God wants to finally end the pain and suffering of sin and set up His eternal kingdom of love and freedom. God will send Jesus back again to the earth. This time instead of coming in humility and rejection, He comes in power and great glory to gather His people, those who lay in dusty graves along with those who are still alive and take them home to be with Him forever. But let’s focus back on the earth and discover what effect Christ’s fiery entry will have on our planet.

Note: The unbelievers will not be able to stand because sin, which they have chosen to retain by rejecting the gift of God, salvation in Jesus Christ, cannot stand before a holy God. Christ will not come veiled in His humanity; He will come in glorious divinity. Hebrews 12:29 says He is a consuming fire and the unbelievers will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming.

Note: The earth will be devoid of any living thing. The entire atmosphere is gone, its elements destroyed by the blazing fire of Christ’s coming. But the final destruction of sin and sinners is still to come because God says “I will not destroy it completely,” (Jeremiah 4:27) this is only Phase I in the setting up of His kingdom

Note: Those that were destroyed by the brightness of His coming as well as those who were in the graves are now raised at the end of the millennium.

Note: There will be many unanswered questions when we arrive in heaven with Christ. In his great love and compassion God has set aside 1000 years to answer all our questions. It’s important to God that we understand and be included in this important judgment of those who rejected Christ (including Satan and his angels).

Note: Satan is bound exactly the same amount of time that the lost are dead and he will be loosed exactly when the lost are resurrected but only for a short time.

Wherever they were slain on the earth they are raised to life. They continue under Satan’s deception as they did during their lifetime and are ready to do his bidding now as always.

Note: God desires that the unbelievers see that it was only their rejection of Christ that caused them to be lost, nothing else. God, in fact is actually on trial in a way because He desires to prove to the entire universe that Satan’s accusations against Him have always been and always will be false. God has to prove that he is just for the rest of the universe. It was doubt that caused sin in the first place and God cannot ever risk sin in His universe again.

Conclusion: In this chapter of Revelation is one of the most incredible descriptions of the final events of earth ever told. As we can see the fate of all is reserved for the second coming of Christ. But no one need experience the anguish of being lost. Jesus offers eternal life to everyone. “Come. Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” Revelation 22:17