PREPARING FOR THE JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST (PART 2)
Matthew 25:19… “After a long time the lord of those (redeemed) servants came and settled accounts with them.”
1st Peter 4:17… “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
Late in the first century, Christ instructed John to write the seven exhorting and warning letters (Revelation Chapters 2&3) to seven different literal Christian churches, which had various degrees of developing leaven. (Note that those warnings are not only given to them, but to us/the redeemed too.) The recorded instructive Words of Christ to His redeemed (those called to overcoming maturity) were then to be taken literally and prophetically, and were heeded and unheeded, then and throughout this 2000-year Age of Grace and Mercy. These Letters to the 7 representative Churches are interpretable and applicable today on two levels… 1) on a corporate level; on these current End-Time congregations/denominations and 2) on an individual level; on different kinds of redeemed individuals within the congregations/denominations. Today, there will be those who hear His instructive Words of warning and reward relating to His coming Kingdom and obediently respond and learn to adhere to Him, and those who won’t.
In those 7 Letters, Jesus contrasts the actions of the then living redeemed faithful “overcomer” as opposed to the actions of the living redeemed unfaithful ones who were being “overcome.” The final judicial result on the redeemed for how they lived on this Earth being determined after death at the Judgement Seat of Christ. These redeemed will then and there be judged worthy of rewards and inheritance in His coming Millennial Kingdom, or judged as those who will suffer consequences and be excluded from that Kingdom and all its accompanying rewards. Those of the 7 Churches have run their race. Their judgements for what they did while alive are long since set. They were instructed to serve God faithfully and fruitfully, to be overcomers of their carnal souls, satan, and the World, and warned not to be overcome, as we also are warned through what was recorded in Scripture and given to them.
It has been rightly said: The Bible was written for all times, especially the End-Times.
What are the Just judgements this World’s ‘last generation’ is facing, along with the pretentious Church and the living redeemed lukewarm Christian individuals who are ‘alive’ unto the World? These soon coming End-Time Judgements answer to a great degree to “…all the (un-revenged) righteous blood shed upon the earth…” since the days of God’s Covenant with Noah up to the time of the coming “Armageddon”. (In Genesis 9:5-6, after the Flood, when God tells Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the the Earth again, He also makes a Covenant in the sky (a rainbow) as a sign He will not flood the Earth again, and in the Covenant, He also says, “And surely your blood of your lives will I require (as a reckoning/accounting); at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” That there is an accounting for all the blood shed on the Earth by man is seen in the next two New Testament verses… Matthew 23:35… “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar..” In Revelation 6:10, we can see that those who were martyred for Christ cry out, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Note that during the 7-year Tribulation period, there is a transitioning from the Age of Mercy to the Age of Justice, thus the cry for vengeance/Justice.)
In these next verses, we can see that in the Last Days, God defers to Jesus to fulfill His Word relative to that Covenant He made with Noah concerning that ‘blood for blood’ principle. In these verses, it is clear to see that the shed blood in the Tribulation period is not arbitrary or random slaughter, but precise and Judicial recompense relative to the blood shed by His enemies since the time of His covenant with Noah. Revelation 14:20… “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Revelation 16:6… “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink (in that the waters are turned into blood once again in the End-Time Judgements); for they are worthy” (for it is their just due). Revelation 17:6… “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (amazement). Revelation 18:24… “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” Revelation 19:2,13… “For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”… “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.” Had the blood been accounted for, it would not have been mentioned in these verses as needing avenging/recompensing.)
