Armageddon

After all the judgements of the seven bowls are complete, the tribulation period will be complete. Chapter 19 describes the rejoicing in heaven when this period of distress is over. At this point in Heaven, the marriage supper of the Lamb will take place. Believers can think of their salvation experience as the point at which they were betrothed to the Lord and the marriage supper as the actual wedding ceremony.

The pinnacle of this rejoicing is known as the "Glorious Appearing". It is the return of Christ as the rider on the white horse. With Him will come the armies of heaven, prepared for battle against the kings of the east and Satan's armies. This is the battle of Armageddon, during which the Antichrist and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire, or Hell. An angel then comes down from heaven to unlock the abyss, where Satan is to be chained for 1000 years. This is known as the millennium and Christ will reign on earth for that period of time. This can be thought of as the honeymoon, for believers will rule with Christ in an era without Satan's deceptive influence on mankind. It will thus be a period of righteousness that will come to a climactic end when Satan is released for an undetermined amount of time to gather armies against the Lord once again. It does not appear that there will actually be a battle however, as fire will come down from heaven and destroy the armies and the devil himself.

When all is finished, the judgement of mankind will follow. The dead in Christ were raised during the Rapture. Daniel 12:1-2 indicates that Old Testament saints will be raised during or just after the Tribulation. And finally, the Tribulation saints, will be resurrected at the end of the Tribulation when Christ returns to set up His millennial kingdom. The unbelieving dead, whose souls await judgement in Hades, will be resurrected to stand before the Great White Throne for judgement. They will be cast into the lake of fire for eternal judgement. The "books" will be opened in this judgement... the Book of Life, which is a list of all the living, and the Lamb's Book of Life, which is the list of the saved. Names can be blotted out of the Book of Life, but never from the Lamb's Book of Life.

Following judgement, the old earth will be destroyed, not by water as was promised to Noah, but possibly by fire (2 Pet. 3:4-14). A new heaven and earth will be created and the inhabitable space of the earth will increase by two thirds since there will "no longer be any sea". Additionally, this new earth may be larger and totally different from what we now know. God will live on earth with his people and it will be an existence without death, disease, decay, sadness, loneliness, or pain. For those interested in more details about Heaven, Randy Alcorn has written an exhaustive book on the subject, called "Heaven". It is voluminous, but there is an abridged version.

Well, we did it! Thank you guys for hanging in there and being the accountability I needed to accomplish what I believe God called me to this year. I plan to read back through the Chronological Bible since I have forgotten more than I learned. I will leave the blog up so that I can tweak it as I read. I would encourage all of you to keep combing through the Bible and invite others to join you. There are a number of "read through the Bible in a year" systems, so you may want to try a different format for 2011. Whatever you do, stay with the discipline you have developed. I appreciate all of your encouragement as well as your faithfulness.

Tomorrow's reading: GENESIS!!!