Eschatology
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During the Millennium the saints will reign with Christ in heaven and
will engage in the investigative judgement of unbelievers |
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The
Seventh-Day Adventist Church teaches that after Christ has returned and after
Satan has been bound (the binding of Satan, however, is not to be understood
literally, according to Adventists, for they say that the binding of Satan
means that Satan is consigned by divine command to the desolate earth where
he will be confined for a thousand years so that he may ponder on the results
of his rebellion against God), the general resurrection of believers will
occur (it must be said, however, that it will not be strictly a resurrection,
for according to Adventist teaching there are no
souls of these believers which are still in existence, since
when they died they were completely annihilated, therefore their restoration
to life should be called a new creation rather than a resurrection). After
this resurrection, all believers who are still alive will be transformed and
glorified. Then both the resurrected believers and the transformed believers
will be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air; after this they
are taken up by Him to heaven (cf. Seventh-day
Adventists Answer Questions On Doctrine, Review and Herald Publishing
Association, Washington, D.C. 1957, pages 494-496). At this point, the
Millennium will begin, during which the saints will reign with Christ in
heaven for a thousand years: ‘A thousand-year reign of the saints with Christ
is foretold in Revelation 20:2-7, but there is no statement in that chapter
that the saints will reign with Christ on earth during this period” (Questions On Doctrine, page 489).
During the millennium the saints will engage, together with Christ, in a work
of judgement, a work which involves “a careful investigation of the records
of evil men and a decision regarding the amount of punishment due each sinner
for his part in the rebellion against God” (Ibid., page 497). This
investigative judgement of unbelievers will be followed by the executive judgement
of unbelievers which will take place after the millennium. |
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Confutation |
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The
Holy Scriptures teach that when Christ returns, the dead in Christ will be
raised from the dead, and the saints who will be found alive will be
transformed. Both the resurrected saints and the transformed saints will be
caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air (cf. 1 Thessalonians |
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After
the binding of Satan the millennium will begin, which is a literal
thousand-year reign which will be established on earth by Christ, and during
which the saints (both the resurrected saints and the transformed saints)
will reign with Christ on the earth. That the saints will reign with Christ
on the earth, and not in heaven, is evident from the words of the following
song written in the book of Revelation, which was sung to the Lamb by the
four living creatures and the twenty-four elders: “You are worthy to take the
scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood
your purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and
nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and
they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10 – NIV). But it is evident
also from the following words written in the book of Revelation, which
describe what will happen on the earth after Satan is released from his
prison: “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released
from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four
corners of the earth, God and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose
number is as the sand of the sea. 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. 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” (Revelation 20:7-10 – NKJV). As you can see, the Scripture says
that the nations will surround the camp of the saints,
therefore the saints will be on the earth during the millennium and not in
heaven. |
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As
for the investigative judgement of unbelievers which will be carried on
during the millennium, it is something which is foreign to the teaching of
the Scripture; nowhere does the Scripture state that the saints will engage
in a investigative judgement of unbelievers. therefore this so called investigative judgement is to be
rejected. What the Scripture teaches about the judgement of unbelievers is
this. At the end of the Millennium, the wicked will rise again, and they will
appear before the throne of God, and they will be judged by God according to
their works, and cast into the lake of fire (cf. Revelation |