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As you know, we're studying the book of Revelation and we have been doing so for quite a long time. We find ourselves in chapter 20, a coming earthly Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Revelation chapter 20, and you'll want to be looking there in your Bible, following along as we embark upon the beginning verses of this tremendous, tremendous chapter. Let me just say the promise of the earthly Kingdom of the Messiah fills the Old Testament. It would be impossible for us to cover even a portion of the Scriptures in the Old Testament that direct their attention to this event, to this period of time...2 Samuel, Psalm 2, a number of places in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah. And when you come into the New Testament, particularly the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew focuses on the time when the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, the Son of Man comes with the angels, they gather the elect from the four corners of the earth. And that is the beginning of the great and glorious Kingdom.
So both Old and New Testament are just replete with promises with regard to the Kingdom. And just to put that in perspective, let me say something at the very outset which will help you understand the nature of God's promise to Israel and to all those who are in Christ and those who belong to God.
God always promised a kingdom. He always promised a kingdom that was eternal but He promised also that it would be an earthly kingdom, and as well, He promised the hope of eternal heaven. Now how can God fulfill all of that? An eternal kingdom which is an earthly kingdom and also a heavenly kingdom? Well the answer is, the millennial kingdom is the earthly part of that eternal kingdom. The thousand-year millennial kingdom is really phase one of God's eternal Kingdom. In the Old Testament, the promises to Israel, the promises through the prophets speak of a kingdom that is earthly...but they also speak of a kingdom that is heavenly, a kingdom that is here on this planet and a kingdom that is in a completely different dimension, a kingdom that is measured by time and a kingdom that is beyond time.
And so, when you look at the kingdom prophecies, you will see that they are eternal and they stretch on through ever...through forever and ever. But at the same time the beginning of that kingdom fulfillment has an earthly phase, and that is the thousand-year Millennium that is the theme of this marvelous chapter.
And it's necessary that God do it that way. He promised an earthly kingdom so He will bring it. Into that earthly kingdom will come people who are physical just like we are, who haven't died. They will survive the time of the Tribulation, they will be the redeemed. They will come from the nation Israel and from other nations of the world. They will go into the earthly kingdom in the glorious renewed and revived earth. They will have children. And so natural reproduction will be going on, natural processes in life will be going on. And so there will still be a group of people on the earth who will have the right to believe or not believe. And so the kingdom while it is in fact a kingdom given to God's people by way of fulfillment of His promise is also really the final time in which redemption can occur in the lives of human beings. And so there has to be in that kingdom the final gathering together of the redeemed and then can come the eternal state.
So we're looking at Revelation chapter 20. And then in chapter 21 we'll see the eternal kingdom which is called the new heaven and the new earth. But here in chapter 20 we're actually looking at a restored earth, restored to its...to nearly its original glory, ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ and the saints of all the ages.
And so we said last time, up until Revelation 20, everything has been premillennial. Everything has been pre-kingdom. In this chapter, the kingdom comes and is described in major features, if not specific details...major features. There's a framework of the kingdom on which you can hang the myriad of details that come from the rest of Scripture. And I suggested to you last time that a literal interpretation and a simple acknowledgement of the normal chronology of Revelation puts the kingdom on earth for a thousand years after the return of Christ and before the new heavens and the new earth, which is the eternal state. You have the return of Christ in chapter 19 which follows the Tribulation described in chapter 6 through the first part of chapter 19. And you have the eternal state in chapter 21, and slipped right in in chapter 20 is the kingdom. So a normal chronology, and a simple literal interpretation yields premillennialism.
We told you last time that some people are postmillennial, that is to say they believe Jesus comes after the kingdom, post- kingdom. They say that the kingdom is going on now or soon will be going on, and at the end of the kingdom Jesus will come. It's not Christ who brings the kingdom by His return, it's the church that brings the kingdom and then offers it up to Christ. It is not a literal thousand years, but it is simply the power of Christ being expressed on the earth through the church and at the end of that, Christ will come.
There are people who hold that today. The most well-known group would be called the Reconstructionists, Reconstructionist theology or theonomy, if you're familiar with those terms, Dominion theology, Kingdom theology, there are various forms of postmillennialism. It basically says things are going to get better and better and better and better and then Jesus will come. But that is not to interpret the Bible literally, that demands a figurative symbolic interpretation, spiritualizing it and also completely rejects the chronology of the book of Revelation.
And then there are others who are amillennial who say there is no kingdom at all. It isn't going to come and then Christ will come at the end of it. The only kingdom that ever will come is what is here right now. It's just the church age and that's it, and at the end Jesus will come. In some ways, it's not a lot different than postmillennialism, in other ways it is. It makes the church Israel, all the promises to Israel of a future kingdom are fulfilled in the church, we are the spiritual Israel. There's no future for Israel as a nation. The church age is the only kingdom there is and when it's over Jesus comes. Again, the amillennial view takes a spiritualized rather than a literal interpretation and also rejects the chronology of Revelation.
And so we go back to where we began with this brief discussion and that is to say a literal interpretation of the Scripture's Old and New Testament and a simple understanding of the chronology of Revelation makes us a premillennial because we see the return of Christ, then the kingdom, then the eternal state. And then the kingdom becomes the final stage on earth in which the last drama of human history is played out and everything is cleaned up to establish the new heaven and the new earth and the eternal state.
Now with that as just a brief review of what we said last week, let's go to chapter 20. And we're going to be looking at the aspects of the kingdom that unfold in the fifteen verses of this chapter. As I said, they are somewhat skeletal and general and we'll do our best to hang some specifics on them that will be meaningful for you.
Let's talk about the first point in chapter 20, the removal of Satan. The first matter of attention for John as he looks at this vision of the Kingdom is to see the removal of Satan. Verse 1, "And I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be released for a short time."
Now a simple understanding of that at face value, literally interpreting what was said, is very, very clear. An angel comes down, has a key, has a chain, takes hold of Satan, binds Satan, throws him into the abyss for a thousand years. At the end of which for a brief time he is released.
So the first thing we see that occurs in the kingdom is the removal of Satan. Now that's going to dramatically change the world, isn't it? Because Satan is the prince of the power of the air, he's the god of this age, he's the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Up until this point, by the way, God has already taken care of many of the rebels. Fallen men, sinful men have all been slain in the process of judgments through the time of the Great Tribulation, and those who survive that will perish in the holocaust around Armageddon described there in chapter 19. So the unregenerate world has been destroyed. And then the Antichrist and the false prophet, we find at the end of chapter 19, have been seized and thrown into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
So those ring leaders of this great worldwide rebellion have been taken care. Now that leaves only Satan and the demons still loose. And if the Lord is going to establish His Kingdom, He's going to get rid of the ungodly leaders, He's going to get rid of the ungodly people and now He's going to get rid of the ungodly powers of the heavens, namely Satan and all the demons. If the Kingdom is to be all that God designs, the enemy has to go. There can be no one thousand years of peace and righteousness if he is at large. So God removes the one who is the adversary, the enemy, the one creating the conflict. In fact, his head was bruised at the cross, as promised in Genesis 3:15, and now comes his incarceration before a final exile at the end of the thousand years into the lake of fire where Satan and his demons will dwell forever.
So here is the incarceration of Satan and all the demons which is crucial to the reign of Christ and the reign of the saints through the Millennial Kingdom without any obstruction, without any hindrance. And what a world that is going to be.
Let's look then at what it says about the removal of Satan in verse 1. John says, "And I saw," now I just stop there long enough to say that little phrase "and I saw" is repeated and it is an indication of some sequence of events. Back in chapter 19 verse 11, "And I saw heaven opened.." And verse 17, "And I saw an angel standing in the sun..." And verse 19, "And I saw the beast and the kings..." And now chapter 20, "And I saw an angel coming down from heaven..." It's not too hard to understand there's a real sequence here. Verse 4, "And I saw thrones..." Verse 11, "And I saw a great white throne..." Verse 12, "And I saw the dead..." And John is just marching us sequentially through this tremendous vision of the establishment of the Kingdom one step at a time. The major steps are indicated by that little phrase "and I saw" which indicates another facet of this immense vision that John is having of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom.
