Where do we go from here? (April 22, 2022 newsletter)

[NOTE: Below is the newsletter we sent to our subscribers on April 22, 2022. At the bottom is a link to our video responses for comments that the newsletter generated.]

Answering a common question:

We thank you for your many comments and questions. From time to time we share these with our newsletter subscribers. This is a recent one that we thought was worth sharing, as it involves a very important subject matter.

Hello, I was hoping you could give me some clarification on something I have been taught. Upon reading the book of Revelation through different lenses than the denominational one, I am left with more questions than answers. Revelation 20:1-3. Talks about Satan being bound for a 1000 years and having a seal over him whilst he is in the bottomless pit, so he cannot deceive the nations. My question is….. if everyone is in Heaven during that 1000 years period, why does Satan need to be bound and who are the nation’s that he cannot deceive? I have been taught that the earth is desolate during this period, but that teaching does not fit with what the scripture says. Do you have any thoughts you may like to share on this?

Because this is such a common question, that has more importance than people may understand, we are sharing the question and our answer in this week’s newsletter. Here was our response:

Thank you for your questions.

I find the millennium, as it were, a diamond that has many facets, and from each angle, it is perfect in its beauty. I have dedicated a number of videos to the millennium teaching, which I highly recommend that you view. (I will provide a couple of links for starters at the bottom of this reply.)

In regard to everyone being in heaven during the 1000 years, this simply is not true. Revelation 19:17-21 reveals a great slaughter of wicked people at the Second Coming of Yeshua. According to Messianics, they will reign on the earth during the 1000 years. Questions: How does this fit with Revelation 19? Where is the bottomless pit wherein satan is bound for his 1000 years? Is there a chain big and strong enough to bind satan, or is this figurative (like many things in the Bible)?

With these two divergent interpretations of Scripture (millennium on earth, millennium in heaven) only one can be correct. One must be the truth of God, the other a deception of satan. When faced with two obvious contradictions, one way that helps me distinguish between the two is considering what each view tells us about the Father, and how each view would help promote satan’s lies. Consider the glory that God will receive by being able to take His redeemed into heaven as a display to His entire universal creation. Consider the advantage to satan at being able to pull off his deception that we we stay here on earth for the millennium. This makes perfect sense considering that he is not able to take people to heaven, therefore, he must deceive them on this point.

My personal belief is that the teaching that the millennium on earth for the righteous is one of the most deceptive teachings in all of modern theology. It is, in fact, one of the lies that satan will need people to believe in order for him to fulfill his grand deception of being the returned Messiah prior to Yeshua’s Second Coming. He lacks the ability to take anyone to heaven, which is immediate proof of the deception, unless you have already fallen into the deception that the millennium is on earth.

Yeshua, in John 13:36 tells His disciples “where I am going you cannot follow me NOW, but you SHALL follow me afterward.” He then tells them that “I go to prepare a place for you [at my Father’s house], … and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you will be also.” (John 14:2-3) Clearly, Yeshua is stating that His followers are going to the Father’s house with Him at the Second Coming. To say that we do not go to heaven with Yeshua, but rather remain on the earth, is a clear conflict with the red letters of Scripture.

Your question suggests that you find Scripture to state that the earth is not desolate during the 1000 years. When one considers the absolute destruction that happens in the last few years of earth’s history before the Second Coming, i.e. the seven last plagues, this earth will not be able to sustain life until it is re-created after the millennium. This concurs with Yeshua’s own words again, that “unless those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved.” I would suggest that the earth is desolate for the 1000 years, and I believe that Scripture (Revelation 19, Isaiah 24:1-7, et al.) clearly supports this position. [Regarding Isaiah 24 “few men are left”: watch our video on the 144,000, found here: https://youtu.be/RNOfvbQChm0]

God will have the earth at rest for the 7th millennium, and the earth will enjoy her Sabbaths. “…until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths as long as she lay desolate, she kept the Sabbath…” – 2 Chronicles 36:21. While this refers to Israel’s captivity, the principle still applies. This resting would apply to the weekly Sabbath, the annual Sabbaths, the Sabbatical years, the Jubilee years, and the millennial Sabbath. This is only one of the many facets on the diamond.

In regard to the nations: Revelation 19:15 “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword that with it, He should strike the nations.” If Yeshua strikes down the (evil) nations and takes the righteous with Him to His Father’s house, there are no nations left on earth for satan to deceive, thus he will no longer deceive the nations during the time that the evil are all dead and the redeemed are in heaven with Yeshua. He is “bound” by a set of circumstances that leaves him without subjects to deceive as he roams an empty earth for 1000 years, viewing the destruction that he has brought on. It seems to me that this is perfect justice by a righteous God.

God has declared the boundaries of our habitations (Acts 17:26) – that means that we are “bound” on earth now, just like satan will be “bound” on earth during the millennium. In regard to the location of his bounds, the Bible tells us it is the bottomless pit. This actually is a perfect representation of the creation of the earth before God started to decorate it. In other words, satan has reduced this earth to a vast desolation likened to before its creation in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep…” Therefore, the earth is reduced to where it will not and cannot support life until its re-creation after the millennium according to Revelation 20:1, 4-5, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new…’”

Clearly, there are four groups when Yeshua returns: the righteous who have died, the wicked who have died, the righteous who are living, and the wicked who are living. The wicked living are slain at His coming. Revelation 19:17-21, Psalm 2:7-9 “I will declare the decree: Yehovah has said to me, “You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

The righteous in their graves are raised and the righteous living meet the righteous dead in the air to be ever with Yeshua (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). The wicked dead remain in their graves until the second resurrection at the end of the millennium (Revelation 20:5, 13, 15 “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished…the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works…and anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”). Those who are slain by the brightness of His coming (dashed like a potter’s vessel) are resurrected one thousand years later at the end of the millennium. At this time, satan is released from his circumstances (being bound) because the wicked are all raised and are primed for his deception again. Revelation 20:7-8: “Now when the 1000 years have expired, satan will be released form his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.”

