We are following a book which has been translated by people with an agenda and a preconceived confirmational bias, rather than out of relationship with Jesus. Yet Jesus said he would speak to us and that we could follow him. We have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, within us. We do not need another teacher.
So why are we telling people they must follow a book, when they can be guided by the Holy Spirit and through Jesus, who is the Truth? Jesus is the Word of God. The Bible is not the Word of God. The problem is that we have been taught otherwise. I hear people say, “We are going to read the Word.” But they are reading a book, half of which was never intended for them, the other half written for people in the first century preparing for the end. We are not those people.
That does not mean God has not used the Bible. He has used it in my life, but it has also caused huge confusion. I was deceived into believing things simply because I was taught that was what the Bible said. Now, I go with what Jesus says. I will not live by an interpretation of a book; I will follow a person in relationship. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Bible is not. Even if someone had never read a verse, never seen a Bible, they could still encounter Jesus and through him engage the Father.
This is why I would never encourage a new believer to start with the Bible. It will only confuse them, as they are faced with conflicting interpretations and even two seemingly different versions of God. But it was always just people’s limited view of God, not who he truly is. Relationship is what matters. I can walk in relationship even with those I disagree with, because I do not need to prove them wrong. My faith is grounded in personal experience and testimony, not in the teaching of a book.
I use the Bible only as a frame of reference, because that is how people have been taught. Yet I can count fewer than five times when the Father or Jesus has actually quoted a Bible verse to me. When they did, it was revelatory. For example, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden…” was spoken to me when I was striving to be good enough and keep a behavioural standard. It showed me why I was weary and how I could come into his rest. The principle was what mattered, not the verse.
Jesus is quite capable of saying directly, “Follow me and enter rest.” He does not need to quote Matthew 11:28. People can and do go astray, but many have also gone astray while following the Bible. History shows how it has been used to persecute, to endorse slavery, the Inquisition and Christendom itself. The Bible is not safe. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as the Way, the Truth and the Life, keep us on a safe path. If you use love as the plumb line, you will not go far wrong.
This is what God showed me when he challenged my views of the Bible. He brought me back to the relationship I had with him, and how he speaks directly. He weaned me off my need for Bible confirmation. I know many still need that, but their thinking must eventually shift. They were told “the Bible says this,” but that has to be undone if they are to truly follow God.
Some quote verses about people falling away from sound teaching in the last days. But those last days were AD 66 to 70, when many fell away under persecution. That does not apply to us in the same way today. And this is the issue.
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That’s what happened with me. My eschatology got deconstructed, and then the same verses led me to a view where hell doesn’t exist in the form I thought it did. In fact, hell doesn’t exist at all, because it’s not even in the Bible. But it does talk about Gehenna, it does talk about Hades, it does talk about Sheol—the grave. So, it talks about those things, but it also talks about them in a restorative way, not in a punishment way.
I know it’s hard because I’ve been through it. But I’ve been through it, and I’ve continued the process of realising that a lot of what I was taught was referring to the period of transition—out of the old and into the new—until the end finally came. And that is the end. No prophecy came after that. It was all fulfilled.
Jesus actually said that. He said, “Unless this comes to an end,” and, “Unless every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed,” and all that, you know—then the end won’t come. Well, the end did come. So that is the end: all things were fulfilled. It says in Luke that all things were fulfilled; every prophetic statement was fulfilled. All the promises of God were fulfilled in Jesus. It says in Corinthians, all the covenants were therefore fulfilled, because covenants are promises. So, they all got fulfilled. And I think that draws a line under it.
So, let’s listen to God and Jesus and the Spirit every day, because they’re speaking to us—not through a book, but in an inner, small voice as they dwell in us. There are a lot of people who aren’t listening to that voice, and a lot of people, obviously, who don’t even know that voice exists in them yet. But God is not going to stop until they do, in revealing the truth of their inclusion in Christ, their reconciliation in Christ, and their forgiveness through what Jesus did on the cross—which is an amazing, good-news testimony that the world needs to hear. But, “They’re all going to be cast into hell if they don’t accept Jesus”—that’s not a good-news testimony. No, that’s bad news. Let’s give good news!