The state of mankind before the flood (‘the days of Noah’), which is what led to the Earth’s destruction, is coming on us today progressively and numbingly. (There’s a numbing within Christendom throughout the Earth in that they presumptuously think, ‘We are fine’ not knowing that they are like the lukewarm Laodicean church that was “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”) Matthew 24:8,12,37,38 says, “All these are the beginning of sorrows… “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”… “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark…”) All this being like our current spiritual darkness which will soon lead to the climactic end just as it was for the spiritually unaware Amorites who were judged when their figurative ‘cup of iniquity’ had become full; it having accumulated over a long period of time. (Genesis 15:16) “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” [Matthew 24:21] And that God- determined timeline of the fullness of this World’s iniquity, in the wisdom of God, will also divinely coincide with “the fullness of the (calling out a people for His name from the) Gentiles has come in…” (See Acts 15:14… “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.” And Romans 11:25… “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”) The fullness of the World’s iniquity will also coincide when the “Times of the Gentiles” will have run its prophetic course; a time which spans from ancient Babylon to End-Time Babylon. (Luke 21:24… “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles (from the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon until End-Time Babylon) be fulfilled.” Christ’s coming Kingdom in the 7th ‘Day’ ends the “times of the Gentiles” and their authority in the Earth forever. See also Revelation Chapters 17 & 18)
Foundationally, these Last Days correspond with God’s appointed and revealed timeframe for ‘restoration’, which is to say the pattern set of 6 days of work followed by a day of Rest. We see then God’s established principle must be fulfilled now as the 6th Day (of 1000 years for 2nd Peter 3:8 says, “…that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”) of redemptive/restoration work since the fall of Man is upon us who live today… to be followed by a ‘Day’ of Millennial Rest in the Kingdom of Christ.
Scripture reveals a Judgement ‘Throne’ for Justice to be set up in the heaven of this Realm, for a pre-determined 7-year period, to administer final judicial Judgements at the very end of those 6000 years of restoration work. Judgements which include the seals, trumpets, and vials which greatly affect all the ‘living’ in what is appropriately called the Last Days or End-Time. These Just Judgements will begin to come forth which answer to the Noahatic Covenant for Gentiles and their Nations, also Just Judgements that answer to the apostate Nation of Israel and Jews. (Daniel 9:27… “And he (the Anti-Christ) shall confirm the covenant with many (including Israel) for one week (those 7 years referred to as the Tribulation Period): and in the midst of the week (in the middle of the Tribulation) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. To be understood with Isaiah 28:15… “Because ye (Israel) have said, We have made a covenant with death and with hell (with death/the Anti-Christ who will literally be resuscitated and brought back from that place called “Death’ in the ‘pit’ in Sheol/Hades/the intermediate place of the dead) …are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through (initiated by the Anti-Christ 3 ½ years after the covenant), it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves…”). Additionally, the End-Time Throne’s Justice and Just Judgements will also come upon the then living members of the Nation of the One New Man (Christians/members of the Body of Christ). All pre-Millennial Rest (typed by the Sabbath day) Work will be completely accomplished in a final 7-year prophesied period that closes out God’s 6 ‘Days’ of Restoration Work.
THE SETTING UP OF THE LAST DAYS’ JUDGEMENT THRONE
See Revelation 4:1-3… “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set (‘being’ set in the Greek) in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne (this part of the furnishing being a token in remembrance of the Covenant with Noah after the Flood), in sight like unto an emerald.” See Genesis 9:11-13… “And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.”
Jesus, speaking to John, says, “come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter…and behold (look), a throne was (then being) set in (this Earth’s Realm’s) heaven…” A closer study reveals Revelation Chapters 4 & 5 describe the exact duplicate event foreseen by Daniel in 7:9-14 (note that the ‘thrones’ are wrongly interpreted in the King James Version as thrones being cast down; see any of 35 + other translations where it is rightly translated as something akin to “thrones are being set up”. The Revised Version reads… “I beheld till thrones were placed” which is to say placed in position for someone to sit on them. The Book of Revelation reveals the same main throne surrounded by 24 other thrones in Revelation 4:4… “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.”) The final result of this setting up of Thrones is that heavenly transaction wherein the Son of Man receives His investiture as King in this Realm and an everlasting dominion to be shared with His saints.
