No evil in heaven

[8thdaypriest]

23 hours ago, phkrause said:

That's not my understanding and as far as I recall, have never been taught this. From what I've been taught, is that the 1000 years is for us to get answers as to why family members, friends, etc., are not there!! Also to be able to seek out those we've read about in the Bible, and of course talk to Jesus, and ask those questions that have bothered us for so long.

I don't believe it will take a thousand years to explain to me why certain of my family members are "not there".  I'm not THAT slow.   I want to hear all about the original rebellion, and stories from all the patriarchs, and study science and mathamatics, and meet some people from other dimensions, and tour the gardens of Heaven.  Wow!!  I can think of sooooo many things I would rather do then hear about other people's sins. 

[Kevin H]

4 hours ago, 8thdaypriest said:

I don't believe it will take a thousand years to explain to me why certain of my family members are "not there".  I'm not THAT slow.   I want to hear all about the original rebellion, and stories from all the patriarchs, and study science and mathamatics, and meet some people from other dimensions, and tour the gardens of Heaven.  Wow!!  I can think of sooooo many things I would rather do then hear about other people's sins. 

If I understood my professors correctly this word for thousand years means as long as necessary to fully understand a topic. One of two extremes of teaching. Sometimes teachers were asked to give an answer standing on one foot, which meant a quick summery. On the other end were thousand year answers which meant taking all the time necessary for the students to fully understand and master the topic.

Of course the word thousand has been an interesting world. It originally meant a core family group or a military unit trained to work together as a unit. It usually consisted of a group of approximately 10 individuals. We need to remember this when reading the count in Numbers and the battles in judges. (for example in Gideon, he did not have one intact fighting group. Yes he had 300 individuals but not one complete team where all the jobs were divided and where they knew how to fight as a team). But they could kill only a couple hundred people which caused the enemy to loose several thousand.  The two armies were approximately the same size, but one had the state of the arms weapons and were  trained to fight as set teams where everyone knew their job and  how it works with other jobs.The other side was individuals mixing with other individuals and too many people trained for one job and not enough for the other, and having few if any weapons beyond sticks and stones.

So with the thousand years in heaven, It is however long it takes us to understand and have our questions answered, as well as  for Satan and the demons to realize what they did. If we are in heaven for 750 years and  all our questions have been answered Jesus  will not have us twiddle our thumbs for 250 years. On the other and if we have been there for 999 years and it's New Years eve for the thousandth year and we are still asking questions Jesus is not going to look at the clock and say "We're running out of time, I'm sorry we can only have time to answer three more questions: You, you and you then I'm sorry no one else. "

(by the way, there are problems with the 6,000 years) God is not sitting around with some divine clock controlling him.

[LifeHiscost]

10 hours ago, 8thdaypriest said:

I don't believe it will take a thousand years to explain to me why certain of my family members are "not there".  I'm not THAT slow.   I want to hear all about the original rebellion, and stories from all the patriarchs, and study science and mathamatics, and meet some people from other dimensions, and tour the gardens of Heaven.  Wow!!  I can think of sooooo many things I would rather do then hear about other people's sins. 

10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

11There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.....Ecclesiastes 1

30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 33And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine....Matthew 22

I,m sure I cannot understand all the theological mores for the thousand years but I am satisfied God will not not ask anything unnecessary or that will cause pain or sorrow of lasting duration .

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” .....Revelation 21

 

God is Love!~Jesus saves! 

[phkrause]

22 hours ago, JoeMo said:

Can you provide a scriptural reference for this?  As far as I know, this is only proclaimed exclusively in the writings of EGW.

I believe that's true, and so did all my Jewish/SDA pastors that taught this!! I have no reason to believe its untrue!! It makes more sense than anything else I've heard!

[phkrause]

11 hours ago, 8thdaypriest said:

I don't believe it will take a thousand years to explain to me why certain of my family members are "not there".  I'm not THAT slow.   I want to hear all about the original rebellion, and stories from all the patriarchs, and study science and mathamatics, and meet some people from other dimensions, and tour the gardens of Heaven.  Wow!!  I can think of sooooo many things I would rather do then hear about other people's sins. 

