Most Unique Easter 2020

Good Thursday morning to all and as always, may our great God continue to bless you now and forever.

First, I would like to address a question that sister Kecia asked me at 3:00 am today.

It's clear from her asking that she watched the FHG bible study broadcast yesterday.

"When do the millennium believers receive their glorified bodies? "

Let's define who are the millennium believers. As a pre-tribulationist, I believe that the rapture of the church of Christ precedes the 7-year reign of the anti-.christ. Then follows the actual physical, bodily return of our Lord to the earth as described by the prophet Zechariah. Jesus will then establish His rule for one thousand years. In Latin, the number 1000 is called a mille' from which we get the word "millennium."

The human beings who are alive at that time will of course enter this millennium reign and since they are fully mortal will also experience death. That said, there will be some who will submit themselves to the Lordship of Christ and for the first time, accept His sacrifice as the only means to their salvation. These "new" millennium believers will themselves die over time. Death has not yet been vanquished! Now, since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, (1 Corinthians 15:50), these deceased saints would have to be outfitted with glorified bodies.

Now read the following from Revelation chapter 20: 4-5, very carefully.

"And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgement was committed to them. (Raptures saints) Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (Tribulation saints) But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection". (Millennium saints)

So there you have it! Millennium believers are resurrected in glorified bodies at the end of the one thousand year reign of Christ. I hope this answer to sister Kecia and others is abundantly clear.

Last week, while browsing through television channels, I watched CNN on the corona virus. Then I turned to MSNBC and watched more on the corona virus. Fox News was no different from CNN, focusing only on the corona virus updates. So I checked, local channels KUSI, channel 9, 10 and others and sure enough, all of them were totally engrossed in providing corona virus information. The only "non-corona virus" channel was STARZ 538, airing my favorite relaxing viewing of western movies. This fixation on the corona virus is not unique to San Diego or California or even the United States. Rather, international television networks are all airing corona virus news. For good reason, the world's attention is funneled through to the single most important event affecting everyone, everywhere. And yet, while it is true that the world has not seen the likes of this current pestilence since 1917 with the Spanish flu, and while it is also true that every effort needs to be made to combat this horrible pandemic, and again, while it is true that world leaders, scientists and Universities are all expected to be harmoniously working together to effectively mitigate this ungodly plague, we must not loose sight of the greatest of all events ever to affect all of humanity.

Of course, I am talking about the resurrection of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Faced with the virus, we are still in the season of Passover which includes the resurrection. In the absence of celebratory church services around the world, Easter for many went unnoticed. Pastors and church leaders preached to empty buildings, airing messages to the hopefuls. Pope Francis streamed his sermon from an empty St. Peter's Basilica. What a unique Easter? The last time the world's churches were closed like this was during the Spanish flu outbreak. I appreciate that the current global problem requires global attention,

and the involvement of every and all relevant resources.

Still, I find the evocative words of our Lord in Matthew 24:44 are worth our pondering.

Just a thought!

Pastor Chandroo