The Millennial Reign of Christ (part 4)
The Transition
Going back to the beginning of this period, I want to focus on the transition between the Tribulation and the Millennial reign. As has happened throughout human history, the events of one age have consequences in the next. The first couple ate fruit that they should not have eaten, and as a result every age has suffered the consequences of sin.
The sins of early humanity resulted in judgment and destruction, which led to billions of fossils being embedded in the rocks, which are still here to this day. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not resign the day Jesus died on the cross, nor even at His resurrection. In fact Israel, as a whole, is still as far from God as they were during the life of Isaiah, and Elijah.
While the Jewish disciples of Jesus, who saw Him after his resurrection, made the transition into the Church age, most of their countrymen were left behind. The people who were born during the closing days of the age of Israel, lived on into the Church age, and their choices followed them from one age into the next. The same will be true in the early years of the Millennial Kingdom.
Those who have truly received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour during the Church age, will be raptured before the return of the last seven years of the Age of Israel. They will be with Christ as the judgment of the Antichrist falls on the world.
The same will be true of the transition period between the final seven years, and the Millennial age.
Zechariah 13:8 speaks of 2/3 of Israel dying during the war with the Antichrist. I cannot say how many of them will die at the hands of the Antichrist, for following Jesus, and how many will die for rebelling against him. Jesus told us that when the Abomination of Desolation occurs in the Temple, all His followers are to flee to the wilderness, where He will protect them. Fighting the Antichrist with guns and bombs is not obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The problem is that men, being men, almost always seek to be heroes. When the Abomination of Desolation is set up, most of the men of Israel will realize that this man is the Little Horn, and they will rebel against him. I can’t say for certain, but human nature being what it is, I would not be surprised if there will be some professing Christians/Messianics in Israel who tell their wives “Go on ahead, and I will join you after we defeat this Little Horn”.
They have been raised on the stories of Hanukkah, where the Maccabees defeated Antiochus Epiphanes, the first little horn, and it will only be natural to think they can do the same with this second Little Horn. This man, however, cannot be defeated by carnal means, as was Antiochus.
The prophet Isaiah tells us what will happen to those who fight the Beast and his armies;
And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; andburning instead of beauty. 25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. Isaiah 3:24-26
As has happened in so many wars throughout history, the young men march off to war, and perish in the battle field.
There is a cause-and-effect between this passage and the next verse;
1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. Isaiah 4:1
Some pastors, and scholars, believe this is an indictment against Israel; that this is the cause of the previous statements, but it is not. This is the result of her men perishing in the war of the previous chapter, verse 25 to be exact.
Israel’s indictment occurs earlier in chapter 3, from verse 16-23. The pride and haughtiness of the women of Israel, at the beginning of the Tribulation will be replaced by holiness, humility, and faith.
These seven women are representative of all the women of Israel, and indeed all the women of the world, for as their men are fighting each other, some of their women will be seeking the Lord. And, they will find Him!
Isaiah 4:1 takes place after the Lord Jesus returns, and after the dust of battle has settled. People are not thinking of having a family as death and destruction rains down on their heads, they are only thinking of survival. This verse occurs after Jesus has set up His government, and after he is done destroying His enemies with the sword from His mouth.
Now that peace is finally here, and now as they can look forward to a long life during the reign of Jesus Christ on earth, these women find that there are only enough men for one in seven women to marry!
Imagine yourself being one of these young women, many of whom will be only in their teens. You are carried aloft by angels (Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27) and watch as the earth changes beneath your feet. You watch as Jesus destroys His enemies, and then as the earth changes with the biggest earthquakes in history. You are let down to earth with nothing left to fear, with a thousand year life span beckoning, and then you realize that the majority of survivors are young women, like yourself!
This presents a problem for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He has declared that it is His plan to populate the earth, and now He has inherited a world full of women, with only one man for every seven women.
Should He demand that only one in seven women marry and have a family? Should these women live throughout the Millennial reign as spinsters? What of the “desire of women” that He has put in their hearts?
Should the children of the one-in-seven be required to support six other old women, as well as their own parents?
This is what most Christians teach about marriage, and this is what would happen during the Millennial reign if God were to follow the teachings of most Christian churches. If God were to follow this ideology the Millennial reign of Christ would be a time of extreme hardship for those who live through it, and a time of extreme loneliness for six out of seven women who survive through the Tribulation.
This is what would happen if God were to follow the teachings of most Christian churches, but God has already provided His solution to the problem in Isaiah 4:1. The men and women of this verse are spoken of later in verses 3 and 4
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
These men and women are survivors of the Tribulation and are 100% believers in Jesus Christ. They are holy men and women of God, and the request they are making in verse 1 is not only by permission, but inspired by their God!
