WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN CHRIST RETURNS ? There’s two popular views…. 1)Premillennial 2)Amillennial
THEY BOTH HAVE TO DO WITH WHAT’S CALLED “THE MILLENNIUM” Did you say the Millennium Falcon? No, just the millennium. It’s the Latin word for a 1,000.
IT’S A REFERENCE TO REVELATION 20 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit[a] and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years , and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. …
IT’S A REFERENCE TO REVELATION 20 Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years . The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years .”
BUT IS IT A LITERAL 1,000 YEARS OR IS IT SYMBOLIC ? Those who read Revelation literally are “Millennialists.”
Those who read it symbolically are “ Amillennialists ” Ah . . . that would be us Lutherans
MILLENNIALISTS LIKE TO CALL CHRIST’S RETURN “THE RAPTURE” That word is not in the Bible but the idea is. It refers to being “caught up in the air” (that’s right, flying to Jesus in the sky). “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:15-17).
According to this passage, there will be people who are “alive and remain” when Christ returns. So we do not need to fear a “nuclear winter” in which all humans die (and the only living things left are cockroaches).
Here’s the millennial idea of what will happen at the “Rapture”
This is the time line for the end times as the Millennialists see it
Here’s what to expect at “the rapture” the way amillennialists see it
See keep looking up!
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