Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (50 page)

I can almost hear the rapturist sighing and admitting, “Okay, maybe the early Church did interpret Scripture differently from the way we do. But say what you will, there still does not seem to be a Millennial Kingdom of Christ evident in the world today. Christ and His morality have just as many enemies as friends in the world in this age—maybe more.”

To which I say:
Dealing with enemies is what reigning entails
. Christ does not wait to reign until after complete and total victory. That is how we, the Church Militant, are active in cooperating with the Church Triumphant. Christ “must reign
until
He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). St. Paul assumed that the
overcoming
of Christ’s enemies was the main focus of ruling the Kingdom! The battle can be exhilarating when you already know who will win. We are sure Christ will be victor in the end, because He kept His appointment with the Sanhedrin: He judged them within the generation He had predicted.

Although visions in apocalyptic literature do not necessarily follow chronological order (GR8), St. John clearly and specifically places the next events immediately at the conclusion of Christ’s Kingdom: “And when the thousand years are ended” (20:7). This is a time statement. St. John announces his intention to be specific about the order of events. He started this vision with Christ’s vindication in 70 A.D. and continued it into the Millennium that signifies the present Church age, in which we live. What he is about to describe comes at the end of the Millennium, at the end of the spiritual Kingdom over which Christ has ruled; at the final eschaton. This is the first time in all of these visions that the final events of history are in focus (GR3).

Do you feel as if all you ever do is fight a battle with evil? Well, the best is yet to come! After the extremely long and complete kingdom age—“the thousand years”—there will be one final confrontation between good and evil: “When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations … Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. And they marched up over the broad earth … but fire came down from Heaven and consumed them, and the Devil … was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (20:7–10).

This description begins at the moment described by St. Paul: “He who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:7). St. Paul is not speaking in apocalyptic language, however, so he makes it clear this is at the end of the Church age.

Notice that there is no reference to a revival of the beast (sea-beast) or the false prophet (land-beast). This is a common rapturist premise, that the beast and the false prophet will be active at the final battle. But they have already been defeated and destroyed in the first century. Since the antichrist is still in the future, there will have been at least two millennia between the defeat of the beasts and the defeat of Satan and his antichrist. That gap is not presumptuous; it is right in the text. After his defeat, Satan is cast into “the lake of fire” to join the beast and the false prophet. They are already there, awaiting the reunion with their dragon.

The reference to “Gog and Magog” gives us further evidence that this is the final battle. Originally Gog was the king of Magog. In the Old Testament, Gog and Magog ultimately took on the aura of a mythical people, representing the entire heathen world as it opposed Yahweh. Gog and Magog were the subject of Ezekiel in Chapters 38 and 39. The battle language here and in Ezekiel have the same sense of finality. God states, “I will not let my holy name be profaned
anymore
” (39:7).

In Ezekiel, the evil Gog and Magog are condemned for plotting war against God’s people when they are least expecting it. They “devise an evil scheme and say, ‘I will … fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely … to assail the … people who were gathered from the nations’ ” (38:10–12). This mirrors the words of Jesus when He described the world situation immediately before the final battle and His return. In His answer to the second question of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus predicted that, at His second coming, people would be living their normal, everyday lives in peace and security, without any expectation of the flood about to encompass them (Matt. 24:37–39).

The Apocalypse gives few details about the final battle. But it is certainly different from any battle envisioned so far in The Apocalypse. The army is as numerous as “the sand of the sea” (20:8). God promised Abraham that his children of faith would one day be as numerous as “the sand of the sea” (Gen. 32:12). The use of this phrase is meant to show the immense breadth and depth of Satan’s influence with mankind once he is released. As always, his forces appear at least as numerous and powerful as Christ’s.

The army of Gog and Magog “marched over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” “The beloved city” has not been mentioned yet in The Apocalypse. This Greek word
agapao
is used commonly in the New Testament in reference to Christians. This final confrontation will be between Satan with his followers and Christ with His faithful. Whether that city is an actual location on earth is doubtful. This seems to be another method of referring to the Church Militant. The new people of God will be savagely assaulted by Satan and all the evil forces he can muster.

Amazingly, there are no details of a battle. When Gog and Magog surround the saints, when prospects for the Church are at their blackest, “fire came down from Heaven and consumed them” (20:9). That is it. Divine judgment is administered quickly. “And the Devil … was thrown into the lake of fire” (20:10). The “Battle of Armageddon” that so many rapturists foresee will probably not resemble the final battle at all. As we have already determined, the events of Armageddon actually occurred two millennia ago (and The Apocalypse never tells of a battle at Armageddon anyway). The final battle of Gog and Magog will be primarily a
spiritual
assault on the Church.

Many Christians wish to have more details about this final battle between Satan and God. But we need not fear. Although few details are related, the end of this final conflict is certain. These verses witness “God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause His Bride [the Church] to come down from Heaven” (
CCC
, 677). That is as we would expect. After all, Christ won the Great Battle of the prior vision partially to give us assurance that He will emerge as the victorious Judge in the end.