Now it says, "I saw an angel..." We can speculate that this angel is a particular angel, it could be, as noted back in chapter 12 verse 7, Michael since Michael there is indicated to be a uniquely gifted and uniquely used angel in some significant role on behalf of God. You find it in Jude 9, Michael is called the archangel. Perhaps some would suggest this could be Michael because of the very formidable event that is about to happen. Michael who has been the archenemy of Satan would like to be the angel charged with this responsibility, but that is purely speculation since it doesn't say. But it would have to be a mighty angel, certainly endued with supernatural strength because he comes down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
Now he comes down from heaven with a very specific agenda. He is going to do very, very specific things. One, lay hold of Satan. Two, bind him for a thousand years. Three, cast him to the abyss. Four, lock him with a key. Five, set a seal on him. Six, loose him at the end of the thousand years.
So his agenda just prescribed by heaven itself, by God. He comes down, he has what is called the key of the abyss, abussos, abussos, the abyss. And you might be saying..."Well, what is the abyss?" Well Peter calls it in 2 Peter 2:4 "The pits of darkness reserved for judgment." It is the place where demons are sent to be reserved for their final sentencing to the lake of fire. It is not the final hell. And believe me, fallen angels will go there because the final hell, the lake of fire has been prepared for the devil and his angels. And so ultimately they're going to end up in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever. That eternal fire, Matthew 25:41 says, prepared for the devil and his angels. And down in verse 10 of chapter 20 the devil was...who deceived them was then thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they'll be tormented day and night forever and ever. But the devil doesn't get thrown into that place until the thousand years is over. Here he is put into the abussos, which is some other kind of place of incarceration not the specific final lake of fire. Because once you go to the lake of fire, you can never come back because it burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever, and no one is ever released.
The abyss is mentioned also in Luke 8:31. You remember when Jesus was casting demons out, the demons said, "Don't send us to the abyss?" And again I say, the abyss is not the final eternal lake of fire, it is a place of torment, certainly a place of punishment, a place out of the presence of God, a place of incarceration, a temporary place where God sends demons and where, in this case, He binds Satan.
Now just to give you a little bit of a review of things that we've said in years past, keep this in mind. I'll give you a little diagram, kind of follow it in your mind, if you will. On one line if you were diagraming it you could write "angels." And then you could split off a line and divide those angels into two. There would be holy angels and fallen angels. Take the line that says fallen angels and split it into two. Loose and bound. The loose ones are demons. The bound ones are those incarcerated. Take the bound ones and split them into two, permanently bound and temporarily bound. There are permanently bound angels, permanently bound fallen angels and demons. When were they permanently bound? Well I believe they were the ones who sinned in Genesis chapter 6 and are reserved in everlasting chains. So they went into the abyss and they will be there permanently until they're transferred to the lake of fire.
There are other fallen angels who have been sent into the abyss but they're only there temporarily. And we find in the book of Revelation on at least two occasions that they are released. In chapter 9, hell belches out three unclean frogs that represent unclean spirits. And then you have two hundred million of them who have been bound at the Euphrates and they are released during the time of the Tribulation. So, there are some demons that are loose, there are some that are bound. Of those that are bound, some are permanently bound, some are temporarily bound. The temporarily bound ones are loosed for purposes of judgment during the time of the Tribulation. They will then be reincarcerated in the abyss until finally they are all cast into the lake of fire prepared for all of them.
Now here this angel has a key which simply identifies authority. If you have the key, you control the door. The angel has the key and it signifies authority. He can open it and he can close it. In fact, back in chapter 9 verse 1 it says, "The fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. And he opened the bottomless pit." There's the same kind of thing. That bottomless pit, that abussos, that place of torture and torment, not the final hell but the place of incarceration of demons. May well be the place where Jesus when He was crucified and you remember He went and made a public display before the demons while His physical body was in the grave, He was alive in His spirit, Peter says, and He descended and He proclaimed a triumph, kerusso, over the principalities and powers, He went there and while hell was holding a carnival because Jesus was dead, He showed up at the party and brought His words of judgment and condemnation.
Back in chapter 1 and verse 18 we read that Jesus Christ is the one who has the keys of death and Hades. And He dispenses those keys, in this case, to an angel in chapter 9 to open the bottomless pit, and here again in chapter 20 to open that pit as well, and then to lock it again. Notice the angel also had a great chain in his hand. The idea that it's great signifies the greatness of Satan, in a sense, so that it takes a great chain to bind him. It would be the same kind used as noted in Jude to bind the demons. It says in Jude 6, "Angels who didn't keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode He has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of that great day." So Satan then goes and he's bound in the same place that these other demons have been eternally bound in great chains. And again 2 Peter 2:4 says the same thing.
Just a note, in Mark chapter 5 there's an interesting reference that kind of ties in with this, I think, interestingly. "They came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes and when He had come out of the boat immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him," that is met Jesus. "And he has his dwelling among the tombs and no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him, and constantly night and day among the tombs and in the mountains he was crying out and gashing himself with stones."
Here is a demon-empowered man who is so powerful, so strong, so indomitable that the best chains of men can't bind him. The point being, Satan's demons can break the chains of men, but they cannot break this chain in chapter 20. Satan himself can't break the chain of God that is used to bind him.
Then verse 2, this angel comes down and this has got to be a great moment for this angel, be it Michael or whoever. This has got to be a monumental moment. "And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." That is the duration of the Millennial Kingdom. He laid hold of the dragon. And again remember that the term "dragon" is used back in chapter 12 verses 3, 4 and 17 to refer to Satan. Why does the term "dragon" refer to Satan? Because it emphasizes his bestial nature, it emphasizes his fierceness, his ferociousness, his cruelty, his oppressiveness. Not only is he called the dragon but he's called the serpent of old. And what does that remind you of? The serpent of old takes you all the way back to where? To the Garden, the Garden of Eden, the snake in the Garden of Eden who tempted Eve and started all the trouble. The one, according to 2 Corinthians 11:3 who deceived. And it is that dragon, that fierce bestial, cruel, vicious, deadly old snake from the Garden of Eden.
Further he defines him, "Who is the devil." Again giving you another insight into him. Devil is diabolos, it means slanderer. And you remember that the book of Revelation also tells us he is night and day before the throne of God accusing the brethren. He is a malignant liar, this has been his character since he fell. He is the father of all lies. He cannot speak the truth except for lying purposes. The devil, it says in 1 John 3:8, has sinned from the beginning. He is a lying deceiver.
So he is called the dragon, the serpent, the devil and Satan. Satan means adversary, enemy. He opposed God, he opposed Christ, he opposed the saints Job, Peter, Paul, believers. Back in chapter 12 again, verses 4, 9 and 10, we've gone through all of that. So this is a triumphant moment, beloved, in God's redemptive plan. This is the moment when the victory of Christ is exercised over his archenemy and the roaring lion is overcome by the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And Satan is bound for a thousand years. This is the first of six references to this period with the number one thousand. And so Satan is bound during this time of the Kingdom. That's going to dramatically alter the world...dramatically change it because there will be no satanic enterprise, there will be no satanic ideologies, no satanic philosophies, no demonic theories of anything. There will be no satanic theories of morality. There will be no satanic theories of justice. There will be no satanic theories of social behavior, social life. There will be no satanic maxims, opinions, ideologies of any kind existent anywhere on the globe. The whole demonic world is incarcerated along with their leader and Jesus Christ sets the agenda for all of the world.
Now at this particular point I might just throw in a footnote. Amillennialists tell us that we're now in the kingdom, this is the only kingdom there's going to be. This is it. This is all there is. There ain't no more kingdom. The kingdom is the church age. We are the Israel of God. All the promises to Israel are now fulfilled in the church. We are spiritual Israel. And so this is all the kingdom there will ever be. If that is true, then Satan must be...what?...bound. I don't think so. I don't think so.