(Revelation 11:15-18… “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders (in that they have tenure, they are called Elder Angels, having had authority in this Realm since its Creation), which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets (Old Testament redeemed Faithful), and to the saints (New Testament redeemed Faithful), and them that fear thy name (those who repented and/or were martyred during the Tribulation), small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth (the confederation of men and fallen angels in these Last Days). Note that this Realm will not be ruled by Angels anymore in that timeframe as seen in the fact that the Angels are seen laying down their crowns, which are a symbol of their authority, so that the crowns can be given to worthy glorified men who will co-rule with Christ from the first heaven and over the Earth in the Millennial Rest. Hebrews 2:5… “For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.” 1st Corinthians 6:2-3… “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?” See also Revelation 20:4-6 where men take thrones… “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection (which answers to judged worthies to rule with Christ in the Millennial Rest). Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death (any further judgement at the Bema of Christ) hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”)
These future Just Judgements; in the seals, trumpets, and vials, relate back as far as God’s Covenant declarations to Noah. Judgements that also would include Israel’s ancient supernatural calling out of the Nations, who was given authority in the Earth over all the other Nations, but through stubborn unbelief that authority was taken from them and given to the Gentile King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (“God hath made thee (Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon) ruler over them all” – Daniel 2:38). And that authority is prophesied by Daniel to remain down through 4 successive worsening beastly empires that follow; empires and a timeframe that hundreds of years later encompassed Christ’s First Coming. Had the Nation of Israel received Christ as their King, they would have gotten back that appointed authority in the Earth. But instead, having then and now rejected the Messiah, God has deferred Israel’s sure restoration judgements that will finally converge on them in the End-Times prophesied terminating judgments on the Anti-Christ/Beast and the last Gentile empire to rule in the Earth. A Last Days’ Empire not yet fully developed according to prophecy, but will be shortly in the Last Days. …Which brings us again to that future Judgement Throne yet to be set up. “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” [Luke 21:22]
So it is that some prophesied Judgements to be pronounced at that Throne will have been deferred throughout this Age of Mercy and Grace. Those Judgements, not being swept under a rug, will then commence and be completed in that coming short 7-year transitional Age, all in accordance with God’s prophetic, now concluding, timeline (of 70 weeks of years) given to Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27) which culminate in the Return of Christ the Messiah, with the restoration of Israel to be His promised preeminent Nation on the Earth in His Millennial Kingdom.
Thus, what Daniel’s and John’s written depiction of the setting up of the Throne of Justice has in view is the “consummation/finalization of taking away the Last Days’ dominion and kingdom of satan and its utter destruction… being the result of that heavenly court then set in order… that over the next 7 years, this Realm’s heavenly government/the “powers” of this heaven, “shall be shaken” (Luke 21:26b, Isaiah 24:21) …and be transferred to the Son of Man and “His saints (worthies) of the high places (the heaven related to this Earth) and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven (earthly) shall be given to the people (Jews) of the saints (Bride out of the Nation of the One New Man) of the Most High” (…places – Daniel 4:26 and Daniel 7:13,14,18,26,27 with Revelation 2:27;12:5;19:15).
This setting up of this Last Days’ Judgement Throne of Justice in this Realm, in addition to the culminating things mentioned above, also correspond with the fading of the ‘Age of Grace and Mercy’ with its existing Throne of Grace in the Third Heaven. That Throne from where grace and mercy are dispensed for the sincere, redeemed seeker’s sanctification in living in faithful service to Christ will be less and less… as the redeemed are completely leavened in doctrine, thereby presumptuous and worldly. (Matthew13:13,33, Revelation 3:17) Christendom, now (or then), does not resemble the 1st Century church at all. It is made up of Laodicean-like religiously minded believers, who are unable to see their true condition (that of being in need of repentance), disqualifying themselves as the ‘Age of (dispensing) Justice’ now to be strictly enforced is opening. They will be religiously deceived in their calloused thinking, in the wrong camp, and be caught up in the Last Days’ Judgements from that coming Last Days’ Throne to be set up. (Proverbs 1:25-26… “Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes…” Isaiah 55:6… “Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” Revelation 3:16… “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”)
All of this sanctifying Written Truth to one degree or another has been presented to generation after generation of redeemed Gentiles since the first century after Christ, to be heeded by the redeemed hearer in faith, who are thereby exhorted and warned to live their lives on Earth accordingly. These Truths were meant to be purifying and refining so that believers in all generations would live their lives as if they themselves were the ‘living’ who were faced with so “great tribulation”. And with a view to being prepared whether they live in the time He will reappear, having that living hope of being caught up alive or if they should have to “taste of death”, regardless, to be prepared to stand before Christ’s Judgment Seat/Bema/Throne.