The battle of Gog and Magog will end with the utter defeat of Satan and his forces. Immediately after the victory of Christ over Satan, “a great white throne” is set up for judgment (20:11). The second resurrection occurs, which is the bodily resurrection of all people for judgment on the basis of “what they had done” (20:12). Remember the strategy of the Child? “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth … for their deeds follow them” (14:13). The battle strategy of the Lamb involved telling us the Truth about reality: that what we do here and now will be accounted for at the final, general judgment.

At the end of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus told His disciples this would happen. Not only is what we believe important, but also what we do. Jesus specifically mentions the corporal works of mercy: “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me” (Matt. 25:35–36).

Rapturists postulate a total of two, three, or four judgments still in the future. (Part of this is based on their faulty view of the Church, which we have already discussed.) But this one great-white-throne judgment is really the only general, universal judgment contained in Scripture. (The only other one we face is our own particular judgment, which follows our own death.)

Those “not found written in the book of life” join Satan, Death, and Hades in their eternal destruction in the “lake of fire.” This is “the second death” (20:14–15).

We are at the very end, when time dissolves into the more substantive reality of eternity. One way we know this is that Death is “thrown into the lake of fire” (20:14). And we know from St. Paul that death is the last enemy to be conquered (1 Cor. 15:26).

In perhaps his last use of anticipation, St. John uses this destruction of death to unite the great-white-throne judgment to the “new Heaven and … earth.” He has mentioned the death of Death and now links it to our heavenly encounter with God: “God himself will be with them [His People]; and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and
death shall be no more
” (21:4). The destruction of death is accomplished. The consequences of Adam’s choice have finally been reversed by Christ.

Another indication that we are at the very end of time is that our Heaven and earth have been destroyed: “I saw a new Heaven and a new earth; for the first Heaven and the first earth had passed away” (21:1). This is reflective of the language of St. Peter: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise” (2 Pet. 3:10).

St. John tells us this new Heaven and new earth will have no sea (21:1). What a seemingly strange attribute! But this doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be large bodies of water. Remember, in the Old Testament, the sea was commonly a reference to the Gentiles, the outsiders of God’s kingdom, the unbelievers. There are no more unbelievers at this point. All the evil and faithless have already been cast into the “lake of fire,” and all those left are followers of Christ. History and time melt away, and eternity asserts itself (20:15).

The wonderful eternity in store for these followers of Christ is now St. John’s final topic. We approach the climax of all biblical events since Genesis (GR3). In the first three chapters of Genesis, God creates the earth, and then Adam and Eve defile it through sin. Now history and the Scriptures culminate in “a new Heaven and a new earth.”

The Church Militant and the Church Suffering are subsumed into the Church Triumphant: “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.… ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men’ ” (21:2–3). This is the “marriage of the Lamb” for which “the marriage supper of the Lamb” makes our hearts yearn (19:7, 9). The joy of the Eucharist becomes ever present. The people of God now enjoy God’s presence forever.

This is not a new theme in Scripture. It is contained within the Old Testament prophets: “The new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord” (Isa. 66:22).

Who does this? God alone is mighty enough to destroy the world and remake it in perfection. He proclaims, “Behold, I make all things new” (21:5). Here stands the pinnacle of The Apocalypse. These are the first words in the whole book spoken by God from His throne in Heaven.

It is a fitting finale. God really was in control. It may not have seemed possible, but He was the mover behind it all. He ushered His Bride into eternity for the marriage of the Lamb. He was the One to “make all things new.”

Congratulations are once again in order! With verse 21:5a, we have completed the visions of The Apocalypse that describe the casting out of the Old Covenant in favor of the New Covenant, along with the final extension of our vision all the way to eternity. Three times St. John has examined the Jewish-Roman War, repeatedly giving us new insights into many of the key characters involved in that drama. Along the way, he has helped us to develop a much clearer view of Christ’s Bride, the Church.

We are now at the end of St. John’s visions of The Apocalypse. Beginning in 21:5b, we start a summary of the themes of these visions. Notice that St. John is still reflecting Daniel’s outline: Daniel 13 and 14 are a thematic summary of Daniel’s message. St. John tells us when he is ready to give us
his
thematic summary of The Apocalypse by deliberately repeating a unique phrase found in Daniel.

In Daniel’s initial vision, where the mystery of the Messianic Kingdom was first revealed, King Nebuchadnezzar gave his assessment of the vision by praising God and promoting Daniel and his friends. But to signal the end of the vision and interpretation, and to introduce the assessment of the king, Daniel says, “The dream is
true
and the interpretation is
trustworthy
” (Dan. 2:45, NIV). We know that St. John would have studied this passage in the Septuagint or a similar Greek translation. The English word
true
is from the Greek
alethinos
, and
trustworthy
is from the Greek
pistos
. St. John uses this unique pair of Greek words, when, like Daniel, he ends his visions and introduces the assessment of the King.