Re: Christian perspective of End Times
Please realize that there exist many different viewpoints in Christianity on all isues relative to te End-Times. I will try and give the most widely held ones.
- After the 1000 years and the victory over Satan the Final Judgement will take place - see Note 1.
After the judgement all just people will live in a city constructed in heaven and installed on a new earth. God will live among the people - see Note 2.
A lot of Christians wrongly believe they will “go to Heaven” and “live in Heaven”. Many Christians wrongly believe that the present Earth will continue to exist. It is though clear, not just from Revelation but also from the Old Testament, that a new earth and heavens will be the place they will find themselves. Whether God will use an existing earth somewhere else in the universe with heavens/sky looking different from today or create a new universe no-one knows.
Because Christians believe that Jesus is God, we believe that Jesus, as God or his physical likeness, will live and rule this new earth and the just people. The idea is that since God has no real form as we know it in the 3-dimensional world, Jesus will be fulfill this function. (Another reason is that because it clearly is stated that no human can see God Almighty and live.)
- The Millennianists hold that the Anti-Christ and his Prophet (being persons) will be thrown into hell before the start of the 1000 years - see Note 3.
Some Christians hold that the Anti-Christ and Prophet are not people but a system/church/religion/etc. and believe they will just be destroyed.
#1 Rev.20v12,15 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead was judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books…If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
#2 Rev.21v1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
#3 Rev.19v20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf…The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur.