Will The Elect Be Visible During The Thousand Year Reign?

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Will The Elect Be Visible During The Thousand Year Reign?

[Posted Januay 10, 2023]

Hi D____,

It is good to hear from you again. Thank you for your questions concerning life during the “thousand years” reign of “the Lord and His Christ”. Here is where I get those two phrases:

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The Lord Himself informs us that there are just two resurrections:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto [1st] the resurrection of life [at the beginning of the thousand year reign]; and they that have done evil, unto [2nd] the resurrection of damnation [“When the thousand years are expired”, and the nations rebel against the Lord and His Christ, and all flesh is destroyed by God. (Rev 20:7-10)].

Since there are but two resurrections, anyone not in the first resurrection… “the resurrection of life”, will be in the second resurrection… the resurrection of judgment”.

The Greek word translated as “damnation” in John 5:29 is ‘krisis‘, and it means ‘judgment’.

I tell you this just to demonstrate that one-thousand years of being ruled over by God’s elect obviously was never intended to convert anyone. Conversion of humanity is not the function of that period of time. Its ordained function is to give God the occasion He is seeking to “devour… the nations in the four quarters of the earth” and thereby “destroy death.”

Your questions are questions we all have when we think of our families and friends who will live over into that dispensation. You seem to be aware that when Christ returns and we are caught up to meet Him in the air, we don’t go away so that we are never seen again. ‘The air’ symbolizes the spirit realm, and the only ‘up’ there is in the spirit realm is its superior status over this physical realm.

This natural, physical realm is subject to death, and the realm of the spirit is not subject to death. When we read:

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

What this verse tells us is that our spiritual understanding is diminished and “darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” ‘The smoke’ is all the lies and false doctrines which have deceived the whole earth. ‘The air’ is the realm of the spirit as Christ made clear to Nicodemus:

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8  The wind [air] bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Christ was spirit before He came to this earth as “the seed of Abraham”. When He was resurrected from the dead He “was raised a spiritual body” which could and did appear as “flesh and bone”:

1Co 15:44 it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Everything we see is ‘made of things that do not appear’. In other words, even the physical realm is made of things of the spirit realm.

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

That being so, the spirit realm has the advantage of being capable of appearing physical while in fact being “a spiritual body” just as the risen Christ did by appearing in the midst of His disciples while they were hiding in a locked room and then He simply disappeared:

Joh 20:19  Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:20  And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Joh 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Joh 20:23  Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

The apostle Thomas was not there at that time and refused to believe that Christ had appeared to the other disciples. So, Christ appeared again for Thomas and for our sakes:

Joh 20:24  But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25  The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Joh 20:26  And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:27  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Joh 20:28  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Joh 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

That is what Christ meant when He told Nicodemus:

Joh 3:8  The wind [air] bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

That is how the Lord’s risen elect and those who are “changed in a moment” will function during the thousand-year reign of Christ on this earth. They will appear when and where they are needed to deal with whatever needs to be dealt with.

Satan will be in a spiritual prison, but the carnal mind will still be alive and well within every living person during that thousand-year reign. It is that carnal mind which necessitates a “rod of iron” in the hands of God’s elect. God’s elect will not tolerate rebellion against themselves and the Lord for that period of time. Any hint of rebellion and the Lord’s elect will simply appear in the room and tell those so foolish, “That is not a good idea at all. Don’t even think about going there.”

With all of this in mind I think I have answered your first question which was:

“…Those alive during the millennium” will know we are NOT gone and will be very aware that our very words will be that ‘rod of iron’:

Isa 11:4  But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

Christ tells us that we will be “the rod of His mouth and the breath of His lips” as He informed us of this Truth when He appeared to His disciples in that locked room:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Your second question was:

I have answered this question above. The Lord’s elect will be the judges and rulers of this earth after that “blessed and holy… first resurrection.”

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

We are given to know “What that looks like” in the experience of Israel living with the Lord as their boss for forty years in the wilderness. The Lord appeared each and every day of that forty years as a cloud that shaded them from the sun by day and then transformed into a pillar of fire which led them by night:

Exo 13:21  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
Exo 13:22  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

The people of Israel quickly adjusted to this miraculous phenomenon to the extent that they actually rebelled against the Lord time and again. “Ten times” is just a way of saying ‘time and time again’:

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Job 19:3  These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

When Miriam and Aaron rebelled against the Lord, He struck Miriam with leprosy. When Korah rebelled, the earth swallowed him and those who rebelled with him. When the whole camp rebelled the day after Korah being swallowed up, fire went out from the Lord and destroyed thousands, etc.

Ananias and Sapphira died for lying to the apostles about giving the money for their land to the apostles. Christ let the apostles out of prison when the priests planned to prosecute them for preaching in the name of Christ.

All those events demonstrate how spirits can appear and disappear as needed during that thousand-year reign. The very rulers of this earth will adjust to our presence and will in time submit or die. Like the “captains of fifty” who died at the hands of Elijah, they will be replaced with the next person in the line of authority, and perhaps by the third loss they, too, will see the futility of attempting to fight with a powerful, invisible foe:

2Ki 1:9  Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
2Ki 1:10  And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
2Ki 1:11  Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
2Ki 1:12  And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
2Ki 1:13  And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
2Ki 1:14  Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
2Ki 1:15  And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
2Ki 1:16  And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

You ask:

We are told:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earthand compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

The answer to your question… “where will Christ and the elect be on earth” is… “on the breadth of the earth”. In other words, they will be everywhere all the time. The phrase “encompass the camp of the saints” just tells us that Satan has been given to once again unite all of mankind against the Lord and His Christ, fulfilling the very purpose for the thousand-year reign, which entire purpose is to give the Lord the occasion He is seeking to destroy death, by the destruction of all flesh and ushering in the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death which will teach men righteousness:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

No mention of eternal torment here. Rather “as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1Co 15:22)

No monstrous physical flames of fire, but “the propitiation… for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn 2:2), and a hundred other verses which say the same thing, like…

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Notice that the exact same language… “fire… from heaven”, is used to tell us how death is destroyed by the destruction of “the nations in the four quarters of the earth”, as was used to describe the destruction of the two “captains and their fifties”:

2Ki 1:10  And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
2Ki 1:11  Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
2Ki 1:12  And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

We all have the same questions about life during the thousand-year reign of “the Lord and His Christ.” That is because we fail to realize that we all quickly adjust to a miracle when it becomes rather commonplace. The miracle of a person suddenly appearing in a locked room, when that is needed to keep the peace, is as easy to adjust to as the rising of the sun, the birth of a child, and a worm becoming a beautiful butterfly. These are all miracles we take for granted because they happen on a regular basis. Just as the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night became a routine to ancient Israel, the dominance of the Lord’s elect and their ability to appear when and where they are needed to keep the carnal mind in check will also become routine during the thousand-year reign of the Lord’s elect.

I hope this helps you to better understand what our rulership here on this earth ‘looks like’ during that time.

Your fellow inquisitive brother in Christ,
Mike

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