No one knows that day and hour that will reveal the return of our King and the beginning of His earthly reign for 1000 years. His return and the end of his 1000 year reign will both include the battle with evil and those who follow Satan. Satan knows the end, but like many, refuses to believe that he cannot challenge God and defeat God.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels of Heaven, but only My Father.
This is one more contested and often misinterpreted verses relating to prophecy. This could also be understood as at this time, Jesus was in His flesh and had given up His independent use of His power, glory, and majesty. All of which have now been restored to Him.
24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.
24:38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark. 24:39 And they did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.
It is a good time to once again remind ourselves of what this means.
Genesis 6:1 And it happened, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and when daughters were born to them, 6:2 the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were good. And they took wives for themselves from all whom they chose.
As was studied months earlier, fallen angels are the sons of God. As they left their domain, i.e., in Heaven as created spiritual servants of God, they bred with women, daughters of Adam. What was the result of this evil?
6:3 And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, in his erring; he is flesh. Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore to them, they were mighty men who existed of old, men of renown.
6:5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6:6 And Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was angry to His heart.
A new type or breed of man was created. These evil, demonic giants created a world that soon became devoid of the ‘fruit of the spirit’ and full of immoral, ungodly, unrighteous desires and practices.
6:7 And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For I repent that I have made them.
So God destroyed them all and only saved 8. God will always save a remnant, but the majority then, as well as now, will be destroyed.
6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah.
So few are actually true followers of the King that most will not believe they are not included in the ark of Salvation.
2Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare sinning angels, but thrust them down into Tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness, being reserved to judgment.
2:5 And He did not spare the old world, but saved Noah the eighth one, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, He condemned them with an overthrow, setting an example to men intending to live ungodly.
2:7 And He delivered righteous Lot, oppressed with the lustful behavior of the lawless. 2:8 For that righteous one living among them, in seeing and hearing, his righteous soul was tormented from day to day with their unlawful deeds.
Noah preached for over 100 years, while he made the ark. But none believed! Maybe it was like today when these same truths are given out to an unbelieving world; they mock the truth and all who proclaim it. For those who don’t want to believe in God’s divine wrath, judgment, and condemnation, Peter provides another example. Of course, people deny that one as well.
2:9 The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust for a day of judgment, to be punished, 2:10 and especially those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise dominion. They are darers, self-pleasing; not trembling at glories, speaking evil.
The righteous before God will be saved just as they are known by God. The unjust, the unrighteous, the ungodly, the disobedient will be punished. This is an eternal punishment that is far beyond what anyone can imagine.
God’s warnings are for our benefit, just as our earthly parents warned us, to save us from pain, suffering, and even death.