that which will go out to the world from the seat of God's government and peace that will begin to go out to all the world, because it's about the entire Government of God, the Jerusalem, that which is part of the government in the Kingdom of God. …half toward the former sea, and half then toward the hinder sea. And in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Eternal shall be King over all the earth. And so indeed, God is the King and He is King of all and He has given to His Son to be the King of kings on the earth and to administer His government on the earth and so finally the world is brought under subjection to God's government and it will be, because God says, it will be, it's going to happen that way. He establishes His government, and slowly but surely all are going to come into subjection to it one way or the other because God takes control.

So the Eternal shall be King over all the earth. In that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one, the Eternal. Man will come to understand there is one God. There is one Eternal God, but here He is the true God, and this is what He teaches, and this is what He's taught. Everything else you have been taught and learned is false—everything out here—except for the truth in one Church.

It goes on to show what takes place right after the Kingdom, God's Kingdom becomes established on earth here in verse 12 as we read on, And this shall be the plague whereupon the Eternal will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; in other words, those that have taken away peace from the earth, those who have been destroying the earth, as we've talked about in times past. Their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth, not a very pretty picture. It’s destruction, death on a massive scale, but for great purpose and there are going to be those then en mass who have opportunity to learn that their ways were wrong, but that'll come in what this day pictures, the Last Great Day, if their minds are not set in evil – which there'll be so many who have gone to war – who will be able to come to see what they did and come to see themselves in ways that they couldn't when God opens their mind to see what is true.

So many of them are going to have that opportunity then to change in this day, in the Last Great Day, in the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, so those things that can be horrifying to human beings, the loss in death of millions and billions, perhaps, of people. Well, it's happened for 6,000 years. Everyone dies. What an awesome thing that God has a day like this where the vast majority can be given life again, given a calling, given an opportunity to learn God's way of life in a world that is God's, not mans.

Then verse 16. So God takes care of that first, deals with the earth first, deals with the governments of the earth. Those who are destroying the earth are going to be destroyed and God's Kingdom will be established. And it shall come to pass (verse 16), that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So they're coming up indeed to worship the Eternal God, but they're going to see, people are going to be able to, if they keep the Feast wherever the Feast is kept around the world. It doesn't mean everyone comes to one area of the world; it's where God places His name, even in a physical location, if you will, for people to come together to worship Him. There will be Feast sites and so forth where people are able to come together like we do today, where people are able to come together where they are able to do so, and to keep the Feast. So there will be those who are able to do so, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And so, indeed they're going to worship God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords on this earth.

And it shall be, that whosoever will not come up… So there's still going to be some who don't come up because as a whole, all nations were engaged in war and destroying the earth and those who didn't stop doing that and those who continued to do it, at the very end they're destroyed. Those then that continue on in a new age, they're going to begin to learn. They're going to be brought under the Government of God, but those who don't, as it says here, whosoever, those who will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, the Eternal of hosts, even upon them there shall be no rain. So there are going to be some in their areas, whoever they are. There are going to be areas that are allowed to have certain things continue on because of peoples and where they are and how they think, the uniqueness of different kinds of people on the earth. They're going to have choices of various things to a point. You submit. You yield and if you don't, if you refuse God there'll be no rain. There'll be no harvest. You're going to suffer and this is far broader than just no physical rain.

And if the family of Egypt will not go up, and will not come, that have no rain, so if they still won't do what they need to do, it says, there shall be the plague. So if that stubbornness continues and they still won't humble themselves, though they see other people being blessed, though they see other people flourishing and being productive and being blessed for the things they do, and the progress of others, and they themselves choose to suffer rather than obey, rather than to change, rather than to humble themselves, then God says there shall be a plague. They're going to suffer more! …wherewith the Eternal will smite the gentiles, and this word for "gentiles" as it applies here, as it does in the New Testament, the non-believers, those who choose not to believe, choose not to obey, choose not to humble themselves, then there's going to be the plague.

So again, that smite, the Eternal will smite the non believers that will not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, if they won't keep God's holy days. And this is the major period of time when people are to come together and worship before God as we do to this day, this prescient that God has given to the Church to do for so many decades now, through Worldwide, and Laodicea, and toward the end here now in this age of the remnant group, that there are still sites where people are able to come together in greater fellowship and have opportunity that they might not obviously have at home, yet there are people who can't because of age and health and so forth at times and that's just a part of life and it'll be that way in the future too. There are times when it's not wise for people to travel. There are times when people just can't do it. Yet the world will begin to be blessed more and more in these things and people will be able to be healthier in many ways. But still, people get old and they get to a point where they can't get around as well. But they'll be able to observe just as we do today, to hear, to see, but as a whole there's still going to be a uniting, a bringing together of people, especially various representatives of various kinds of people in various situations to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. There will be Feast sites all over the earth.

