If you believe the statistics, some US Christians will sit on their hands instead of voting in the upcoming elections.  I’ve known a few of these types in my life, their motto is, “Muh principles!” Not wanting to get their hands dirty by participating in such a worldly and political process as voting or soiling their self-perceived perfection with choosing among imperfect candidates who are sinners, they view themselves as too pure (they’re not), too holy (they’re not), too honorable (they’re not), and far too Christian to vote (no comment).

Then they complain as the spiritual and world problems they claimed to care about
get worse and evil runs amok. 

“Where was God?” they ask. 
He might reply, “Where were YOU when I gave YOU a choice of direction to go
and YOU did NOTHING?”

Should faithful Christians vote? 
Perhaps the better question is, “Do you believe God is sovereign, or not?”

“But I don’t like the choices,” you might say.  Sorry.  These are the choices God gave you…if you believe He is sovereign.  Jesus is not on the ballot and frankly, couldn’t win a primary if the world gets a vote.  Remember, they voted to crucify Him the last time.  Your choices will only be sinners because that’s all that’s left.

What does it say about your faith if you don’t accept that He laid these choices before you because you don’t like the process He used?  The Bible has an answer to that and is replete with examples of choices where you might wish for a few other alternatives.  Let’s look at a few:

Salvation in Christ alone. You might wonder, “Can’t there be another way for my loved one who doesn’t like Jesus?” Nope. Not if our God is real, His Word is true, and He is sovereign.  That choice is literally life or death.  Don’t sit it out.   Choose Jesus.

Promised Land.  God says to the Israelites, “I’m giving this land to you.” (Numbers 13-14) The spies–1 leader (ahem, LEADER) from each tribe—they go into the Promised Land for 40 days of reconnaissance (ewww….how worldly!)  Ten spies returned and said (paraphrased), Nah, I think I’ll pass. In a frightened whimpering voice, they say, “There’s big giants in there and I don’t want to die. Let’s go back to Egypt.”  In effect, their hearts said, “Yeah, God, well I don’t believe You are sovereign, capable, powerful, or wise.  I don’t like that choice. I think I’ll just sit this out.”  God says (paraphrased), Fine, sit it out. In the desert…for forty years…until you die. As your children reap what you sowed for their future.

Choose the direction of faith or the direction of judgment.
That’s what’s really on the ballot in any election.
And it’s nothing new.

Choose Life.  God says, it’s not always candidates I give you for choosing because under the surface of any candidate, there is a core direction you choose to travel. 

Deuteronomy 30:19 “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

What would it say if you decided to sit this one out?  Life? Death? I am too pure.  Choosing is just too worldly. I’ll just do nothing. You chose nothing and God has something to say about doing nothing.

Parable of the Talents/Minas. (In Matthew 25 it’s talents/gold and appears just before the sheep-and-goats judgment passage. In Luke, it occurs just before the Triumphal Entry. And don’t fool yourself. These are not coincidences).

Luke 19:12 Jesus said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’  14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’  15 He was made king, however, and returned home.”   

Then you know the story. Each person had a choice regarding action.  Blessing followed those who worked with the system given to them.  Some of the people put their allotted talents to work and earned a return on investment and were blessed, but one guy decided to sit this one out.  It didn’t go well for him because it spoke to what he believed about his master, “a hard man”.  Make no mistake, sitting it out reveals what you think of God.

Give to Caesar and Give to God. It’s in all 3 synoptic gospels (Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 2) and about something as political as paying taxes (ewww… so worldly!). People overlook that. I get it, some people think that giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s to them means unchristian people are the only ones who should vote—but they shouldn’t because they are too pure and the political process, too corrupt. 

Do you see how that notion results in placing Christian cultural values under the authority of the world and its cultural values?  By their choice not to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, they are also not giving to God what is God’s.  They are not watching their life OR their doctrine closely and the nations pay the price when God’s values are subsumed under the world’s.

In case you can’t tell, I believe that people who sit it out are fooling only themselves and it speaks to the heart of their faith (or lack of faith) in God and His ability to use processes to both bless and judge us. God uses processes to judge us, so we’ll return to Him.  If we go into another round of judgment, the unbelievers and sit-it-outers will own it and hopefully wake up to return to God.  Just like the kids in the desert, faithful Christians will also suffer in punishment for the sake of those who are unfaithful.

Now, for those who decide they can no longer sit it out, Christians first and foremost know their doctrine given by the God they love, they know the WAY.  Christians PRAY.  Then Christians OBEY by putting their choice to work. 