And I think the world will begin to find God—who is a God of love and who loves them too much to let them be lost eternally for punishment. He loves them too much for that. He loves them, and according to Ephesians 1:4 he’s already made sure—predestined them to become restored to face-to-face intimacy. It’s predestined, even before the foundation of the world, that everyone would eventually be restored. People can resist that restoration. But people cannot resist God’s love forever.
I don’t believe God’s love will ever fail. It will never stop until everyone is fully restored back into relationship with him. Because he loves us.
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Every time there’s any sort of sign in the heavens, people say, “Oh yeah, the rapture’s coming, blah blah blah blah blah.” I mean, half the Amazon rainforest has been cut down to produce books about the rapture, and none of them came true. I’ve got a whole shelf filled with those books that people have either sent me or I used to have, that I keep just as a reminder that it’s never going to happen.
It won’t. It’s all based in a wrong understanding of God’s purpose, based in a theology which was a rejection of the Holy Spirit back in the 1820s. The Brethren – dispensation, millennialism, rapture theology all came from the same source. Zionism also. It’s all the fruit of a poisonous tree, sadly, but people buy into it hook, line and sinker. Any time there’s any sort of thing that happens in the world, you get all the crazies coming out, sadly. They’re well-meaning, a lot of them. It’s deceiving. It’s just a huge deception.
Whenever you reject the Holy Spirit, you’re opening yourself up for demonic deception. The whole Brethren movement, which was inspired by God for the priesthood of all believers, saw many believers come out of the institutions to look for a simpler way of engaging house to house. The Holy Spirit fell on them with prophecy, tongues, and gifts in the 1820s.
Ultimately, they rejected that, some of them. Deception came upon them, and then they needed a theology that explained why the Holy Spirit wasn’t for today, which they came up with: dispensationalism and cessationism as part of that. Then, along with that, came the rapture, the whole deception of it. Scofield was paid by a Jewish source to promote that because it plays into the hands of those who are looking for a one-world governmental system on earth. All it does is rob us of our authority to bring the Kingdom now and promotes fear.
Cult-like Deception
There was a lady in the States who killed two of her children because she didn’t want them to go through the [tribulation]. That was last year [2021] because it was supposed to be February the 24th that the rapture was going to happen. She actually killed two children because she did not want them to go through the tribulation. That’s how deceptive it was, but it becomes very cult-like because it’s a very controlling thing. We need to see it exposed; more and more people need to be set free from that deception. People will throw out the rapture, but they’ll keep the millennium because they’ve not yet realised it came from the same source. Or they’ll keep Zionism, not realising it came from the same source. That’s part of the problem: people are not discerning, and they don’t find out. They just believe what they’re told, and if you hear it enough, you think it must be true. That’s true. People do believe it because they’ve been told, and they kept being told.
I was brought up with it. I was in the Brethren Church. I know the roots of it. I researched it. I found all the books of the early Brethren fathers and what they shared, and how good it was in the beginning. But you could see when it went off, and you could see when deception came in because the writings changed. The tone of them changed. They became judgmental. The love went out of them. You can see it in just what was written, how it was written. Everything changed from the inspiration that they had.
If they had continued, you would have had Azusa Street-type revival 80 years before it happened. But they rejected it, and it took 80 years for that to come round again. The most ironic thing, and this is a huge irony, the Brethren movement does not allow women to speak, and they don’t believe in prophecy. But when the Holy Spirit was moving on that group, a woman called Mary Margaret McDonald prophesied a vision, and they based the rapture teaching on that prophecy. But they don’t believe women can speak, and they don’t believe prophecy, but they based the teaching on it and mixed it with a Jesuit priest’s teaching, and came up with that whole system of belief which hijacked the seminaries around the world for the best part of a hundred years.
Impact on Mainstream Christianity
It is still taught in most seminaries around the world, unless you come from a Reformed background. Most of the other charismatic seminaries teach it because they were totally hoodwinked by it. The Scofield Bible, which was commissioned and paid for with an agenda that wasn’t from a Christian, promoted that. The Scofield was a King James Version that contained all the notes related to the rapture, the seven dispensations and cessationism, all in the notes. That infiltrated the seminaries around the world, and then most of the missionaries’ teaching, and the evangelical movement were actually taught from those seminaries.
