Kingdom Come - The Final Victory (4 page)

As for what prayer will be like in that day, the Lord says, “Before they call I will answer; and while they are still speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:25).

You may be a stellar student or an athlete or even a bit of a techie, but you will not have to be good with your hands. You may not be a gardener let alone a farmer, and perhaps you always pay to have carpentry, wiring, or plumbing done around the house. But in that day God will plant within you the desire—and the acumen—to do all those things yourself. On the first day of the Millennium, you will exercise new muscles, new ideas. You will plant vast acres, tend massive orchards, and build houses. All the knowledge, and the desire, will be poured into you.

You will meet for worship and praise with friends and loved ones, joined by new acquaintances of all colors and nationalities. Some will be compelled to tend animals, and not just tame ones. You will need fear no creature anymore, as “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together” (Isaiah 11:6).

RAYFORD
STEELE
had to admit that the first time he saw a bear and then a leopard moving about in public, something niggled at him to keep his distance, to not show fear, to make no sudden movements. But when he saw the bear and the cat cooperate to climb a tree and make a meal of leaves and branches, he was emboldened to trust God for the whole promise. It wasn’t just he who had become a vegetarian. It was true of all former carnivores.

Rayford moved quietly to the trunk of the tree and watched the animals cavort and eat. And when a branch fell, he himself tasted the leaves. He enjoyed fruit and vegetables more, but he could see what the creatures found in the plants. He trusted Christ to calm him when the great leopard leaped down and nuzzled his leg the way a house cat would, purring, then sitting to rest.

As for the bear, it ignored him and stretched out beside the big cat. Talk about a whole new world. . . .

Rayford deduced that the sun was brighter without being hotter, because Tsion Ben-Judah taught that its light was somehow enhanced by the ever-present glory of Jesus. A simple contraption out in the open allowed Rayford to concentrate the light through a magnifier and heat vegetables he and Irene and Raymie had gathered for a special feast. Irene had made butter from milk she had collected from a cow, so when everyone had assembled, they were met with steaming piles of fresh produce, drenched in butter.

And when they had eaten their fill, they retired outside to hear Irene’s account of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Like everyone else, Cameron Williams was fascinated with all that had gone on and what was yet to come. Of course, as a late martyr, he had spent very little time in heaven—just long enough to reunite with his wife, Chloe, and look forward to seeing their son back on earth at the Glorious Appearing. Now he anticipated the special dinner where his mother-in-law was to tell yet another story of Jesus.

No one called Cameron
Buck
now, because, he said, “there’s nothing to buck here.” And strange about Cameron and Chloe’s relationship was that they still loved each other, but not romantically. Their entire hearts’ desires were on the person of Jesus and worshiping Him for eternity. In the Millennium, they would live and labor together with Kenny and raise him, but as there would be no marrying or giving in marriage, their relationship would be wholly platonic.

“It’s bizarre,” Chloe told Cameron. “I still love and admire and respect you and want to be near you, but it’s as if I’ve been prescribed some medicine that has cured me of any other distracting feelings.”

“And somehow that doesn’t insult me,” Cameron said. “Does my feeling the same offend you?”

She shook her head. Her mind, like his, must have been on Jesus and whatever He had for them for the rest of time and eternity.

“Do you realize, Chlo’, that we still have to raise Kenny in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and see to it that he decides for Christ?”

Only true believers and innocents had survived the Tribulation and the sheep-and-goats judgment to make it into the kingdom. “How many children of the Tribulation must there be,” Chloe said, “who still have to choose Christ over living for themselves?”

“Children of the Tribulation,” Cameron said. “I like that.”

“God has been impressing on me that Kenny will be only one of many children in our charge.”

“Me too, Chloe. I find that amazing.”

As they talked, it became clear that the Lord had shown them both that their recompense for giving their lives and—in essence—losing their son for a time because of that would be the blessing of a hundredfold more children to love. Cameron could only imagine where these children would come from, but his old mentor Tsion Ben-Judah reminded him that “a hundredfold” in the Scriptures very likely meant many more than a hundred.

“I cannot imagine the havoc unbelievers could wreak in this new world. I hope God grants us the strength to do with them what He wants.”

“Oh, you know He will.”

One morning Cameron was praising Jesus with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs when he noticed Kenny was not playing alone. Half a dozen other kids—all seven or under, of course, because youngsters alive at the time of the Rapture had been taken and returned as grown-ups at the Glorious Appearing—had joined him and were getting acquainted.

In a flash it came to Cameron to call this group
COT
(Children of the Tribulation), and as negative as the name sounded, it didn’t grate on him. It was merely fact. Here were representative children born after the Rapture who had survived to enter the kingdom. As the thousand years progressed, of course, kids would be born who could still be called children of the Tribulation, because someone in their ancestry had to have lived through it.

When Cameron rushed out to greet them, it was as if they knew he was coming. They immediately quit running and jumping and playing and sat in a semicircle, looking up at him expectantly.

They’re ready. Am I?

“I’m Cameron,” he said.

A boy raised his hand. “So, start telling us all about Jesus. She can tell us too.”

Cameron glanced behind him to find Chloe, who had also apparently been drawn to the kids.

“Lord, where do I start?” Cameron prayed silently.

“In the beginning,” Jesus told him. “Where we always start.”

“But surely these kids know the basics.”

“Start at
your
beginning. They don’t know you. They know only that they’re to listen. And be prepared. Tomorrow there will be more.”

