A key passage in grasping biblical end time events is Acts 3:19- 21. Anyone who wants to know what’s next on God’s agenda should study it carefully. Sadly, however, it seems most teachers and preachers fail to take notice of it when positing what will occur once the current dispensation of the grace of God (Eph. 3:1-4) draws to a close.

Certainly, it is missing from the future scenario Dr David Jeremiah paints of a rapture, great tribulation, the second coming of Christ followed by a “Millennium” of great blessing that will be a “Golden Age”.

But, to throw a spanner into the works, consider what the Apostle Peter told his Jewish hearers on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago:

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that you sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you:

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:19-21).

Quite simply, this means the Lord Jesus Christ must be retained in heaven until everything on earth (and in heaven) is restored to the order in which God originally created it. And, if that is so, then clearly this restoration takes place long before his parousia (second coming), that is his personal, official, physical presence on earth.

Hence it is also long before the “Millennium” when “the saints will reign with Him” for a thousand years. That Christ will remain hidden in the heavenlies for so long is made plain in the Message Bible translation of Acts 3:21:

For the time being He (Christ) must remain out of sight in heaven until everything is restored to order again just the way God, through the preaching of his holy prophets of old, said it would be.

And if the Lord Jesus must remain in heaven until the full work of such restoration is complete then obviously this restitution must take place long before He comes to earth to inaugurate the Millennium.

Another verse, Col. 3:1-4, throws light on what the Lord being retained in heaven really means:

For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.

This teaches that right now Christ’ together with faithful believers is “hid in God”. But when He “appears”, and I believe He will do so shortly, then we will “appear” with Him also. Note that in 1 Cor. 1:7 his appearing is called the “revelation” (not “coming” as incorrectly translated in the KJV) of Jesus Christ as God Almighty that the Corinthian believers were awaiting.

As said before, it is at his appearing (Greek: epiphanea) that the Lord Jesus brings into being his kingdom (2 Tim. 4:1). And He does so by blazing forth the fullness of his Deity in his “appearing” to the whole world.

Other scriptures confirm that the restoration of all things will occur first, that is perhaps thousands of years before the Millennium. For example, in Matt. 17:11 Jesus Himself says: “Elias truly shall first come and restore all things”.

First before what you might ask? Answer: Before the coming of the Lord Himself which ushers in the “Day of the Lord”. This is confirmed by the prophecy of Mal. 4:5:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Remember that Acts 3:21 requires that the Lord Jesus must remain in heaven until all the prophecies spoken by God since the world began are fulfilled. And Mal. 4:5 is one of them. That means Elijah will be resurrected to “restore all things” (Matt. 17:11) before the Lord returns in his parousia, his co-called “second coming” to bring in the “Day of the Lord’.

And, far from being the “Golden Age” Dr Jeremiah envisages, the “Day of the Lord’ means sudden destruction for many (1 Thess. 5: 3). Indeed, a grim picture of God’s unleashed wrath during this event is found in 2 Thess. 1:7-9 where Paul writes:

And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.

No room can be found in this terrible punishment for the wonderful promises of blessing spoken by “all the prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Try fitting in Isaiah 25:6-8 for example:

And in this mountain (i.e. the kingdom when Christ takes over government of the world) shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things, full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…

Note that the blessings vouchsafed by God here are for all people, not just some with the rest being destroyed. Oh, no. The “Golden Age’ of the “Day of Christ”, (not the Millennium) is for everyone. Why?  Because blessing all people is the hallmark of the Lord’s kingdom which He will bring in at his appearing (2 Tim. 4:1).

My prayer is that God would open the eyes of all to see that before returning in flaming fire to take vengeance on incorrigible unbelievers the Lord will first usher in an era of several centuries in which He will bless all mankind with his goodness and grace.

This is prophetically anticipated in Psalm 68:18 which says:

Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.

The “gifts for men, even the rebellious” are the fabulous blessings the Lord Himself will shower upon all people during the day of Christ (1 Cor. 1:8, Phil. 1:8, 10 2:16), starting with his appearing (Titus 2:13, 2 Tim. 4:1).

Thus it is at his appearing that He will bring in his kingdom and thus inaugurate a “Golden Age” when …

… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com