The 35 Most Asked Prophecy Questions – Program 2

Contents

The Restoration of Theocratic Kingdom Rule

Showers: In our previous session, we were tracing in survey fashion the conflict of the ages between the kingdom of God and kingdom of Satan. We saw how Satan’s goal for history is to overthrow God as the Sovereign Lord of the universe and replace God with himself as that sovereign lord. But we also noted how God’s purpose for history, therefore the ultimate purpose, is to glorify Himself by demonstrating the fact that He alone is the Sovereign God of this universe. We noted that in order for God to accomplish that purpose, there are three things He must do before the history of this world ends. He must crush Satan and get rid of him and his kingdom rule from planet earth, and in our last session we noted how God will accomplish that through the combination of the seven-year Tribulation period plus the Second Coming of Jesus Christ back to planet earth.

But then we noted that a second thing God must do before the history of this world ends is this: He must restore His own theocratic Kingdom Rule to planet earth. When God created the earth and then placed man as His creature upon this planet, God gave man dominion over everything else that God had placed here. And we saw that was God’s way of establishing a theocracy as the original form of government. A theocracy is a form of government in which the rule of God is administered by a representative. Adam was God’s original representative administering God’s rule over this earth. But Adam rebelled against God in Genesis 3; the Fall of man took place; and since God lost His representative, the theocracy was lost from planet earth. God must restore His theocracy to planet earth before the history of this world ends.

It’s very interesting to note that in Revelation 20, beginning with verse 4, which comes right after the record of how at the Second Coming Satan and his forces will be crushed and removed from the earth and will be imprisoned in the abyss or bottomless pit for a thousand years, in verses 4 through 6 God indicates that after Satan is removed from the earth that Christ and His saints will reign here on the earth for one thousand years. That is stated more than once in those verses; that Christ and His saints will reign on the earth for one thousand years. That’s indicating that the theocracy will be restored to planet earth after Satan is removed from the earth. That Jesus, as the last Adam, the Son of man, will restore that theocracy for God and as God’s representative will administer God’s rule together with God’s saints over this planet for one thousand years.

Interestingly, in the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 14, God foretold how when Messiah will come in His Second Coming, that all the armies of the world will have the city of Jerusalem encircled beginning to systematically destroy that city and the Messiah or Christ will go to war; He will destroy those forces; graphically describe His destruction of them in Zechariah 14. But then in verse 9 of Zechariah 14 it states this: “And the Lord will be King over all the earth,” indicating that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will rule the earth, the entire earth, on behalf of God when He returns to this earth in His glorious Second Coming. So, the theocracy will be reestablished here before the history of this world ends.

Now, theologians have called that thousand-year reign of Jesus and the saints “The Millennium.” Maybe you’ve often wondered, “Where does that term millennium come from?” It comes from two Latin words. First, the word milla, which is the Latin word for one thousand. And then the word annum; we get our word annual from that Latin word and that Latin word annum means year. So milla annum, “one thousand years,” and when you say those two Latin words rather quickly together, you come out with “Millennium.”

But there’s a third thing that God must do to accomplish His purpose for history and that’s this. When He does restore His theocracy to planet earth, He must lift the curse of man’s sin off of nature and restore nature back to the way it was back before the Fall of man took place. In conjunction with that, there’s a fascinating statement which Jesus made to His apostles while He was here in His first coming and Matthew records that statement for us in Matthew 19:28. This is what we read: “And Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, I say unto you, that you which have followed Me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’“ What did Jesus mean by “the regeneration”? The English word regenerate literally means “to generate again,” and it’s referring to the restoration of a lost condition. The idea is that there was an original condition but something happen that caused that original condition to be lost. But then, later, through regeneration, that original condition is restored. What Jesus was referring to through this statement, “regeneration,” is the fact that when God created planet earth, He created nature perfectly, exactly the way God wanted it to be. But then that perfect condition of nature was lost through the Fall of man because there was a curse of man’s sin put upon nature and nature has been “out of joint” and in turmoil and pain ever since. But Jesus is saying that in the future, that original condition of nature as created by God is going to be regenerated or generated again. Now, that’s the English meaning and that’s exactly what Christ was communicating.

But let me tell you what the Greek word that was translated “regeneration” in Matthew 19:28 literally says. It literally says, “Genesis again.” Jesus was saying that in the future, this planet will experience “Genesis again.” The Greek word genesis, after which the first book of our Bible is named, literally means “beginning.” So even more literally, Jesus was talking about how nature in the future will experience the beginning again. What He is saying is, the curse of man is soon to be lifted off of nature and nature will be put back into joint or restored to the way God originally created it. And Jesus told His apostles when that would happen. He said, “In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory.” In other words, when Jesus, as the last Adam, the Son of man, is back here on the earth in His Second Coming, sitting upon a throne, ruling the whole world as the King of the earth, that’s when nature will be regenerated.

Do you know that even animal nature is going to be restored back to the way it was before the Fall of man. Read sometime Isaiah 11. In the first five verses of that chapter, Isaiah is clearly talking about the future rule of the Messiah here on planet earth in the Millennium. But then beginning in verse 6, Isaiah describes how animal nature is going to be transformed and he indicates that during the reign of the Messiah, children will be able to lead around as pets not only what today are tame animals, such as sheep and goats and fatted calves, but even what today would be wild animals, such as lions, bears, leopards, etc., and he says that they shall not hurt; they will be completely tame. And then he says, “The lion will eat straw like the ox.” Once again, even the lion will be vegetarian in diet and no longer flesh eating.

So, through the seven-year Tribulation, plus the Second Coming of Christ, God will crush Satan and get rid of him and his kingdom rule from planet earth altogether. Then, Jesus, after He comes to earth in His Second Coming, will restore God’s theocracy and as the last Adam, will administer God’s rule over this entire earth for one thousand years and when Jesus restores that theocracy, He will lift the curse of man’s sin off of nature and restore nature back to the way it was before the Fall of man took place. And by accomplishing those three things before the history of this world ends, God will glorify Himself by demonstrating that He alone is the Sovereign Lord of this universe.

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