And finally, Christians trust no matter the outcome that our sovereign God is working His will and is not thwarted by some political process.  (Wow, I’m sorry people, I really wanted My will to prevail, but phooey! Things were just too political, you know.  You see, there was this electoral college, and I just couldn’t get it done.  Sorry people, I tried really hard.  SERIOUSLY? That does not happen with a sovereign God.)  We may get more judgment for where we’ve chosen as a nation in this election, but God’s will prevails, nonetheless.

One final thing about politics.  Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection were political. His return will be highly political.  King of Kings.  Lord of Lords.  The government (ahem) will be upon His shoulders (Isaiah 9:6-7).  You can ignore politics, but it won’t ignore you and says more about your faith in God than you may realize.  Faith without deeds is dead. That’s sitting it out.

“Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that– and shudder… 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone….faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:18-26)

Way, Pray, Obey.  It’s not that hard.

At this point in Revelation, with God’s Church safely off the earth, the nations of Gog and Magog will descend like a cloud upon peaceful Israel (in the Great Battle of Ezekiel 38-39).  Israel, it is written, is recovered from war, has been gathered to the mountains of Israel and is living in safety. 

Time out. If Jesus already returned and was ruling for a Millennium on an earthly kingdom, is there a SECOND “Second Coming” and final war that comes from Ezekiel 38 and in Revelation 20:1-3, 7-9 with Gog and Magog?

What if it is a Millennium of Jesus’ uncontested reign on earth … as it is in heaven? With Satan incapacitated, mankind experiences the kind of peace that man alone can bring–at best–when spiritual realm evil is sidelined. To display that man in his own power and strength and wisdom…can never bring enduring peace. Only Christ can do that.

Perhaps it’s an odd view of the Millennium, but somehow one must expect that even after the Antichrist (Beast) is killed in Revelation 19:19-21, there is yet another war against Satan after a time of peace (which clearly the Middle East is not experiencing at present).

The two tandem passages are:
Revelation 20:7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth– Gog and Magog– and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

Ezekiel 38:8 In future years you [Gog and Magog] will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety.  9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.

Here’s how it happens:

Ezekiel 38:10 “‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you [Gog and Magog] will devise an evil scheme. 11 You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people– all of them living without walls and without gates and bars.”

Suddenly the nations of Gog and Magog (just as in Revelation) show up to invade for the final battle, coinciding with the release of the dragon (Satan) from the Abyss. 

Exactly who are Gog and Magog? 
First, they’re aligned with Satan which tells you they’re not good. 

Interestingly, scholars point out the names from Ezekiel 38 and 39 as being an alliance between Black Sea regions/Russia, Iran, Turkey, and/or the nations from Psalm 83 that currently encircle modern Israel.  Either way, they’re God’s enemies…or more accurately, God is their enemy.

I often wonder how much of that is a scholarly superimposing of our modern world, but the truth is no one actually knows for sure which nations will rise against the Messianic Kingdom in the end, only that it will happen. That battle will be happening on this earth as a dim reflection of what’s been going on in heaven, now with the final defeat of evil.

Scene shift: in heaven, there is silence (Revelation 8:1-4) before the Seventh Seal is opened, and before the bowls of wrath are poured out on the unbelieving world who hated Christ. The prayers of the saints are heard. Particularly there are prayers for protection and vindication and reminding God that ultimately every enemy of the Jews is foremost God’s enemy.

Isaiah 64:8 You, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.

Psalm 83:1 O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. 2 See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads. 3 With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. 4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.” 5 With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you.

God’s people know that their enemies are first and ultimately God’s enemies,
so the saints invite God’s final vindication
of the faithful ones among their countrymen in Israel and of God Himself. 
God will not remain silent forever.
Patience has an end.

The Church has not replaced the Jews, whom Scripture says will someday look upon the One they have pierced and mourn.  Before they are delivered (importantly!) by faith as Paul indicates with grafting back in (Romans 11:17-32), there will be a sign and a seal.

Revelation 12:1 “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth… 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.  6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”

The Sign describes the faithful Jewish people who are heirs with Gentiles on account of Christ, the Son who was born and snatched up to God.  As in Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37, when the sun, moon, and stars bowed down, it was a picture of the tribe of Jacob, Israel.  But moreover because of Christ and being co-heirs, it’s also a picture of God’s people together. 

Someone will flee to the wilderness.  But who?

Jesus said, Luke 21:17 Everyone will hate you because of me… 20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.  22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.

(It’s those in Jerusalem and Judea… the Jews.)

Luke 21: 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.

