When sea is no more, lake of fire awaits

Standing in front of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan is the famous sculpture of a naked man beating a sword into a plowshare, which is the main furrow-cutting blade of a plow. On the base of the work, donated in 1960 by “the people of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,” is an altered version of Isaiah 2:4 that reads, “We shall beat our swords into plowshares."

The verse in Isaiah (which actually says, [4] And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more) refers to the future 1,000-year Millennial kingdom reign of Jesus Christ in a rebuilt Jerusalem.

During this time of unparalleled peace and prosperity in the earth following the Second Coming, Christ will rule with a “rod of iron” as the nation Israel goes out and controls the government of all the nations.

For this same 1,000-year span, Satan will be held bound in the bottomless pit with no ability to tempt man or deceive the nations. Amazingly, though, there will still be many people who choose in their hearts to rebel against God.

Jordan explains, “At the end of this 1,000 years of enforced righteousness—of absolute, instant capital punishment—Satan’s let out of the bottomless pit and instantly gets followers, demonstrating there’s a whole bunch of people who, in spite of Jesus Christ personally sitting on the throne, are led by their sin nature.

“You hear people all the time talk about wanting peace and a perfect world—a perfect environment, perfect social justice, everybody having plenty of food, no strife, no war—and they’ll have it then, but still the sinful heart of man ain’t right.

*****

“As Revelation 20 foretells it, ‘And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
[8] And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
[9] And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
[10] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.’

“God just wipes them all out, sets up the Great White Throne Judgment and those lost people wind up in the lake of fire. So, the present world that now is will continue through the Millennium, and at the end of the Millennium will be destroyed and replaced by the ‘new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.’

“And the sea won’t be there. The deep will be gone because the Enemy the deep is designed to contain—to hold and seal up and put bounds around—will be gone and down in the place that was prepared for him.

*****

“The rebuilt Jerusalem of the Millennium is not to be confused with the New Jerusalem defined in Revelation 21. In this New Jerusalem, which will be the command center of the redeemed universe, God the Father actually comes down and joins His Son, both of them dwelling with men.

“This is the ‘dispensation of the fullness of time’ (Ephesians 1:10) in its fullness, and the eternal kingdom of God begun with that 1,000-year transition period is never-ending.

“What’s so amazing is Psalm 104 actually tells us that the pillars for the foundation of this New Jerusalem are already laid in Palestine!

“At this future time, the saints in heaven will be able to visit the earth. Our job and our home as saints is going to be out there in the heavens, but there won’t be the bondage of time; the limitations of time and space and that kind of stuff that we experience now.

“If Jesus Christ can leave Planet Earth, go into the third heaven to God the Father, and come back in less than a two-hour time span in the Book of John, you’re not going to have any trouble. You’re going to have a body just like His. You won’t need a GPS system to keep from getting lost and all that kind of stuff.”

(new article tomorrow)