Thread: Who Will Repopulate the Earth in the Millennium?
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Who Will Repopulate the Earth in the Millennium?
Posted : 12 Jan, 2010 11:35 PM
Hi Everyone,
One of the most frequent objections raised to the Post-Trib position is there would be no one left to repopulate the Earth in a Post-Tribulation Rapture scenario. I will have to rewrite my article and then post it later because the article was not saved. I hate when I mess up like that. LOL
Here are some scriptures that deal with this and clearly demonstrate that there will in fact be unsaved people on Earth when Christ is ruling. After all who does Christ rule with a Rod of Iron? Who does Christ have to force submission to? There is a 3rd group of people that Pretribbers have not considered. The below passages of scriptures are Prophecies concerning the Millennial Kingdom when Christ reigns upon the Earth in His physical body.
Isa 2:2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; 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 anymore.
Zec 14:9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be "The LORD is one," And His name one.
16 And it shall come to pass THAT EVERYONE WHO IS LEFT of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
17 And it shall be that whichever of THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Eze 36:24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
Eze 36:36 Then the nations WHICH ARE LEFT all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it."
Your Question presupposes a dispensationalist view.
That is a modern viewpoint that has only existed for a very short while in the last two thousand years.
The majority of the Christian Church has been Amillennial in their interpretation of the end times.
The "one Thousand years" in Rev. 20 is not a literal one thousand years. It means "A long time" or a "perfect amount of time".
Also, this period of time is the time you and I live in, the church age.
Also, regarding your original question: If you take into account all of God's elect from all of history, and add babies who died in infancy, childbirth, etc, you could very well end up with a BILLION people!
For more information on Amillenialism, and the other views in general, check out www.monergism.com in the eschatology section.
lol...I hear this a lot, and it's getting kinda old. Truth is not determined by how old it is. God had many prophecies and instructions that were not supposed to be interpreted correctly until the time of the end. I'm also confused what the length of time has to do with what happens...even if it was a million years...I believe the bible says the wicked would be dead during that time, and that we will be in heaven with God. Anyway...there's quite a few texts that I gave that seem very clear to me. I do not think God's kingdom includes unsaved sinners, nor does it involve any kind of secular reign during the "long period of time".
For future reference...a 20,000 year old doctrine would not impress me. From what I've seen in history, it only took Satan around 200 years from the death of the last apostle to mess the church up. Everything since then has been God trying to get His people back to the truth. Calling His people out of Babylon. I think my view is strongly supported by scripture, and scripture is what determines truth...not time, not theological labels, and not old christian conventions/consensus.
You said: Your Question presupposes a dispensationalist view.
That is a modern viewpoint that has only existed for a very short while in the last two thousand years.
WALTER: Actually James you are presupposing that my view is "Traditional Dispensationalism" or "Darbyism". That is not my view. My view is Chiliasm which is the oldest most Orthodox view in Christianity dating back to the Ante-Nicene Fathers which were PRE-Millennial. It was only those who held to the Gnostic influences that believed in Amillennialism. The ECFs defended the Faith against that belief.
JAMES: The majority of the Christian Church has been Amillennial in their interpretation of the end times.
WALTER: That is not entirely accurate. The Earliest Church Fathers, Ante-Nicene were PRe-Mill. Those who held to Amillennialism were influenced by Gnosticism.
And Trypho to this replied, �� But tell me, do you really admit that this place, Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt; and do you expect your people to be gathered together, and made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them before your Christ came? ��
Then I answered, �� I admitted to you formerly, that I and many others are of this opinion, and that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true
Christians, think otherwise. � For I choose to follow not men or men�s doctrines, but God and the doctrines by Him. � But I and others, who are right - minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare. AD 150 � Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (a Jew), chapter lxxx
Here is a really good article dealing with this. http://www.oasischristianchurch.org/air/amill_001.pdf
Excerpt:
Controversy over eschatology seems to have emerged quickly after the death of John. Those known to have linkage to the Beloved Disciple held consistently to �chiliasm,� the Greek word for �millennialism.� Today they would be called �premillennialists�
(although they were certainly not �dispensationalists�). In fact, all of the earliest Church Fathers of the first and second centuries, whose eschatology can be discerned with any
degree of certainty, were chiliasts.1 They awaited the restoration of the creation at the coming of Christ, and His reigning over the nations from Jerusalem. The physical body
is of this creation, and therefore must be resurrected in order to partake of the new order.