(Which people?  The Jews, contrasted with the Gentiles.
Jews receive the wrath of man at the hands of other nations, the Gentiles.)

Luke 21:24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

All the signs are in process for a coming Tribulation. We can all feel the “birth pains” as Jesus called them in Matthew 24:8. But what about the Jews?

Jesus says that before He returns, Jerusalem will be surrounded, Judea will flee to the wilderness, there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and on the earth the nations will be in anguish at the tossing of the sea (chaos of evil).  During the first half of the Great Tribulation, all of God’s people remaining on earth will be persecuted, both Jew and Gentile. (If you want the math displaying the midpoint: i.e., figurative 1,290 days of wilderness in Revelation 12:6 … cut short as Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, to 1,260 days which corresponds to the forty-two months of Revelation 13:5 after which the two witnesses then preach for the other 1,260 days in Revelation 11:3.)

Mark 13:24 “But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

The four winds.  Hold that thought.

The Tribulation comes, but we’ll all be sealed.  Christians are sealed by the Holy Spirit indwelling, and tribes of Israel are the sealed 144,000 who understand Christ in the wilderness and will recognize Him as the political leader they’ve awaited, symbolically on a white horse. 

They are sealed by God Himself in the heavenly realms in Revelation 7: 1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.”

I’ll be honest: I don’t know how it works, but it seems that somehow those in the wilderness who have been sealed by God will not be raptured with the Church but remain as witnesses as God testifies that He is the God of Israel.

Zechariah 12:3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves… 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’

Some remaining Jews will recognize their God (who is our God as co-heirs). Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

Zechariah 12:7 “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem… 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

Those sealed will say in their hearts that He is God, they’ll look upon Him, and repent.  Confess and repent. Delivered, not from death because they’ll be martyred (see Revelation 20:4), but delivered from God’s final wrath.

It is not another way to God, Nope, Pope, there are not many paths to God (Pope Francis, arrgh!).

There’s only one way: by faith in Christ (the exact same way as all people who are saved). Jews in a number of fullness will have been sealed (as God’s people who are all sealed by God) … in order to be delivered into Heaven as God pours out His wrath on a world that hates Him in the final battle against the dragon (Revelation 20:7-10) since the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself.

Sign, sealed, and delivered.

On earth, those people remaining (none of whom had been raptured or had their bodies changed) would be those left behind. They also were not in the antichrist’s (beast’s) army that already died and were food for the birds, but were others, maybe fence-sitters or absent from the scene in the rest of the unbelieving world (Gog and Magog’s aligned peoples).

The unbelieving world can still technically reproduce because they are flesh and blood, and with a thousand years to live in peace, one would imagine they will choose to do so. The fact there are still people at the end of a thousand years speaks to that.

The assembled army in Revelation 19:11-21 never actually fought a battle against God.  Heaven stood open, and in the vision, John sees Jesus as the political leader on a horse with the armies of heaven (angels), ruling with a scepter of iron and the sword of the Spirit, Word of God coming out of His mouth. From Heaven, at His Word, the beast and false prophet are captured, and their armies of men die on earth.  Bird food.

If God could create the world with His Word,
and still the churning seas with His Word,
He can certainly destroy the earth’s inhabitants in the same way, by His Word.

While that was a decisive battle in the earthly war (one that surely all unbelieving earth-dwelling peoples would learn about in a technological age), there will be a second, final battle that will not happen until after the Millennium.  The beast who falsely promised peace and the false prophet are now publicly out of the way (having been captured alive and thrown into the fiery lake of sulfur). That’s earth.

Then, in the spiritual realm, an angel comes down out of heaven to bind Satan for a thousand years, and there will be a peaceful Millennium credited to Christ.  On earth as it is in heaven.  The beast who falsely promised peace is gone so not to confuse anyone with whose peace it is. It’s clearly and unmistakably the peace of Christ. With no more excuse of “the devil made me do it,” and no more of activity of deception in the spiritual realm as Satan currently works today, there will be a period of Christ’s rule on the earth.

The unbelieving world will be ruled in a Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” 
The spiritual realm is at lull of war, a thousand-year standstill of peace. 
A calm before the storm.

The result will be pure testimony to earth-dwellers of the peace Jesus brings…peace with God (it testifies because the saints are gone! They were raptured to Heaven where they rule) and peace of God earth-dwellers now experience on earth for a thousand years.

It is this final testimony that man’s good works alone can’t save
(and moreover, rejection of Jesus and His true peace)
that prepare the unbelieving world
for the righteous justice of God in the final battle and final judgment. 