Then it says here, This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations, in other words, of all peoples, whoever they are that choose not to keep God's holy days, which probably means, obviously here, that they aren't observing the Sabbath as they should either. They're not observing the holy days and they're refusing to come together for the most important period of time of the year when people are to come before God in a very special way to have such opportunity as this. It says, and the punishment of all the nations that will not come up… This, it says, will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that will not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So they're going to have the plague, and that means death. That means there are going to be people who die en masse for not obey God because it's not going to be tolerated. It's just simply isn't going to be allowed, that kind of rebellion, that kind of spirit, that kind of mindset, because it's a new age. God's Government is to reign on the earth and it's not to be like it was in times past.

Then we move on to the end of the Millennium and the beginning of the Great White Throne Judgment, the Last Great Day, but everything that happens for that day is happening throughout the Millennium, the changes that are taking place, the vast numbers of people who have opportunity to change and to grow so that they can become a part of serving and helping during the Great White Throne. There's a lot of work to do during that period of time and there's a lot of preparation, and a lot of people to be made ready to be in God's Family, to serve during that period of time. For there is far greater need then than there is at the beginning of the Millennium, far, far greater because of what's getting ready to take place and something that we really can't grasp. I can't fathom that, I really can't, but I know it'll get done in a very orderly, very organized, and very powerful means. It'll be a beautiful thing when finally is all brought together, but it will be by the Great God of the universe.

So for 1,000 years during the Millennium mankind is blessed to live in a world that has only one religion and one government: God's, the truth, and during the Millennium it is not God's purpose that the lifespan of man become longer than it is. As a whole it's going to continue on, though there'll be people who are obviously going to be healthier, who are going to be able to live healthier. We're going to be able to live in a better way, as far as what we eat and not subjected to the kind of greed that exists in corporations today where everything that's good in food is taken out and things are made to stay on the shelf longer, and all that that hurts the human body. Those things are going to be done away with and so we are going to be healthier, in that respect, and we're going to be able to take care of people in a better way than we can now because there are things that are good that human beings can do to help the human body when it's not functioning right. I marvel at what mankind can do and there'll be those things that are available. There will still be things of healing that take place on an individual basis in people's lives as well, but there are also things that we're going to be able to do to help others as well. So God allows various things for a purpose because we learn through this process. We learn from these things, of how to use things in a right way, in a good way, in a productive way.

So again here, the lifespan continues on in many respects just as it is. It isn't meant that people should live for several hundred years yet. That's not God's purpose in this period of time. We go through a cycle and it's God's purpose too that people live and die. There is so much to be learned from that. There is so much to be learned. Death isn't taken away during the thousand years. People still live and die and we learn from that. We learn so much. We learn so much about God and God's purpose and the importance of it and the hope and what He's placed before us and how blessed we are that we have such things from a very merciful and a very loving God.

So even here as we go through some of this and talk about some of this, I think of some of the confusion that's existed in Philadelphia and in through Laodicea about resurrections and some of the things taking place and the timing and so forth, but God has been clarifying those things over time.

I'll just read the verse to you. There's a simple statement in the book of Hebrews that shows God's primary purpose for mankind when it comes to life and death, that there's a purpose for it. There's a reason why we're not protected from it. There's a reason why it happens. There's a reason why it's allowed, and it's a very healthy thing spiritually to the mind and what can be learned from these things. We are made in temporary, physical bodies for great purpose, and one of those is to die.

Hebrews 9:27—And as it is appointed unto men once to die, to die once. That's just what it is. It's been given. Nothing changes during the Millennium, still appointed unto men to die once. That's a part of the process of human life. …but after this the judgment. So, understandably so, to realize there's a resurrection that goes along with this. There is a resurrection that takes place as a matter of what it means to come to a point in time of judgment, but for some, for those 144,000 the judgment has been established. Theirs is to be in the Kingdom of God. During the millennial period there will be those vast numbers, millions, and prayerfully billions and billions and billions who go through time, who die, and are going to be able to come to a point in time in same manner that they're going to be able to be brought into God's Kingdom at the end of that 1,000 years, to be resurrected. Their judgment is to be in that period of time.

So uniquely for those who live during the Millennium, they don't have to live twice. I have oftentimes made comment how that would be to me a horrifying thing, to have to live in a human body twice. I want to be successful this time. I'm thankful and grateful that I have the opportunity this time in my life to grab hold of, to hold on to, to hold fast to God's way of life and to live this once and to fight against this nature once. That's all I want. I want to succeed. I want to conquer and overcome. I yield myself. I want to be yielded to that process mightily so, to be able to repent when there's sin, to be able to continue on, to continue to fight, to continue to want what God's placed before us. Those during the Millennium, they have that opportunity. What an awesome thing because those during the first 6,000 years, only 144,000, as a whole, except for those who live at the end here to live on into the Millennium, have had such opportunity. Awesome, to understand that.