That’s why it’s so infiltrated mainstream because it got in through the seminaries, and then that went out through and infiltrated most of the evangelical movement. It wasn’t really until the charismatic movement started to bring people back to a restored relationship where they could hear God for themselves, that people started to question some of those things.
When I got baptised in the Spirit in 1986, the first thing God said to me was, “You need to understand kingdom and covenant.” Well, I thought I knew what kingdom and covenant meant because I’d been brought up in the Brethren movement. That’s all they talked about: the kingdom coming a thousand years after all this stuff. It took me three years of going back with God through the Bible, because He just did it. I didn’t read another book: I just went through the Bible. He showed me the whole error of all of it, and I found a whole different view of what is going to happen, which has led me and helped me to come and embrace restoration and everything else. But that was a long time ago.
I already had a lot of deconstruction from futurist eschatology 40 years ago. Now, it’s so easy to see how all this works together with what God is doing to restore. I didn’t have all of that negative stuff. I had a lot of demons cast out of me. I had a lot of religious spirits specifically from that movement. It was a deceptive movement: it was birthed in God – and rejected God for an error. When you do that, you open yourself up to deception. It has had probably the biggest deceptive influence on mainstream Christianity in the last 200 years. A huge deception.
Mike goes into much more detail on these subjects in his book The Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things, available in paperback or as an ebook. Click here or on the image above for details.
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The finished work of Christ has accomplished everything necessary for our complete salvation. There is nothing else to be done.
All the promises and covenants of God are fully and completely fulfilled in Jesus. There is nothing and no one else who could complete or fulfil them.
We are all included in Jesus and have received life through him, just as all died in Adam.
The Universality of Salvation
As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. All have received life, though not everyone is aware of this reality yet.
The ministry of believers is to help people understand this amazing inclusion and reality that all have been given life in Christ.
The Universality of Sin
The Bible verse “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) is often used to tell people they are not good enough and need God.
The reality is that all have outworked their lost identity, which is short of the glory God intended for us.
Justification by Grace
The ‘all’ who have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (in Romans 3:23) are “justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
This means that all who have sinned (which is everyone) have also been justified, not by their own merit, but as a free gift of God’s grace through Christ’s redemption.
The Universality of Justification
The “all” who have sinned are the same “all” who have been justified. There is a universality to both the problem of sin and the solution of justification.
Romans 5:18 states that just as condemnation came to all through one man’s transgression (Adam), so also justification of life has come to all through one act of righteousness (Christ).
The condemnation referred to here is not eternal punishment, but the state of living in lost identity apart from God, and the consequences that brings.
Jesus’ Authority over All Mankind
According to John 17:2, Jesus is given authority over all mankind, so that he may give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.
Eternal Life for All Mankind
In John 17:2-3, Jesus states that eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent.
God has given Jesus authority over all mankind: the same “all” who were condemned in their lost identity and the same “all” who would be made righteous and justified.
Some may try to separate the “all” to whom Jesus has authority over, and the “all” to whom he gives eternal life. That is illogical. The same “all” applies to both – Jesus has authority over all mankind, and he will give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him.
The Supremacy of Christ
Colossians 1:15-20 speaks of the supremacy of Christ, and that all things were created through him and for him.
Note again the inclusive nature of the “all” – nothing is left out, as all things have been created through Christ and hold together in him.
And it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile ‘all things’ to himself, whether on earth or in heaven.
The Universality of Reconciliation
Christ has reconciled all things, not just people, but everything that he created.
This reinforces the universal scope of Christ’s work: he has reconciled all of creation to the Father through the blood of his cross.
The Universality of Christ’s Work
John 1:7 – Jesus came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him.
John 1:16 – Of Christ’s fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.
John 3:35 – The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.
John 5:28 – A time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.
The Reconciliation of All Things
In John 12:32, Jesus says that when he is lifted up on the cross, he will draw all people to himself.
“All” does not leave anyone out, and there are many instances of the word “all” used throughout the teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures.
