Beliefs about the Afterlife (xxxxi)

The above itemized list of characteristics of the Millennium are what we have seen already in our study of that coming age. That list could be extended, no doubt. 

What we are investigating at this point in our study of the afterlife is the description of life in the next "age" following this "present evil age," which age will last a thousand years, both for the redeemed of all preceding ages (who will be resurrected at the end of this age) and for living saints who will be instantly transformed and translated without dying. (See I Thess. 4:  16-17; I Cor. 15: 51-52) 

It will be also be an investigation into how such redeemed people will spend the first thousand years of eternity in their glorious resurrected and spiritual bodies. Though not completely, yet to a large degree, it will also be the way redeemed, resurrected, and glorified immortal human beings will live their lives as those who have eternal life.

We are also looking at how the remnant of humanity (who were judged as worthy to inherit the kingdom and separated as sheep from goats) lived their lives in that glorious age (that follows their having survived the day of wrath and tribulation). We have observed how both immortal resurrected saints and mortal peoples (we will call them the sheep nations, or the meek) will occupy the new heavens and earth that Isaiah foresaw and dwell and work together. 

Separation at the Harvest

"24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matt. 13: 24-30)

"36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (36-43)

This separation of wheat from tares (weeds) occurs at the end of the age when "the harvest" is gathered, which occurs when Christ returns. The separation of wheat from weeds teaches the same truth fact as the separation of sheep nations from goat nations. In both cases a division of living peoples who remain alive till the end of the judgments of the Apocalypse has occurred (the intent of which is to destroy the bulk of humanity and to punish them). It deals with those, wicked and righteous, who "remain unto the coming of the Lord." No disembodied spirit from either heaven or hell is gathered. No, the spirits of the wicked dead remain in Hades till after the Millennium as the record says (as we have cited in earlier chapters):

"12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20: 12-15 nkjv)

This judgment of "the dead" after the Millennium should not be confused with the judgment of the living which occurs immediately prior to the Millennium, or with the separation of wheat from tares or of sheep nations from goat nations. There is a gathering of "the dead" to be judged, but the gathering and separating of living peoples who remain unto the coming of the Lord is not the same thing. 

First, the separating of wheat and tares, sheep and goats, occurs at the return of Christ and prior to the Millennium, but the judgment of the wicked dead souls of Hades occurs after the Millennium. 

Second, the separating judgment of sheep and goats, wheat and tares, involves no resurrection of the dead (for it only involves living peoples who remain after the resurrection and ascension of believers to meet Christ in the air and after the end time ordained destruction), but the great white throne judgment involves the resurrection of the bodies of the wicked dead. 

Third, some of the living nations will be allowed entrance into the Millennial kingdom but others will be sent away to endless punishment, but at the great white throne judgment it seems that all who are judged out of the books according to their works are condemned, not any being named in the book of life, and so suffer "the second death." 

The division of people at the second coming, which these two texts foretell, is not a separation of dead souls or spirits of the wicked from the righteous. They are already separated for that occurred when each died, whether sheep or goat or whether wheat or tares. No, as previously shown, the judgment of the living is distinct from the judgment of the dead. The story of the division of sheep and goat nations or of wheat and tares is a division of peoples who remain alive at the time when Christ has completed his descent to earth and stands on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. This takes place, chronologically, at the end of Revelation chapter nineteen and just prior to chapter twenty and the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ. 

Those left alive at the conclusion of Christ's coming and after the end time day of wrath, vengeance, and tribulation, that is, after "the apocalypse," compose three groups of people. First, there are the saints who are alive. Second, there are unbelievers, who are the tares, or the goat nations (and who may or may not have been in league with Antichrist). Third, there are the meek (including small children), the ones who did not align with Antichrist, and who helped persecuted Christians and Jews, being the sheep nations, and who believe and confess Christ at that time (though not previously). 

At some point between the sounding of the last trumpet (7th) of Revelation's day of judgments upon the world and race of men, the righteous dead are resurrected and the righteous living saints are instantly transformed so that all the redeemed of prior ages rise to greet the Lord in the foyer of the skies and take their places in the army of the Lord and then descend with him from the clouds to execute the will of the Lord, the commander in chief, upon all the wicked who remain alive, and along with the angels, to bring them all together for the separation. Here is how Paul described it:

"15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." (I Thess. 4: 13-17 nkjv) 

Here we have living saints experiencing the second coming of Christ in a way distinct from dead saints. Some believers will be still "alive" and "remain until the coming of the Lord." They are not the only ones who will be alive when Christ comes. Among the unbelievers there will also be some who remain alive on earth and who were not killed in the judgments of the Apocalypse.

