When Christ
Returns
Will his Kingdom be in Heaven or on Earth?
Christ is coming
back to inherit David’s throne,
Jeremiah 23:5 Luke 1:32, 33 "He shall be great, and shall be called the
Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of his
father David and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His
Kingdom there shall be no end" When Christ returns to lay claim to his kingdom, just what will be His
Kingdom? Isaiah 2:2-4 "And it shall come to pass, in the last days, that the
mountain of the External's house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and ALL NATIONS shall
flow unto it! Micah 4 "... in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain
of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and
it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many
nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
"Behold, the days come,
saith the Eternal, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King
shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in
the earth"
And MANY PEOPLE shall go and say,
'come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the house of the
God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths:
for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Eternal from
Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many PEOPLE:
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more".
And he shall
judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine
and under his fig tree; and none shall make him afraid: for the mouth of the
Eternal of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will
walk everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the
Eternal our God forever and ever. In that day, saith the
Eternal, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is
driven out, and her that I have afflicted: And I will
make her that halteth [the remnant of Israel] a remnant, and her that
was cast far off a strong nation: and the Eternal shall reign over them IN
MOUNT ZION from henceforth, even forever!"
Who will be his subjects?
Isaiah 24:1-17 "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and FEW MEN LEFT ... They shall not drink wine…To them that drink it. . . . Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ... When thus it shall be in the midst of the land AMONG THE PEOPLE. . . THEY shall lift up their voice ... THEY shall sigh for the majesty of the Eternal, THEY shall cry aloud from the sea. ... Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O INHABITANT OF THE EARTH"
Notice the earth still has a FEW INHABITANTS! The earth is defiled and ruined; the inhabitants of the earth are burned and FEW MEN LEFT!
Is 24:3-6 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.
The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Notice that the earth is NOT completely DESOLATE of all of its INHABITANTS after his return. The Hebrew word for "earth" is ehrets, which can mean the land, or whole world. "SCATTER ABROAD the INHABITANTS thereof" The inhabitants are "scattered abroad" That means they are dispersed from one part of the land to another part. And who are they that lift up their voices? PEOPLE who are LEFT alive! The inhabitants upon the earth! Over and over again in this chapter it states that the earth is still inhabited.
What does the Bible say about the millennium?
Revelation 20:4 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them ... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years"
The resurrected saints, together with those who meet Christ at His return in the air, are to "live and reign" with Him for ONE THOUSAND YEARS!
Revelation 3:21 "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne"
Revelation 5:10 "And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof—for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests: and we shall reign ON THE EARTH!"
Christ will reign in or on the earth,
"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 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the EARTH shall be full of the knowledge of the Eternal, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse [CHRIST], which shall stand for an ensign for the people; to which shall the Gentiles [nations on this earth!] seek: and His rest [the millennial reign of Christ] shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass, in that day [shortly after the second coming of Christ, and as the government of God is being set up on the earth], that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth ... And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be LEFT, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came out of the land of Egypt".Isaiah 11:4-12,
Zechariah 14:4-19
"And his [Christ's] feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, ... And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. ... And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles."
Zep 2:11 "The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen."
Can it be any PLAINER than that? The Kingdom is going to be ruling ON THE [this] EARTH! This is clearly a description of an earthly rulership, and the nations WILL have to go up to Jerusalem to worship.
Ezekiel 36 thru 48, speaks of how the waste places will be rebuilt after the Lords return.
47:10 "And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim [cities on the west bank of the dead sea]; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many." 48:35 "... from that day shall be, the Lord is there."
There are no fish to catch in the dead sea at present, but in the future people will be living and catching fish there, in the day that the Lord is on the earth.