The Fulfillment of the Law
In Matthew 5:18, Jesus states that not the smallest letter or stroke of the law will pass away until all is accomplished.
The “heaven and earth” referred to in this verse represent the old covenant system, which was fulfilled; and it passed away when the temple was destroyed in AD 70.
Key Takeaway
All has been accomplished through the finished work of Christ; there is nothing left to be done for the full and complete salvation not only of mankind but of all creation.
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Note: Mike was asked a question about how he views the fact that some prophetic voices seem not to be accurately representing the good news of the gospel at all, and what might be the way forward. This is his response.
Deception often starts with small distortions of truth, leading people astray gradually. These initial deceptions can lay the groundwork for larger falsehoods to take root. The enemy doesn’t usually present outright lies immediately; instead, the truth gets twisted bit by bit. Any prophetic individuals who now spread complete falsehoods likely fell into deception gradually. Minor deceptions accumulate over time, dulling people’s sensitivity to truth and making them susceptible to further deception as they operate outside of love.
This is what has led to recent political and judgmental ‘prophecies’. Eschatological beliefs, particularly those of impending judgment (invariably understood to mean ‘punishment’), exacerbate this; leading to prophecies of judgment on nations or individuals through catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis. When I come across such messages, I always look to express mercy instead. My desire is for all to experience God’s love for themselves, which reveals His true nature of mercy, grace and love, so contrary to this kind of judgment.
Signs along the way, such as the excommunication of the Toronto Vineyard, marked a departure from values of love and acceptance. Judgmental attitudes infiltrated the prophetic movement, leading to further divisions and exclusions. This led to an increased focus on spiritual warfare and a judgmental mindset, causing the movement to drift away from its roots in love. Prophets began to pronounce judgments in alignment with their perception of God’s impending judgment on the earth – a mindset that has drawn some into extreme political views and conspiracy theories.
It is important we measure everything against love to avoid deception. Instead of engaging aggressively, let’s approach everyone with love and restoration. Embracing and loving perceived threats (rather than fighting against them) can lead to transformation. Restoration, not separation, aligns with God’s desire to reconcile all things. So, instead of getting into conflict, it will be better if we focus on helping individuals – even fallen heavenly beings – get back on track with their original purpose. I’m not going to fight against someone or something and so give them an opportunity to fight against me. All I will look to do is come in the opposite spirit: remind them of their true identity, that God has forgiven them, and that they have an original higher purpose which is so much better than what they are doing right now.
Even though there may be deception within the prophetic movement, understanding God’s original intent for it can help us move forwards. When we receive a revelation, we often interpret and implement it based on our own understanding. I believe in the importance of embracing principles like foundational government, but my approach has shifted towards viewing government as an intrinsic aspect of our identity as children of God, rather than merely a set of roles or tasks to fulfil. Our aim is to discover and express God’s kingdom and governance in our lives, so that we can each contribute according to our abilities and opportunities for growth and expression within a given blueprint.
So, rather than fitting people into predefined roles, it is more effective to allow their identities to naturally express themselves within a relational framework. Heavenly government is an expression of individuals’ identities coming together, not a rigid organisational structure. Initially, there might be a tendency to impose organisational structures, but the essence lies in organic development and honouring each person for who they are. The principles remain valid, but the way they are worked out evolves organically within the dynamics of relationship. Sometimes, we embark on journeys to discover better ways, learning from experiences along the way. If I had known then what I know now, I would not have taken the church here along the path I did; but ultimately it is God who takes us all through doing, to becoming, to being – that is our journey.
Key Takeaways
Let our desire be for all to experience God’s love for themselves, which reveals His true nature of mercy, grace and love.
Ultimately it is God who takes us all through doing, to becoming, to being.
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When you look at the beginning of Matthew 24, the chapter’s context is the question posed by the disciples to Jesus. They asked when these three things would happen: the destruction of the temple, the sign of His ‘coming’ (parousia = presence), and the end of the age (not the end of the world, but rather the end of the Old Covenant age, as Jesus brings an end to the Old Covenant).
