truefiction1 said in post #642:
Saving "Grace" is the Holy Spirit. We are saved by this "Holy Spirit" if we continue to receive Him into ourselves through "continuance/perseverance in faith" in God's promise of Eternal Life . . .
That brought to mind:
Romans 5:2 By whom also
we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God . . .
This means that as Christians choose to continue in the faith (Colossians 1:23), they continue to have access to God's grace (Hebrews 4:16). At the same time, other verses show that it is only by God's grace that the elect (the chosen) (Ephesians 1:4-11, Romans 9:11-24, Acts 13:48b) are given God's miraculous gift of faith in Jesus Christ in the first place (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:65; 1 Corinthians 3:5b, Romans 12:3b, Hebrews 12:2).
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truefiction1 said in post #640:
The thousand year reign (millennium) is NOW.
Note that there are at least eight Biblical reasons to read the 1,000 years (the Millennium) of Revelation 20:2-6 as not beginning until after Jesus Christ's (still unfulfilled) Second Coming in Revelation 19:7-21.
First, this is in accord with how the rest of Revelation chapters 6 to 22 are in chronological order, insofar as the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 will begin with the events of the second through sixth seals, occurring in the order shown in Revelation 6:3-14. After the events of the sixth seal, Revelation 7 will occur. Then the seventh seal will be unsealed, and out of it will come the Tribulation's seven trumpets (Revelation 8:1-6). Then the events of the first six trumpets in Revelation 8:7 to Revelation 9:21 will occur in the order shown there. Then Revelation 10 will occur. Then the literal 3.5 years of the future Antichrist's worldwide reign will occur, which time period is shown from four different angles in Revelation chapters 11 to 14 (Revelation 11:2b-3, Revelation 12:6,14, Revelation 13:5,7, Revelation 14:9-13).
Then the seventh trumpet will sound, announcing the legal end of the future Antichrist's reign (Revelation 11:15). Out of the seventh trumpet's heavenly-temple opening will come the seven plagues of the seven vials (Revelation 11:19, Revelation 15:5 to 16:1), the Tribulation's final stage. Then the events of the seven vials will occur in the order shown in Revelation 16. Jesus Christ's Second Coming will occur right after the seventh-and-last vial (Revelation 16:17,19, Revelation 19:2-21), and He will rapture and marry the Church at that time (Revelation 19:7). Then He will completely defeat the world's armies (Revelation 19:11 to 20:3), and reign on the earth with the physically resurrected Church for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53). Then the events of Revelation 20:7 to Revelation 22:5 will occur in the order shown there.
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Second, the 1,000 years in Revelation 20:2-6 are when Satan will be literally bound with a chain, and cast into and locked within the literal Bottomless Pit, whereas currently he is walking about freely on the earth seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). So the 1,000 years can't have started yet. But their beginning after Jesus' Second Coming makes perfect sense (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6).
Third, during the 1,000 years, Satan will not be able to deceive the world (Revelation 20:3), whereas currently he is able to deceive the world (2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 11:3,14-15; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 13:14, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:10). So the 1,000 years can't have started yet.
Fourth, the defeat of Satan in Revelation 20:1-3 is in chronological accord with the immediately preceding defeat of the future Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast"), and his False Prophet, and the unsaved armies of the world, at Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming (Revelation 19:19-21). Indeed, there is no chapter break between Revelation 19 and Revelation 20 in the original Greek manuscripts. So Revelation 19:19 to 20:3 can be taken together as a unit, showing how every power of evil on the earth will be defeated at Jesus' Second Coming.
Fifth, reading Revelation 20:4-6 as Jesus Christ and the bodily resurrected Church reigning first on the present earth (not the New Earth) after His future, Second Coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6) matches Jesus reigning first on the present earth (not the New Earth) after His Second Coming in Zechariah 14:3-21. For Zechariah 14:8-21 cannot be referring to the New Earth (of Revelation 21:1-3), because Zechariah 14:8-21 refers to a temple building in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:20-21), whereas there will be no temple building in New Jerusalem on the New Earth (Revelation 21:22). Also, Zechariah 14:8-21 cannot be referring to the New Earth, because it refers to surviving non-Christians from the present earth being forced to come up to worship the returned Jesus in Jerusalem during the Millennium (Zechariah 14:16-19), whereas by the time of the New Earth, all non-Christians from the present earth will have been cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15 to 21:8).
Sixth, reading the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:4-6 as the physical resurrection of the Church at Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6) matches other verses which show that the physical resurrection of the Church will occur at the Second Coming (1 Corinthians 15:21-23,51-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16).
Seventh, reading the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:4-6 as the physical resurrection of the Church at Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming is in line with Revelation 20:5, which must refer in its entirety only to physical resurrection. For not every dead person is going to be figuratively resurrected in the sense of becoming saved (Revelation 20:15). And Revelation 20:5 means that the rest of the dead (that is, all of the non-Church dead of all times) will be resurrected in the same manner that the Church will be resurrected in Revelation 20:4-6, but the rest of the dead will not be resurrected until sometime after the 1,000 years.
Eighth, reading the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:4-6 as the physical resurrection of the Church at Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming is in line with Revelation 20:4, which shows that the people in the first resurrection will include those in the Church who will have been beheaded by the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") for not worshipping him or his image, or receiving his mark on their hand or forehead. This refers back to the details of Revelation 13:4-18, which have never been fulfilled. So the first resurrection cannot have happened yet. But its occurring at Jesus' Second Coming, when He will defeat the Antichrist, makes perfect sense (Revelation 19:20 to 20:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9).