So this is God's main purpose for the vast majority of mankind and only the timing of events in God's plan can/will alter this overall purpose of life and death. And just like I mentioned, the Millennium, that's an awesome opportunity for people because for them the vast majority only have to live once. Now, there will be some during that period of time, even then, who are going to die and be resurrected in the Great White throne. I believe there will be some during that period of time who won't have either opportunity, but that's another matter. Human beings are human beings. Evil is evil. The setting of the mind against God is evil.

So again here, discussed some of this. Those who don't have to experience but one death and there's a very few. Now, think about this too. We know that at the end of this period of time now as Jesus Christ is returning there will be a few, probably very few who are still alive, who are going to be changed from mortal to immortal at Christ's return. Now, we don't know exactly where at in that process, perhaps in the very day that he's coming back on Pentecost and the change that will take place in them because it speaks of others that are to be resurrected first, and then there are others to be resurrected that follow, that are still alive. So that's going to be an incredible time when some of these events take place, but think of the masses alive at the end of the Millennium. Think of the masses of people who are still alive at the end of the Millennium.

Now, of necessity, because growth and change does not happen overnight; the human mind to become transformed takes many years. So to grasp and comprehend that those who live toward the end of the Millennium, just like many of you are going to live on into the Millennium, those at the end of the Millennium, they're of necessity; there must be those who live on into the Great White Throne and continue on in life and those things that we don't fully comprehend as human beings, of how God's going to accomplish some of the things He does, we don't fully grasp yet. But that's a part of God's plan. It's just magnified many times over from what it is now. Also then, at the end of the Millennium, there will be those vast numbers who are sealed, who are set, who are going to have the opportunity to be changed from mortal to immortal at that moment in time. What an awesome thing! At the moment in time, when those who have lived and died during the thousand years, like the 144,000 in the previous 6,000 years, those who die during the 1,000 years, who have the opportunity of entering into God's family at the end of the thousand years. And the purpose for so much of that is because there is so much to do and to accomplish – billions of people to be resurrected at the beginning of that hundred years who lived and died before and waiting for a time when they're going to be able to receive of God's way of life, to be able to see things, to know things, to have their minds opened up to things, or to continue on with something that was halted that they couldn't continue with because there have been people who have lived and died. I think of a young man where God helped me to learn and understand some things about being able to become a part of His Kingdom, who had been baptized two weeks before he was killed in a car wreck. There were those who talked about him being in the Kingdom when Jesus Christ returns, and it didn't fit. It didn't fit. Just because he was baptized, had the impregnation of God's spirit, the transformation of his mind, it wasn't there. He was a young man, very much a young man wrapped up in a young man's world and the pulls of it and life wasn't where it needed to be by any measure. So that's a part of the process of life. It takes years. So at the end of the thousand years there will be billions who are able to come into God's Family, be resurrected at that time, just like the 144,000, many, obviously, there are those who are alive and are changed, but obviously those during that thousand years who are sealed and waiting for a resurrection to judgment. For them that judgment is God's Family just like the 144,000 who become sealed. Their judgment is that they will be a part of the God Family in their resurrection, from that which is physical into spirit life and then the few at the end.

But anyway, it's incredible to see and understand the transition of these things, but it becomes so vast it's something we really can't comprehend. The beginning of the hundred years, the end of the thousand, and what takes place at that time is so massive we really can't grasp it yet. We really can't, in how those things are going to take place.

Let's turn over to Isaiah 65 here again. I believe we were there just a moment ago. I'd read part of it. We're going back to some of those verses now and continue on. But finally the continuing cycle of mankind comes to an end, this continuing cycle of mankind because something unique happens as well at the end of 7,000 years. It's a time when there will be no more physical birth, no more new life. That has to come to an end. So that thousand years when people repopulate the earth and marriages and families come into existence and children are born, that will happen up until that point in time, and then from then on, for whatever God does, things must be changed, that there can be no more life given. There can be no more birth of life.

So there'll be a lot of babies to take care of at the beginning of the hundred years. There'll be a lot of adoptions that take place at the beginning of the hundred years and perhaps by those, many of those who live at the end of the thousand years who still live on into the hundred and the part that they're going to be able to share in because that's going to be so good for so many who are resurrected, to be resurrected into a world where there are so many who live on in physical life, who already have the structure of Church and family and things that live on as the example and the light for those who are resurrected and begin to see this is the way, walk you in it. This is the Church. This is the way to live. This is how society and business and so forth should be conducted. So they'll have that example because life continues on. It doesn't just stop and people don't go back to something they were living thousands of years ago. They see a different world. They see people living in a different world and they're able to experience that. So the billions who may be alive at that point in time who live on, what a beautiful thing, what a beautiful picture, and many of them who will have desire to adopt babies who are resurrected to life again, things that we comprehend fully yet that we will be shown as time goes along.

