February 6, 2009
“And He (Jesus Christ) who sat on the throne, said, “Behold, I make all things new . . . Then I saw a new heaven and the new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:5, 1).
“The Coming Spirit World of Righteousness”
Dear Brethren,
The
current worsening conditions of this age are clearly making known to
the discerning mind the sun is in the process of setting on this age
and that the end of it is almost within sight.
Please note the insightful letter from a reader to our local newspaper regarding his/her evaluation of the current problems:
The Record – Opinion – A12 – February 5, 2009 - Letters
“Every time I read the newspaper or watch the news on television, it is always depressing. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every day. Businesses are closing down. People are losing their homes; people are being evicted because they cannot pay their rent.
It appears that more people are committing suicide, killing either themselves or the whole family.
Our educational system is in shambles, food prices are going up, and California is facing a drought. Children are going hungry; health insurance is in turmoil. Natural disasters are costing us millions. The war in Iraq has broken this country. We are definitely headed for a depression and getting deeper and deeper in debt.
The Bible speaks of signs of the times, which there are seven years of plenty and seven years without. Well, America is in the without.” Name withheld.
This letter illustrates what millions of people in this country, and elsewhere are thinking, while witnessing the problems that are now affecting their personal lives with no hope of real and lasting solutions! They wonder what is going to happen with them.
One man who was terribly depressed over his problems and seeing no solutions recently killed his wife and five children; he then shot and killed himself.
It is terribly sad to think what billions of people will have to soon endure before this age fully comes to its end.
Thankfully, this present evil age of unhappiness, turmoil, and rebellion, having been under the destructive sway and rule of Satan the devil for 6,000 years, will no longer exist as it now does (Ephesians 2:2; 6:12; John 12:31). And except for a short period of time after the millennium, he and his demons will be forever isolated and away from God and His Family (Revelation 20:1-3; Leviticus 16:21-22).
All of mankind will have the opportunity to come to know the great and wonderful God of love He is when their time comes in His Master Plan, as made known by God’s Holy Days; and their part in it.
Based on Bible prophecy, and in view of world happenings, it becomes apparent that the sun will soon rise—leaving forever behind a troubled and dead age. Jesus Christ will then have returned and begun what will come to be a Wonderful World of true happiness.
T
o
survive and live over into the new millennial age, as pictured by the
Feast of Tabernacles, and under the righteous governmental rule of
Jesus Christ and His
newly-born family
members, it is vitally needful that all of God’s elect members
keep their eyes on THE
BIG
PICTURE OF GOD’S MASTER PLAN OF SALVATION!
Otherwise, as Scripture makes known, one could lose sight of it, and perish during the Great Tribulation that is almost here.
“Where there is NO REVELATION, the people CAST OFF RESTRAINT; but happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18).
To refresh our memory and help to keep the BIG PICTURE in mind it is my purpose in this writing to briefly present an overview of the Scriptures that speak to us of the millennial world; and beyond it the one that will be filled with total righteousness from its very beginning.
The millennial world will be governed by the newly coronated KING of Kings and LORD of Lords, Jesus Christ (Daniel 7:13-14). And under His firm hand, and aided by His new family members, a new educational system will come to be in place.
Christ’s teachings will be based on His holy and righteous laws of love. After a few decades of time all nations will become obedient to His perfect way of life (Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-5). The millennial world will then come to be the Wonderful World of Tomorrow;
For a thousand years there will be the continued propagation of human beings. Those who repent and live out their lives in an acceptable and worthy manner before God and Jesus Christ will experience a change from mortal to Spirit life (I Corinthians 15:40-58).
This will result in many millions of people having been added to the growing Family of God and Jesus Christ, who will then become glorified Spirit Beings.
All of these newly glorified members of the Family of God will be needed to be there at the precise time when the many billions of people will be resurrected back to mortal life; all at the same time; people who will have been sleeping in cemeteries and other places all over the earth (John 5:28; Matthew 10:15; 11:22-24; 12:41-42).
Realizing they will pick up with their lives where they left off at the time of their deaths, there will be the imperative need of all of God’s Family Members to be there to make known why they have been restored back to human life and then make known the way of God’s holy and righteous laws they must learn while becoming obedient to His government.
This great resurrection will take place shortly after the close of the millennium as pictured by the Last Great Day immediately following the Feast of Tabernacles. This will be the time when all of mankind who have ever lived, and not having been given the real opportunity to become begotten by God through His Holy Spirit, will come back to life once again (Ezekiel 37:1-14).
The apostle John makes known the allotted time will come for them a thousand years after the first resurrection of the elect of God takes place (I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Daniel 12:2; John 11:24).
“And I saw thrones and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them (those from the first resurrection). And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had NOT worshiped the Beast or his image, and had NOT received his MARK on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years (but the REST OF THE DEAD DID NOT LIVE AGAIN UNTIL THE THOUSAND YEARS WERE FINISHED) this is the FIRST Resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the FIRST RESURRECTION. Over such the SECOND DEATH has NO power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and will REIGN with Him for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6).