The devil goes about as a roaring lion, currently seeking whom he may devour. Luke 22, the devil comes to Jesus and asks for Peter and Jesus says the devil wants you to sift you. Acts chapter 5, Peter says to Ananias and Sapphira, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" Second Corinthians 4:3 and 4, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe lest the light of the glorious gospel shine unto them." Ephesians 2:2, "He is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is working in the children of disobedience."
You think of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians as he was decrying his difficulty. He says, "We wanted to come to you more than once but Satan thwarted us." No, Satan is now bound. This can't be the kingdom. Satan is loose everywhere. But he's going to be bound and he'll be bound during the Kingdom which is to come. No more will Satan establish a world system.
You say, "Well that means there won't be any sin?" No, you don't need Satan to sin, that comes out of the flesh. I don't believe Satan gets in your mind and makes you sin. I simply believe Satan creates an environment that stimulates the flesh. And when you remove the environment, then the flesh is not going to be stimulated in the same way. Righteousness, peace, justice will rule the earth. And it will be a world in exact opposite to everything we experience today. It will be the time of refreshing, a time of restitution.
Now it says in verse 3, after binding Satan for a thousand years, this angel, I like the terminology, "Threw him into the abyss." You have to do that because I guess the angel doesn't want to go down there. Literally the word abussos, by the way, means bottomless. He threw him into the bottomless. This is the description of this place of incarceration, it's called the bottomless pit. As I noted in verse 10, it's later at the end of the thousand years that he's thrown into the lake of fire.
Now all seven times this abyss or bottomless pit appears in Revelation it refers to the place where fallen angels and foul evil spirits are held captive. The place where they await their final incarceration from which they can never be relieved called the lake of fire. It says in Isaiah 24:21 and 22 very interestingly. "So it will happen in that day that the Lord will punish the host of heaven." Who are the host of heaven? Angels. These are wicked angels. The Lord will punish in that day the wicked angels. "And they will be gathered together like prisoners in the dungeon and will be confined in prison and after many days then they will be punished." So first they are confined...I think Isaiah is seeing the same thing. They're confined for a period of a thousand years and Isaiah says, "After that then comes the eternal punishment." That comes later, after the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium. All the unsaved of all the ages will be resurrected, brought to the great white throne and they along with all the fallen angels and Satan and the false prophet and the beast will all be thrown into the lake of fire.
Verse 3 also says that after the angel throws him into the abyss, it says, John saw in his vision, "And shut it and sealed it over him." He is chained with a great chain. He is locked into the abyss with a key. It is shut and sealed so that the world cannot at all be influenced by Satan. The whole world will be influenced only by those purposes of Christ.
You say, "Well won't everybody then who is born of those redeemed people who go into the Kingdom become Christians?" No. Amazingly there will be fallen creatures who will reject Christ even though they're living in that marvelous Kingdom itself. It shows you the depth of sin.
But the point made here is this, all of this is done to Satan, the middle of verse 3, "So that he should not deceive the nations any longer." His deceptions are over. His deceptions are over. So if people reject Christ, it will not be because they are...what?...deceived. It will be because they love their iniquity. And he's kept there, it says in verse 3, "Until the thousand years were completed."
Now what would the world be like? What's it going to be like? Well, from a moral standpoint it's going to be totally different. There will be no injustice. There will be peace everywhere, righteousness prevailing. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But before we look at that, what will the world be like just environmentally? All these environmentalists, you know, who worry and worry and worry about preserving the world, and I've told you before, if you think we've messed up the earth, wait till you see what Jesus does to it because in the Tribulation He's going to destroy the thing. But what will the world of the Millennial Kingdom be like?
Let me give you some insights from some in the field of science. Just listen to this. "The violent earthquakes and upheavals through the Tribulation time will have leveled all the polluted cities of a sinful world, the better to facilitate the erection of new, clean, peaceful communities at the beginning of the Millennium. These great land movements will also have eliminated the great mountain ranges and islands of the world, filling up the ocean depths and restoring gentle globally habitable topography and geography all over the world, as it had been in the antediluvian age before the cataclysmic upheavals of the Flood. As Isaiah the prophet has foretold, every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked shall be made straight, the rough places plain. The prophets also say the islands will flee away.
"This reversal of the topographic upheavals of the Flood, however, will not send waters over the continents again." In other words, they won't flood the globe. "Since much of the waters of the ocean will already have been re-elevated above the atmosphere, restoring in some measure the antediluvian waters above the firmament, the canopy of water. The worldwide draught of the first half of the Tribulation. The cataclysmic splashdowns of bodies from the heavens during the trumpet judgments and the intensified solar radiations of the bowl judgments will all have contributed to the translation of vast quantities of water vapor far back into the skies. The earth then would be sheltered, as it was before the Flood. Sheltered from the ultra violet rays of the sun and that's why people will live to be very old, like they did before the Flood."
"Quite probably the immense tectonic movements and the earthquakes and eruptions and landslides may also have trapped vast quantities of water beneath fresh sedimentary volcanic deposits, reinstating in partial degree the primeval pressurized reservoirs of the great deep, as the Bible calls it. Facilitating the birth of copious artesian springs, including one which will feed the vast river emerging from the millennial temple in Jerusalem, described both Ezekiel and Zechariah. And the seas of the millennial world will be relatively narrow and shallow once again, as in primeval days. Furthermore the restoration of the vapor canopy should enlarge measure restore the globally pleasant warm climate of that part of the...that period of the earth again. No longer will great atmospheric movements generate violent rainstorms, blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes because the uniform temperatures of the global greenhouse will inhibit air mass movements of more than local extent.
"In the original world the only rains were gentle mists from localized daily evaporation and precipitation, according to Genesis 2:5, keeping the world everywhere at comfortable temperatures and humidities and supporting an abundance of plant and animal life in all regions of the globe. There were no deserts or icecaps or uninhabitable mountain heights, it was all very good. The cataclysm of the Great Flood destroyed that beautiful world, but the global upheavals of the Great Tribulation will restore,it, at least in measure.
"Joel wrote, `Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree bears her fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for He hath given you the former rain moderately and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month.'"
Scientific expectation goes on. "The redistribution of earth's topography and restoration of its vapor canopy will result in the elimination of many if not all of its wastelands and deserts. And the prophet said in Isaiah, `The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose, for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.
"Somehow there will also come a great healing of the lands and the waters of the earth. Healing from the terrible judgment of the Tribulation. Before the Great Flood the soils were rich in all the needed nutrients. And the drinking waters all came pure and fresh from Artisan springs, fed from deep underground reservoirs. The destruction of these deep fountains and the devastating land erosion of the Great Flood largely destroyed God's primeval terrestrial ecology, leaving the lands depleted and the waters polluted.
"Originally all animals as well as man were to drive...derive nourishment only from plant foods, but under the far more rigorous conditions of the post-diluvian environment, God authorized man to eat animal flesh as well. Evidently for the same reason many animals also had to become carnivorous. These conditions were further aggravated during the long centuries after the Flood. With the lands becoming further impoverished and the waters further contaminated, requiring increasingly great expenditures on fertilization and purification. The traumatic upheavals of the Tribulation period will have brought these conditions to a climax with devastating famine conditions and with terrestrial waters so depleted and poisoned that all the animals of the sea had perished. Had such conditions been allowed to persist much longer, all life on earth would become impossible.
"In some marvelous way God will use the physical convulsions of that awful period to purge and cleanse the land and the waters of the earth, as well as its moral and spiritual climate. Possibly the tectonic and volcanic upheavals and perhaps even the atmospheric bombardments will implant new supplies of needed nutrients and trace elements in the soils. Even the multitudes of dead animals and plants in the lands and the oceans as well as the skeletons of the millions of dead men and horses at Armageddon and elsewhere may well become fertilizing agents for the land as they remain scattered far and wide.