Cameron sat in the grass, and two youngsters immediately climbed into his lap. Others leaned against Chloe.

“I had heard about God and Jesus all my life,” Cameron began, and he was struck by the lack of fidgeting and distraction. These kids hung on his every word. “But I never really gave faith a serious thought until seven years ago, when I found myself on an airplane bound for England in the middle of the night. . . .”

I
WAS
overcome with joy that her family and friends and many other loved ones and acquaintances were with her. And when she began to tell the unsearchable story of the greatest wedding ceremony in the annals of the cosmos, in the theater of her mind she was transported back to heaven and the wedding itself.

She was able to describe the very portals of the house of God, a great, cathedral-like expanse where the redeemed of the ages were arrayed in purest white, comprising all those born again between Pentecost and the Rapture, marshaling expectantly in a staging area.

“You’d have to have been there yourself to see the limits of this seemingly endless throng. The thrill, the anticipation, were palpable as this bride of Christ readied herself to be presented to the Bridegroom.

“God Himself officiated the ceremony and welcomed all present to the marriage of the Lamb. As Jesus appeared, bright and shining as the sun, the Father intoned, ‘Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

“ ’I, the King, have arranged this marriage for My Son, in whom I am well pleased. I sent out My servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, but they were not willing to come. I sent out more servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.’ ” But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized My servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. I was furious. And I sent out My armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then I said to My servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. He who has ears, let him hear.’ ”

Rayford understood that God had repeated Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Feast and that it had been a prophecy of this very event. The wedding hall was filled with guests good and bad because “there is none righteous, no, not one.” Those in attendance were not perfect, but forgiven, as was the bride herself.

Irene continued: “As Jesus stretched His arms to encompass the mighty throng that constituted His bride, God said, ‘The Bridegroom loved you with an everlasting love, though you were unworthy and rebellious and disobedient. He redeemed you by leaving His home, only to be rejected by His own, and laying down His life for you. He returned here to prepare a place for you, that where He is, you may be also. And He left His Spirit to teach and protect you and to prepare you for this day.

“ ’The genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, has been tested by fire and found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom you loved before ever you saw Him. Yet believing, you rejoiced with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

“ ’Henceforth now and forevermore, you and the Bridegroom are one.’ ”

Rayford wished he could have been there to hear the crescendo of the heavenly hosts as the saints and angels praised God. How he longed for that day, a thousand years hence, when he would ultimately experience the complete wonders of heaven.

“And what about the feast, Irene?” he said. “What was that like?”

“Oh, Ray,” Irene said, “that is yet to come. It will usher in the Millennium at the end of these seventy-five days. For people have been invited to that celebration who were not in heaven for the wedding itself.”

Thirty days into the interval between the Glorious Appearing and the millennial kingdom, Tsion told Rayford and the others to expect something dramatic.

“More dramatic than what we have witnessed so far?” Irene said.

“That’s a matter of perspective,” Tsion said. “But I had expected to awaken today to something wholly different on the landscape of the horizon, and yet the abomination of desolation remains.”

“Where the Antichrist defiled the temple?” Cameron said.

Tsion nodded. “The prophecies are clear. Daniel 12:11 says, ‘And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.’ That, my friends, is today.”

Late that afternoon, Rayford was startled by the sky turning black and lightning and thunder rolling in. He felt compelled to venture out and was surprised to see that everyone else seemed to have the same idea. Natural phenomena were simply not as terrifying as they had once been, and based on Tsion’s teaching, Rayford was convinced this was hardly natural. This was an act of almighty God.

When it appeared that the fiery show had riveted the attention of all, a great bolt of lightning streaked from the sky and vaporized the temple. There seemed to be not even a speck of dust remaining, no chunks of stone flying, no fire. Where the temple had once stood, the black sky rolled back to reveal blue and nothing on the horizon.

And the reshaping of the geography continued.

By the time Rayford first visited what Cameron and Chloe had come to call
COT
, their temporary home was crawling with children—more than two hundred. And how they loved Cameron and Chloe!

“Some reward, eh, Dad?” Chloe said. “We were without Kenny for a little while, and now we have more loving children than we can handle. We need a structure for them.”

“Way ahead of you,” Rayford said. “The Lord has already put that construction on my agenda.”

As the renovated earth took spectacular shape over the next forty-five days, Rayford found himself curious about the upcoming opening of the new temple. At another banquet of fresh fruit and steaming, buttery vegetables, he discussed this with Chaim and Tsion and Irene and several others. “Will Jesus explain it all?” Rayford said.

Chaim and Tsion nodded. “Think of Jesus Himself as
the
government, Rayford,” Tsion said. “He will put in place princes and governors under His authority, but obviously, everything and everybody will report to Him. Any munitions left over from anywhere on the earth will be dismantled and eliminated. The temple will be full of priests, and the nations will be called to worship and sacrifice there.”

“But you taught me that Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb who rendered the sacrifices obsolete. With Him here and in charge, what is the need for a temple, and especially for sacrifices?”

Suddenly there came a long, loud blast from a sheep’s horn, and all at the table stood as one and hurried out.

“You are about to get your answer from the ultimate authority,” Chaim said, hurrying along.

As on the day of the sheep-and-goats judgment, Rayford could tell that the others knew instinctively that they were being called to assemble. They knew by whom and they knew where. It was merely their obligation to go.