WHEN ALL THINGS BECOME NEW

Lesson 13 for December 29, 2012

THE BEGINNING

OF THE MILLENNIUM

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Rev. 20:1-3)

Satan won’t be able to deceive people

during the millennium. He could deceive them again

only once the millennium is

finished.

When will this truce take place?

THE BEGINNING OF THE MILLENNIUM

There are prophecies in the Old Testament about a period of time in the future when all the Earth will be completely empty.

“The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word” (Isaiah 24:3)

“I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, by His fierce anger. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be desolate; yet I will not make a full end”

(Jeremiah 4:23-27)

Satan will be able to tempt as long as there is people remaining on Earth. If nations no longer exist, he could not deceive them.

THE BEGINNING OF THE MILLENNIUM

When could the Earth be empty of inhabitants?

All human life will disappear from the face of the Earth

“in a moment, in

the twinkling of an eye” at Jesus’ Second

Coming.

The wicked will be destroyed (2Ts. 2:8; Rev. 6:15-17; Rev. 19:21)

The dead in Christ will resurrect and we will be transformed (1Co. 15:52)

All the saved will ascend to meet Jesus in the air. He will carry us to the mansions he has

prepared for us (Jn. 14:1-3; 1Ts. 4:16-17)

We will reign with Him for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4)

Satan will be tied up because the wicked will be died and the saved will be in Heaven. He could not tempt anyone.

THE MILLENNIUM“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then 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” (Revelation 20:4)

The “investigative” judgment will be the center of all work during the millennium. The saved will investigate God’s judgment on the rebels. Why is

this person in Heaven? Why isn’t that person here?

“until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom” (Daniel 7:22)

“Do you not know that the

saints will judge the

world?... Do you not know that we shall

judge angels?”(1 Corinthians 6:2-3)

THE END OF THE MILLENNIUMThe millennium ends with these events:

The wicked resurrect (Rev. 20:5)

Satan deceives them so they attack the camp of the saints –the New Jerusalem– which is coming down from Heaven (Rev. 20:7-9)

They are judged before God so they can understand why they are being condemned (Rev. 20:11-15)

They admit their guilt and “every knee” bows before God (Is. 45:23; Phil. 2:10)

All the wicked and Satan and his angels are destroyed with fire (Rev. 20:9-10, 14-15)

That fire will transform the Earth (2P. 3:7)

“But the heavens and the earth

which are now

preserved by the

same word, are

reserved for fire

until the day of

judgment and

perdition of ungodly

men”(2 Peter 3:7)

THE NEW EARTH“Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13)

God’s new creation, then, will consist of the liberation of the cosmos and the earth from their present states of incompleteness, and the bringing of them into conformity with His design. Consequently, while the new creation will definitely be different from the old, there will be some continuity between the two. Like the old, the new earth will be a real, tangible place inhabited with real, physical beings.

How will life in the New Earth be alike (Revelation 21-22)?

The New Earth will be home to human creatures.

The God Who created everything and died for us will dwell with us forever.

The separation between God and humanity that was brought about by sin will be removed.

True fellowship will be restored—not only between God and humans but between humans and nature and within nature itself.

There will be no more curse.

All animosity within the animal world will come to pass.

All that is harmful—decay, disease, death, and suffering—will be things of the past.

THE NEW EARTH

“There the redeemed shall know, even as also they are known. The loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together “the whole family in heaven and earth” (Ephesians 3:15)—these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed. There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body. All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed”

E.G.W. (The Great Controversy, cp. 43, pg. 677)