"Unprecedented global earthquakes and eruptions will trigger vast and violent landslides and showers of dirt and rocks, entrapping tremendous volumes of ocean waters beneath great overburdens of solid materials which will rapidly become pressurized, lithophied and partially sealed. This will likely produce at least two effects. In the first place, the sea bottoms will be raised to higher elevation than at present. compensating for the great losses of water caused by the restoration of the atmospheric canopy and by the entrapment of vast volumes beneath the huge landslides which produced the great reservoirs of fresh water. The entire crust itself will to some extent have shifted and slipped over the earth's mantle, rearranging the various continental plates to a more nearly uniformed distribution of land and sea surface areas. Second, this extensive rearrangement will facilitate the development of a new terrestrial system of springs and spring-fed rivers. Isaiah 41 says, `I will open rivers in to high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys, I'll make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.'"
Somehow God is even going to repopulate the oceans. We know that the second bowl judgment resulted in the death of every living soul in the sea so that those fishes who required a marine environment were destroyed, eliminated. But we know that in the great millennial river in Jerusalem described in Ezekiel 47, "It shall come to pass everything that lives, which moves, wither soever the the rivers shall come shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish." Somehow the Lord is going to bring the fish back to the seas. He's going to adjust them so they can live in whatever the climate of that new water is. And so it goes.
Well, you say, "Is that all absolutely true or is that a little speculation?" It's a little speculation. But it may not be too far off. This is the...this is the new creation, this is the glorious liberation of the children of God. This is when the creation is freed from its bondage. That's the kind of world it's going to be in terms of ecology or something similar to that, something like that. And when Satan isn't here, beyond that it's going to be a world of blessedness, a world of absolutely blessed, blessed conditions. And we're going to look at those, if we have time tonight, if not we'll look at them next time. As we look at the next point, let's get to it.
The end of verse 3, "After these things," that is after the thousand years of being chained, "He must be released for a short time." He must be released for a short time. Why? Why release him?
Well, there's one final, final escapade. Satan is going to have the opportunity to collect all of those who would rather be in his kingdom than God's because there will be people born during that time. Remember now, when Jesus returns, He's not going to kill those that are believers. Many will be martyred, but many will still be alive. They're the sheep of Matthew 24 who go into the Kingdom, the nation Israel that's promised a literal earthly kingdom. And there will be people in that Kingdom from every tongue and tribe and nation and they'll all be a part of that Kingdom, they'll all be believers initially, and they'll reproduce and they'll have children. And the earth will multiply rapidly. The exponential growth over that period of a thousand years will populate the church...populate the earth in the millions. And of all those people born during that thousand years, it says anyone who dies at a hundred years of age dies a child. They'll live long and therefore they'll reproduce in vastly greater numbers than anything we've ever known in our era of history.
Some of them will put their allegiance in the Lord Jesus Christ who is reigning over the earth. And some of them because of the love iniquity will reject Christ. And so Satan comes back to collect the rebels. And you see it down in verses 7 and 8. Satan is released from his prison to come out to deceive the nations and to gather them together for the war and the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.
Isn't that amazing? Not too amazing. They didn't reject...they didn't accept Christ when He was here the first time, though He walked and talked with them. And there will be those who will not accept Him then as well.
As I was saying this morning, some people think that everybody would accept Christ if He was only presented cleverly enough. Not so. Who could be more clever in presenting Himself than Christ? And there are so many who reject Him they're like the sands of the sea.
So we see then the removal of Satan. In the meantime, he is not in chains. And we are not to be ignorant of his schemes, 2 Corinthians 2:11 says. So the first element then of the Kingdom is the removal of Satan. Let's look at the second element, the reign of the saints. From the removal of Satan to the reign of the saints...down to verse 4. And this is in verses 4, 5 and 6. "And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given to them and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received a mark upon their forehead and upon their hand, and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection, blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years."
In verse 4, and then again in verse 6 it says we're going to reign with Him. So the second feature of the Kingdom that is delineated here for us is the reign of the saints. Now remember, obviously, the supreme One reigning is Christ. Go back to chapter 19 and remind yourself in verse 16 that He has a name written on His thigh, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. We're not questioning His sovereignty here when we say that the saints will reign. The Scripture says we will reign with Christ. Somehow we will be involved in the expression of His will. We will be His agents, carrying out His wishes, carrying out His will in the world. He will, of course, destroy His enemies, as we note at the end of chapter 19, set up His Kingdom. He will become KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, but we will reign along with Him, carrying out His will. He will be in that day the King, no one can gainsay what He says.
In Luke 1:32 we read, "He will be great, He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His Kingdom will have no end." He came as a king, He was rejected as a King, He died as a King scorned. He will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to reign and we will reign with Him.
To understand that we would simply have to say, all of the world leaders, all of the governors, all of the prime ministers, all of the potentates, all of the judges, all of the chiefs of police, all of those who are responsible for education, all of those who are responsible for the judicial process, all of those who are responsible for legislation, all of those who responsible for everything that is going on across the face of the earth will be the saints who will have the delegated authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to carry out His will everywhere. Then there will be truth in education, then there will be justice in the courtroom. Then there will be moral standards upheld in every area of human life. Then there will be honesty in the newspaper. Then there will not be pollution on the book stands. Books will be filled with truth. And television will be filled with only that which is true and which carries out the agenda of the Lord Jesus Christ. The saints will be in charge of television, radio, education, social life, the judicial process, the legislative process, every aspect of operation. His saints will reign with Him.
What a world that's going to be. Marvelous. And the saints won't have to try to figure out what to do because they'll all be glorified and perfect and so they will perfectly carry out the will of Christ. What an incredible thought. We won't be having committee meetings, or any meetings about any...we won't have to figure anything out, we'll know everything because we will already have been made to know as we are known. We'll simply enforce the King's agenda which will be abundantly and perfectly clear to all of us.
And as John then sees the vision of the reign of the saints, he first looks and sees a panorama of all of God's people resurrected, rewarded and reigning with Christ. Verse 4, "And I saw thrones." That's the first thing he sees. Thrones. Well there's only two kinds of thrones, really. One is a judicial throne, we call that the bench where the judge seats...sits. And there is a regal throne and we say that's where the king takes his place. It is either a judicial or a regal place of authority. And we will rule, that is to say we will enforce the will of God and we will adjudicate, we will judge. And by the way, there's no need for checks and balances because these leaders and judges are all perfect. And righteousness will be executed perfectly and swiftly. And the Lord will rule with a rod of iron which means instantaneous, swift judgment.
He says, "I saw thrones," it's a time of reigning and ruling. That...there's no way in my mind that you can make this equate with the current age, is there in yours? Are the saints ruling, reigning? Are we on thrones? Not on your life. Is Satan bound? Impossible. This is a completely different world. And it is perfectly suited to the destruction of the world which now exists. That's why my ecological concerns are very limited. I want to do my little part to pick up the trash, but I know where this deal is going. And we don't have to save the earth and save the planet. What we would rather be concerned with is saving the people.
"I saw thrones," and this is interesting, "and they sat upon them." At first that "they" becomes an interpreter's nightmare. And you say, "Lord, couldn't You at least have told us who they are?" "I saw thrones and they sat on them."
You know why it doesn't say anymore than that? Because it's patently obvious who they are. You say, "Who are they?" Well, to answer the question simply, this is the way I approached it. "I saw thrones and they sat on them." All right, then who are they? Well, they're the people that the Lord put on the throne. Well that's good. Well the next question is, who did He promise that He would put on a throne, because if we could out who He told He was going to put on a throne, we could find out who these people are. Who did He promise would reign? Who did He promise would rule with Him? Who did He promise would be in His Kingdom, glorified and exalted, standing alongside their great King?