The above quote from Justin Martyr shows that this was not the unanimous opinion of all Christians in the second century. Some Christians held to a heavenly destiny, and rejected the resurrection of the flesh because it was of this present creation. In this article we will attempt to show that this thinking was borrowed from Greek philosophy. Justin indicated that �right minded Christians on all points� held to chiliasm with its
bodily resurrection. He accused those who disagreed of following �the doctrines of men.� We agree with Justin�s assessment, both with regard to the fact that many disagreed with his chiliasm, and that the source of their wrong eschatology was the opinions of
men, because the rest of the evidence supports his claim.
2 That chiliasm was the earliest view, the dominant view, and was held by those who had close associations with the Apostles, can be demonstrated from the earliest writings.
Irenaeus also, student of John�s disciple, Polycarp,2 claimed that the Apostles handed down chiliasm as an eschatological system.3 Another disciple of John�s, Papias, who had personal contact with several of the original twelve Apostles, wrote five volumes
outlining the Apostolic teaching of chiliasm. This included some of Jesus� oral tradition regarding His coming Kingdom. Irenaeus was familiar with Polycarp�s oral teaching of John�s eschatology, and with Papias� five books.4 It is from Irenaeus that we get the
most detailed treatment of the eschatology of the second century Church, since his writings have survived, while those of Papias have only survived in a few fragments quoted by other writers. His witness is the most important because of his access to
sources close to the Apostles. Other early chiliasts, who treat eschatology just as extensively, but who did not have this kind of access to original sources, were Justin, Tertullian and Hippolytus.
This raises an important question: If �chiliasm� was indeed what the Apostles handed down, why did Justin indicate that �many Christians believe otherwise� only a half century after John�s death? The answer to this question is not hard to find."
JAMES: The "one Thousand years" in Rev. 20 is not a literal one thousand years. It means "A long time" or a "perfect amount of time".
Also, this period of time is the time you and I live in, the church age.
WALTER: By what authority do you make a passage meant to be literal and make it allegorical? By what authority do you abandon Hermeneutics and not take Rev 20 as being literal?
Revelation 20 is to be take literal.
JAMES: Also, regarding your original question: If you take into account all of God's elect from all of history, and add babies who died in infancy, childbirth, etc, you could very well end up with a BILLION people!
WALTER: And your point is what here? So are you able to calculate who is God's elect? Can you calculate their specific numbers? And so what if it's a billion or 1o billions? What relevance is that?
If you want to study the truth on Premillennial vs Amillennial then go here:
Who are these people in the below Prophecies? Consider that these prophecies are people who are in the Millennial Kingdom here on Earth.
Isa 2:2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; 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 anymore.
Zec 14:9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be "The LORD is one," And His name one.
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Who are the people that Satan will be let loose to tempt one last time and who are the people who rebel against God at the end of the Millennial Kingdom? You cannot reconcile this with what you currently believe.
This is a passage that deals with this.
Rev 20:7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
Rev 20:8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 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.
Rev 20:13 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.
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. NKJV
Who are these people? They are not Christians because we are ruling and reigning with Christ. We are immortal and have glorified bodies. so it has to be another group of people.
I can reconcile it. I believe they are "the rest of the dead". The ones "reserved unto fire at the last day" The bible says that the wicked are not resurrected until the 1000 years are over. Then they are all resurrected(the ones that were already dead at Christ's coming, and the ones that were killed at Christ's coming), and they surround the city. The judgment that Christ and the saints have decided upon is carried out, and the wicked are destroyed in hellfire...including Satan this time...i.e. "The second death". The verse in Isaiah is kind of contradictory to your belief, because it says they will not learn war anymore...then they go out to make war with the Most High? I still think those verses are either referring the gentiles coming to Christ, or some other group of "saved" people. If you read farther in the second verse it talks about these foreigners no longer being foreigners. Sounds to me like God kills all the ones that refuse to come to the city, and grafts all the others into the vine of Israel. But even so...that's two texts. It's dangerous to build a theology on 2 texts. I gave quite a few verses that say very clearly...God's kingdom does NOT include sinners or the unconverted. This just confuses me a little...you're saying God rules over sinners for 1000 years...just to destroy them? Am I missing anything? Do you also believe some of these number will come to be saved or something?
And I'm sorry SirJames...I think I responded to something that wasn't directed at me, lol...my bad...I have no idea what all those labels mean...
