Based on Biblical prophecies, I started this series with only 2 posts about human history soon reaching its mid-point (the end of our 3rd/current age) on this current version of Earth. While concluding the 2nd post, The Lord reminded me ...the real mid-point, time-wise, has already passed! This is because The Bible is very clear that the remaining 3, promised ages of humanity, will be starkly short!!!
Beyond these 6 ages, The Bible predicts and promises a 7th, eternal age, on a new, eternal Earth. By my math, 7 ages signifies 6 ages transitions events. The Bible verifies the first 2 such transitions were some form of global judgments, namely the global flood, and the crucifixion of Jesus, representing Father God’s global judgment and forgiveness of sins for whosoever would embrace His plan of salvation. Armed with insights about the likely future global, ages transition judgments, I was interested to know and perceive their indicative ‘ramping-up precursors’. Voila! This series was suddenly, significantly expanded!
Let’s consider the predicted 6th (final) ages transition briefly noted in The Bible, about which Revelation 20 only includes 9 verses.
6th-to-7th Ages (post-Millennial Reign age, to eternal age)
This ages transition will begin sometime after satan’s kingdom is, once again, released on Earth, after a thousand years of being locked away in a bottomless pit. Devils will well know their time is short to deceive and tempt humans to join their rebellion against The Lord God. Ezekiel 28:11-16 signifies when and how their rebellion began. This insightful passage is embedded in a prophecy about an ancient king of Tyre.
1. Humanity’s ‘cup of iniquity overspilling its rim’
Knowing their time is short, devils will, no doubt, be aggressive in using this declared ‘little while’ age to their best advantage. If people’s angst against monarchal rule will have greatly increased toward the end of The Millennial Reign age (see Part 5), then devils will find ways to light that and other sinful fuses. Towards the end of each preceding age, history will have confirmed that people increasingly cast of all restraints, resulting in exploding sinfulness across the world, just as we see in our day! Moreover, The Bible predicts there will have been no warfare, and signifies there will be no military industrial complexes on Earth during previous age. But this won’t stop people from plotting ways to conquer the MASSIVE WEALTH that will have accumulated in Jerusalem and across Israel during The Lord’s global reign. Thus, the stage will be quickly set for folks’ ‘cup of iniquity to begin spilling its rim’!
2. Righteousness on Earth figuratively ‘hanging by a thread’
The predicted presence of Christian saints in Jerusalem, signifies there will indeed be Godly righteousness on Earth. The lack of references to them being elsewhere, might signify their very limited presence and numbers. No doubt, with the (then) absence of The Lord, His saints, and His angels on Earth, these saints will know their situation is precarious! Hopefully, they will also know the Revelation 20 prophecy, and will be well-prepared to withstand (get this...) their first EVER encounters with devils! If not, the implied limited righteousness on Earth ...might quickly diminish!
For more of my perspective on these post-Millennial Reign age saints, see: Salvation in The Millennium (Series).
3. Certain precursors (pre-conditions) reaching their fullness
The only clear precursors for the pending, final global judgment (The Great White Throne Judgment) might be the crescendo of greed, leading to preparations for the 2nd Gog and Magog attack in Israel – the final attempted war in history, likely planned to capture the wealth noted above. Just as with the first Gog and Magog attack in Israel, the wealth there will be the temptation that sparks the attack. Recall how The Lord used wealth in Jerusalem to entice the Babylon army to invade ancient Judah, as His judgment on folks’ gross sinfulness?
Perhaps you might conceive of other precursors, considering how devils initiated and sustained their game on humans during the first 3 ages of history. By this final age, with so much experience dealing with us, they will no doubt be extremely wise, highly strategic, and devilishly tactical in how they use their remaining …‘little while’!
4. Silence from Heaven (dreaded or welcomed!)
My best guess is that Heaven might be silent during the entire 6th age of history, perhaps preparing …for the final global judgment, and especially for ‘welcoming home’ the final contingent of saints who will have missed all earlier resurrection and rapture events. 1 (See: Bible Raptures (Q&A))
Conclusion
In this in-depth series, I hope you will perceive and more clearly understand The Lord’s rich history in allowing things He cares about to reach their bitter ends, before He unleashes His promised judgments. That’s the effect of His Grace and long-suffering toward mankind. (See: Jeremiah 9:23-24 and Ezekiel 14:12-23) This effect is evident in our individual lives, families, cities, states/provinces, and nations. In this series, we see it also applies globally! As these scenarios unfold, He may allow significant collateral damages as well as various Goshen-effect type protections for HiS bona fide saints. His long-term Grace, and its related collateral damages and protective effects, will likely continue to be apparent in His remaining 4, promised, age-transitioning, global judgments!
Friends, If you value the insights in this topical series (and this blog, in general), please help to share them widely, and thereby become one of The Lord’s …warning watchmen on the wall.
We know scientists have long been pondering the duration of humanity on Earth. As a result, governments and private sector entities have been spending feverishly, to identify and hopefully prepare to relocate a remnant of mankind elsewhere in the universe!
My, my, if only they knew and believed... 2
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1 The Bible strategically uncloaks The Lord’s multi-millennial strategy for humanity, comprising 7 ages: (1) pre-flood, (2) post-flood/pre-cross, (3) post-cross (Church Age), (4) tribulation/great tribulation, (5) Millennial Reign, (6) post-Millennial Reign, and (7) eternity. During each age, possibly except the 5th, He is ‘harvesting’ a small remnant of humans as saints, to whom He will show everlasting Grace'. Please see: Historical Countdown - 7 Biblical Ages of Human History (w/Video).
2 For a scientific perspective on the possible mid-point of human history, see: How Much Time Does Humanity Have Left?