Well, go back to the Old Testament. Daniel chapter 7 and verse 18, "But the saints of the highest one, or the Most High, will receive the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom forever for all ages to come." Verse 22, "The Ancient of Days came," that's God, "judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the Kingdom." Verse 27, "Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one, His dominion, His Kingdom will be an everlasting Kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey Him." Three times it says the Kingdom will be given to whom? The saints...to the saints. The sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. So, first of all, Old Testament saints...Old Testament saints have to be included in "they."
Let's go over to Matthew and we don't have to limit it just to that in Daniel, when Daniel says the saints of the Most High he means all of them. But certainly that includes the Old Testament saints who were reading and hearing what Daniel wrote. Matthew chapter 19 verse 28, Peter is talking to the Lord about the Kingdom, he says, "We've left everything and followed You, what will there be for us? What's going to be in our future?" Peter says not only for himself but all of those who follow Jesus. Jesus said to them, verse 28 of Matthew 19, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me in the regeneration...that's another name for the Kingdom, the restitution, the regeneration...when the Lord regenerates the whole earth, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My namesake shall receive many times as much and inherit eternal life."
Now Daniel chapter 7 tells us that the Old Testament saints are going to reign. Matthew chapter 19 looks at that sort of period between the Old Testament and the New, the time when Jesus was on the earth, and He says all the Apostles and all who have left to follow Me are going to reign.
Now let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6...1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 2 and 3. By the way, if the kingdom is now, how in the world are the saints from the Old Testament reigning? And if the kingdom is now, how are the apostles and all who follow Jesus during His lifetime reigning? And where are the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel? You see, you have to...you have to just ignore any literal interpretation to come up with that view.
First Corinthians 6:2, "Do you not know," like this is common knowledge, you're not ignorant about this, are you? "That the saints will judge the world?" Whoa...that's pretty explicit. Verse 3, "Do you not know we'll even judge angels? How much more the matters of this life,"...and this is the New Testament saints. Second Timothy 2:12, "If we endure we shall also reign with Him...reign with Him." First Peter 2:9, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, we are a royal priesthood..." royal, regal, reigning priesthood.
So what have we got? Daniel talking about Old Testament saints. Jesus talking about the Apostles and all who followed Him. And the Apostle Paul saying the saints, the New Testament saints are going to rule and reign. You come to the book of Revelation and repeatedly we hear about that. Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 talk much about what is coming. Revelation 2:26, "To him I'll give authority over the nations," that is to Christ. "And He shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces as I have also received authority from My Father." Not just for Christ, "But he who overcomes in Christ," that's believers. Revelation chapter 3 repeats the same thing. Revelation 3 verse 21, "He who overcomes I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne." Revelation 5:10, "Thou hast made them, that is the redeemed, to be a kingdom and priest and they will reign upon the earth," Revelation 5:10, it couldn't be more clear, they will reign and they will reign upon the earth. They will reign upon the earth.
So Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, those saints in the middle who follow Jesus, they're all going to reign, all of them...all the saints of all the ages. By this time, by the time the Kingdom starts will all have been resurrected, they will all have their glorified bodies. You have the Rapture of the church and they are glorified. At the end of the time of Tribulation Daniel 12:2, you have the resurrection of the Old Testament saints to get them into the Kingdom in their glorified form. All the saints of all the ages will reign.
You say, "Wait a minute, you left one group out?" That's true, one group is left out but not for long. Go back to verse 4. "And after I saw they, Old Testament saints, those who followed Christ, New Testament saints, and judgment was given to them, and then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their foreheads and upon their hands and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." Who are they? Saints from what? From the Tribulation. And you've got the last group included. He says, "I saw their souls," first of all, because they initially hadn't been raised. He said, "I saw their souls, those who had been beheaded, those who were martyrs because of the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God, those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, had not received the mark upon their forehead," and we went through all of those features in chapter 13, and upon their hand. "And they came to life, there was resurrection, and they reigned with Christ.
So you've got resurrected Old Testament saints, you've got resurrected saints who followed Jesus during His lifetime, you've got resurrected New Testament saints, and now you've got resurrected Tribulation saints and it's all the resurrected saints who reign. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The martyrs who had been beheaded. That word "beheaded," pelekizo, it actually means to cut off with an axe. Technically it can be used to behead someone, generally it means to put to death. Those who have been killed by the Antichrist and his enterprise by Satan during the time of the Tribulation. You find them in chapter 6 verse 9, the martyrs under the altar. You find them in chapter 18 verse 24, you find them in chapter 19 verse 2. All those who were massacred by Satan's enterprise and the Antichrist's reign of terror. He said I saw them. Those who were killed because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God. Those two marvelous phrases you find in chapter 1 verse 9, chapter 12 verse 17, chapter 19 verse 10, repeated four times, because of their testimony of Jesus and because of their devotion to the Word of God they lost their lives. And they are the same ones who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead or upon their hand. Remember back in chapter 13 and 14, how that the Antichrist demanded worship. He demanded...the false prophet demanded that they worship this image to the Antichrist, this talking idol. And that they receive the mark on their forehead or on their hand. But these are the ones who wouldn't take it. These are the Tribulation saints. They wouldn't take it and so they died, they were faithful to death. They too came to life.
By the way, when it says "came to life" there, it can't mean anything but resurrection. The same word is used in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." It's a resurrection word. But that's exactly what the word means and it doesn't mean anything but that. It is used that way in Romans 14:9, Revelation 1:8, Revelation 2:8; 13, 14. And it's even used that way in Revelation 20 right here in verse 5.
Now they'll have the Old Testament saints in glorified bodies, those who followed Christ in glorified bodies, New Testament Christians in glorified bodies, Tribulation saints in glorified bodies, that whole mass of resurrected rewarded believers reigning in the Kingdom. And they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So during the time of the Kingdom then we carry out the rule of Christ in the world. We reign for Him.
It says in 1 Corinthians 15:24, "Then comes the end and He delivers up the Kingdom to the God and Father when He abolished all rule and all authority and power for He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet." Ultimately Christ will reign supremely but we will under Christ reign with Him until finally the Kingdom is over on earth and He establishes that eternal Kingdom where God is all in all.
And this is going to be on earth in the very place where Satan the usurper has ruled and from which he has had to be expelled. The reign of the saints.
By the way, as a footnote, verse 5, "The rest of the dead didn't come to life until the thousand years were completed." Who would be the rest of the dead? Who are the rest of the dead? If all the saints of the Old Testament are resurrected and all the saints of the period of Christ's time are resurrected, and all the New Testament believers are resurrected, and all the Tribulation saints are resurrected, who's not? The unbelievers, the ungodly. They're going to have a resurrection, too, but it isn't described until the end of the chapter and we'll see it when we get down to verse 11 and following.
But he says then at the end of verse 5, "This is the first resurrection, and blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection." So you know what the first resurrection includes? Really everybody. Christ is the supreme one but all the saints of all the ages are in the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Why are they so blessed? Well I'll tell you next time because I'm going to tell you what the Kingdom is going to be like, not ecologically, not environmentally, but morally and spiritually. But we'll have to save that. Let's bow together in prayer.
Father, thank You for this wonderful, wonderful time in Your Word tonight, transcendent time, lifting us out of this world to that glorious world to come where Jesus Christ will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. O Father, how privileged we are, how blessed, how rich to be able to live in the light of that great Kingdom, to be able to anticipate it, to know that we'll be there with all the saints of all the ages. We thank You for Your marvelous plan and program. We give You praise for Your grace that reached to us and made us citizens of the Kingdom. Our citizenship isn't here, it's with You, it's in heaven. We belong in this Kingdom to come to reign and rule with You both then and forever. To that we wait, for that we hope and say with John, "Even so, come Lord Jesus." We long for the glorious manifestation of the children of God. We long for that redemption of our body which is resurrection. We long for the time when the creation no longer groans, waiting for the adoption. We long for Eden revisited, we long for paradise regained. We long to see Jesus exalted and ruling His world without hindrance. O Father. until that hour, may He rule without hindrance in our lives and in His church that He might be exalted who is worthy. And we pray in His great name. Amen.