These ideas are interconnected, and Jesus provides various signs of His parousia in this context. The ‘generation’ was that 40-year period and the ‘elect’ refer to Jewish believers who left Jerusalem, as Jesus had warned them. Leaving the earthly Jerusalem was also a symbolic act of leaving the Old Covenant and entering the New, the Heavenly Jerusalem. The ‘angels’ (angeloi = messengers) gathering the elect can be understood in the sense of human (and perhaps supernatural) messengers who had been sent out with the gospel during the period leading up to the end of the age; so ‘the elect’ are those who would be gathered during this time, the 144,000 of Revelation.
The lightning imagery can be interpreted in different ways. Firstly, it can mean that Jesus would come quickly at the end of that age, as lightning bursts suddenly. Secondly, the word lightning can also be translated as bright sunshine, which suggests that the light of the Gospel would be released during this period, as the messengers released that truth and the elect were gathered in.
All that Jesus says in this passage is perfectly consistent, but we may find the symbolism challenging to grasp fully due to our conditioning by modern teachings that associate these verses with the ‘rapture’ and the end of the world. But when Jesus talks about two in the field and one being taken, this is again a warning about the war and siege of AD 67-70 (nothing to do with a ‘rapture’), underscoring the importance of being alert and ready at that time. In the days of Noah there were those who were ready and entered the ark and those who were not ready and were lost: the same thing was true here. Of those who did not heed the warning to flee, some were ‘taken’ by the enemy army, and many were crucified and thrown into Gehenna during that period of the Siege of Jerusalem leading up to AD70.
Jesus’ parables have also been misinterpreted by the ‘rapture’ teaching. They are not analogies to be dissected for every detail, but rather stories used to convey a point. Terms like “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” symbolise being outside the covenant and expressing anger towards the gospel: those who reject the light of the New Covenant dwell in darkness and respond with hostility.
Certain parables refer to the anticipation of Jesus’ first coming after a period of silence in prophecy. During this time, some were aware of the signs and awaited the Messiah, while others remained unaware or entrenched in a flawed religious system. When He did come they rejected Him, but then had a whole generation in which the light had gone forth, the messengers had gone out and the good news was being proclaimed. Yet still many rejected the good news and followed their old religious system rather than entering into what Jesus came to offer.
I can direct you to a whole blog post we wrote several years ago on the subject of the sheep and goats. In that parable Jesus was talking about nations, not individuals; and specifically about the treatment of the elect, the believing Jews, by their ‘brothers’ (the unbelieving Jews) during this time of covenant transition.
In reality, I believe it’s more important to seek the Father’s heart on these matters rather than attempting to dissect every scripture from a modern-day perspective. Understanding the nuances of Old Covenant language can be challenging, and without that context, passages may seem obscure.
Jesus cautioned his followers to flee Jerusalem when they witnessed certain signs, without even retrieving their coats. Historical records, such as the writings of Josephus, corroborate that Christians heeded this warning and fled to safety in the hills of Pella. While the entire region was impacted by the siege, those who followed Jesus’ advice were spared (‘saved’). The phrase ‘cut short for the sake of the elect’ indicates that even the survivors would be at risk if the tribulation continued. Ultimately, it did come to an end, signifying the conclusion of that age and its accompanying trials. We are not anticipating tribulation of this kind anymore!
Key takeaways
The signs of Jesus’ coming were for the first century believers, regarding an event in their future but in our past.
It is important always to seek the Father’s heart, rather than attempting to dissect every scripture from a modern-day perspective.
Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things
In the video Mike refers to this, his third book, which goes into a great deal of detail about eschatology and the background to the ‘rapture’ teaching.
Order the paperback from your favourite bookseller or get the ebook on our website.
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Realised eschatology, for me, is also heading for an understanding of Christian universalism. The same scriptures Jesus referred to concerning hell (Gehenna) are in the same passage as those that speak of the end of the age – not the end of the world, but the conclusion of their Old Covenant age. People faced being cast into Gehenna if they remained in Jerusalem when the Roman armies invaded. They would be crucified, and a few hundred thousand were thrown into the literal Gehenna.
