Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #34 of Revelation 2, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 2:26-27:

And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

As we looked into these verses, we have gone to a few passages where the Bible uses this language of “ruling with a rod of iron.”  We have seen it refers to the Lord Jesus, and it has special emphasis in the Day of Judgment as it shows in Revelation 19:5, as well Psalm 2, which points to the Day of Judgment and the time the Lord judges the unsaved people of the earth.  That is where there is particular application to the Lord Jesus ruling in the Day of Judgment.

We have also learned from our advantageous position of living in the time period after the Great Tribulation.  We are living, as the Bible says, “in those days after that tribulation,” or, in other words, living in Judgment Day.  We have learned many things since May 21, 2011, passed.  We have learned that God has a plan to reveal information concerning judgment, as it says in Romans 2:5:

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

So the “day of wrath” is also the day of revelation of God’s righteous judgment.  This is why we are learning so much.  God is teaching us, and now we can see how things must be because the biblical calendar of history still points to May 21, 2011 as the Day of Judgment.  It not only points to it, but the Bible insists upon it, and the Bible has not been shown to be in error regarding those time paths and all the ways God locked in that particular date. 

As a result of that, we were forced to consider these things because the Bible would not allow us to look at that day as anything but the Day of Judgment.  How could that be?  Early on, we wondered, “How can it be Judgment Day if nothing happened outwardly, or physically, to the unsaved people of the earth?”  Then we realized, “God is following the pattern of judgment He established in the Bible in the Garden of Eden.”  God had said, “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,”  and they did eat of it but they did not die physically.  And God certainly cannot lie.  He meant that they would die spiritually, and they did in that very day.  And He is also following the pattern of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ drank of the cup of the wrath of God.  But there was no physical punishment upon Christ – it was all spiritual wrath that He was partaking of at that time.

Of course we had known for some time that there was judgment on the churches, and they drank of the wrath of God when judgment began at the house of God.  It was completely spiritual.  We even had to “argue,” in a sense, with people who thought that the judgment of the churches would be period of physical bloodletting and physical destruction because God uses the language of there being “not one stone left upon another,” or the statement that says, “Woe to them that give suck in those days.”  They took these things literally, looking for an outward, physical day of destruction on the churches.  And we would “argue” with them and say, “Oh, you do not understand.  The Bible is a spiritual book, and God is teaching us spiritual things about His judgment on the churches – nothing outward is going to happen to them.”  We were very sure of that, and we were very confident, as we realized the churches were under judgment even though we could not see anything outwardly.  The fact that they could not see anything outwardly led them to conclude, “Oh, there is wrath of God upon us.  Look at all our members, and look at the fine building we have, and the good preacher we have.  It is ridiculous to conclude that the church is under judgment.”  They refused to believe it because of what they did not see with their physical eyes.

But God’s true people understood.  “The judgment on the churches is spiritual.  God shut the door of heaven in the churches, and He put out the Light of the Gospel in the congregations.  The Holy Spirit departed, and Satan entered in, and all these things took place in the spiritual realm.”

Of course you cannot see these things outwardly.  We could never see Christ’s Spirit when He was in the midst of the churches, and we cannot see when He is departed.  We perfectly understood that, but for some reason we did not understand when it came to judgment on the world, and we wrongly assumed, “Since the earth operates in the physical realm, then God’s judgment must also be in the physical realm, or something they could see.” 

Perhaps we desired this to prove that the things we were warning them about was happening, but God just continued to use the same pattern that He set in the Garden of Eden.  The judgment that began at the churches was spiritual, and in Jeremiah 25 God told Jeremiah to take that “cup of wrath” that was given to the churches, and to give it to the world.  It was the identical cup of wrath.  We finally learned this, and we realized, “Oh, God shut the door!  That was the big emphasis of May 21, 2011, which was exactly 7,000 years from the flood.”  What was the underlying Hebrew calendar date on May 21, 2011?  It was “the seventeenth day of the second month”  of the Hebrew calendar.  Why was that significant.  In the book of Genesis, it happened to be “the seventeenth day of the second month”  when God shut the door of the ark, guaranteeing the safety of Noah, his family, and all that were on the ark, and then He began to bring the deluge that destroyed everyone outside the ark.  That was the significance of May 21, 2011, when God shut the door to heaven.