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Three years of observations from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer show that charged particles escaping from the Sun form a long tail much like a comet's.Space physicists have found something surprising that, in a way, they'd expected all along. "Like a comet, our solar system has a tail," David McComas (Southwest Research Institute) announced at a July 9th press briefing. Apparently the solar wind — a million-mile-per-hour stream of charged particles pushed outward in all directions by the Sun — morphs into a long "wind sock" once it reaches interstellar space.
McComas is principal investigator for NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, launched in 2008 to map the turbulent boundary between the heliosphere, an enormous bubble filled with charged particles and magnetic field lines from the Sun, and the realm beyond.
Yet IBEX is nowhere near interstellar space. Instead, it loops around Earth in a highly elliptical orbit. The spacecraft "sees" the boundary thanks to energetic neutral atoms, or ENAs. When the outward-racing solar wind mingles with the interstellar medium, a charge exchange occurs. The zippy solar-wind protons steal electrons from slower-moving interstellar hydrogen atoms and become electrically neutral. No longer controlled by the solar wind's magnetic field, these ENAs then zip away from the interstellar boundary in all directions. Some of them make it back to Earth, where they're recorded by IBEX.The spacecraft's two detectors sweep over the whole sky about every six months. But the data are "messy" (Earth and its own magnetosphere get in the way, for example), and only recently have the first three years of observations been pieced together and cleaned up.
IBEX has an orbit designed to provide the best views in the direction that the Sun is heading — not where it's been. "What's new is that we were never before able to look in direction down the tail," McComas explains.
Looking over the calibrated all-sky map, mission scientists were stunned to see that lots of ENAs are arriving directly from the Sun's "downwind" direction, between Betelgeuse and Aldebaran along the Orion-Taurus border. They realized that the solar wind must stretch out into interstellar space as a long tail.Although details are still vague, it probably resembles the long streamer trailing behind the star Mira (Omicron Ceti), that's roughly 13 light-years long.
Moreover, the concentration of ENAs is shaped something like a four-leaf clover, with two lobes from a faster-moving stream at the top and bottom and two from slower-moving particles on the sides.In hindsight, this makes complete sense: researchers have known for decades that the Sun spits out matter much faster from its polar regions than from its midsection. Still, the lobed structure was a surprise. "It's very easy to expect the right thing once you've seen it," McComas admits.
This heliotail also appears somewhat flattened and slightly tipped relative to the Sun's equator. Apparently the interstellar medium's magnetic field is distorting and twisting the solar flow much like a misshapen beach ball encased in Bungee cords.
The new findings are described in a press releases from NASA and SwRI (and detailed in July 10th's Astrophysical Journal). You'll also find the 2½-minute video below (which you can also watch on YouTube) a big help in understanding what's going on.

subset: commoncrawl


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In April 2012, Bonnie released her first new album in seven years ?Slipstream' to widespread acclaim. Now, in summer 2013, she will bring her daring bluesy sound, steeped with inimitable slide guitar and soulful vocals, to the UK for much anticipated live shows. After an emotional period, with such triumphs as her 2005 release and tour for ?Souls Alike,' and 2009 national tour with fellow blues legend Taj Mahal alongside the tragedy of losing her parents, her brother, and her best friend, Raitt decided to step back. ?I took a hiatus from touring and recording to get back in touch with the other part of my life,? Raitt says of her decision to recharge her spirit and regain her personal balance before returning to action. There's no doubt that Raitt is re-energized. 'Slipstream' marked her biggest chart debut in the United States in two decades and is one of the top 5-selling independent albums of the year.
Motorpoint Arena


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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After spending their first three picks on offense, the Kansas City Chiefs led off the final day of the NFL draft looking for some help on defense.
The Chiefs grabbed Alabama linebacker Nico Johnson with the second selection in the fourth round Saturday, and then picked Georgia defensive back Sanders Commings early in the fifth round.
Kansas City added California (Pa.) center Eric Kush in the sixth round, and a compensatory choice later in the round went to Kansas State fullback Braden Wilson. The Chiefs wrapped up their draft by taking Princeton defensive end Mike Catapano in the seventh round.
"You're not going to fill every hole with All-Star players. I don't think you need to do that," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "You need worker bees there, guys who bust their tail. We're adding guys who do that."
The Eagles traded up three spots to the first pick in the fourth round, and chose Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley. That led to speculation that the Philadelphia brass thought the Chiefs might be interested in Barkley with the No. 99 overall pick.
Reid said the Chiefs were going defense all the way.
They wound up picking Johnson, filling a need at linebacker by choosing a natural fit for the defensive system Kansas City intends to keep under new coordinator Bob Sutton.
"They run something similar to what we do at Alabama," Johnson said. "I watched them a couple times throughout the years. I know they got a Pro Bowl linebacker there I can learn from, and I'm just ready to get there and learn as much as I can from him."
Johnson was the first defensive player chosen by the Chiefs. They'd already drafted offensive tackle Eric Fisher, tight end Travis Kelce and running back Knile Davis the first two days.
Johnson said his inspiration came from his mother, Mamie, who died in June 2010 at the age of 49 after long-term complications from Type-2 diabetes. Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban and dozens of his teammates attended the funeral in Andalusia, Ala.
"This day is really for her," Johnson said. "I put in so much work, not only for my teammates back in Tuscaloosa, but also for her, because she wanted me to not only get a degree, but take advantage of every opportunity that I had. It just means the world to me."
Johnson will get his degree in criminal justice next month, becoming the first of Mamie's five children to graduate from college.
"That's a blessing in itself," he said.
Commings played primarily cornerback during his time at Georgia, but his size (6 feet, 216 pounds) and physical nature mean he could shift over to safety in the NFL.
"We'll start him at free safety, let him work there, see how he picks things up," Reid said. "He was a great baseball player, center fielder in baseball, so he knows how to track the ball."
The Chiefs aggressively retooled their secondary this offseason, acquiring cornerbacks Dunta Robinson and Sean Smith in free agency. But they were still looking for some depth, particularly behind starting safeties Eric Berry and Kendrick Lewis.
"I'm just willing to go in and help the team, wherever it is -- safety, corner, special teams," said Commings, a former college teammate of Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston.
Commings said he spoke to the Chiefs at the scouting combine, the Senior Bowl and then during a private workout. During those meetings, team officials asked about a domestic violence charge that resulted in a suspension last season, but came away convinced of Commings' character.
"I think they touched on it for a second. It wasn't much," Commings said. "They did their research, talked to all the people in Athens, Ga. After they got to know me for a bit, they got to know what kind of person I was, so that wasn't a topic we spent much time on at all."
Reid called Kush, who played in Division II, one of the "sleepers of the draft." The coach raved about the center's athleticism, and said he could play multiple positions.
Wilson was regarded as the top blocking fullback in the draft, and could be another late-round steal. He helped protect Heisman Trophy finalist Collin Klein at Kansas State, and should become a battering ram for Pro Bowl running back Jamaal Charles with the Chiefs.
Catapano, who played defensive end at Princeton, will be an outside linebacker in Kansas City's 3-4 defense. He was the third player from the Ivy League taken in the draft.
"We filled some needs, not that that's the way we went in there thinking," Reid said. "But the way the board went, it allowed us to fill some spots we were short on numbers, and at the same time give us good football players that we felt were a good value."


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An unidentified man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in downtown Thomasville late Tuesday evening.
An unidentified man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in downtown Thomasville late Tuesday evening.
The incident was reported about 7 p.m. and occurred about one-quarter of a mile from the Big Chair, said Maj. Larry James of Davidson County Emergency Services.
The man was walking south on the railroad tracks when the train blew its horn and couldn't stop quick enough before hitting the man, James, interim director of Davidson County Emergency Services, said, adding that the man's identity was not known Tuesday night.
"He has no identification on him, and obviously there was no one at the scene who knew him," said James, who also is Davidson County's medical examiner. "We will be sending him to the chief medical examiner (Wednesday in Raleigh) to assist with identification."