So we come to Isaiah 65:20—There shall no more be from that time forward an infant of days. No more babies born. As soon as that period begins no more birth, but we know there are going to be babies. That's how we know that hundred years, because as it talks about here, as it says, nor an old man who has not filled his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old, because there are going to be babies who are going to be resurrected. Millions who are going to be able to be reared in a new world, a new age, and they never had to learn man’s way. They die, and what a blessing to be resurrected into that world? Their battles aren't going to be like so many others who are resurrected at that time. It's going to be more like living in the Millennium, being born into the Millennium and having the opportunity of learning what is right from the very beginning and not having some of the kind of battles that have to be fought by some because of what their minds are like when they're resurrected because of their being older and what they experienced in their previous lives.

Isaiah 65:21—And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. And they shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat. They're going to be able to enjoy the fruit of their labor. They're going to be blessed in a different world, in a unique world that they couldn't even have dreamed of before fully, couldn't enter into the imagination because of the kind of life that they lived before. So to understand here the time will not be cut short for any. They're going to have the ability to continue on. You don't know all that God's going to do, but He ensures that people continue on, that people have the ability to live on, that death isn't going to take place in their life. They've been resurrected to live during this period of time so that they can have life during this period of time. And so there is intervention and things that God is going to do and the God Family will be involved in to ensure that there is incredible peace on the earth and not violence of any kind, nothing that can happen and take place where someone could take someone else's life or things happen in accidents that could take someone's life. That's not going to be allowed. People are going to have things happen in their life that I don't understand yet and God hasn't revealed it yet, but an insurance that they live and have the opportunity to live and change and be transformed in that hundred year period.

For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. So again, nothing is going to cut it short. They're going to be able to continue on to live a full life, to live, indeed, a hundred years.

Right now, basically at three score and ten, seventy years and some die well before that. Some die shortly after that, but God's going to ensure that people have a hundred years. God can easily do that. It's not hard at all for God Almighty to ensure that mankind can live a hundred years.

They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth in trouble. The world is going to be at peace, not going to be the things that were experienced before, obviously, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Eternal, and their offspring with them. Can you imagine different ones as they're resurrected, families who died, families who fought against each other in wars, and they're going to be resurrected and all together there, people who are going to know their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-whatever, all the way back, and people who are able to mix together and be together and learn their lineage. And just like today, you know, it's kind of an interesting thing sometimes to see what your lineage might be, to see the different nationalities that make up who you are, knowing we all go back to the time of Noah. But nevertheless, to see, to know some of those things. There is that desire in human life. How much more to be able to know a time when all these things can be known, where you can know those who have come from you through time, a lineage of people that will be incredibly interesting. Frankly, they're not going to have time to get to know them all. They really aren't. It's too much.

Like Noah, well, he's not going to be there anyway, but some of the family, some of the family members of Noah coming on out because he won't be physical. He'll be spirit, but others we're talking about who are physical who are resurrected at that particular time, people aren't going to have time at all to really get to know each other during that hundred years, but those who are close and were closer and they will be able to get to learn and know some of those things. But what an incredible time that people are going to be able to live in in ways that we don't fully comprehend by any measure.

And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. So knowing exactly what people need when they need it, what's going, what they're addressing, what they're going through in life, the God family is going to be so great to help there at that point in time. It's going to be incredible, awesome!

Now to a verse that has not been seen well for what it does say, verse 25—The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. And dust the serpent's meat. Now, we don't grasp all this. I don't know fully what this means and there's some other words that can be used here in the place of what is dust. I don't know if totally physical here. It very well may be, but dust having more to do with refuse and things like that that's on the earth. I don't know. You know, I believe what God says and if it says here that physically they're going to do this, a lion is going to eat straw, thing's have to change just as much as they do when God stops human beings from being able to have life again, to come together and someone to be begotten of them. Those things aren't going to happen. No new life is going to be there and God's going to change some of the physical life that's around us and some of the animals that are around us. But not during the Millennium. Some have believed that these things, in times past, would happen during the Millennium. No, only during the Great White Throne do these changes take place.

It goes on to say, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Eternal. So there are going to be things that change. It's just like we read about a viper and a child that can put his hand in there and be bitten and nothing's going to happen to the child and even that sounds like it's going to change, where they're going to be able to be in safety. So there's not going to be the danger that there was, or that there is today from the animal world, the animal kingdom. So things we don't comprehend but God says He's going to do it. This is the life and the world they're going to be able to live in.

So the reason for this is because of God's purpose being worked out during the Great White Throne period that's different from the previous 7,000 years. By necessity things must be changed and this brings us to understanding another revelation that God is giving during this Feast of Tabernacles so that people do not have false expectations of the Millennium, and so that we do not teach others some of those false expectations either because that has existed in times past.

