Copperhead post #17:
“when Satan is released at the end of the 1000 year kingdom”
Question: How can this statement not assume a millennial position?
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According to your interpretation of the parables of the leaven and the mustard seed (Matthew 13) your position on the kingdom of heaven is very pessimistic.
Providing information about three millennial positions and the corresponding view for the future of the Church generally held by each position was not intended as a test but clarification and not - "as to whether one is a true believer or not." Any judgment you might have felt is self imposed. I fellowship with missionaries and true believers from each of these millennial positions.
First, I never said I didn't hold a millennial position. I stated specifically I don't use a litmus test of pre, mid, post, tribulation, and like to think more in terms of Pan-tribulationalist... it will all "pan" out according to God's plan. Now Amillenial, that is something else. I do disagree with that position. I think that impugns God's character and calls Him a liar.
You would be correct on how I view it, I don't seen the 1000 year reign as perfection. How could it be? And if it is perfection, then why is it only lasting 1000 years and not forever? No, Messiah has to rule with a "rod of iron". Those nations that will not come to Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles will have rain withheld from their land. There is death and sin still. Sacrifices are offered at the temple. There are cities of refuge established where one that is guilty of a capital crime (in ignorance) may flee. And there is enough evil still a part of mankind that Satan is able to muster almost all the people in the kingdom to rebellion against God.
Many Messianic Jewish believers that are very well steeped in OT prophetic teaching see it in a similar way that I do. And if you apply a sound expositional approach to idiom meanings of the birds and leaven as shown throughout the rest of scripture, it all fits.
The only way that could realistically be a possibility is if evil and sin had grown to permeate the entire kingdom. The birds in the mustard seed parable are the evil adversaries and the leaven in that parable is evil permeating thru the kingdom.
I see the kingdom as Messiah restoring the earth to a more perfected state. The curse on land and animals is lifted. There is no Satan running around to play his little games. But the heart of man still remains sinful. It will show that even when the conditions are such that there should be no reason to be influenced by sin, mankind will still be in rebellion in his heart towards God. There will be no excuse.
After all this is why then the earth will be destroyed and then a new heaven and new earth will be created that will go on indefinitely, Satan and the fallen angels with him and hell are thrown into the lake of fire for eternity, and only those that are redeemed and the angels that did not fall will be around forever with Messiah.
I think many fail to see all this because they equate the millennial reign with heaven just because Messiah is ruling. There is indeed a distinct section of land that is defined within Israel as the kingdom area where Messiah's throne is and He is literally ruling from, call it the "capitol" if you will, and it may indeed be sinless within that area. But the rest of the world decides to go it's own way eventually.
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