Look at verse 2
In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
Jesus is the Branch, and this event takes place in the early days of His reign! This is why God never said polygamy is wrong; Because He has a plan for it for the Millennial reign of Christ!
Here’s the amazing thing; This is only for one generation! These people will have children in the same male/female ratio that the human race has always had, roughly 50/50. Since there will be no more war, and the earth will experience prosperity as never before, there will not be a need for polygamy after this generation!
For every boy there will be a girl born, and every man will have enough money to support his family. There will be no more poverty.
This generation, however, will live throughout the Millennial reign, like Methuselah, and even longer. They will be a witness to their descendants of the events of the Tribulation. They will warn their them about the dangers of rebellion against the Lord, as witnesses who have seen the Lord’s wrath first hand.
Their eight person families will stand-out like a sore thumb to their descendants. The strangeness of it will prompt many a young person to ask his ancestor something like; “Great, Great, Great, Great Grandpa, why is it that you have seven wives when every other man I know has only one?” This will give the old man the opportunity to tell his descendant about the events of the Tribulation, and hopefully some of them will be saved. The others, however, will take part in the final rebellion at the end of the thousand years!
The Tie-In with the Antichrist’s Kingdom
Satan has a counterfeit for everything, including the Tribulation, the Messiah, and the Millennial reign. God knew this from the beginning, and this is why He gives us a multitude of warnings throughout the Scriptures.
In order to discern the counterfeits we need to know the original.
Since God has a plan for polygamy, Satan has been working overtime to delegitimize this practise. As I studied the biblical teachings on this practise, I also had a look at its role throughout history. Funny thing, though, I was not actually looking for polygamy in history, but simply reading about history, and the nations of the world.
While I found that virtually every nation, including those in Europe and Britain, practised polygamy at some point in history, the Greek and Roman empires actually outlawed the practise.
This fact should give us pause to think; Were the Greeks and Romans more moral than Israel?
The very same reason that God will allow this practise in the Millennial Kingdom, are the same reasons that He has allowed it throughout history. The human race has been at war throughout recorded history, and the majority of the victims of those wars are the young men.
God is the one who has given women the desire to have a husband and children (Genesis 3:16), and He didn’t give it to them so they would be frustrated, and disappointed, because their men would be killed in mankind’s wars.
It is God’s love, and provision, that permits women to have children to love, and to care for them in their old-age. This is why He gave them this desire, and it is also because He loves people and desires to see the world full of them. All people were created for God’s glory, even those who reject Him!
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18
Jesus Christ will inherit the planet immediately after the greatest war in human history, and while the whole population of earth will be devastated, the male population will suffer the lion’s share of His wrath!
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. Isaiah 13:11-13
“I will make a man more precious than fine gold” is not a reference to men being good, but rather to men being rare, the way gold is rare, in relation to iron.
The Antichrist, who will attempt to convince the world that he is the Messiah, will inherit the world in a very similar way to Jesus Christ. He will take over after a huge war, which many will think is the same war as Armageddon; the Gog and Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39. Indeed this war is so similar to Armageddon that many today still think it is the same war, but it is not!
Notice how the armies of Gog are devastated in a similar way to the Tribulation wars;
And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: Ezekiel 39:2
Notice that only one sixth of the attacking armies will survive the war, to eventually return home. This will leave six women for each of these men. Since the Gog/Magog armies are primarily Muslim, the natural solution for this problem would be that each man would marry six women, and this way each woman can have a husband and a family.
This will be the time of the rise of the Antichrist, and Daniel tells us that His response to this problem will be the exact opposite of Jesus Christ, when confronted with the same issue;
36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. 37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. 38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things Daniel 11:36-37
Polygamy has been enshrined in the Qur’an, as a practise that is sanctioned by Islam’s God. The Antichrist, coming from a Muslim background, could be expected to continue with the practises of his ancestors, but instead, he will prohibit both Shariah (Islamic law) and polygamy.
Because most Christians follow their own traditions on this subject, rather than the biblical teachings, most professing Christians will take this action as a sign that this man is a Christian!
Thus, Satan is able to take this clear sign of the Antichrist, and make it into something that most professing Christians will take as an indication that they should support this man!
Rather than encouraging women to live holy lives, prohibiting polygamy will have the effect of making many women into “man hunters”, attempting to steal a man from his wife, or having illicit affairs! This way the Antichrist will actually cause sin to increase, all the while appearing pious to undiscerning “Christians”!
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