Month 9:4, Week 1:3 (Shleshi/Bikkurim), Year 5935:234 AM
Gregorian Calendar: Tuesday 29 November 2011
Destination Millennium
What Will Believers Be Doing in It?
Whatever their particular belief system and no matter what they call it, those who correctly believe in a literal physical 1,000 year Paradise or Millennium on the earth seem not to have much of an idea what they are going to be doing there unless they are Messianics. For instance, Yahweh says through the prophet Isaiah:
"'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,' says Yahweh, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,' says Yahweh" (Isa.66:22-23, NKJV).
"All flesh", of course, means every human being on the planet - everyone. And what will they be observing?
Notice that the New Moon is placed before the Sabbath, indicating its importance and headship. Why is it so important? Because it sets the Sabbaths. In othher words, millennial mankind will be observing the Creation Calendar, not the Roman Gregorian one we have been using since it replaced the Roman Julian one, and other calendars before that.
What else will the millennial population of the earth be doing? Yahweh says through the prophet Zechariah:
"And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which Yahweh strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)" (Zech.14:16-19, NKJV).
The whole planet will be observing Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles, which as the culmination and capstone of the festivals therefore represents all the festivals. All of this happens with regathered Israel (Ephraim), regathered Judah and the Gentiles (non-Isralites), as Yahweh reminds us through the prophet Jeremiah:
"Behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will make a New Covenant (B'rit Chadasha) with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- not according to the [Mosaic] covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put My law (Torah) in their minds, and write it on their levatot (hearts); and I will be their Elohim (God), and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer.31:31-34, NKJV).
Everyone will know and love Torah (because it will be written on their levatot (hearts)) and everyone will know Yahweh, as Isaiah prophesied:
"For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the mayim (waters cover) the sea" (Isa.11:9, NKJV).
The New Covenant or Besorah (Gospel) will be universally known, universally loved and universally obeyed which, of course, is the condition of the Millennium. And obviously, if they are observing Torah in a New Covenant context, then obviously they will be observing the new moon, sabbath, seven annual festivals, sabbatical year, jubilee year, the kosher food laws, and much else besides.
No assembly, church, ministry or organisation that does not teach and observe these things can possibly represent the Millennial Reign of Messiah! Indeed, the showing is pretty poor as this partial list shows:
Organisation |
Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) |
Creation Shabbat (Sabbath) |
Festivals & Creation Calendar |
Roman Catholics |
No |
No |
No/No |
Eastern Orthodox |
No |
No |
No/No |
Protestants |
No |
No |
No/No |
Mormons |
No |
No |
No/No |
Jehovah's Witnesses |
No |
No |
No/No |
Messianics |
Some |
Tiny minority |
Yes/Tiny minority |
Seventh-Day Adventists |
No |
No |
No/No |
Armstrongites |
No |
No |
Most/No |
Seventh-Day Baptists |
No |
No |
No/No |
Messianic Evangelicals |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes/Yes |
Of course, some of these don't even believe in a literal, let alone a physical, millennium, such as the catholics and preterists who think it is already here! Many Evangelicals and the Seventh-Day Adventists believe the millennium will only be in heaven.
What are you representing the Millennium as? Do you know what you will be doing in it...assuming you qualify for the first resurrection? If you're a pastor, 'rabbi', elder, or teacher, are you telling your flock the emet (truth) or just rehashing Christian myths and fables?
In order to represent the Messiah's Kingdom requires that we understand both its inner condition and its outer observance since they are echad (one). The lifestyle of the Millennium is to be learned now and that is the Torah way of life, as the prophets tell us. Will you believe them? Or will you follow the traditions of men?
"If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (John 13:17, NKJV).
Further Reading
[1] Book of Revelation LXXIII: A New Heaven & a New Earth & the World After the Millennium (Revelation 21:1-5)
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