This is the concept of hell, as commonly understood in English. Of course, Christian Universalists would say hell is a different thing, and some deny its existence altogether. Personally, I see it as a place where those who haven’t come to know Jesus in life still have the opportunity to choose him after death – death is not the end of choice. Rather than a realm of punishment and torment, I see it as the fire of God’s loving presence which purifies and refines.
The scriptures that mention Gehenna portray it as a consequence of staying entrenched in the old covenant ways, not some future judgment scenario. It was a warning of a physical manifestation of death. Jesus warned his followers to flee Jerusalem when they saw certain signs: they understood this and ran to the hills, to find safety in Pella. By heeding his words, they were physically saved from the destruction that befell Jerusalem.
Signs
All that being said, I believe God introduces concepts like this to steer the church back to first principles, into a deeper relationship in which we experience Him intimately, face to face. Once we do, we no longer need the signs which pointed us towards this reality.
Experiential connection
In my preaching of the gospel, I aim to introduce people to Jesus in a way that facilitates a tangible, experiential connection with the Father. It is only through this intimate relationship that someone can truly understand and experience God’s unconditional love, find spiritual healing and wholeness, and embrace their identity and inheritance as a child of God. I believe God is gradually weaning us off an over-reliance on healings and miracles, so we can live in mystical experience with Him. This shift is not about abandoning miraculous manifestations altogether but that we use them for the purpose of outworking what God is doing in the earth.
We have the ability to govern and rule, to establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. This process begins first within our own lives, then thorough our lives, and ultimately leads to the creation of places on earth which do not operate under the government of earth but under the government of heaven. There will be no sickness there, no disease, no lack, no poverty: nothing contradictory to the fullness of life as children of God.
Cultivating relationship
In the Mystic movement, there is a shift away from seeking outward manifestations like healings towards cultivating a deeper relationship with God in which health and wholeness naturally flow, and the focus is no longer on individuals performing healing. God is our healer.
Early Christians underwent a profound shift in their understanding of God, moving moved away from viewing Him through the lens of an outdated religious and political system. Instead, Jesus revealed God as love incarnate, challenging their preconceptions and inviting them into a relational encounter with the Father. He came to undo their whole understanding of God from an Old Covenant mentality. This shift from a legalistic mindset to one grounded in relationship and experience to which Jesus is the door, empowered them to operate in sonship, seated in heavenly places, and to manifest the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
The God that we know
When we are introducing the reality of who God is, we do not need to do so through miraculous healing, but through introducing the God that we know. They can experience the God that they will then know, and then they can enter into that life themselves. Now I am not saying there are not amazing things. I have done all sorts of transrelocation, time miracles and other things; but in the purposes of outworking my relationship with God, not to prove who God is or to demonstrate to others how good God is. I can help them experience God themselves, so they are not dependent on me testifying by doing anything like that.
Key takeaway
Preaching the gospel is about leading people to encounter the God we know, so that they can embark on their own journey of discovering His love and life-changing power for themselves.
Want to learn more about ‘happy’ or realised eschatology? Get Mike’s book The Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things from your favourite bookseller, or download the ebook from our website at https://eg.freedomarc.org/course/eschatology-ebook
Our Patreon patrons give a small amount each month and can join us for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy further patron-only benefits. Or you can use the blue button to support our work with a one-time gift*.
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The concept of a future millennial time period was not embraced by the early church fathers; and of those who authored the Bible, only John explicitly mentions it. The discussion around a literal Millennium gained traction only after the compilation of the biblical canon, when the Book of Revelation became a part of it. The Temple was still standing when the Book of Revelation was likely written around AD 66. Subsequently, as prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24, it was destroyed by the Roman armies that surrounded Jerusalem.
I personally do not adhere to a belief in a literal Millennial period. The ‘second coming’ events described in the scriptures seem to point to a specific historical context rather than a distant future. We are currently in the period of the restoration of all things, during which the kingdom of God is filling the Earth. This perspective reassures us for the future; and eschatology, the study of the end times, becomes somewhat of an oxymoron. In reality, there is no end to the increase of God’s government and peace.