Shockingly, they’ll rush to side with the devil even after all that peace! There will be no remaining doubt that when the righteous judgment of God arrives with His wrath, they deserved it, welcomed it, and wanted it rather than worship a God they truly hate. Their sin nature and love of sin will prove an enduring obstacle too great for human nature alone to solve.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

It’s why Jesus came as Savior before He comes as Judge.

Now, with that uncomfortable topic of Tribulation Martyrs out of the way, we can be consistent in saying all believers (Jew and Gentile heirs together) will no longer be “flesh and blood.”  They will not marry.  They will not have kids in the Millennium.  They all reign with Christ for a thousand years. 

So, who do they rule over?

That requires a view of Revelation that is not a chronological, linear view but a holistic view…in which the same events are retold along with different scenes revealed due to different angles.

My overarching paradigm is:
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
(Matthew 6:10)

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Remember, Ephesians 6:12 “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (italics added to show that this is in the spiritual realm, not in Heaven per se).

Were one to view Revelation as linear or chronological, in Revelation 19, Jesus returns riding a horse with His armies, and they fight (on earth) the armies of the world. The bad guys die—indeed all of them, Scripture says—and they are eaten by birds.  Then comes the peaceful reign of Christ with the saints helping… for a thousand years…of ruling over …(who?) I guess nobody but each other … while on the earth.  But at the end when Satan is loosed for a little while because he “must” be then the devil deceives people from the far corners, Gog and Magog. 

Uh, where did Gog and Magog come from?  Weren’t they already dead and bird food? 
It makes no sense with a chronological reading.

But if we view it more holistically, John receives visions of the new events and new visions of the same events with new perspectives for new purposes.  On earth as it is in heaven.  (It’s not a simple repeat, but through a different lens).  The altar, thrones and resurrected souls (Revelation 6:9 and 20:4) are in Heaven as events continue to transpire on earth. 

John records them in an order because that’s how narratives are written.  So, it’s not quite like “flashback scenes” in a movie as concurrent events advance the story without a split-screen, but it’s a familiar way to try to understand a holistic format since we can’t see two arenas fully and simultaneously.

In Heaven they are accomplishing God’s Kingdom come, His will be done, “on earth as it is in heaven.”  When the Millennial Kingdom does come, they’re reigning and ruling…from Heaven…but their reign and rule is experienced…in the spiritual realm but importantly, also on our physical earth as we presently know it. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

How does that work? Just as in our present day, a time in which Jesus called Satan the prince of this world, we’re being spiritually ruled. Hold that thought: spiritually ruled. But Jesus also said Satan now stands condemned (John 16:11) and Ephesians 2:2 says, people followed evil “ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” If we can be ruled by evil spiritually, so too, there will be a time when righteousness and peace will rule the earth when Satan is bound, and God’s Kingdom comes. God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.” Hallelujah!!

It’s complicated trying to understand the spiritual realm. But Scripture says there will be a Millennium of Christ’s rule. The unbelieving world still on earth will be spiritually ruled by peace and righteousness credited to Christ; they will have seen a physical army of evil destroyed and eaten by birds to put the fear of God into them; and now they will see what human nature alone can accomplish–in a thousand years of a world free from evil influences.

To see what man in his sinful, broken nature can accomplish apart from God.
Spoiler Alert: Nothing…

Last time we saw that at the Rapture, bodies of believers from all generations will rise.  They will also be changed.

 “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable…I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:42, 50-52)

Just as Jesus was raised from the dead and had His resurrection body, so too will we. These new bodies will not be “flesh and blood.”  This is important. In fact, it’s so important that Jesus reiterated it for us in 3 of the 4 Gospels. 

Luke 20:34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.”

A corrective to Mormonism and certain other religions, Jesus says that these bodies will not reproduce or get married.  Jesus said that we’ll be “like the angels” in heaven.

Why is this important?  I was listening to Dr. David Jeremiah (who, by the way, I like) and he asked the question if the Millennial Kingdom is inherited only by saints, then who gets sent to hell along with Satan upon his release at the end of the Millennium?  He suggested it is the adult offspring…children, grandchildren, great grandchildren of the saints who survived the Tribulation since faith is not passed down.

This is a truly unfortunate downside of believing that the Rapture must happen before the Tribulation begins.  It limits the future outcomes so that people who refused to bow down to the beast and are powerful witnesses and true heroes of faith during the Tribulation don’t get to meet Christ in the air, their bodies are not changed even during the peaceful Millennial reign of Christ, and their sinful kids get thrown in hell after Satan is released. 

Just wow. 