Isaiah 11:1, let's notice—And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Eternal; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Eternal. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove from the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth… So it's talking about Jesus Christ. It's talking about his first coming and those things of his life and those things that he comes back with to this earth when he comes back a second time as King of kings and comes back with a rod of iron to take control, if need to be to use it, to take control of the earth, to enforce, to keep God's government on the earth. So it says here, to smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

Verse 5—And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins, the right kind of government. The right kind of ruling, not oppressing others, not lording it over others, not being raised up because of importance because of a position or something of that nature by any measure because that's the way the world is.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them, during this period of time. When it talks here about the nature of such animals must be changed because of God's purpose. Sometimes this was confused in times past with the Millennium. Not so! It's going through a picture here in carrying us all the way through to the end and to the fulfillment of greater things that are going to take place, a greater time of salvation during the Great White Throne. So it's talking here about a time even when the animals will be changed and when a lion and a sheep, a small sheep, small goat and a child will be able to be with them and the lion isn't going to try to eat either one. So, again, these things that are pictured here sometimes as being millennial, they're not millennial at all. They're the Great White Throne. They're the Last Great Day.

And the cow and the bear shall feed; and their young ones shall lie together. A bear and a cow – no more killing of calves by bears. Their nature is changed. Their feeding is changed, their feeding habit and their digestion. God has to change different things. Again, God created them and God can do it just like that. So that's what God's going to take care of. So we don't want to confuse those two time periods because there's different purpose being accomplished in each one. The last one is so that people can continue on, so that there is safety to live that hundred years, an insurance, assurance from God that people will be able to live a full hundred years to be transformed, to be changed.

And the nursing child shall play in the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the cockatrice's den. And they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Eternal, as the waters cover the sea. So those changes don't take place until after the Millennium.

Verse 10—And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the gentiles seek. And his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Eternal shall set His hand again the second time to recover… These verses here, though they start out with talking about Jesus Christ and a different world, which we understand when it begins to be changed, but it’s about that world that it's looking toward as well, even beyond that and preparing for past the thousand years is that last day that we're foreshadowing here today.

And so it goes on to say, It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover, to purchase, to redeem, the remnant, the residue or the rest is what it means, the rest of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for all the nations, for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. It’s a great time, a great resurrection when God is going to set out, when people are given a second life, a second time, this time in a world where people can change, a world void of Satan and demons, a world where God's Government has been established for a thousand years now, where the Church is throughout the world and there is only one Church. It will be awesome to be resurrected into such a world.

So this period of time pictures that. Sometimes we don't esteem God's purpose and God's plan as much as we should because we still think so very physical and we look at death and people dying and though it's hard, because death is an enemy. It separates families, it separates people, and we look forward to the time when there is no more death indeed, but the reality is there is purpose for its allowance. There is purpose in how God is going to work with mankind and save mankind and we learn through this entire purpose. That's why I think of different times when God sent armies in to destroy nations, everyone, including children. He told them to put them all to death, to destroy the entirety of a nation at times of people and people have looked upon that and said, "Oh, what a cruel, harsh God. I'm so thankful that He sent His Son and His Son came to show us a better way. The Father's way was just too hard." People don't understand the world that those young people would have grown up in and all the evil that would be in their minds and in their hearts. Death happens quickly and then there's a resurrection. They don't know it. They're brought back to life and they continue on, but in an awesome and a beautiful world. They don't have to fight and overcome so much sickness of the mind and distortion of the mind that so often can lead to people becoming set in evil. They have opportunity to have their minds set in ways that others haven't had. So as far as opportunity and blessings, they are exceedingly blessed.

So there are so many times even within the Church that people have not understood the incredible mercy that exists as a part of God's plan for mankind. So it's a beautiful thing how God has planned out everything for physical life from the beginning to the end.

So the Great White Throne period that's referred to is also, again, the Last Great Day; it is a time of judgment. It's about judgment. It's about a time when people can be resurrected to a point in time, just as those in the Church when once you're called you are in judgment, you are being judged. The world isn't being judged yet in that respect, as far as Elohim, but when He gives us the truth then we enter into judgment. "Judgment is upon the house of God," as it's spoken of in scripture. So this period ends with an end to human life and more, when we talk about judgment that comes upon the period of time of the Great White Throne. For everything comes to a point in time where it all comes to an end and judgment is complete. Full judgment for all mankind. A time when there will be no more human life because it's designed by God Almighty to exist for 7,100 years and no more. No more because after that there is only one continuing life in the God Family, and those who will be brought into it, and it's full, in completeness at the end of that hundred years.

So let's go over to Revelation 20. So some of the things, what follows next will include covering some of the things here in Revelation 20 concerning this particular time. These things are not given in any specific order when you go through Revelation 20. It bounces back and forth a little bit because it's addressing specific events. So it's not meant to be in a time order but when you know God's plan and purpose you know in what period of time it's talking about and what's being spoken of specifically.

