A Golden Age begins 
 The Island of Patmos |
In 90 AD St. John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, received an amazing revelation about the future of the world, when he was exiled by Roman authorities to the Greek island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. In this revelation from Jesus, called the Apocalypse, he foresaw the Millennium of Peace! It was in Revelation, chapter 19, that we read John's magnificent, marvellous description of Jesus Christ's coming with the hosts of Heaven to defeat and destroy the Antichrist and his fiendish forces at the awesome Battle of Armageddon. So following the chronological order of events, in Revelation 20 we're given an amazing glimpse into the Millennium period: :
 Location of John's Cave on Patmos. |
1 "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 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.20:1-3)
MILLENNIUM
The Age when all your dreams could come true! A 1000 year Empire of Love And Peace, and no more war!
"Th'evil" one, or "Devil" for short, is a personality or spirit who was never born. Also called Lucifer by his close human worshippers, Satan was a son of God who chose to go his own way and play god over the Earth. The Bible names him the "god of this world". Satan resides with other fallen angels in the spiritual regions of this Earth, going back and forth through the Earth to recruit as many human souls as he can to his lost cause.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12
True Subversives
COURTESY: CRISTINA ODONE,
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
No wonder they are so unpopular. True Christians are the true subversives. Unimpressed by success, celebrity or the bottom line, they prefer the company of the weak, and love without bounds. Ever since the carpenter’s son started agitating for change almost 2,000 years ago, His message has been twisted or manipulated and His followers have been made into scapegoats. Yet if history is a catalogue of attacks on Christianity, to this day the religion holds us in thrall, informing our laws and social code, our education and the arts. The story of Jesus Christ remains our single greatest narrative. In terms of brand names, Christianity is up there with Coca-Cola, Walt Disney and Gap, but it will not subside into mood music, or a pair of Mickey Mouse ears we can pick up and wear to entertain. Even today, snug in an atheism that has become commonplace, we come across Christians who give us pause for thought. A young volunteer, sitting on the floor of a Catholic home for the disabled, feeding a handicapped child whose head rests in her lap; a middle-aged missionary, who lives and works alongside the villagers in remote Mali, celebrating an outdoor Mass at a makeshift altar of straw; a monk helping Serb refugees in Kosovo load a lorry with their belongings as they prepare to set off on their lives of exile. These subversives are working for a truly “inclusive society.” Forget the political catch phrase; theirs is the real thing, an uncomfortable, relentless quest to place others above me-myself-and-I. It’s an outrageous message that goes against the grain. Don’t seek the successful, the profit motive or the bottom line; look out, instead, for the weak and the misfit, for the occasion to give everything and to love without bounds. No wonder Christianity is so unpopular. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, it has been tried, and found too damned difficult. And too damned irreverent. Christians, like the little boy who told the emperor he was naked, are forever puncturing our self-importance, hinting that, actually, there is something missing from our lives. We feel vulnerable because we have turned our backs on their ancient Christian atlas, the Bible, which placed us in a universe in which God was firmly in the heavens above and in the midst of a life that stretched into eternity. In our harsh new world, instead, we doubt the presence of a guiding spirit and that our existence goes beyond the here and now. We play out our lives against a backdrop that has been reduced from the eternal to the earth-bound. Boxed in this new, manmade landscape, we peer at a world where everything looms larger and more menacing. We are reduced to a cluster of individuals wandering aimlessly over a small corner of the universe. It’s a shallow, finite world we have created, and one that makes us feel precarious as we proceed, terrified of losing our footing. Little wonder, then, that we cast a curious, almost envious eye upon those who, led by their beliefs, journey forth so determinedly.
BEFORE GOOD CAN SPRING FORTH
The only way this World can ever be redeemed and be turned into some kind of an Earthly Paradise, is by getting rid of the external inspirations in man, that are behind the evil physical manifestations. In order to do that, the powers of God have to ban and bind the spiritual powers and entities that play on man's minds, hearts and souls, thus getting rid of external demonic thoughts, oppressions, obsessions and possessions! Yes, "evil spirits" and "ghosts", if you like, glorified and ridiculed in Hollywood thrillers, and debunked by Secular Humanist "science" socalled, instead labeled "schizophrenia" or "split personalities!" (Yet personalities can and do not split! Instead there are double, triple or even many multiples or legions of personalities using one body!)
MAN'S SPIRITUAL ENEMY HAS TO BE BOUND!
The Devil will be bound and cast as a prisoner into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, with nobody left to run his business! We'll be rid of him, thank God! For a thousand years he will no longer bother us and no longer lead his legions and his demons across the face of the Earth to plague the World and its citizens!
It is during this thousand years, while the Devil is in prison in the heart of the Earth, in the Bottomless Pit, that the Saints, including all the new arrivals who resisted the Antichrist and rejected his chip implant--the Mark of the Beast--choosing rather to give their lives than to deny Christ, will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years:
4. "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgement 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. They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. 5. But the rest of the dead (the unsaved dead) lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." (Rev.20:4, 5.)
During the Millennium, Jesus is going to reign and rule in person 
using us as His instruments! So our work will not be over with the Resurrection and the Rapture! We're still going to be busy, ruling and reigning with Jesus!--It's all very literal!
