1Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? 5I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? 6But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! 7Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. 11Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. 13“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. 15Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” 17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Rest, Rule, and Reign
Rest, Rule, and Reign
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 He seized the dragon, the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
When a Jew Rules the World Book Cover
For a while, many of us who have lived in Grimes County, Texas, knew a lady we called “Miss Dorothy”. She was a Seventh-Day Adventist, and she would come and eat at the Emporium (an antique store) when my wife, Sandy, offered a Wednesday noon-day community luncheon. Dorothy would pray with power and always end with the statement, “May we rest, rule, and reign with you in the time that is to come.” It sounded funny and quaint to all of us, but it was actually very biblical (see 1 Corinthians 6:2-3). We don’t have many details about all of this, but quite a lot has been written on this Millennial Reign.
I never really thought much about all of this until I read Joel Richardson's book “When a Jew Rules the World.” It was truly a fascinating book. It altered how I think about heaven. Before reading the book, I supposed heaven to be an ethereal place where we would all sort of move around in a dream-like state. Richardson presents life on earth during the Millennial Reign as a time of living much as we live now - gardening, riding horses, working together - but with total peace on the earth. Richardson offers prophetic support for the claim that Jesus, the Son of David, will be on the throne, ruling from Jerusalem. I have no idea whether this is an entirely accurate portrayal, but it is a much more exciting version of “heaven” than I had ever imagined.
John finally identifies “the dragon, that serpent of old” as none other than Satan, also called Lucifer, the glorious fallen angel of old who has led the earth’s rebellion against God since the Garden of Eden. John is watching as Satan is put into handcuffs, so to speak, and is taken to the abyss. He will be bound for 1,000 years. John then tells us that after these 1,000 years, Satan will once again be released upon the earth. I’ll leave that illogical thought for another discussion. We who have already died will be in our new resurrected, glorified bodies. We will no longer have a sinful nature. We are the bride of Christ. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing in this rebuilt earth, but Richardson says we’ll be tending gardens and partnering with nature to “produce beauty and sweetness.”1 Boy, I like the sound of that. I can’t imagine raising vegetables without every kind of pest and weed imaginable trying to rob me of the fruits of my labor. And I suppose we’ll be participating in the things that Ms. Dorothy prayed about. We will be resting, ruling, and reigning with Jesus. The entire way the earth operates will be turned on its side. Reader, you, I, and all other believers have some really fantastic things to look forward to. In the meantime, follow Jesus. Look to the Spirit to lead you this very day, knowing that someday, all will be set right in the world, and Jesus will sit on His throne forever.
Joel Richardson, When a Jew Rules the World, 2015, WND Books, p.85 ↩︎