The apostle John wrote further of that time. After their resurrection they will be given what appears to be a 100 year period of time to live out their restored mortal lives (Isaiah 65:20-21).
At the conclusion of that time there will be the finality of the judgment by the way they will have lived their lives, just as we are being judged now (I Peter 4:17), as to whether they will be changed to Spirit life, or perish in the lake of fire.
“Then I saw a GREAT WHITE THRONE and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. And there was no place found for them. And I saw THE DEAD, small and great, STANDING before God and books were opened (Greek: Books of the Holy Bible). And ANOTHER BOOK WAS OPENED, which is the Book of Life (names to be added to it). And the dead were judged according to their works (during the 1000 years), by the things which were written in the Books (Revelation 20:11-12)
At the end of the 100 year period God’s Master Plan for the salvation of all of mankind will have been completed.
The incorrigible wicked who will have refused to repent of their wickedness during the 100 year period of time, along with all of those who will have had their opportunity for salvation during the 6,000 years this side of the millennium will then be resurrected and then cast into the lake of fire prepared for the destruction of the evil works of Satan and his demons (Matthew 25:41) and will be turned into ashes under the soles of the feet of the righteous (Malachi 4:1-3).
Those who refuse to repent during the millennium will be judged and be burned up when determined by Jesus Christ they are incorrigible – no hope for them (Luke 19:27; Deuteronomy 17:8-13, more about this at another time).
“The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades (those sleeping in their graves) delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were CAST into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone NOT FOUND WRITTEN in the Book of Life was (will be) cast into the Lake of Fire” (Revelation 20:12-15).
The apostle Peter describes to us this lake of fire, and when it begins, and what will take place afterwards:
“But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, (in its completeness – beginning some little time before Christ returns to this earth and continues unto its end when Christ delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, I Corinthians 15:24-28) in which the heavens will; pass away with a great noise and the elements of the earth will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and its works (Satan’s works – Revelation 19:10) that are in it WILL BE BURNED UP . . . the heavens will be dissolved, BEING ON FIRE, and the elements will melt with fervent heat . . . [beyond this time] according to His promise, [we] look for NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH IN WHICH [TOTAL] RIGHTROUSNESS DWELLS” (II Peter 3:11-12).
“And He (Jesus Christ) who sat on the throne, said, “Behold, I make all things new . . . Then I saw a new heaven and the new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:5, 1; Isaiah 65:17).
The earth and the heavens will continue to exist (Ecclesiastes 1:4). The surface of the earth, and all in it, including the incorrigible wicked will perish in the fire. God will then RENEW (RESTORE) and TRANSFORM the heavens and the earth to their breathtakingly beautiful original creation (Job 38:7; Isaiah 45:18; Psalm 72:18), from the wreckage that is in evidence today brought about by Satan and his demons when they tried to topple God from His throne (Isaiah 14:12-15; Jude 6; Luke 10:18).
The apostle Peter used the example of Noah’s Flood as a type of the future cleansing of the filth and blood-soaked earth by Fire. Just as the earth continued to exist after the Flood, so it will after the Fire (II Peter 3:5-7).
For mankind to become members of God’s Spirit Family and experience the awesome blessing of the Spirit world and all the wonders that are to be enjoyed in that world of total righteousness, Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that another birth has to be experienced:
“
Truly,
truly, I say to you, UNLESS
ONE IS BORN ANEW (AGAIN), he
cannot SEE
the Kingdom of God (God is Spirit and His Kingdom is Spirit, John
4:24). That which is BORN of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
BORN of Spirit is Spirit. Do NOT marvel that I said to you, ‘YOU
MUST BE BORN ANEW.’ The wind blows where it wishes,
and you HEAR the sound of it, but you
do NOT known whence it comes or where it goes; so it is with everyone
who is BORN
of the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5-8).
“Then the RIGHTOUS will SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the Kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).
To be continued
All of God’s people are living with hope to become a part in God’s new world of total righteousness while most are blinded to their spiritual condition. There is the utmost necessity that all of us should be putting forth zealous effort to remove the spots on our wedding garments knowing this is vital for each one in order to be acceptable to God.
And yet while observing the many problems within the Churches of God it can easily be seen hardly anyone bothers to really take a look at themselves while thinking they are all right not realizing that Scripture makes known otherwise.
The time is almost upon us when they will wish with all of their hearts they had accepted and obeyed God’s government while accepting correction from God’s Word and from His true ministers (Hebrews 13:7, 17; Ephesians 4:1-16).
Please thoughtfully consider where we now are in time! It should be perfectly clear the sun has almost set on this age.
Where will you and I be when it does set—and the new age dawns? Something to really think about now -- before it comes to be too late!
Your
friend and servant in Christ,
Don
Billingsley
http://bodyofchristonline.us/ http://cog-ff.com http://www.ezekielwatchman.org/
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