Don’t Take Away My 1000-Year Kingdom!

For many years, I believed what others taught concerning a post-return of Christ 1000-year kingdom on this earth. In fact, I believed it so much that I taught it as well, but I also struggled with it. I struggled with why neither Jesus nor Paul ever mentioned it. I struggled with why is a temple being rebuilt?  And why are we going back to animal sacrifices?  I struggled with where do the souls go of those who die during the 1000-year kingdom. And why is there another battle at the end, just like the battle at the end of this age? Or why doesn’t Paul say anything about it in 1 Corinthians 15? 

And then, quite accidentally, a fantastic journey began in June of 2018 when I embarked on a study of the last book of the New Testament. Up to this point, I had avoided Revelation like I avoid snakes and dark alleys in big cities. Initially, I committed to only preaching through chapter 3. I will just cover the letters written to the seven churches in Asia Minor, is what I said.  Surely, I can do that!  And then, on one fateful Sunday morning, I committed to the assembled church that I would preach through the whole book. Wow. Did I just say that? Now what? I knew what was in the book. I had walked down that alley in the daytime.  A year later, I finished that journey, and it was incredible.  Each week I would share where I had been and what I was learning with the church. Like a tour guide, for 51 weeks, I led the church through my tour of the book.  I had slides and pictures. I wanted everyone to see what I saw.

In the end, after ten months of continuous study, I concluded that the correct interpretation of Revelation 20 was not a literal 1000-year kingdom on this earth that ends with the battle of Gog and Magog.   Since that conclusion, some have been quite bothered with me. "You're taking away our 1000-year kingdom on this earth." And I want it back is what is implied.  But I am not taking it away.  

I want you to imagine that your family took a two-week vacation to Myrtle Beach for all your childhood and into your adult years. I mean a great getaway.  Terrific memories. Lots of fun in the sun. But each year, your time at this incredible beach house came to an end. It wasn't an eternal vacation. It had a beginning and an end.  Each year you looked forward to it with great anticipation, and each year it came to an end. 

And then one day, your dad came home and announced with all the authority a dad can muster: "Family, we are no longer going to Myrtle Beach for vacation." Your heart sinks. “But why not?” You want to know.  You have been looking forward to this vacation with Dad all year.  He travels a lot.  He is often gone for days, sometimes weeks.  But at the beach, you will see him face to face every day. You can't imagine why you are not going on vacation this year. Why is Dad taking away our annual beach trip?

Then after a very long pregnant pause, Dad announces that he bought your favorite vacation home, and even as he speaks, crews are working on rebuilding the entire house from the ground up.  Dad begins describing how everything is going to be made new.  The game room, the kitchen, the AC units, the swimming pool - all made new. Wow! You can’t wait to see this new beach home. 

And then dad says we are moving to that family beach house. No longer will our vacations come to an end.  Dad says we will live there for all eternity.  Suddenly your heart changes.  Dad isn't taking away anything.  Living at that beach house forever is far better than any two-week vacation.  And while the house was great, it was getting old and had its issues. You can't wait to see what it is going to look like new.  

You see, those who don't believe in a separate and distinct 1000-year kingdom on this earth aren't taking anything away.  Instead, we believe the next stop on this epic journey after the return of Christ is a new heaven and a new earth, as described in Revelation 21.  And by the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:11-13. Peter writes, 

"Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Notice Peter says nothing about another kingdom on this earth that will precede the eternal kingdom and follow this current age.   Instead, Peter says, "we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth." And whenever Jesus talks about the future, he talks about this age and the age to come (Mark 12:32).   

I don't understand why anyone would get upset about skipping this year's vacation at the beach (which comes to an end) and moving to the beach for all eternity.  Peter says it like this, “For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1.11). 

Furthermore, and finally, at the end of the 1000 year kingdom (if that is correct) is another brutal global battle in which millions, perhaps billions, are deceived.  The number is as the sand of the sea.  They surround the camp of the saints, and fire comes down from heaven and consumes them all. Read Revelation 20:7-9. After much analysis, I concluded that Armageddon and the battle of Gog and Magog are the same battles. See the chart below.  This age ends with an epic battle, and that is the final battle before eternal peace.   In Ezekiel God promises he “will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore” (Ezekiel 37:26–28).  Compare that to Revelation 21:2-4 and you realize God fulfills the covenant he made to Israel in the eternal kingdom.  Come, Lord Jesus. Come establish your eternal kingdom on this earth for we long to be with you for all eternity. 