Many people get all theoretical, and they get hazy ideas, dreamy ideas about all of this, that after Jesus returns we're all going to be way off somewhere in some place called Heaven or something. Well, Heaven is not just going to be way off somewhere, it's going to be right here on Earth, a Heaven-on-Earth during the Millennium! We're going to rule and reign with Christ right here on Earth over the unsaved nations and the unsaved people who are left, who were not destroyed by the judgements God heaps upon the Antichrist kingdom.
6 Blessed and holy is he that has 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.
"THY KINGDOM COME! THY WILL BE DONE! IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!" (Mat. 6:10)
Everyday, millions of Church people all over the world pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!" But I'm sure most of them don't really appreciate the tremendousness of that statement in the Lord's Prayer and how literally it is going to come true and be fulfilled! It's actually going to be like Heaven, Heaven on Earth, 
with God's Will being done and His Kingdom come--on Earth as it is in Heaven! And we will be His officers, enforcing His Will as we rule and reign over the Earth with Him!
But most of the church people don't seem to realise how real the Millennium is going to be! They've got that imaginary picture of just floating around aimlessly on a cloud playing a harp or something! They don't realise how real and practical and down-to-Earth it will all be!
THE VISION OF DANIEL THE PROPHET (Daniel chapter 2)
The prophet Daniel described the takeover of this world's governments by Christ's Millennial Kingdom in his famous vision in Daniel, Chapter 2.
He saw a great image, which represented History's various great World Empires, being destroyed by "a Stone which smote the image upon his feet", smashing it to pieces which are blown away like the chaff!--"And the Stone that smote the image became a Great Mountain (Kingdom), and filled the whole Earth!" (Dan.2:34,35.) 22. "For in the days of these kings" --the ten toes of the image, the ten final government leaders who fully cooperate with and yield to the Antichrist (See Rev.17:12-14.)
"For in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever!" (Dan.2:44.)
THE KING & HIS PEOPLE RETURN TO CLAIM HIS KINGDOM
One of these days very soon, the king is going to come back to claim his kingdom!--The Kingdom of the Most High shall come and shall destroy all the anti-Christ kingdoms of the World! Jesus is going to restore the World under us and we're going to rule and reign over it with Him! God will then sweep away all this world's kingdoms, but not all the people!--Many of them will still be here, but we'll be ruling over them.
--"And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a Kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. But the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom, and possess the Kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever!" (Dan.7:14,18.)
Whether man likes it or not, God is going to be supreme and Jesus will reign from shore to shore and we will rule and reign with Him! Then wicked man will be forced to do what's right for a thousand years!--
"And judgement was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the Kingdom. And the Kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him!" (Dan.7:22,27.)
Right now the ungodly and antichrist powers of this World treat us as Aliens. They will eventually banish us and exile us and even drive some of us from our own countries, forcing us to be refugees and fugitives from their injustice. But then, under the supreme reign of Christ Himself, the pitiful little bands of persecuted Christians and believers and children of God are going to inherit the Earth and the Kingdom of God on Earth and run and govern it by love and the power of God!
We will no longer be the poor, persecuted, hounded few of the poor little bedeviled sects or cults or whatever they want to call us!--We will then number in the millions and the billions*, and we are going to rule the Earth with Jesus Christ over our God-damned enemies who have tormented us and persecuted us and hounded us from country to country throughout the Earth, until the very end of the Great Tribulation when they virtually drive us clear off the Earth and we're all Raptured up to be with Jesus!
So don't worry, we're going to have a country to call our own one of these days, thank the Lord! In fact, it'll all be our country then!--Because our country will be a World-wide, Earth-wide, Kingdom of God on Earth! All the countries are going to be ours in that day when Jesus comes!--And our former enemies and persecutors will be our guests! They will be the men without a country then, because it will be our country!--And they'd better behave, too, or they'll not only be without a country, but without an Earth!
*CHRISTIANITY RETAINS HOLD AS NO. 1 RELIGION IN THE WORLD
Courtesy: RICHARD N. OSTLING, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Christianity remained the world’s biggest religion while Islam and the non-religious population posted notable increases in the 20th century, according to a major religious reference book. The trends are reported in the second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford University Press), a compilation of statistical estimates and descriptions for each religious group in each nation. “Christianity has become the most extensive and universal religion in history,” the encyclopedia states, and has a majority of the population in two-thirds of the world’s 238 countries. In addition, “Christianity has become massively accepted as the religion of developing countries in the so-called Third World.” Even so, no one in 1900 would have predicted the sweeping defections from Christianity that took place “in Western Europe due to secularism, in Russia and later Eastern Europe due to communism, and in the Americas due to materialism,” the book says. Christianity began and ended the century as the world’s biggest religion, the encyclopedia says, with 555 million believers in 1900 or 32.2 percent of world population, and 1.9 billion or 31 percent as of last year. Counted Christians are divided among 33,820 denominations or similar distinct organizations. Some 386 million believers are in “independent” churches apart from the historic Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant branches, the book reports. Islam ranks second, and during the last century grew from 200 million or 12.3 percent of population to 1.2 billion or 19.6 percent. Non-religious people increased from a negligible 3 million in 1900 to today’s 768 million or 12.7 percent of the world population. Other current totals: Hinduism, 811 million; Buddhism, 360 million; Sikhism, 23 million; and Judaism, 14 million.