Revelation 20:11, it very much is talking about now a very specific time. And I saw a great white throne, and He who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no more place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great… Isn't that an incredible thing? At the beginning of the hundred years, everyone who is resurrected, who ever lived and died and everyone who has that opportunity then at that point in time who never had the opportunity of being called into God's Church, and that will include some who did but weren't able to be fully transformed before they died, so that's another matter and of smaller numbers. But again, the small and great; in other words people of history who are well known, who have been well known through the centuries and over thousands of years in some cases, different names, the great of the earth that have been well known and others who are not known. They die and they are forgotten quickly, and never travelled perhaps beyond just a little area, which has happened to millions and millions of people, where they're just in one little basic community and didn't even travel to other areas. They weren't known by others and they lived life. They lived life where they were.

So those looked upon by human beings as the small and the great of the earth stand before God; and the books were opened. Now, this is very much symbolic in many respects because of what it says. It's not some kind of book, and yet in one respect if you have books like a Bible or whatever, you're opening it, but it has more to do with indeed God's word because what comes out of the books? It's God's word. It's what we receive. Today people get it off an iPad or, you know, the computer, whatever. They just go to a program. But it's written, it's recorded there, and so that word comes out, but their minds are open to what's in the book. That's what's more important here in what takes place. The books were opened to their minds, their ability to see and grasp and comprehend things that they couldn't see before. …and another book was opened, which is the book of life. So indeed this is about judgment and about life and death, and about whether or not people are going to be able to become a part of that which is referred to here as being written in the book of life, in other words, being able to continue on with life forever.

…and the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the books. So the dead who are resurrected, they enter into judgment now, because now they're being given the opportunity for God's way of life. They're being given the opportunity to come to baptism and have the impregnation of God's spirit. That's what opportunity they're being given. So they're coming to a time of judgment. They weren't in a time of judgment before this, the vast majority. And they're judged how? Just as we are when we're called into the Church, by those things that are written in the books, and they're judged according then to their works as to whether or not they receive what's there and begin to change their life and begin to do the things of God, to live the things of God. So we're judged according to our works, by the fact that we obey God. We obey the Sabbath. We obey the holy days. So we're indeed judged by those things and so all the billions who are resurrected then judged according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell, or the grave, as it's talking about here, the graves delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works, meaning there's a resurrection here. Death, the hell, the grave, which is what the word is, gave up the dead. God brought them back to life again. They're no longer dead. They're alive and this is their life and they're judged according to it. And it says here, and judged everyone according to their works, a time of judgment.

So that's why I love the fact that when you read about the Church and it says, "Judgment now is upon the Church of God," not upon the world in the sense of that which has to do with that which is spiritual in the mind and accepting God's truth and God's way of life when the mind is opened. This is their time. This is their time of judgment, but now it's there for all, all who life in human life. It narrows down and comes down to this final 100 years.

So it says here, the next two verses jump ahead to the end, to the very end of that hundred years then because we have a beginning of that and how people are judged. They enter into a judgment period, the Great White Throne Judgment.

Verse 14—And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. So it comes down to a point in time now where death and the grave are cast into a lake of fire. There comes a time here, a different way of saying something in a unique way, that judgment comes to an end. There will be those who enter into God's family, vast numbers of people, billions and then there will be those who don't and life will cease and for what happens here fire is being used symbolically because of some things that do physically happen on a physical plane. Yet it is that which is final. There's a finality to life, a cessation of life, and there is to be no physical life again, for human life again. It's not going to exist. It comes to an end. Everything finally comes to an end. So it brings the hundred-year period to a final end, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. So those who don't have life obviously, who aren't resurrected and changed at this time, their judgment being in the Kingdom of God, the only other option is, those who are still alive, and that is not going to happen to them when this hundred years is fulfilled, the only thing that can happen to them now is death, the second death, as it says here. This is the second death. Human beings who can die twice. And who teaches that? No one but God's Church, some in the scattered Church, to have a basic understanding, a grasp of the fact that human beings, as a whole, can live twice. The primary purpose of God is that most human beings given are given that to do, to have happen to them, to live twice. Those who in the first 6,000 years die and then to have a second life, and then if they don't choose and desire God's way of life when given that opportunity, then it's death, eternal death. That's the penalty, to die and to be dead for all eternity, never to be resurrected again, never to have an opportunity for life again, the cessation of life, no more life, never to be resurrected again. That's all it means. You think about how the world has twisted that, distorted that, how Satan has distorted that and to have people thinking that people are tormented for all eternity. Incredible, you know, some of the things that are there, to be eternally punished. It's an eternal punishment, all right. It's a sentence for eternity, for the rest of time, if you will.

So verse 14, again, And death and hell (the grave) cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whoever was not found written in the book of life, in other words, whoever wasn't resurrected at that point in time into the God Family, into Elohim, was cast into the lake of fire. That's their punishment, a final death.

Revelation 20 now, and backing up to verse 1—And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, "the abyss," as the word is here. It's a place of endless restraint. In other words, no end to it unless God brings it to an end, but it's a place of restraint. …and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is called the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. So Satan's confinement, finally. For 1,000 years during the Millennium he's not going to be around. What an awesome time coming. …and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, meaning that all power was taken away. Wherever he is confined he cannot be in the presence of human beings.