People do not seem to have any idea what this deception is that satan brings to the forefront. However, it is much simpler than people think. We need not go outside of the Bible, in fact, we need not go outside of Genesis to see what this deception is. He told Eve that she could have her sin (eating the fruit) and become like God. In other words, “you shall not surely die.” You see, this is satan’s ultimate and timeless deception that he has used through his history on humanity: we can have both our sin and salvation. This could not be farther from the truth. We are told in Revelation that satan rallies the innumerable multitude to surround the heavenly Jerusalem which has come down to earth. The question begs to be asked: “What is going on?” Here again, it is rather quite simple. His deception is that if they can get inside the city and access the tree of life, they will be able to live forever, while having their sin. Instead, all the wicked will face their judgment (fire out of heaven that devours them) at the end of the millennium and will receive their reward—the second death, from which there is no resurrection. Now one must ask, how does this fit the justice of a righteous God? Here again, the answer is very simple: no matter how many times the wicked would be raised, they would reject God and side with satan. The ultimate justice is allowing them to be raised again only to fall prey to the one whom they have chosen as their king.

It was in 1990 that I was disfellowshipped from a church that believed the millennium in heaven. It has been many years since I entered a door of this church. This excommunication forced me to go through everything that I had been taught, to see what was truth. I have diligently studied to know for certainty what I believe. Some of the things I was taught in this denomination I have given up (ie: some prophetic interpretations, the false idea that Yeshua fulfilled all of the feasts at the cross, etc). However, I do believe the millennial teaching of the righteous being in heaven “where…they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4) before being brought back to earth where “they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

I believe the fact that there are two separate reigns — the thousand year reign in heaven followed by the eternal reign on earth—is the major source of confusion on why people believe the millennium is on earth. They fail to understand that there are two (not just one) reigns in Revelation—the thousand year reign in heaven distinct from the eternal reign on the new earth where the Father and Son will make their eternal abode with us. This is as solid as the throne of God. I would caution you that you do not make a wholesale change on everything that you have been taught, or that you are being taught now. There is much deception in the end.

It is no coincidence that the Jews, the Christians, the Messianics, and the Muslims believe that Messiah is coming to reign on earth. That should be a red flag to everyone. You see, satan has to have people believing that he is coming back to reign here, because he can’t take anyone to heaven. Therefore, he has to have people believe he will reign here to fulfill his grand deception, when the whole world (save God’s elect) will worship him prior to the Second Coming of Christ. “…I will sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north.” (Isaiah 14:13). “Let no one deceive you by any means…and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

This is a very condensed explanation – please watch more of our teachings for a more thorough understanding.

May Yah bless you in your continued studies on this very important truth. Proceed with caution.

Below is a video link to one of several teachings that we have that discuss the millennium:

Click here to watch the video:https://youtu.be/wjxGYK5Cjnc

This was the response we received to our answer:

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain things to me so clearly. I too have come out of the same denomination that you used to be a member of. In my journey to find truth, I have been led down the road of messianic teachings and their beliefs about the millennium being on the earth. There is doubt in my mind ,so that is my warning bell. I am struggling with this, but one of the most oddest teachings that I cannot get my head around nor accept is…… that in the millennium reign on earth, all the sacrifices will start again. How does that make any sense! And by doing sacrifices again, doesn’t that take away from the Ultimate sacrifice of Yeshua, the lamb of God! The people who believe this, site Zechariah and Ezekiel as ‘proof’. While I do not understand the prophecy in Zechariah, I’m leaning toward it having something to do with conditions of obedience, that were not honoured by Yahweh’s people. Perhaps I’m wrong. Do you have a teaching on this? Anyway thank you again for getting my thinking back on the right track and fixing my thought process on this very important subject . I will indeed proceed with caution. There are so many voices out there, all claiming to have truth and to be walking in the right path, but there can only be one. Bless you for your ministry and teachings.

To which we replied: I’m glad it was a blessing. Yes, you are right on target with your conditional understanding. There are numerous pitfalls that people make when trying to understand Bible prophecy.

You might enjoy this article that explains a number of them – conditional prophecy as well as some others that you will likely encounter on your journey: https://www.endtimesprophecy.com/bible-prophecy-101/

Here is a video specifically on the topic of conditional prophecy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv3q0lr1x3Q

A follow-up comment she also made: I got quite emotional with your answers, in a good way. I announced to my husband that Tom has restored my thought process to what I originally believed. This is a very good thing. I will not watch all the others claiming to have truth as this leads one down a path of utter confusion.

We appreciate your questions and are blessed that Our Father allows us to serve Him this way. We hope that this question and answer exchange has been a blessing to all of our readers.

May you all have a blessed Sabbath rest this week,
Tom and Judy

More on the coming deceptions: Below is a short video that tells more about the deception to come in the final days. In order to deceive the elect, the deceptions have to be far more substantial than things like Sunday and Christmas. In fact, those who are coming in the actual name of Yeshua will be the ones most likely to carry deceptions–not intentionally (most likely), but rather in sincere error. But error, grave error, nonetheless. We have found that many current Sabbath and feast-keeping teachers are setting up God’s people to fall for satan’s final deception by having them expecting the wrong thing (millennium on earth instead of being airlifted to heaven), at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Study to show yourself approved.