Kevin Tolson, battalion chief of the Thomasville Fire Department, said the man's body was found about 10 feet from the railroad tracks in front of the Thomasville Furniture Industries showroom, now owned by Furniture Brands International.
James said the train was traveling 79 mph when it struck the man. The major said the man was alone when he was struck by the train.
Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokesperson based in Oakland, Calif., told The Dispatch that the train was headed from New York to Charlotte. She said the train was carrying 220 passengers, none of whom were injured. The train departed to its destination at 9:21 p.m., Graham said.
The railroad crossing at Salem and Main streets was closed until the train got back on its way.
The Thomasville Police Department and officials with Norfolk Southern and Amtrak were on the scene investigating the accident Tuesday night, James said. The Thomasville Rescue Squad and Thomasville Fire Department also responded.
A spokesperson with the Thomasville Police Department was not immediately available for comment.
Darrick Ignasiak can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 217, or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Au Printemps department store was celebrating La Fete du Printemps.
With giant floral bunnies... Floral swans.
Dear Carol,
this is as good occasion as any to say that yours is the most delightful blog ever!
Such wonderful taste, such fun remarks, always surprising us with such friendly walkabouts!
You are truly a great, wonderful, vivid, 'virtual friend'!
Personally, I simply LOVE Bear! :)
Big hug for him and all my best for you, that I find a lovely, lovely person!
Thanks for being this way!
P.S.: love specially dogs and chocolate!
wouf!wouf! miam, miam!...
... lovely post ... beautiful pictures ... thanksReplyDelete
One of my favorite places on earth! Love your posts makes me feel as if I'm there! The skaters..... Paris.....ReplyDelete
Oh, those mannequins with the flower heads are aweseome, Carol--what fun are they! So pretty. I love your snail map. Have fun!ReplyDelete
Hey, love the colors of the clothes in today's blog and your darling snail. I wish all the large cites I've driven in had périphérique like Paris. It makes it very easy to correct yourself when you've missed a turn. Just wait and it will come around, again.ReplyDelete
These flowers are unbeliveble !! So beuatiful!! Love it!!xxReplyDelete
I love how Printemps lives up to its name in the spring, with such style! Loving all your posts, thanks!!ReplyDelete
Gorgeous post, Carol!
Thanks for capturing flower-headed mannequins for us; I've seen many a fab window display in Paris, but never flower heads. Gorgeous.
Your post matches perfectly the weather this Sunday -- early summer already!
Apropos: time to get back out onto the terrace. With an aperitif, naturellement. :-)
Thank you so much for this post Carol. It's like being transported to Paris! If only. I'm so glad that I live in a world where even though I can't be in Paris to see the glorious spring window displays, I can glimpse their beauty through your wonderful pictures. I think I love the giant bunny best, and the fainting flower head girl. And how lucky to have all the skaters zoom past!ReplyDelete
Gorgeous and whimsical at the same time. They do such an amazing job! I too love the fainting mannequin......Maryanne xoReplyDelete
Evidently the skaters whoosing is a once-a-month event!
Who knew?
Leave it to you to jolt me back to reality after a long weekend of partying and pampering at a family weding! However, I can honestly say I approve wholeheartedly of the floral bunnies! And of course, I LOVE the mannequins with their head in the flowers! I shall join them out in the garden shortly!ReplyDelete


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A Medford man police say illegally sold steroids locally and across several states faces forfeiture of $64,000 he allegedly made from drug sales, according to court documents.
Police raided the Cedar Links home of Rafael R. Fernandez on Feb. 6 after being tipped off in July 2012 by a confidential source that Fernandez "was heavily involved in the sale of anabolic steroids," said Medford police Detective Mark Cromwell, in a declaration filed Thursday in Medford's U.S. District Court.
"Several hundred doses of various types of steroids, several hundred doses of pills suspected to be Viagra, 1.8 pounds of a white powdery substance suspected to be bulk Viagra, scales, empty capsules and a capsule machine were located at Fernandez's residence during the search," Cromwell said.
Fernandez could not be reached for comment. Cromwell did not return calls from the Mail Tribune on Friday. Fernandez was lodged in the Jackson County Jail in February on charges of delivery, manufacture and possession of steroids, delivery, manufacture and possession of Viagra, and delivery and manufacture of Cialis. Court records show no charges listed against Fernandez.
At the time, investigators said it was likely the largest steroid bust in Medford police history.
Cromwell, also deputized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, worked with Oregon State Police Detective Brian Powers and Las Vegas police officers on the case, which crosses several state lines and involves numerous suspects.
A man arrested by Las Vegas police had hundreds of doses of steroids in his home, along with boxes bearing Fernandez's initials and his home address on the return address information, Cromwell said in the court filings.
The Nevada suspect confessed that he had used and sold anabolic steroids for several years, he said, and that Fernandez was his supplier.
Cromwell said Fernandez also admitted to Powers that he had been selling steroids, Viagra and Cialis for the past two years, and that he shipped the substances to customers, packaged in boxes bearing the name Superior Lab.
"Fernandez told Detective Powers his customers ordered steroids from him via text messages and said he does not actually meet his customers in person because they are introduced through a mutual acquaintance," Cromwell wrote, adding Fernandez allegedly received payment for the drugs in the form of money orders, which he deposited into his bank accounts in the form of cash.
"Detective Powers examined Fernandez's cellphone and found text messages from different telephone numbers requesting steroids," he alleged.
Powers also said he interviewed Fernandez's customers who had made deposits to his bank account or provided him with money. One man admitted to meeting Fernandez at Gold's Gym in Eugene in 2011 and purchasing $200 worth of steroids from him, police said. The man reportedly told Powers the steroids had made him sick, so he stopped using them and did not purchase more, Cromwell said.
During the search of Fernandez's home, police said, detectives located information on bank accounts Fernandez owned. Cromwell seized $37,982 from Fernandez's Umpqua Bank account, which had numerous cash deposits from seven different branch locations in Washington and Oregon.
Cromwell also seized $25,718 from a second account with Northwest Community Credit Union, which he said represented proceeds from the steroid distribution. Only a single, $100 deposit appeared to be non-drug related, Cromwell said.
"I know that most individuals with legitimate sources of income do not receive that income via cash deposits from out-of-state sources," he said.
Fernandez had a third account with Wells Fargo Bank that had more than $15,000 in cash that had been deposited in a month's time, Cromwell said.
Reach reporter Sanne Specht at 541-776-4497 or email email@example.com.
Steroid case: Suspect may lose $64,000
A Medford man police say illegally sold steroids locally and across several states faces forfeiture of $64,000 he allegedly made from drug sales, according to court documents.


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What Is Mononucleosis?
You've heard of mono — the "kissing disease" — but what exactly is it?
Mononucleosis is an infectious disease that's associated with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and it can be a serious infection if left untreated.
EBV is transmitted through saliva or mucus and can be passed on to others via kissing, coughing, sneezing, or sharing drinking and eating utensils.
About 85 to 90 percent of American adults have developed antibodies to EBV by the time they are 40 years old.
Having those antibodies indicates the person has had an EBV infection at some time, whether or not they ever had symptoms.
About 30 to 50 percent of the time, EBV causes mononucleosis (also known as glandular fever or simply "mono").
It's especially common among teenagers and young adults.
In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 25 percent of teenagers and young adults will develop mono.
Mononucleosis Causes
EBV is the most common cause of mono, but other viruses can also cause it, such as the human cytomegalovirus.
Mononucleosis — often called "the kissing disease" — is contagious. Typically, viruses linked to mono spread through bodily fluids, especially saliva.
Blood and semen also transmit these viruses during sexual contact, blood transfusions, or organ transplants.
Mononucleosis Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of mono usually arise four to six weeks after you're infected with EBV. Young children may show signs sooner.