 



Abortion Open Letter to Rev. Raphael Warnock

 December 11, 2020

Reverend Raphael Warnock

Ebenezer Baptist Church

101 Jackson Street NE

Atlanta, GA 30312

Dear Reverend Warnock,

We are a coalition of Black Christian ministers who, like you, feel called by God to preach the

Bible, advocate for justice and fight against societal evils. We applaud your commendable efforts

to share Christ while pursuing political solutions to our most pressing problems today.

But precisely because we share so much in common with you, we feel compelled to confront

your most recent statements concerning abortion. You have gone on the record saying that you

are a “pro-choice pastor” who will “always fight for reproductive justice.” You have publicly

expressed your views that abortion is an exercise of “human agency and freedom” that is fully

consistent with your role as a shepherd of God’s people.

We believe these statements represent grave errors of judgment and a lapse in pastoral

responsibility, and we entreat you to reconsider them. As a Christian pastor and as a Black

leader, you have a duty to denounce the evil of abortion, which kills a disproportionate number

of Black children. Your open advocacy of abortion is a scandal to the faith and to the Black

community.

Abortion is fundamentally in conflict with the plain reading of the Bible. The Bible clearly

teaches that human life is created by God beginning at conception. As Psalm 139 proclaims:

“You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am wonderfully and fearfully

made.” What human being could possibly have the right to blot out an innocent life that God has

wonderfully and fearfully made?

Abortion prematurely thwarts God’s providential and loving plan for a promising human life.

And by terminating an innocent unborn life in the womb, abortion directly violates the seventh

commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” God demands that every faithful Christian protect and

uphold the sanctity of innocent human life, at every stage of life. Supporting abortion represents

a serious abdication of and a transgression against that responsibility, just like the disrespect of

the poor, the disabled, or the elderly.

Couching abortion in the language of “reproductive justice” may be savvy marketing, but killing

an innocent human life has nothing to do either with reproduction or with justice. Do American

adults really need another public voice urging them to put their own short-term desires ahead of

the needs of their children? As a pastor who speaks for the Christian community, we implore you

to speak the plain truth about a practice as barbaric and destructive as abortion.

And then there is the uniquely devastating impact that abortion has on the Black communities

you serve. The pro-abortion movement in America has been characterized by racism and white

supremacy since its inception. And to this day, abortion continues to unequally and

disproportionately harm Black lives, perpetuating systemic racism. Despite making up only 13%

of the female population, Black women represent 36% of all abortions, and Black women are

almost five times more likely than their white counterparts to receive an abortion. In some cities

across the country, more Black children are aborted every year than are born alive.

Can you in good conscience defend abortion, knowing that abortion kills 474 Black babies for

every 1000 live births? Abortion decimates Black communities, disrupts Black families and

inflicts untold harm on Black women. Black women and Black families need your advocacy;

they need your protection, and they need your support. But they do not need Black pastors

making excuses for the racism in the abortion industry. Killing Black lives, especially killing

unborn Black lives, does nothing but brutalize and scar vulnerable Black communities who are

already suffering so much.

For all of the above reasons, we entreat you to reconsider your public advocacy for abortion.

Unborn Black, brown and white lives are so much more than clumps of cells, burdensome

inconveniences, or health problems. They are sacred human persons endowed by God with

inalienable dignity and worth. We implore you to uphold the Biblical defense of life and to fight

against the systemic racism of abortion.

Sincerely,


Bishop Garland Hunt

Father's House

Norcross, GA


Bishop Wellington Boone

Fellowship of International Churches

Atlanta, GA


Bishop Flynn Johnson

Metro City Church

Atlanta, GA


Bishop Michael Paden

GA Metro Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction COGIC

Atlanta, GA


Bishop John Reid

John Reid Ministries

Cumming, GA


Pastor Frankie Vega

Awakening Reformation Center

Smyrna, GA