Yes, I do see at least part of Isa 65 as descriptive of the Millennial Age. And I do *not* see "long enjoyment" as immortality.
I agree that Rev 20 is not describing Rev 21, though so much of this is speculative to me. I wish things were more definitive, but they aren't--at least not yet.
Well, "Death" is being personified, but it is not really a "place." It is a condition. I see Death being defeated at Christ's Coming not because people will stop dying, but only because *some,* namely the Church of the present age, will finally be resurrected into new immortal bodies that cannot die. This is the 1st occasion in which Christians have completely defeated death.
But it says nothing about the continuation of death among those who are not resurrected or caught up at the 2nd Coming. It says nothing about non-Christians who survive Armageddon.
I would assume that if Mortal Humanity continues after the 2nd Coming that they also will have to die, and be resurrected. In fact, the 1st Resurrection, which happens at the 2nd Coming, implies that there will be a 2nd Resurrection after the Millennium. And this means people will still be dying during the Millennium.
I'm not sure that's true at all. While it is true that Satan and his deceptions will be bound, nothing is said to indicate people can't be deceived by their own wishful thinking? If Sinful Humanity continues, human deceptions continue, as well.
No, I think that if there is a Millennium, there will be Sinful, Mortal Humanity with deceptions and death. This is why there is a rebellion at the end of the Millennium. It is not just because Satan is freed to encourage sin, but largely because sin had never really gone away, and was just awaiting greater encouragement to rebel against God.
That's true. The Kingdom of God at the 2nd Coming will cause the earth to derive its peace from acknowledgment of Christian truth. Though the whole world may acknowledge such, it is another thing for the whole world to obey it. A lack of rebellion against the Kingdom of God does not suggest complete conformity to it.
Christian kingdoms have conquered countries, and have turned them into Christian countries. But later on, these countries turned against colonialism and returned to pagan religions or antiChristian religions. Forcing them to submit and obtaining loving obedience are two separate matters.
I don't claim to understand the Why of the Millennial Age. It is something to speculate on.
The problem I have with this is that you seem to make it appear that people in the present age are being judged in their deception while those in the Millennium are judged without deception? How on earth can God apply a 2-tiered system of justice like this, considering it important that people know what they're doing and yet judge them after acknowledging they really don't know what they're doing?
Thanks for your thoughts.
No verse in Scripture talks about immortality as you all define immortality. Putting on immortality is putting on life, not immortality ie longevity. Life is the opposite of death.
As a soul you will never die, period. The lake of fire is spiritual death, not physical death.
Those living in the Millennium would not be immortals living in sin or living without sin.
They are not mortals, because that means death, but to call people immortal is not the opposite of death nor even found in Scripture as a term used by NT redeemed. People will still be people. They will just stop being mortal.
The term in Scripture is simply a son of God. But there is more to being a son of God than just the spiritual relationship.
You are still defining the Millennium with current mortal conditions. Those living at the start of the Millennium as the first generation will have changed physical bodies.
I get that you all want them to be immortals but immortals are not sons of God in the Bible. Immortals are just sinful humans who live a long time in their sinful flesh who seemingly can never die. Because Scripture nowhere calls the sons of God immortals.
In fact, the whole Greek understanding is based on death. We are mortal/death. The opposite would be immortal/without death. Death is still in the definition of the word. God calls it life, not "not death". Those living in the Millennium do not just have eternal life. By definition they are eternal life. And they won't even face the second death, nor the GWT Judgment ever.
The only thing people in the Millennium are judged by; is their one act of disobedience. They won't have a chance to disobey twice. That is what Death is for, and no it is not just personified along with sheol. Death is a location that is also emptied out at the GWT Judgment. The personification of Death and sheol in the 4th Seal is merely symbolic.
Also the church will not live on the earth in the Millennium, any more than the church lives on the earth now. By that, I mean the church is removed after their physical life of the earth is over. The Second Coming is the end of our physical life, of the earth, because we don't take this body of death/mortal with us. Just like the whole body of the church has been waiting in Paradise since the Cross, it will continue to wait in Paradise until after the Millennium.
That is the whole point of the church physically descending in the New Jerusalem after the Day of the Lord.
The church body on the earth only exists as ambassadors. And ambassadors don't claim the country they serve in, as their home. Once born of the Second Birth, this earth stops being one's home. So the redeemed living on the earth will never be the church living in the New Jerusalem.
But Adam's punishment has to end. The Day of the Lord is a Sabbath that is Holy and not part of the work week, or in humanity's case the week of sin, and death. Amil have that point right, they just deny the Day of the Lord as being Holy and without sin and death.
But since it incorporates a thousand years of time, and life is still normal as per being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth and subduing it, then Jesus will be King in Jerusalem over Israel and all the other nations on the earth. The final harvest is this group of redeemed people from the earth. The remnant saved from the fire, but not quite the glorified sons of God experience in Paradise per Revelation 7:9-17. This passage has been ongoing since the Cross, as that is the entire church body. Revelation 20 has not been ongoing since the Cross.
This remnant of the earth are also removed from their current body. Death is removed and even the representation of death, this current physical body. 2 Corinthians 5:1 applies to those on earth in the Millennium. That is the redemption of the body.
This whole waiting in death part for even those since Noah and the Flood, until heaven and earth pass away is denying that Jesus was the Resurrection and the Life in the first century.
People post hundreds of verses over and over again, and then just explain what they have been taught by theology. It is like they don't even see the words that are there. Merely the words they want to stick out to prove a point.