So it says here, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should not deceive the nations anymore, until the thousand years should be fulfilled. So he can't deceive anyone. Him and the demonic world, they don't have the influence they've had for the last 6,000 years in broadcasting to human beings and twisting and distorting things by the influence on the human mind that they so often have had and now they're put away; they can't bother anyone for a 1,100 years because they're not allowed out during that hundred years either. It's very closely attached to the thousand years, that period of time there. That Feast of Tabernacles period and that Last Great Day, they're attached. And what happens with Satan? His purpose is to be kept away from mankind during the overwhelming majority of that time, though there is something that happens at the end of that hundred years.

…that he should not deceive the nations anymore, until the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be released for a little season. Some have felt he was going to be resurrected immediately after the thousand years. It doesn't say that. It talks about a time that the thousand years have to be fulfilled, but we know what happens after that then comes the Great White Throne, comes the Last Great Day and he's still not supposed to be around for God's purpose. But then it says, "And after that," after the thousand years, yes, and after that little hundred years at the end of that as well, because they're tied together, "then he must be released for a little season." It’s just a word that means, basically, a short while, a short time, a little while, not very long. It doesn't take very long for this to transpire. We don't know how long it is, but it isn't going to take very long. That kind of power all of a sudden being in a world once again and the influence it can have on human minds that have not chosen God. That sometimes can be difficult for the human mind to comprehend, that after a hundred years that there could be those who still have not embraced fully God's way of life, who have not chosen to change, who maybe play around in the courtyard for nearly a hundred years. Do you suppose that's possible in this world that people can kind of conform to certain things and yet not want it and desire it in their life? I've seen so much of that in the Church, more than I've wanted to.

So human beings can do that kind of thing and the reality is such can never become a part of Elohim if that's the choice, if the mind becomes set in that. So that kind of a mind can be easily swayed, a mind that, as an example today, doesn't hold on to 57 Truths. It doesn't take a lot sometimes then for one of those truths to begin to be something that bothers because a person has to find a reason: "Well, I don't think that's true." "I don't believe this is true about women." "I don't believe this is true about Jesus Christ not having eternally existed." There it is, the lights go out, the spirit is cut off, and now they're in Satan's world. God says when someone is cut off from His Church they are cast back to Satan. He's a powerful being and he can stir up wrong spirits, wrong attitudes, and a wrong mind very quickly in human beings. When someone is cut off from the flow of God's spirit completely, it doesn't have any access whatsoever in any fashion or form to that influence in our life anymore, then that mind can change quickly to what it actually is, something to manifest and bring to the surface what it is: against God, against God. He can stir up jealousies and hatreds and magnify them in what really exists in the heart and the mind that will not change. There will be those at the end of that period of time, perhaps far, far more than we can grasp and comprehend because it doesn't say that all will be saved. We don't know fully yet, do we? But people are going to have opportunity.

And so this is going through much of that story. So Satan must be released for a little season, a little while.

Verse 7—And when the thousand years has expired Satan shall be released out of his prison, his restraint, and shall go out to deceive the nations which were on the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. The number of whom is as the sand of the sea. So we know it's not going to be a small amount. It's not going to be just a few hundred or a few thousand. How many? I don't know, but it paints a picture here of something that's likely into the millions because when you talk about the sand of the sea it's even greater than that which is spoken about the 144,000, a vast innumerable multitude. Now it's become so much so that it's like sand, you can't count it it's so vast. You pick up a handful of sand and how many grains are really in there? That's the example being given here.

So it's going to be large at the end of the hundred years. God has already said that because He knows what we're like as human beings and He knows what people are like and just like with the angelic realm of a third who turned against God, what will be the numbers of those in the Great White Throne who do not want this way of life, who are tired of playing around and walking around in the courtyard even and really are filled with and have some deep-seated bitterness and unresolved issues in their own life deep down in their heart, of that which will never change because they have not chosen to yield themselves to God's way? Because there is that in God's way that they don't really want. So that can't be allowed into God's family.

So it uses the example here of Gog and Magog (and we've talked about this in times past) that it will be of those who were never baptized. You know, people can go under the water, but that doesn't mean they receive the holy spirit because if they don't really repent in spirit and truth before God He's not going to grant them His holy spirit, if their minds are set in a different way. So we have those that that's happened in the Church, in the environment of the Church. So we have those in that category, some who will go through the motions of religion and go out and get baptized and have hands layed upon them and never be in God's Church.