God also tells us that May 21, 2011 was the last day of the 23 years, or 8,400 days, of the Great Tribulation, and God told us in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light…”  And we had understood that correctly.  We did not think that there would be a literal darkening of the sun, or that the physical moon would cease to give its light, or that the stars would fall on May 21, 2011.   We understood it to be spiritual language indicating the removal of the Gospel.  We thought that the judgment would last for “five months,” but the sun, moon, and stars would remain in place, as nothing would physically happen.   We knew that was spiritual, but we did not put “two and two together,” and realize that the darkening of the lights of the Gospel was pointing to the same judgment that God had brought upon the churches and congregations of the world as He shut the door to heaven.

But from our current position, we can see this clearly, and we have now learned, and we have received correction.  The judgment of God is spiritual until the final day of the Day of Judgment, and then He will literally, and utterly, destroy this world and all the unsaved people who inhabit it.  The whole creation will be destroyed at the end of the Day of Judgment in a physical and literal way.

Since we have this vantage point of living in the Day of Judgment, we have learned many things including why the believers are still here on the earth.  It has always been God’s plan to leave us here.  He informs us in the context of Judgment Day, in Revelation 14:12:

Here is the patience of the saints…

That is, we must patiently wait upon the Word of God, and wait upon the Lord to accomplish His purpose as He punishes the world for its sin, and as He tries the elect to bring us forth as “gold and silver” through the fiery trials of our faith in order to bring us into the kingdom of heaven for evermore.  We  learned that too, and we have also learned that Satan’s kingdom has fallen: “Babylon has fallen, has fallen,” and the king of Babylon has fallen; Satan has been defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ has taken the kingdom, just as Cyrus destroyed historical Babylon and slew the king of Babylon in that very night. Cyrus, a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ, took the kingdom of Babylon, and he was victorious over His enemies.  Likewise, the Lord Jesus was victorious over the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness, and He has put down the enemy and adversary of all that is good and right.  Satan has been defeated, and the Lord Jesus was crowned, “KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORD.”  He is King of kings, the only Potentate, and He is showing forth to all principalities and powers that He is Lord and King, and none other.  He is the one who is reigning on the earth.

Today we are going to discuss some theological points of view.  We do not normally discuss what theologians say.  We rarely do, except to make a passing reference to their teachings, but there is something that is very interesting, a teaching that relates to our present study when we have come to the point in the book of Revelation where it is stated that the Lord Jesus will rule with a rod of iron.  He will rule the inhabitants of the earth. 

So we just want to quickly look at this.  There are several theological schools of thought concerning the doctrine of the end time, which is called “eschatology.”  It means the study of the end time.  First, there is Premillennialism point of view which says that Christ will come a second time and set up a literal kingdom in which He will reign for a literal thousand years.  That is why they are called Premillennialists, pointing to the thousand-year reign.  They get this idea from Revelation 20 where it speaks of God’s people living and reigning with Him for a thousand years.  Also, Satan was said to be bound for a thousand years.  This end time scenario is primarily based on that chapter.

Then there are the Postmillennialists who believe in a “golden age” of 1,000 years in which the people of God will gain ascendency and reign on the earth, and then  Christ will come.  That is why their particular doctrine is “Postmillennial,” because they think Christ will come after that millennial period.

Then there are the Amillennialists that do not believe in a thousand-year reign.  There is no literal thousand-year reign of Christ, and they would see the language of Revelation 20 as being figurative. 

As far as the thousand-year reign, the Amillennialists are correct because it is not a literal period of time.  We are not going to go through a study of the “thousand years” at this time, but it has to do with the completeness of whatever is in view.  For example, when Satan was bound for a thousand years, it represents the completeness of his binding throughout the church age.