In my book, The Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things, I go into this topic in detail, tracing the roots of teachings like the rapture and millennial concepts back to dispensationalism, which also produced Zionism. The separation of God’s people into a heavenly and an earthly people, along with associated doctrines, has historically induced fear and foreboding, and is at the root of present strife in the middle east. However, I encourage you to seek God for yourself, maintaining an open heart and engaging in a personal exploration of these matters. While everyone is entitled to their views and opinions, I hold strong convictions based on what God has shown me, which reshaped my understanding of future events.
From a restoration perspective, I now see a clearer picture of God’s plan to restore all things, with us, the sons of God, actively participating in the process. This viewpoint challenges notions like the rapture as a rescue mentality: Jesus is already with us, enabling us to engage in the restoration of all things. The kingdom of God is not confined to the Earth but expanding into the cosmos, presenting an exciting prospect for the future which some are entering into even today.
Key takeaway
Focus on the present, not the future. Jesus is already with us, enabling us to engage in the restoration of all things.
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The only mention in the Bible of a thousand-year period, often referred to as the Millennium, is in the book of Revelation. Neither Jesus nor Paul refer to it. Yet a whole theological framework around the Millennium has been constructed over time, depending on particular eschatological viewpoints.
My perspective aligns with the belief that the Book of Revelation, including the mentioned thousand years, is a portrayal of events that were in their future but have already occurred in our past. I see it as part of the period of the restoration of all things, where the kingdom of God fills the earth. This is not a specific time frame but an ongoing process.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. (Isaiah 11:6).
That scripture often quoted from Isaiah 6 needs to be understood in its context. The Old Testament does not speak of a thousand-year Millennial period, and once again this has been viewed through a specific theological lens. Instead, I interpret passages like this as covenantal, signifying the removal of the division between Jews and Gentiles. Paul asserts in Ephesians 2 that the partition between Jew and Gentile has been removed, and now there is one new man in Christ. The destruction of the Temple, which Jesus prophesied, marked the end of the old Covenant, making way for the full establishment of the New Covenant. This isn’t about a literal thousand-year period but a shift in the relationship between God’s people.
The thousand year period refers to the new covenant union found in Christ, where distinctions based on ethnicity, gender, or social status are dissolved. It signifies a new era where believers are all one in Christ. The focus is not on some future thousand-year period but on the transformative events during a significant 40-year period prophesied by Jesus, culminating in the destruction of the Temple, which ushered in this new age.
To be continued…
Key takeaway
The Book of Revelation, including the mentioned thousand years, is a portrayal of events that were in their future but have already occurred in our past.
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The restoration of all things is not a one-off event but a continual process that God does with us, in us and through us as His sons. I believe that as co-heirs we are involved in, and carry responsibility for, the restoration of all things; in particular for the restoration of creation.
What I thought I knew
How the Bible frames our understanding of the future will greatly influence what we believe about our sonship and what is possible in restoration. Our expectations of the future will also determine what we believe about the part we can play in it.
If we believe that God is going to destroy the heavens and the earth with fire, as many do, that will inevitably affect how we see our responsibility to steward the planet and its resources. If we believe in a defeatist, rapture ‘rescue of the church’ into heaven, then there will be little point in looking for the kingdom to fill the earth in victory.
We often have confirmation bias: we already know what the Bible says, so when we read it, it just confirms what we already know. More study will not fix this. Only face-to-face encounters with God Himself can get us free from that biased view. Some of my encounters with God have been traumatic: for about 5 years it seemed like every time I thought I knew something, I would have an encounter with God which totally challenged what I thought I knew.
Religion continues to misrepresent God; but He is looking to undo the damage that religion has done to our perception of Him so that we will see Him as He really is, as Jesus revealed Him to be. Only the lens of love will enable us to see the true nature of God and how that underlies the restoration of all things. God desires restoration, and all His desires are birthed in love. Love causes restoration.
Happy endings?
When we use love as our plumb line it is easier to decide which doctrinal truths and theological positions are aligned with God being love and which are the man-made deceptions of a religious mindset. If we are to participate fully in the restoration of all things and the expansion of God’s kingdom as sons, we will want to embrace an eschatology which allows for creation being set free from corruption within that restoration: this is variously called a happy, realised, fulfilled or covenant eschatology.
