THE THIRD COMING OF CHRIST BEFORE THE MILLENIUM

THE WAR OF ARMAGEDDON INTERRUPTED BY THE SECOND COMING AND MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB AND THEN FINISHED LATER IN THE THIRD COMING 

The Seventh- day Adventist church teaches that this war will be concluded at the second advent of Jesus. It would seem so because the preparation is documented under the sixth plague period(Revelation 16:12-16), and evidently Christ’s second coming and marriage supper of the Lamb follows on the heel of the seventh plague(Revelation 16:17-21; 19:1-10).

But did Christ’s coming conclude the war of Armageddon? The answer to this question comes from Revelation 19:11-21). Seventh-day Adventist church theology has presumed that the battle of Revelation 19:11-21 is the scene of Christ’s second coming. However a closer look reveals something astoundingly different. 

In case the reader does not know why the Seventh-day Adventist church accurately deduced that Christ comes closely following the seventh plague, here is the explanation. The Chronology of events leading to the second coming begins in Revelation 16. In verse 15, under the sixth plague, Christ announces that he is about to come. Then shortly after, the seventh plague is poured out.

The Chronology of the narrative is then continued in Revelation 19. Note carefully how Revelation 19:1-3 ties in with the seventh plague event in Revelation 16:17-21, and pay close attention to verse 19 which talks about the judgement of Babylon the great,

“And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath” – Revelation 16:19 KJVS.

Now compare this with Revelation 19:1-3, where heavenly inhabitants and the redeemed saints  are talking about this judgement of Babylon as event that they had just witnessed,

 “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand” -Revelation 19:1-2 KJVS.

Reading down to verse 10, clearly tells the reader that the redeemed are among the angels in heaven recounting how God has just judged Babylon and avenged their blood in answer to the prayer and cry made under the fifth seal(See Revelation 6). The only way the saints could be in heaven among the angels, rejoicing about the judgement of Babylon, which was accomplished by the seventh plague, must be through the second coming and Christ taking them to heaven.

With this explanation established, let us proceed with the initial discourse about the war of Armageddon. Having seen that Revelation 19:1-10 follows in Chronology from Revelation 16, the place where Seventh-day Adventist church theology makes an error is from Revelation 19:11-21. Instead of following the same Chronology of events, the church suddenly cuts off verses 11-21 and chunks these verses back and into the second coming of Christ. 

So instead of seeing verses 11-21 as events that are after the second coming, they conclude that they are second coming events. But are they? Let’s take a close look.

In verse 11, the scene opens to John of Christ as King of kings leaving heaven with an army, on his way down to earth to engage in a war against the kings of the earth, their armies, and against the beast and his false prophet, the same people introduced in the sixth plague period. So, clearly this war is the same war of Armageddon. 

But notice carefully those who constitute the army that is with Christ as he descends. Teachers of the church have always assumed that this army is the Angels of God. Look closer however in verse 14 which says,

“And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean” – Revelation 19:14 KJVS.

Note the emphasized phrases, “which were in heaven”. True, it could apply to the Angels. But pair it with the other emphasized phrases, “clothed in fine linen, white and clean”, and then circle back to verse 8 where the same phrase is used to describe the saints who are in heaven after the second coming,

“And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” – Revelation 19:8 KJVS.

Note what the fine linen is called, “the righteousness of the saints”, which clearly indicates that the phrase is used for the redeemed saints that have been in heaven. Evidently therefore, the army that is with Christ as he is descending to earth to engage in this war against the kings of the earth and their armies, beast, and false prophet, are not the Angels, but instead the redeemed saints of God.

Let’s recall Revelation 17:14 KJVS

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful”.

This verse is clearly saying the same thing as Revelation 19:14. Paul also made a statement about Christ coming to earth with his saints. The second coming is about Christ coming for the saints, and not coming with the saints. Therefore this scene is not of the second coming, but rather of the advent and  descent that happens after the second coming. 

But for anyone who is still in doubt that Revelation 19:11-21 is in clear Chronological order with verse 1-10 and Revelation 16, here is Enoch’s prophecy as recounted by Jude,

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” -Jude 1:14-15 KJVS.

It is clear that Enoch’s prophecy is not about the second coming of Christ because in the second coming Christ will come for the saints, not with them. Enoch’s prophecy is therefore about another coming, a coming that occurs after the saints of Christ has been redeemed and taken to heaven. Only then could Christ come with them to earth to judge the wicked.

Enoch prophesied about the THIRD COMING, and contrary to traditional Seventh-day Adventist theology, this third coming is not of God, Christ and New Jerusalem descending to earth. This will happen after ALL THE JUDGEMENTS are concluded. But Enoch is clearly talking about a descent by Christ to judge the wicked.

The truth revealed here is very astounding and completely upends our present theology, which is that the next descent after the second coming is the descent of the New Jerusalem. But as is clearly shown so far in this study, there is a THIRD COMING OF CHRIST TO EARTH, WITH THE REDEEMED, TO JUDGE THE WICKED WHO  CLEARLY THEREFORE WILL BE  HERE ON EARTH AFTER THE SECOND COMING. Not all the wicked will be dead at Jesus’s coming. It is from this third coming that Christ and his saints engage and deals final defeat to the beast, the false prophet, the kings of the earth and their armies. But not all the wicked engaged in this battle, so when Revelation 19:21 says “and the remnant”, it means those remaining  of all who engaged in the war. So, even after this war, there will still be a number of the wicked still on earth.

This revelation will no doubt come as a shock to many, if not all, Seventh-day Adventists; that after the second coming there will be people still on this earth, and even after the third coming and hence during the millennium. 

In the next prophecy blog, we will pick up from this and study in greater detail the Millennium and what Christ and his saints will be doing during this period, in what is a clear departure from the present and traditional Seventh-day Adventist theology on the subject. The topic will be The Resurrections and the Advents of Christ:The scriptures against Traditional theology. 

In this study we will see that there will be a population of the wicked on earth during the millennium, the very subjects that Christ and the saints will be considered ng from heaven to judge for the one thousand years. It will be seen that the millennial judgement is far from being the poring over books by the saints. It is real time judgement against living people on earth.

Why would this judgement be necessary? Why does God still want people on earth during the millennium? We will discover answers to these questions in the next prophecy blog.