In each of these eschatological positions have errors, and we should not refer anyone to any of these doctrinal positions.  Personally, I would not say I am any one of these.  I used to consider myself Amillennialistic.  But each of these positions have systems of doctrine that contain errors.  For instance, the Premillennialists believe that David will be resurrected to reign on the earth in Jerusalem, and it also teaches a glorious future for national Israel.  They also believe that Satan will be bound a literal thousand years during that time.  So we can quickly see that the source of their errors is that they take the Bible literally in places where God is not speaking literally.  When the Lord speaks of “David” reigning, it is not King David that will be resurrected, but the name “David” is a name that is also given to Christ, as Christ is “the beloved,” and it is Christ that will reign, not David.  And when they think that Israel will have some glorious future, they make the mistake of thinking of national Israel, rather than spiritual Israel which consists of all those that are truly saved; they are those that are “circumcised n heart,” not an outward circumcision, but the circumcision of the salvation of God.  Each true believer is a “spiritual Jew,” and the Premillennialists do not understand.  They do not understand figures of speech.

One thing they do have correct, although their timeframe is wrong, is that they believe that Christ will reign over the nations of the earth for a “thousand years,” but the timeframe does not fit.  But they do have numerous verses that they turn to in order to show that Christ will reign on the earth, and that is the interesting thing that I would like to look at a little bit.  The Premillennial position points to Psalm 2 where we read that Christ rules with a rod iron, and they also go to Revelation 19:15-16 where the Lord Jesus is smiting the nations with the sword of His mouth and ruling with a rod if iron, showing that He is “KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS.”  They also go to Daniel 7:9-10:

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

This is describing Judgment Day, and we see the similarities to the language of Revelation 20.  The judgment was set and the books were opened, and then notice what it says in Daniel 7:11:

I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

Here, we are reading that on the Day of Judgment the beast is slain, and that is Satan.  The Bible tells us that in many places.  In the same context, the Lord Jesus is on a white horse with a sharp sword coming out of His mouth to smite the nations and rule with a rod of iron, and it says in Revelation 19:20:

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Here, the beast was defeated and cast into a lake of fire.  Again, just look at Daniel 7:11:

…I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

It matches.  It is in agreement that this is referring to the day in which Satan is defeated.  Revelation 19 also tells us that they were “cast alive into a lake of fire,” and that is helpful language to help us understand that although Satan was put down and defeated, he still exists.  We should not forget that.  He is still an evil spirit being that is going about to destroy the people of God, and he is still active in the world.  But he has lost all official rule.  He is not ruling as the man of sin any longer in the churches, and he is not ruling over the world, but he is still in the churches and in the world, just as he was sowing tares among the wheat during the church age.  Then at the end of the church age, God gave him the official rule to take his seat in the churches as the man of sin.  But now that rule has ended, but he is still in the churches and the world.  He still exists, and that is what it goes on to tell us in Daniel 7:12:

As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.

It speaks of “the rest of the beasts” because in this image of Satan in Daniel 7, he was shown to be four great beasts, so this is indicating that although Satan is defeated, he would still exist and still be roaming the earth.  But notice that his existence in the Day of Judgment is one in which he has had his dominion taken away.  And “dominion” is a word that emphasizes “rule.”  It is a word we would relate to a king having dominion over his kingdom.  Yet in the Day of Judgment, Satan, as represented by “the beasts” having their dominion taken away, they continue to exist.  It is amazing that everything we are reading here fits the Day of Judgment, and yet God is giving us a verse that speaks of a prolonged time, “for a season and a time.”  Their lives were prolonged.  What end time scenario fits this?  None of those theological positions fit this, but it is only the biblical position we have learned during this Day of Judgment that fits perfectly.  During this timetable, Satan’s dominion is over, but notice what it says next in Daniel 7:13-14:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 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.

This dominion of “one like the Son of man,” who is the Lord Jesus Christ, is said to be an everlasting dominion because it is occurring now on the earth, and when God destroys the earth and the ungodly inhabitants of the earth, the dominion of the LORD OF LORD and KING OF KINGS will continue to into eternity future.  He will rule for evermore over the glorious kingdom of heaven.