If you actually added this

 

On 9/18/2017 at 10:36 PM, phkrause said:

Also to be able to seek out those we've read about in the Bible, and of course talk to Jesus, and ask those questions that have bothered us for so long.

You'd see that I also said similar to your post!! I didn't say that it would take 1000 years to do the first past of my statement. I agree that exploring the other worlds of the universe will be awesome, and seeking out all those that lived during the writing of the Bible will be something that happens during our 1000 years!!

[Kevin H]

1 hour ago, phkrause said:

I believe that's true, and so did all my Jewish/SDA pastors that taught this!! I have no reason to believe its untrue!! It makes more sense than anything else I've heard!

In college we studied Revelation first in the light of the current events under how Domitian the deadly wound of the Nero persecution arose. (The first century Roman Emperors sounded a lot like Daniel 7. We start out with 10 of them. The 6th one was Nero who was the worst persecuting power but then he received the deadly wound and the level of persecution returned to baseline. then came three emperors who were plucked up Galba, Otro, and Vitllius, by the Flavain family where Titus destroyed the temple and Domitian healed the deadly wound of the Nero persecution. 

In the chapters such as Matthew 24 the second coming was connected to the fall of Jerusalem. The church lost it's first love. Texts in Romans indicate that the church though that going into all the world was to go to the Jewish world. (Paul said that the gospel was spread to the whole world and if he had the time he would like to bring the gospel to other places, such as Spain). The theme of Revelation is to preach again. That yes Domitian will martyr them as they preach but to not let that stop them, that in sheol the martyrs get to rest under the alter, to be resurrected when their number was full. That as the gospel spread and the people embracing the gospel were martyred that would have lead to a last generation on the earth and that under these conditions the thousand years would have been something special for the resurrected martyrs  followed by the resurrection for everyone else. 

Of course the church did not preach again. Instead of the gospel going into all the world, we see that there was a spiritual vacuum that in the east ended up being filled by what was until then just a small insignificant religion in India called Buddhism.  But had the church returned to her first love and preached again this vacuum could have been filled by the gospel. 

Domitian may have known how his family sounded like Daniel 7 and felt a pride to be the center of history for the Jewish' people's Bible. But in Revelation Domitian is also put in his place. His fulfillment of Daniel 7 was dependent on not what he did or did not do but on the spreading of the Gospel. If it was not spread there would be a turning from the focus on the 4 beasts in Daniel to an increased role and focused on the three other aspects of the feet of iron and clay, the toes of iron and clay and the attempt of the toes to unite, so a focus on 7 parts instead of the 4, and Domitian just being a nuisance part of the 4th head. And for the thousand years not being just something special for the martyrs, but for all who lived and died under the gospel.

The two theories I've heard for the reapplication of the thousand years in this larger application over a longer history:

1. Looking at what the New Testament says about the second coming and heaven and the desolation of the earth passages in the Old Testament is the picture of the redeemed spending the thousand years in heaven, and on earth, the demons (who are too busy trying to deceive and kill us and do not have time to really understand what they are doing) finally have a time with nothing to do but reflect and realize what they have become and how ugly sin is. And the redeemed have their questions answered. (an investigative judgment of the questions of the redeemed and of the angels-- Paul says that we will be judging angels, and I don't think he meant to limit this to just demons otherwise he'd say demons) then he return to earth for the closing scenes of the Great Controversy.

 

2. Jesus reigns on earth for a thousand years, the demons in some kind of bottomless pit, and at the end of the thousand years Jesus giving us the choice to either continue living under his rule or to be thrown into a fire to burn in physical torment forever. 

[phkrause]

Kevin, when you were at AUC, did you have Rick Trott as a teacher? If you did, I just want to mention that he passed away last Sabbath.

[Kevin H]

I did not have him as a teacher of any of my classes,,, but he was the campus chaplain and he gave lectures from time to time. I heard he was sick and on facebook heard that he fell asleep. Thank you for sharing. He was so young. My prayers are with him and his family.