"And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." Joel 2:30-31

"A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed." Rev. 8:8-9

I would like to expand here on one major event which will have worldwide consequences but which is usually mentioned only briefly with little or no recognition of the consequences.

Also, the popular Left Behind series of books by Dr. Tim LeHaye proposes a scenario for the Tribulation period.  But what will life be like AFTER the Tribulation?

We hear many opinions about exactly what will occur during the tribulation, whether those who believe in the Messiah will have to endure it, and the glory which will be Heaven, but how many address how the calamities which occur during the tribulation will affect the condition the world will be in AFTER the tribulation and before eternity future, during the millennium which remains?  We know it will be a time of peace with God in control and Messiah reigning with his Saints on the earth, but what will daily life be like?  We are told many aspects of the "religious" condition of this time, that the saints will reign with the Messiah and that all men will go up to Jerusalem for the feasts and festivals of the Lord, but not a great deal is written in scripture about daily life.

The events disclosed to us in the Revelation portend awesome calamities for the planet, but we seldom hear a description of the devastation which will occur.  Remember Banda Aceh, Malasia?

Just one of these events is what Yochanan (John) described as a "great mountain burning with fire...cast into the sea."  (Rev. 8:8) Recent celestial events suggest that this may be a comet or an asteroid.  An asteroid, being simply rock of one kind or another, would appear, to the first century eye, as a mountain, whereas a comet would be much more spectacular and would be visible for quite some time before impact.  Entry into the earth's atmosphere would cause the asteroid to "burn with fire."^[1]

Anyone who thinks this will be a temporary, if major, inconvenience just isn't paying attention!  The words devastation and annihilation don't convey the magnitude of this future situation.

This asteroid, falling into the sea, will create a tsunami of unimaginable size and force.  The shock wave alone will kill every aquatic vertebrate within hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles.(v. 9)  Slamming into coastal areas, complete cities will be obliterated, some possibly with only minutes notice.  Since coastal areas contain a high percentage of the world's population, hundreds of millions will be dead.

"A third part of the ships were destroyed." (v. 9)  The international supply system will be irreparably shattered.  Nations which rely on petroleum imports will soon be without power and transportation.  Since many petroleum refining and storage facilities are located on or near the coasts, remaining fuel reserves will be quickly exhausted.

After this one "natural" disaster and several earthquakes of enormous magnitude, God's further acts of judgment on the world and the antichrist's use of the powers given to him, along with the final battle for the city of Jerusalem, will cause such destruction worldwide that little of the world which we know will remain.  This battle for Jerusalem is often called the "Battle of Armageddon."  However, the valley of Megiddo will only be a gathering place^meg.  See Rev. 16:14,16: "...the spirits...which go forth unto the kings of the earth...to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. ...And he gathered them together into a place called...Armageddon."

Through this unimaginable destruction, there will be those who survive and begin living in a way unknown since the Garden of Eden.  It will be Man living in nature and having direct communication with God's chosen (2 Thes. 2:13), the elect from every nation (Rev. 5:9), who will be overseeing the world (5:10).

Join me now for what the future holds.  Where will you be in it?

Welcome to the long-awaited millennium.  It is now the first week of the first of one thousand years of the Messiah's Reign.  Yeshua (Jesus) has returned to reign as King of kings, with his followers -- saints, believers, church, bride -- call them what you will, ruling and reigning with him as kings and priests for a thousand years.  (". . . from Jesus Christ, who . . . hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.  Amen." Rev. 1:5-6)  ("...and we shall reign on the earth." Rev. 5:10)

There are no "nations" except in the ethnic sense, only the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah.

The entire HEBREW population of the earth (the House of Israel and the House of Judah) has returned (Jer. 31:8) to the land which God promised to the seed of Avram, "from the river of Egypt² unto the great river, the river Euphrates." (Gen. 15:18)  This mighty migration was begun more than a century before the tribulation period, and completed when the Messiah returned.

Due to geologic cataclysms (the entire earth was shaken and fractured by the impact of the asteroid) and nuclear warfare, there is little remaining of the infrastructure which existed before them--dams burst, highways fractured beyond repair, skyscrapers shattered into piles of rubble.  Imagine entire cities looking like the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse.

The electric power wires strewn across highways and city streets pose no hazard of electrocution, because the world today has no major electrical generating systems.

Since there is no electrical generating capacity, the cities are dark at night, and the beauty of the heavens can be seen.

There is no television, no radio, no banking, no production of what we used to call "modern conveniences," no electronic communication, and, therefore, no employment in these industries, i.e., no news broadcasts, no stock trading, and on and on.

There are no petrochemical plants to refine hydrocarbon fuels for automobiles.  That's all right, because there are few automobiles that still run.

Airlines; railroads; shipping lines; bus lines; subways; taxi companies; gas stations; auto repair shops; trucking companies; automobile, aircraft and railroad manufacturers--all their employees who survive have lost their jobs.

Manufacturing is done with hand tools.  There are no nation- or world-wide industries because of the lack of communication and transportation.

Roads will soon be deteriorating into grass-covered foot and horse paths for lack of power equipment.

There are no doctors--healing is done by the Great Physician.  Those who were diseased or crippled or blind or deaf are whole again!

Nurses, therapists, hospital administrative personnel--out of jobs.

There are no lawyers--justice is meted out by the One who gave the Law in the beginning. (Micah 4:2)

There are no police--satan is bound and everyone obeys the Word of God.

Judges, attorneys, court personnel, jail and prison guards--out of jobs.  Prisons are empty.

Government employees--federal, state, county, city; kingdoms, sheikdoms, monarchies--from kings and presidents to clerks and maintenance personnel--have been replaced.  "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Messiah; and he shall reign for ever and ever."  (Rev. 11:15)

There is no monetary system, no barter, no trading.  Physical needs are shared one hundred percent, just as it was when Luke wrote about the Messiah's congregation in Jerusalem in Acts 4: "...neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things in common...Neither was there any among them that lacked...and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."  We now have a truly Godly communism, or communalism.

Real estate transactions, large and small, are a thing of the past: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." (Ps. 24:1)

What there is is agriculture.  Farming.  Most will learn to grow their own crops, with enough extra to share with those who supply other necessities, such as clothing and tools.

Cities and industry may eventually be rebuilt, but for a few years our main concern is simply living--growing food, making clothes, building shelter.

Soon, we will be going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, to worship at the Temple, (Zech. 14:16) the construction of which has already begun, just as Isaiah the prophet foretold.  "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of YAHWEH's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of YAHWEH, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of YAHWEH from Jerusalem." (Is.2:2-3)  (Yes, there is still law: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." [Matt. 24:35]  Obviously the earth has not yet passed away!)

After the crops are harvested, we will go to Jerusalem to make our offerings to YAHWEH. (Eze. 20:40-42)  Just a few years ago, many people believed that the sacrifice of offerings had ceased forever.  They now realize that only to the Temple in Jerusalem could the offerings be brought.  Since there was no Temple for a little over 1940 years, there was no place to make an offering.  Many other words of the prophets of old are coming to fruition.  The world is at peace.