Many of the positions people take are paradoxical or even contradictory, but they all use the Bible to prove that they are right. So did I! Now I have to own up and say ‘Sorry, I got it wrong’. Revelation is progressive, and I was only going on the revelation that I had (and of course, others are only going on the revelation they have too). God does not mind that along our journey we may have believed a whole variety of delusions, illusions, lies and deceptions. Still, He wants us to know Him; and in knowing Him He wants us to have the revelation of unveiled truth, so that truth can set us free.
Three streams
In conversation with God, He told me that there are three streams coming together. At present, there are a handful of people who flow with two of those streams, and even fewer who embrace all three. For now, each is mostly blind to the direction that the others are coming from but they will merge in the flow of the restoration of all things.
The Christian Universalists are travelling towards both a realised eschatology and an open heaven mystical flow.
The mystics are travelling towards a realised eschatology and universal restoration.
The realised eschatologists are travelling towards the mystical and the restoration of all things position.
Most eschatological systems have far from happy endings, involving expectations of fearful judgment, doom, gloom, destruction and failure for mankind and the rest of creation. In ‘happy eschatology’, prophecies of doom and gloom, judgment and destruction are seen as already fulfilled, leading to a restorative period in which all things can be restored. The future is positive and filled with possibilities of increase and blessing.
No fear for the future
When looking to our Bibles to see what the future holds, there are a number of factors we need to bear in mind:
all the events of the New Testament were future to the Old Testament writers
everything Jesus prophesied was future to those He was speaking to at the time, but
what was future to Old Testament writers, to Jesus’ first century listeners and to New Testament writers may not be future to us today – it may have already occurred.
There is no fear for the future based on Biblical prophecy when the prophesied events are already in the past for us. All biblical references to the end, the last days, the end times, the last hour and soon to take place refer not to the destruction of the world, but to the end of the old covenant age. This was the ‘end’ that Jesus prophesied would occur in the generation to which He was speaking.
To us, in the 21st century:
The prophesied end is past, not future.
The end of the old heavens and earth (i.e. the old covenant system of laws, temple and sacrifice) is past, not future.
The new heavens and the new earth (the new covenant) is present, not future.
The great tribulation is past, not future (this does not mean that there will never be any tribulation again throughout history, merely that any tribulation experienced will not be a fulfilment of this specific Bible prophecy).
The end of the age is past, not future.
Judgment and resurrection are past, not future.
The lake of fire is past, not future.
Revelation and Daniel
Most of the difficulties people encounter today with the book of Revelation and Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy come from trying to make them fit current (or future) events.
In reality, Revelation is John’s first-hand account of a heavenly encounter. He was shown the events Jesus spoke about, recorded in Luke 21 and Matthew 24, which happened in that generation just as He said they would.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place (Rev 1:1, my emphasis).
Revelation is full of such time references which should clue us in to the immediacy of the time frame:
tachusmeans quickly, all at once, with all speed, without delay.
Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy also happened in that generation (including the 70th week). Daniel connected the eschatological time of the “end” with events such as the desolation of the temple, the resurrection, the tribulation, the coming of the Son of Man and the arrival of the kingdom. All those events would take place when the city and temple were destroyed or “when the power of the holy people would be completely shattered”; “all these things” (not just some of them) would be fulfilled together (see the consummation scenes in Dan. 12:1-7; Dan. 7:13-14, 18, 27; 9:24-27).
Believers fled from Jerusalem to the mountains in that generation
The judgment and resurrection happened in that generation
The kingdom was established in that generation
“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matt 24:34).
That generation ended in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple and the very end of the old covenant. The period of the restoration of all things began in that generation… and continues in the new covenant age in which we live.
Our Patreon patrons give a small amount each month and can join us for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy further patron-only benefits. Or you can use the blue button to contact us about making a one-time gift. Thank you! *Note Sadly, because of abuse by scammers we can no longer offer a ‘click to donate’ option. However, if you contact us, we will get back to you with a simple means of giving.
This post is based in part on Mike’s introduction to ‘Happy Eschatology’ from our intensive ‘The Restoration of All Things‘ held in June 2019. A lively discussion session ensued!
Sons of Issachar 