The Bible teaches the truth of the second coming of Christ in “the clouds” when “every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:27). Christ will come with all the angels in power and glory (Matthew 25:31).
The saints will rise, “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven … and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). He will transform their bodies into glorious bodies “We shall all be changed … and the dead will be raised incorruptible. For … this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51–53). But the wicked dead will stay in their graves and the alive wicked will be slain and will not rise until the end of the 1000 years.
The millennium (1000 years) will start at the second coming. The righteous dead will be resurrected to go to heaven. “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). “They (the saints) lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4). “This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection” (Revelation 20:5, 6). But “The rest of the dead [those who were not saved] did not live again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5). The righteous in heaven will participate in the judgment and see God’s fairness before God punishes the wicked “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them… And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).
At the close of the millennium, the holy city, New Jerusalem, will come down from heaven to this earth with the saints in it: “I … saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. … And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men” (Revelation 21:2, 3). “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. … And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two …. Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You…” (Zechariah 14:1-5). The New Jerusalem will settle where the mount of Olives now stands.
The wicked will be raised at the end of the millennium and Satan, loosed from his bonds, will then have an earth full of people to deceive again. “The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished…When the thousand years have expired, Satan will … go out to deceive the nations … of the earth … to gather them together to battle. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city” (Revelation 20:5–9). But “Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into … the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 20:9, 10; 21:8).
After the destruction of sin, God will recreate the earth. “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:5). And God Himself will dwell with the believers on earth: “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).
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In His service,
BibleAsk Team