The End-Time Judgement Throne will be set in this Realm’s unseen heaven and has to do with judgements on all those who are living on the Earth at that time and the 7 years that follow. The Throne of Grace is set today and is for the living redeemed to obtain mercy and grace unto faithful and fruitful service to Jesus our Lord. But the Judgment Seat of Christ has to do with judging His redeemed, primarily after their death, for recompense for service while they were alive…. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done (while alive) in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord (in severe judgements for unfaithful service while living after redemption), we persuade men…” With… “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27)
But during the 7 years of the Last Days of the 6000 years of restoration, the Judgement Seat will also make Judgements that were previously reserved for the redeemed after they died (Judgements having to do with their Resurrection; to be determined either in the First or the Second resurrection). But then in those 7 years, millions of living redeemed Christians across the globe will be evaluated at the Judgement Seat of Christ as to whether they are to be found worthy of the experience of being caught up away to that End-Time Throne while alive and never tasting of death, either at the time of the First-Fruits Rapture, or if they were unprepared at the time of that mid-Tribulation Rapture, they will be evaluated while remaining alive whether they are worthy to be caught away, and also like the First-Fuits, to never taste death at the time of the End-Time Harvest, which is towards the end of the 7-year period. (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17) So we may see how the following all work in conjunction throughout the 7-year period: 1) the End-Time portable Judgement Throne set up for Justice consummation in this Age 2) the Throne of Grace (that also answers to the Father’s chastisements while alive to purify us) for the redeemed to attain mercy and grace in faithful service to Christ 3) the Judgement Seat of Christ (although it primarily has been to judge those redeemed in Christ after dying over the last 2000 years as it relates to their future resurrection, now in the End-Times, the Bema of Christ comes into play for judgement on the redeemed before they die, while they are yet living, in that Kingdom rewards manifestly start in the time of the 7-year Tribulation Period when those who will be judged worthy will then not taste death and be caught up into the first heaven). These 3 all harmoniously occurring throughout the 7-year period just before Christ’s visual 2nd Coming on the Earth as King of this Realm and commencement of His 1000-year Kingdom. His Second Coming; constituting His heavenly Parousia, being when He steps down out of the unseen heaven of this Realm and enters the seen Realm. (Revelation 1:7… “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” Acts 1:11… “…who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” {which is visibly}).
THE TWO WITNESSES AND THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE END-TIMES
Shortly after the setting up of the Judgement Throne in this Realm’s heaven and the Son of Man’s Investiture as Messiah/King, the two witnesses, in displays of supernatural judgements in the power of the Old Testament prophets, come forth in accordance with the setting up of the Throne of Just Judgement with the changing of Ages, and they prophesy and exercise God’s annulling judgement power in testimony against Israel’s and the Beast’s “Covenant of Death”. According to Scripture, the two seemingly invincible witnesses continue to witness throughout the first half /the first 3 ½ years that correspond with Daniel’s End-Time 70th ‘Week’. “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast (Anti-Christ and False Prophet) that ascendeth out of the pit (same events of Revelation 13:1a,5,11) shall make war against them, and kill them.” (Revelation 11:3,7) The ‘great tribulation’… ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ … the ‘Hour of Temptation” suddenly comes upon all the living of the Earth. What had immediately preceded and initiated the two witnesses’ deaths by the Beasts was that Christians who were faithfully living on the Earth as ‘alive unto Christ’… were then purposefully and uniquely judged at the Bema of Christ as living overcomers of satan and were caught up into the first heaven (Revelation 12:11… “And they (the man-child/living worthy sons judged at the Bema) overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”) and they received the promise of reward in Revelation 3:10 to “…keep thee from the hour of temptation (mainly the Great Temptation to take the Mark of the Beast), which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the Earth.” Their ‘catching up’ resulting in satan being cast out of the first heaven down to Earth. (Revelation 12:12… “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”) Thus this “keeping” promise of Christ (in Revelation 3:10) then answers to the ‘rapture’ of those living faithful who are watching and praying in that hour. (Luke 21:36… “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (the disciples in the Garden failed to watch and pray and fell into temptation, these who were watching and praying are delivered up from temptation into the first heaven.) (See also Matthew 24:40-41… “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left (to endure the last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation). Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”) “These were redeemed from among (living) men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 14:4b) The ‘First-fruits’ supernaturally caught up from living men on the Earth to the unseen first heaven related to this Earth “unto God, and to his (End-Time Judgement) throne and to the Lamb. (Revelation 12:5 speaks of the First-fruits being caught up to the Throne that had just recently been set up; perhaps that portable one, which the prophet Ezekiel described as having whirling wheels, from where God judged Israel… “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it…” – Ezekiel 1:26) Which would seem to correspond with Daniel’s and John’s visions of a Throne/Thrones being set up in this Realm. This Lamb, Who was standing in the midst of those Thrones (Revelation 5:6), now brings up a contingent of His sanctified redeemed. Christ is also referred to in the same Passage as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, which is an allusion to Israel’s imminent restoration in sanctification through ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ now forthcoming. Christ is in the midst of the End-Time ‘Thrones’ personally breaking the seals, and systematically administrating God’s Last Days’ Judgements in this Realm on the Gentile Nations and Israel. While also interceding and mediating as Advocate before the Ancient of days for His unripened servants left on the Earth.
(See Job 2:1… “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.” Up until the time of satan’s casting down from this Realm’s heaven, where he is now ruling, Scripture declares satan accuses the saints who are resisting him; accusing them day and night before God. It would appear that this is his constant affair as his angels bring him intelligence on those servants of Christ living in the End-Times, who are most heartedly engaged in Christ’s service, being watchful and praying. These saints are typed by one of the children of the ‘Woman’ from Revelation 12 (she symbolizing the whole redeemed family of God). This “man-child”, who is to be brought forth to rule, is the ripening End-Time First-Fruits sons unto God. Satan is aware of God’s intent to raise this child up into his kingdom and replace him there, and with equal intent, he sets about to argue their disqualifications. And when his temptations and accusations fail, he attempts to assail them violently as they ascend into his heavenly kingdom “to devour her child as soon as it is born.” Which brings the forces of God to bear upon him and he is violently cast out of the first heaven to the Earth. Now having lost the heavenly portion of his kingdom, he now being full of wrath, sets about to destroy the remaining seed of the “Woman’; “those which keep the commandments of God” (the Jews) whom he knows are promised the Earthly portion of his kingdom in open unrestrained warfare, and those who “..have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (the remaining unripened living Body of Christ), who are exhorted to faithfully endure. (Revelation 14)
The redeemed faithful living End-Time witnesses of Christ on the Earth played then dramatically into this middle of the week (middle of the 7-year period) event in that their catching up also resulted in the murder of the two witnesses. Satan’s expulsion from Earth’s heaven will so enrage him that he will precipitate Jeremiah’s prophesied Jacob’s Trouble on the Jews, as well as the time of trial and “Great Temptation” on the unprepared (asleep and not watching) Christians (which are the vast majority of End-Time living Christians left on the Earth). The first half of 3 ½ years ending with the death of His two witnesses gives way to the last 3 ½ years, in the bringing up (out of Hades’ pit) the Beasts in the power of outraged satan to kill the two Witnesses and fully develop the Last Gentile World Empire, which will be one of terror for all dissenters.
It is in this First-Fruits mid-tribulation event that the Judgements of Christ’s Bema will first begin to manifest, and that being on the living New Testament bondservants of Christ, 2000 years since His departure and 3 ½ years after returning to the heavens of this Earth (when He entered this Realm at the beginning of the 7-year period for His unseen Investiture). That being parabolically set forth in Matthew 25:14,19… “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.” … “After a long time (at least after 2 Days/ 2000 years) the lord of those servants cometh (unto the heavenly part of this Realm first), and reckoneth with them” (then living on the Earth). Luke 19:15… “And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the (heavenly portion of the) kingdom, then he commanded these servants (the living First-fruits) to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money (the Truth regarding redemption/rebirth in divine nature, the love of God, the Word, the Throne of Grace, and the Holy Spirit), that he might know how much every man had gained by trading” (in His spiritual economy). These living judged by Christ as worthy of First-Fruits will be the first actual recipients of His Kingdom blessing, realized in the catching up glorious change in the “twinkling of an eye”.