Another passage that speaks of living believers at the time of the second coming is this:

"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (I Cor. 15: 51-52 nkjv)

These two passages confirm that the living peoples who remain unto the coming, the full coming, of the Lord and King, Jesus Christ, will be special in several ways. Besides being simply the last generation of this present evil age, they will also be the ones who will witness all the scenes of the days and years involved in the coming day of judgment and in the coming (presence or arrival) of the Lord. You have four classes of people who will be concerned with that coming period of time. First, believers who remain alive. Second, believers who have died and who in spirit are in Heaven. Third, unbelievers who remain alive after the day of destruction or the judgments of Christ's apocalypse. Fourth, unbelievers who have died and who are spirits in Hades. 

So, in regard to the harvesting of the wheat, there is a resurrection involved for the bodies of the righteous dead and for a reunion with their glorified heavenly spirits. Their spirits will descend from heaven with Christ (they being in their temporary bodies in the intermediate state as we have previously taught) and their bodies will arise from the dust of the earth and be reunited with their glorified spirits in the air, where they meet with Christ and with the believers on earth who remained alive to that time, and who are then instantly transformed in their physical bodies and experience the same glorification of their bodies as believers whose bodies were raised from the dead in the harvest of the wheat. 

However, at the time of the resurrection of dead believer's bodies and the translation (or transformation) of living believers, there is no resurrection of the dead bodies of unbelievers who will in spirit be occupying Hades at that time, nor any summoning them from thence to come forward so as to be harvested. No, as we saw, the resurrection of the wicked dead does not occur till after the Millennium and their being brought soul and body to stand before the great white throne. However, there will be a continual harvest of souls (spirits) for Hades (of the tares) as living unbelievers are killed in the tribulation and apocalyptic wrath or else cast away into eternal torment when the sheep and goat nations are divided.   

In the previous chapters I have cited from John Walvoord. I cite him again now from the same source, where he talks about life in the Millennium. (See here) He wrote (all emphasis mine):

"Much of the confusion that exists in regard to the millennium and the eternal state stems from a failure to distinguish between the promises that are given to the last generation of saints who are on the earth at the time of the second advent and the promises that are given resurrected or translated saints in both the Old and New Testaments."

This is in sum what we have been demonstrating thus far in this chapter. There is often a failure to distinguish between those wicked persons who remain alive on earth after the resurrection of dead saints and the instant translation of living saints, and after the apocalyptic destruction. Some of these will become instant believers and some will not accept the rule of Christ, though they are forced to confess his Lordship over them. Thus, the living will be separated and this is what is taught by the parable of the wheat and tares and the prophecy of the sheep and goat nations. 

In the preceding chapter we noticed how one of the things that characterized those sheep nations at the time of Christ's sitting on his glorious Millennial throne was that they had been kind to the Lord's brothers in various ways. We should also recall that the sheep peoples don't realize that they have done anything helpful to the Lord himself. The Lord Jesus had told them that they had helped him when he was hungry, thirsty, homeless, in want of clothes, and in prison. But, they replied with a question wherein they asked when had they done such things to him? That is when the Lord and King says to them "inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." These had not been believers in Christ prior to this judgment of living peoples, but they had been friendly towards them, and had not rejected the message of Christ, though they had not fully embraced it either. Now, however, they do become believers, and so Christ says to them "come you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." This scene reminds me of a couple other passages of scripture. Said Jesus:

"He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." (Matt. 10: 41-42 kjv)

The sheep and wheat peoples will be such people who were kind to Jews and Christians, yea to other such sufferers, in giving them what they need as much as possible, even giving a cup of cold water to a needy or persecuted Jew or Christian.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Matt. 5: 5)

Surely every believer who has ever lived will "inherit the earth." And, by "the meek" Christ no doubt refers to them. We ought therefore to conclude that all born again children of God are meek, though it seems that many of them don't seem to manifest that quality. But, meekness is not only a characteristic of saved people, it is also a trait of some humble unsaved people. I think meekness will be one of the qualities of the sheep nations who have been kind to Christians and Jew. 

This will be a good start to the "age to come." All the practicing wicked will either have been destroyed during the tribulation period that precedes Christ's final leg of his coming (which is the time of the resurrection and translation of saints) or will be judged as being tares (weeds) and goat nations and sent away into endless punishment. What is left are people, mostly very young people, who had been kind towards Jews and Christians, and are humble and meek, and who believe instantly when they see Christ appear. These will enter the Millennial kingdom in their mortal bodies, but yet filled with the Spirit, and yet they are not confirmed in immortality, but enjoy a conditional immortality, as the texts in Isaiah's prophecy of the new heavens and earth describe. Among these, death will be rare.

Make no mistake about it, some people who witness the coming of Christ, especially the end of his coming, will be converted when they see Christ, and the aforementioned texts affirm it. Certainly, as we will show in the next chapters, many of the natural Jews will be so converted when they see Christ appear in addition to those sheep peoples from among the Gentiles.