The other group of people (so it's Gog and Magog), are those who did have hands laid upon them and did receive of God's spirit, but at some point along the way through time reject it. Time does a unique thing to the mind. Time did a unique thing in the angelic realm. After time, even with the impregnation of God's spirit, there will be those who will choose not to embrace any longer, who will make wrong decisions. Those things are difficult but God doesn't force His mind, His being, His will upon anyone. So they will be brought together and they're going to be swayed by Satan when he is released for that little period of time. So it's going to be a clean-up period, a clean up of the earth because it all comes to an end. There will be those who enter into God's family and those who are burnt, those who are cast into a lake of fire. You don't have to be physically cast into it; there's going to be that which is going to happen that we really don't know and comprehend yet.

Verse 9—And they went out on the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints, the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. So whatever it is, whether it's something in a strict physical location or whether it be things around the world that they plot against or desire against to destroy, but they seek to destroy. And with technology where it'll be, with things that are there, there are things that even this being here may believe that he can still do because he's tried to do it for thousands and thousands of years, his one last attempt to thwart God's purpose and God's plan. But God's told his end. The reality is there's that which he believes up here, but he just wants to destroy all he can and he may delude himself just a little bit to believe that he still could. That's perversion of the mind; you can't understand perverted things. Psychologists out here, they try to go and understand why people do perverted things and do the things they do and try to reason, "Well, was it his mommy? His daddy? Was it his school? Was it this or that?" And they try to understand that mind then. And you think, "You're wasting your time," to understand a distorted mind, it's just a distorted mind. To give reason to it, to give justification to it that somehow it doesn't exist. It doesn't matter. So it is with human beings and with this being as well and those who followed him.

So the reality is, again here, and they went up from the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city, that means God's people, God's family, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. They all die, burned in a lake of fire. Final judgment. This is the gehenna fire. It is the end. It is the end of all human life because it is at a moment, and a very specific moment, all who are there and ready to come into God's Family will be there. All who are not they will die.

And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet… It's not "are," and we've gone through some of these things in the past. Horrible translation here. But again here, it has to do with a judgment and things that this being can understand what God is telling him, and especially in the last several years here, that he has a judgment coming upon him. …and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. As long as it lasts. That's how long forever and ever lasts. As long as that lasts. See, that's how long. As long as their life exists that's how long that torment will be there. But if there's no life anymore they're not tormented anymore. People try to read things into this and say, "It's eternal punishment. It's something going on for age-lasting life." It's not. It's about something until it comes to an end. It's like a fire descending up and it continues to go – not forever and ever – it just means it's going to continue to burn until it's all burned, and then there's nothing else to burn. That's how those terms are used. So it is here. This being is going to die. This being is going to come to an end of life. We don't understand it all. God hasn't explained it all. Maybe he won't until after its all taken place and we're in the Family, when everyone's there, but nevertheless God's word will come to pass. Satan and the demonic world, those who receive judgment, this judgment, including all those who have rejected God by this point in time, their life is no more. Finally Jerusalem is there forever. From that point forward in time God's Family, Elohim.

Let's turn over to Revelation 21. Again here, this thing about what it's saying here about this lake of fire and brimstone and where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. That's covered even more thoroughly in the past. This is an expression that reveals that to whomever the pronouncement of final judgment is given, that the results will be precisely carried out in its exact timing, in God's timing, without delay, and that there is no rest or cessation, if you will, of torment until the final judgment is finally carried out, with a certain end, indeed. So it's just a finality.

Revelation 21:1—It says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Beautiful. Finally! That's what God says, "I am creating a new heaven and a new earth." All in the context of things that happen at the very end and what He's going to bring to pass. It finally comes to pass, as it says here, "For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." It's not as it was anymore. Human life doesn't continue on anymore. It comes to a point in time where things are so different. There's no more physical human life and birth and human beings on the earth, physical life. Finally everything is in Elohim that will come into Elohim. There comes that point in time, a new heaven and a new earth. You know, that which God gives on a spiritual plane of spiritual life. "And the former things are passed away." …and there shall be no more sea. In other words, no more vastness as this word is referring here to prophetically. No more vastness of humanity in all the kinds of nations that had existed through time. No more vastness of humanity. There's no more humanity.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Eventually everyone is able, that comes into the God Family, Elohim, to have this marriage, this uniting as one takes place. This is what this is about. It happens first to 144,000, and then at the end of a thousand years to all those who are there at that time. Then finally at the end of the hundred years even more, this great change that takes place, all those who have gone through what they have to change, to become transformed and their minds being changed. So it says here, this is what is seen, a new Jerusalem. New and complete. Peace forever. …coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice in heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle…the tabernacle of God is with men, because there are no more human beings and all those who have lived through human life are now there as a part of God's temple, in the tabernacle of God, throughout the tabernacle, of a construction that God has created and made through time. "I create a new heaven and a new earth," God says.

…and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. What a beautiful time, when everything is returned then finally to God Almighty and one great Family, and finally that unity and bond of oneness that takes place with all who can enter will have come to pass and something new will have been created. And all is past, is gone. No more tears, no more sorrow, no more human suffering for there is no more human life, only Elohim.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1