Walter, you know I'm not going to agree with you here either. :laugh:
There are too many Scriptures to indicate that the wicked, those who do not know Christ, will not enter the Mil. I don't believe there is a third group. There are righteous and there are unrighteous.
Zechariah 12:3 tells us that all that burden themselves with Jerusalem with be cut into pieces, "though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." And Zechariah 14:12 tells us that the people that have fought against Jerusalem will suffer an ugly death.
Consider too that the Lord gathers all nations against Jerusalem to battle before He in turn goes forth to fight against those nations [Zech13:2,3].
This sounds to me like there are no sinners from the nations that came against Israel who survive the Day of the Lord and are allowed to live and enter into the Mil.
So who does Christ rule with a rod of iron? Israel. How many times has the Lord preserved her and how many times does she forget or slide into disobedience? And remember, these people are in natural bodies, still subject to sin just like any other mortal. And since procreation will continue during the Mil, more little sinners will be born, since we are all born into sin in these natural bodies.
You said: Your Question presupposes a dispensationalist view.
That is a modern viewpoint that has only existed for a very short while in the last two thousand years.
WALTER: Actually James you are presupposing that my view is "Traditional Dispensationalism" or "Darbyism". That is not my view. My view is Chiliasm which is the oldest most Orthodox view in Christianity dating back to the Ante-Nicene Fathers which were PRE-Millennial. It was only those who held to the Gnostic influences that believed in Amillennialism. The ECFs defended the Faith against that belief.
James replies:
Chiliasm is an old fashioned term that communicates the same idea as Dispensationalism---Belief in a literal Millennium.
JAMES: The majority of the Christian Church has been Amillennial in their interpretation of the end times.
WALTER: That is not entirely accurate. The Earliest Church Fathers, Ante-Nicene were PRe-Mill. Those who held to Amillennialism were influenced by Gnosticism.
James replies:
It IS accurate. Take two thousand years, and look at what the majority view is. it is Amill.
Walter:
This raises an important question: If �chiliasm� was indeed what the Apostles handed down, why did Justin indicate that �many Christians believe otherwise� only a half century after John�s death? The answer to this question is not hard to find."
James replies:
It sounds like you are saying that the Apostles were infallible in their interpretation of John's Revelation.
I think way to look at the Early Church fathers is almost like the Early church children. They did not have the benefit of insight upon insight and reflection upon reflection that later Christians did. That is why Consensus of Christians for two thousand years should be given greater weight than just paying attention to the ECF.
JAMES: The "one Thousand years" in Rev. 20 is not a literal one thousand years. It means "A long time" or a "perfect amount of time".
Also, this period of time is the time you and I live in, the church age.
WALTER: By what authority do you make a passage meant to be literal and make it allegorical? By what authority do you abandon Hermeneutics and not take Rev 20 as being literal?
Revelation 20 is to be take literal.
James replies:
Because if you do, you are doing just what the Dispensationalists do. You are hyper-literalizing.
We are talking about chapter 20 of the most symbolic book in the entire Bible! John is describing his VISION. How can you see a thousand years? If I went outside and looked at the stars and told you I saw a million stars, would you take that literally?
I have looked at all the different views and Amill has the least amount of problems. I think that Postmill and Amill are by far the most accurate.
JAMES: Also, regarding your original question: If you take into account all of God's elect from all of history, and add babies who died in infancy, childbirth, etc, you could very well end up with a BILLION people!
WALTER: And your point is what here? So are you able to calculate who is God's elect? Can you calculate their specific numbers? And so what if it's a billion or 1o billions? What relevance is that?
James replies:
Well, my point is the earth will never need to be repopulated.
God has chosen perhaps a billion souls for Himself. I see nowhere in Scripture of a time period when there will not be any people on Earth.
I Think the important thing is that we know church history, and know what the majority view is for all of church history.
If we go against that position, we should be able to make a good case for why we go against the majority of Christians.
For instance, I go against the majority on the issue of using instruments in Worship. I believe we can use instruments in worship, and I can make a good case for this.
You and I live in an anti-historical age, and the attitude of many Christians is "Hey, I have my Bible and the Holy Spirit, and that is all I need..."
Our goal is to be wise and accurate. The Book of Proverbs says three times that "There is wisdom in many counselors".
We HAVE many counselors who are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and there are two thousand years of wisdom and insight and reflection to help us along.