THE HARVEST
The heavenly part of the Kingdom of Christ being secured, attention is turned to the Earthly part of His Kingdom. Just Judgements from the Throne on the inhabitants of the Earth continue exponentially. Until towards the end of the Tribulation period when the further Judgements of the Bema of Jesus Christ will then be manifest in the Harvest of the remaining living and dead judged worthies caught up to join the First-Fruits, followed quickly by the securing of the Earthly portion of His Kingdom.
The time of the Harvest ingathering/‘catching up’ is just before the closing of those last 3 ½ years (Revelation 13:5), and after much tribulation, towards the end of the 7 years of increasing tribulation judgments, and just before the last terrible Vial is poured out on the Earth. (Revelation 16:17) Before the climax of “the great winepress of the wrath of God”, there is the Harvest of all those redeemed dead who were found faithful and those remaining faithful Christians living on the Earth, who had been un-ripened at the First-Fruits offering 3 ½ years earlier who are now awake, and “watching and praying”. (Revelation 16:15… “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” God is warning those left behind that they may qualify yet, through much tribulation, to be a part of the Harvest. These are those remaining living Christians who repented and are now fully ripe, having overcome the flesh, the World, and satan, who ‘endured patiently’ the great persecution and temptation to worship the Anti-Christ. Then the One Who sits “on the white cloud”/the Bema of Christ, having then determined those tribulation faithful out of His living ‘Body’… “…thrust in his sickle, on the earth, and the earth was reaped” (the Harvest of His faithful living – Revelation 14:7-20). Who then are gloriously “…caught up together with them (‘them’ being those resurrected dead found faithful previously at the Judgment Seat of Christ… having been found worthy for the First Resurrection, they are gloriously brought up out of Hades and are caught up almost simultaneously together with the judged worthies of the living) …in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (in the 1st heaven fulfilling 1st Thessalonians 4:14-17… “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”). The Harvest is now gathered together with the First-Fruits up into this Realm’s unseen heaven, as the full Bride, now to be wed to Christ (at the great Wedding Supper) “…and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Then after this heavenly wedding, they are empowered as regal co-rulers and poised to rule with him. (Daniel 7:18… “But the saints of the most High (Places) shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.” See also 1st Thessalonians 4:14 with Revelation 19:7-14, and Zechariah 14:3-9)
See Luke 19:12-17…“He said therefore, A certain noble man (Christ by Resurrection) went into a far country (the Third Heaven… it is the time for our preparation) to receive for himself a kingdom (an appointment from the Emperor to be King – Daniel 7:13-14, Revelation 5:1-9), and to return (to this Realm). And he called his ten servants (already His redeemed servants with the gift of eternal life), and delivered them ten pounds (representative of the ‘Truth with amenities’ of His mission entrusted to them), and said unto them, Occupy (faithfully promoting His Truth) till I come (with the appointment He had declared as His, He has now attained). But his (End-Time) citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us (this is the 7-year End-Time indictment against the living dwellers on the Earth). Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little (in that if one can rule themselves, they are found worthy to rule over others), have thou authority (in my heavenly Kingdom) over ten cities (on the Earth… the reward is too wondrous to conceive). And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another (redeemed servant) came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow (the disqualifying from kingdom inheritance here is cited as wickedness and not misuse but disservice, due to his irreverential opinions of his Lord). And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank (sharing the Truth if but halfheartedly to others that would have brought forth at the very least a small return), that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath (Truth and lives and shares it) shall be given (more Truth and authority); and from him that hath not (exercised the Truth into which he came), even that (perfecting Truth unto heavenly glory) he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them (see Hebrews 10:13 and Revelation 11:18), bring hither, and slay them before me.”
Christ’s Words of Truth… “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.” And “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.”
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