I’m sorry, but I have a terrible time reconciling that with a God who shows no favoritism and whose own self-description says this: “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deuteronomy 5:9-10)

Where is the love?  Are the Tribulation Martyrs substandard believers?

I do not believe that the Rapture gets all the good little Christians out before everything hits the fan.  I think that is a misguided evangelical hope meant to placate people who don’t want to suffer an actual test of their faith. I don’t know, maybe God will send them into sleep, and they’ll be part of those who are resurrected first from the dead.  But this I do know: my God didn’t spare the Israelites the Passover event.  They were passed over.  He protected them by their faith.  He didn’t spare the exiles but preserved a remnant…by faith.  Therefore, my evangelical hope is that God preserves us through it.  We witness by our faith in Christ despite persecution.  It calls for courage and bravery and most of all, shielding by the Holy Spirit on account of our faith.

It coheres with Revelation 20:4 “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They 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 a thousand years.” (italics added)

If the rapture of all believers already occurred before the Tribulation begins, how did these Tribulation survivors end up in heaven? For faithful survivors of the Tribulation, these martyrs, their bodies will have been changed to reign with Christ and they won’t reproduce or have any new children to send into hell. So, who is left? There’s more to the story…

No.  We are not in the Millennial Kingdom.  We’re not even at the Rapture yet.  With that out of the way, let’s take a final multi-part look at how Jews and Christians are heirs together…in a way that coheres with Scripture.

“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:6)

There’s more mystery beyond that mystery in the theology of Paul:
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’  As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.  Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.  For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:25-32)

How does that relate to the rapture of the Church, the Tribulation, and the Millennial Kingdom spoken about in Revelation 20 and being “heirs together”?

The Gospel is the foundation for the first resurrection.  Jesus is our model…Who Scripture calls the author/pioneer and finisher/perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

“For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

The deciding factor will be faith. It will also be orderly. 

“1Thessalonians 4:15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

The Lord will come down from heaven into the air, then the dead in Christ (the saints Old Testament era and New) will rise first.  Faith “credited as righteousness” Jews looking forward to Christ will be there along with Jewish (like the disciples) and Gentile believers in Christ in the New Testament era.

“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). 

Again, the deciding factor is whether one is “in Christ” or apart from Him. 
So, the question each of us needs to ask ourselves is “Am I in Christ or apart from Him?”

.

Now we come to a controversial part of Ezekiel 37, even more than who constitutes the “whole house of Israel.”

Ezekiel 37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them.

God says that they will be His people, and He will be their God. One nation. In the land, on the mountains of Israel. It’s hard to see how anyone can interpret that as anything other than geography.

Verse 24 “‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd.

It’s a Messianic reference and Jesus, Son of David…prophecy fulfilled, King, Shepherd and priest.

 “They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live…”

 Where?

 “in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived.”

There you go.  In their own land, the land given way back at the beginning of being a chosen people.

I know some people are upset at the idea of the Jews possessing the land (even while allowing free passage or choice to live in Israel by Arabs) instead of a “two state solution” but it’s a fact that many Arabs already live in Israel.  Peacefully, to the credit of both.  

In fact, of the hostages recently in the news (importantly they are hostages NOT prisoners of war because they were taken before the war broke out) an Arab Israeli was rescued alive…but all those who were Jewish, including an American, were killed by Hamas.  There is obviously no peaceful coexistence in the minds of terrorists and even if a two-state solution were to prevail as a solution, it’d be temporary. One cannot live in peace with terrorists sleeping on your doorstep.

But someday, God will bring the “whole house of Israel” back to live–in peace–in the land He gave to Jacob. When in the future is unclear, but the fact of it is as sure as God’s Word.

Continuing our look at Jews and Christians being heirs together though the finished work of Jesus Christ, Ezekiel gives us another word about unity.

Ezekiel 37:15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Ephraim’s stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. 

The enduring tribe of Judah would be joined with what are often considered the “lost tribes.”  Carried into exile and perceived as lost among the nations, absorbed, assimilated, and extinct as a people group?  God says, “Nope. Still a people to Me.”

God Himself gathers and brings together. 

Ezekiel 37:18 “When your countrymen ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph– which is in Ephraim’s hand– and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’  20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.

Just as Joseph was thought dead to his brothers and father, only to be restored to them, so too, the faithful from the “lost tribes” will be restored as the remnant plucked bit by bit out of the nations to which they’d gone.  

We don’t have to figure out who they are. All we have to do is trust God with His clearly stated Word. God knows who they are and where they are.  God gathers.  God brings together.  God joins in unity.