CHAPTER
TWO

Millennium Now

 
 

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"On the Third Day"

    Hosea the prophet writes a mysterious saying "After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." (KJV Hos 6:2). On the Ninth of Av, 70AD, Titus and his Roman legions captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple (as predicted by Jesus, Mt. 24:2). The Jewish people to whom Hosea is referring were without a homeland until May 14th, 1948 when the modern nation of Israel was born. According to Chiliasm, this would be two days of the great 7,000 year "Week of Human History", the fifth and sixth 1000 Year Prophetic-Day periods (from Christ to the Millennium). If that is true, then God will raise the Jewish people and make them spiritually alive again on the third day, the Millennium, in the third 1000 years from the time of Jesus.

    It is interesting to note that the Bible contains 47 references to "third day." There are 12 references in the New Testament concerning the fact that Christ was raised to life on the "third day" (Luke 24:48, Acts 10:40, 1Cor. 15:4). God may be prophetically informing us that just as Jesus was raised on the third physical earth day, the Jews will be born-again as a people on the third 1,000-year day after the rejection of their Messiah. History and contemporary events seem to be proving the correctness of this interpretation.

    Current events in the Middle East are lining up with prophetic scripture and the Jewish nation of Israel is about to enter preparatory events that will culminate in their reception of their King at the Battle of Armageddon (Zechariah 12:10). Without setting a definite day and hour, it is interesting to project the 2 days of Hosea, i.e. 2000 years, from the "revival" of Jesus from the tomb. This event in April of 30 AD plus 2,000 years would place the "third day" at the year 2030 AD. Of course, there are calendar differences and the scripture warns us against setting an exact time. This is in the realm of prophetic projection, eschatological food for thought. This author believes that our generation will see the culmination or these things.

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    Its time for some chronological inference. If Jesus was born in the Fall of 4 BC, then 2,000 years added to that date would take us to Fall 1996 AD. This would mean, according to Bishop Ussher's chronological computations, that we are now in the 7th 1,000 year period since Adam (however, there may be an interlude period or calendar adjustment required). At the time of this writing, the world is just beginning to become conscious of the impending millennial turnover. The computer industry is scrambling to save the database of the world from year 00 disaster called the Y2K Bug. On the lighter side, the inhabitants of the earth are planning and beginning to implement the end-of-century and new millennium festivities. This is in total ignorance of the clear acknowledgment by the scholarly community that the calendar is off by 4 years! If we consider a strict Julian calendar calculation, the New Millennium is now!! Not the scriptural Kingdom of Christ ruling physically on the earth (Rev. 20), but the millennial time boundary of world chronology has been crossed, and we have now been on the other side for some time!

    Matthew chapter two records that the Magi saw a star in the East and saw it as a sign from God leading them to the Christ-child. A Great astronomical phenomena heralded the First Coming of Jesus some 33 and one half years before the fulfillment of God's plan and culmination for that epiphany. I personally believe that the "star" which they saw was supernatural, but God could just as easily have moved a heavenly body to conform to His purpose. The Hebrew year 5757 (our year 1996) was bordered by two fantastic astronomical events, the two grandest comets of the latter 20th century. First came the comet Hyatake whose tail leapt high into the azimuth of the nighttime sky. Then came the much heralded Hale-Bopp comet which had two tails. In fact, I heard one astronomer exclaim on CNN that Hale-Bopp's tails looked like a bridal veil when seen through his large telescope. It would be only fitting that the coming of the Bridegroom would be accompanied by the formal trail of a celestial bridal veil. A two-tailed comet visible by the whole world is an unprecedented occurrence. Could it be that God has a sense of humor and that the two tails hint that we are about to experience the second coming of His Son?

    The ancients believed that comets predicted the birth and death of rulers. That is why the Magi traveled so far to find the King of the Jews. These two awesome sky-angels [angelos is the Greek word for messenger] came just before and just after the Fall of 1996, the end of approximately 6,000 years of secular human history as computed from biblical chronology. It had been 2,000 years since the Magi followed the "star" in the sky; and now instead of one "star" as had been the case in the first coming, there were two marvelous portents of God's sovereign plan. Two "stars" for the Second Coming and one of them having "two" tails like a bridal veil. Could it be that just as the "star" preceded the birth of Jesus the first time and His mission was completed 33 years later that the two "stars" preceding His Second coming announce the fulfillment of all things within the next 33 years (2030 AD)? The 33 years that Jesus was upon the earth may have been an interlude or transitionary period between the 4th and 5th days of the Grand Week of 7,000 years. If so, then the 7th day, the Millennum rest, would begin after 2030 (i.e. 30AD + 2000 years) and not around the year 1996.

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    The Genesis account records that God rested from all of His work in the creation process on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2, Heb. 4:4). The scripture speaks of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ as the time of great peace and rest with Jesus ruling in Jerusalem and Satan bound (Isa. 65:25, Rev. 20). This is the time of rest for all mankind. In Zechariah, the Word prophesies that all the nations of the earth shall "go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles" (14:16). This is the only feast of all the feasts of the Old Testament which is recorded as being observed during the Millennium.

    Why should this feast be observed every year for the entire 1,000 Millennial Reign of Christ? We may ask ourselves why Americans celebrate July 4th year after year to find our answer. This is the time when the King institutes the Kingdom, the time of our freedom from sin and the end of Satanic tyranny for the world at large. This is the time of year that Jesus returns and reclaims the Earth and mankind that he purchased with His Blood - He is the one who holds the Deed won at Calvary. He is the One who has declared our freedom from bondage and proclaimed liberty to set the captives free (this truth will come into full realization at this time). Every year for 1,000 years we shall shout the praises of the Lamb and acknowledge the Lion of Judah as the only King - and so will every creature on the planet!

    "And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."(KJV Isa 2:3)

    "And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (KJV Mic 4:2)

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