Mono-related complaints include:
- Fatigue
- Not feeling well
- Sore throat
- Strep throat that doesn't get better after taking antibiotics
- Fever
- Swollen lymph nodes in your neck and armpits
- Swollen tonsils
- Headache
- Skin rash
- Soft, swollen spleen
A fever and sore throat caused by mono will usually get better within a couple of weeks, while fatigue, enlarged lymph nodes, and a swollen spleen may linger a few weeks longer.
Mononucleosis Diagnosis
Your healthcare provider may suspect mono based on your signs and symptoms and a physical exam.
Blood tests can provide further evidence of an infection.
A complete blood count, for example, provides some clues, including abnormal-looking white blood cells, too many of them, or too few neutrophils or platelets.
Abnormal measures of liver function are another indicator of mono.
The Monospot test checks your blood for EBV antibodies. While the results are available within a day, the test may not detect an infection during the first weeks of the illness.
Therefore, the Monospot test may be repeated weekly for a while.
Your doctor may also order a different antibody test that takes longer for results but detects an EPV infection within the first week or two of symptoms.
Mononucleosis Treatment
There is no specific treatment for mono.
Antibiotics treat bacterial infections, of course, not viral infections.
Resting and drinking plenty of fluids is the best way to aid your recovery.
However, the following may help ease your symptoms:
- Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers for fever and muscle aches
- Sucking on throat lozenges, drinking cold beverages, or eating frozen desserts, such as popsicles, for a sore throat
- Gargling with one-half teaspoon of salt in 8 ounces of warm water a few times throughout the day for a sore throat
- Prescription corticosteroid medication, such as prednisone, for severe sore throat, swollen tonsils, and hepatitis caused by mono
Examples of OTC pain relievers and fever reducers include:
- Tylenol (acetaminophen)
- Aspirin, for people age 19 and older
- Advil (ibuprofen)
- Aleve (naproxen)
Taking too much acetaminophen can be dangerous to the liver and may be unrecognized because so many cold and flu preparations contain acetaminophen.
When taking OTC cold medicines, tally up all of the acetaminophen in all of the products you're using, and make sure you are not taking more than the FDA's recommended maximum daily dose of 4,000 milligrams.
People under age 19 should not take aspirin during a viral illness (including the flu) due to risk of a rare but serious illness called Reye syndrome.
If you've been diagnosed with mono, you should avoid intense exercise, heavy lifting, or contact sports for at least four to six weeks, or until you fully recover.
That's because if you have a swollen spleen, there is a small risk that it will rupture during strenuous activity.
Treating Secondary Infections Caused by Mononucleosis
People with mono sometimes develop another, or secondary, bacteria-caused infection such as streptococcal (strep) infection of the throat, sinus infection (sinusitis), or infection of the tonsils (tonsillitis).
If you develop a secondary, bacterial infection, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to treat it.
Experts recommend avoiding amoxicillin and other penicillin derivatives because they may cause a rash, sometimes referred to as a "mononucleosis rash."
Mononucleosis Prevention
Since there isn't a mono vaccine, the best way to avoid catching the infection from someone who has it is by not kissing or sharing drinks, food, or personal items, like toothbrushes, with them.
- Mononucleosis; Mayo Clinic.
- Mononucleosis; Cleveland Clinic.
- About Infectious Mononucleosis; CDC.
- Epstein-Barr Virus/Mononucleosis: NIH.
Last Updated: 2/10/2015


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Arq Saves Your Data for a Rainy Day
Aug 13, 2013 5:00 AM PT
Arq: Online Backup for Mac to Amazon AWS Glacier and S3 by Haystack Software is available at the company's website for US$39.95 (free to try for 30 days).
There are lots of free places and free programs to back up data from your Mac so why would you want to pay $40 for software plus $0.095 a gigabyte monthly for storage?
The answer to that question may be a no-brainer for you if you only have a few gigs of data that need backing up. For people with larger demands, though, the answer may not be so obvious.
Many free storage services -- iCloud, Google, Dropbox, SkyDrive and such -- have limits to how much space in the nimbus they'll let you occupy before they start charging you for it.
Those limits are typically in the 4-to-10 gigabyte range, which may be fine for someone who wants to store a few years of photos or a few home videos. For someone who wants to do a true computer backup, though, which could have a hard drive of 350 GB or more of data on it, those limits just won't do.
In addition, when you're backing up that much data, you want to make sure it's going to be there when you need it. In other words, you want to sleep soundly knowing your cloud provider has your back.
Challenging Set Up
Arq aims to meet the needs of users with larger online backup demands.
Made by Haystack software, Arq works with Amazon Web Services to provide industrial strength storage at relatively reasonable prices.
Setting up Arq takes more effort than a typical cloud service. Most of the time, all you have to do is set up a user name and password. The extra effort with Arq is required because you not only have to activate program, but also need to set up an account with Amazon.
If you already have an account with Amazon's online marketplace, you can use that user name and password for Amazon Web Services, too. However, it's best to use a separate user name and password for your AWS account for security reasons.
In order to talk to AWS, Arq will require two ID keys that AWS will generate for you -- an access key ID and a secret access key. It also asks for an encryption password. That password is needed for Arq to encrypt the data it sends to AWS.
Needless to say, that password should be strong -- include a number, a non-alpha-numeric character and an uppercase letter -- and should be stored in a safe place. If you lose it, you'll experience some major hassles.
No Teeth Gnashing
Since only you know your encryption password, you don't have to worry about anyone at Arq or Amazon decrypting and peeking at your data.
In addition, the encryption is done by Arq on your computer. That means that when the data is in its most vulnerable state -- when its unencrypted form is being transformed to encrypted form -- it's not exposed on someone else's server.
Something that's always bugged us about some backup programs is that they store data in proprietary formats. That can make it difficult to view the backed-up data.
Arq doesn't do that. It stores backups in an open document format. Moreover, it has created a utility that's available at an open source website that lets you view your backups without using the company's software -- a good safeguard should Google decide to swallow the company or something.
Since Arq is a business breed program, it has some features found on higher-end backup systems. For instance, when it makes a backup, it only backs up changes made to your data -- a good strategy for keeping network traffic and disk usage down.
However, the software also maintains multiple versions of your files. That means if a file is corrupted or accidentally deleted, you'll be able to recover it without hair pulling or teeth gnashing.
Reliability Matters
Since Apple has gone to all the trouble of creating a backup program with Time Machine, you may well ask yourself, "Why do I need to use someone else's program?"
For one thing, Time Machine is only as good as the hard drive that it's connected to. Even the best hard drives fail eventually. What's more, with Arq, you can back up data when you're away from your Time Machine drive -- a plus for road warriors.
Arq is plugged into one of the most reliable storage providers on Earth. Its Simple Storage Service, or S3, offers almost 100 percent durability -- the system can lose two data centers without you losing your data -- and 99.99 percent availability.
Amazon Glacier -- Arq's other option -- is as durable as S3, but itis made for cobweb data. It can take from three to five hours to retrieve data from Glacier, and Amazon will charge you for retrieving large amounts of information from it.
That's why Glacier monthly storage costs a penny a gigabyte. S3 costs 9.5 cents per gig a month, although you get 5 GB for a year free after signing on.
Arq isn't for everyone, but it is for anyone who is serious about performing a full backup to the cloud and not just a few folders and files. Sure, free cloud storage is tempting, but you need to ask yourself what your data is worth. If a gig of it is worth less than a dime a month, then maybe Arq isn't for you.
Want to Suggest a Mac App for Review?
Is there a Mac app you'd like to suggest for review? Something you think other Mac users would love to know about? Something you find intriguing but are hesitant to buy?
Please send your ideas to me, and I'll consider them for a future Mac app review.
And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments!


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New Woodworker's Online Library Up and Running
This week we are proud to introduce the new Woodworker's Online Library We've gathered together over a decade's worth of Popular Woodworking Magazine issues, plus dozens of our best woodworking books, and put them all in one place online. For an annual subscription fee of just $150, you get unlimited access to over 170 titles, or more than $2000 worth of books. You'll find something helpful and interesting no matter what your level of skill.
The entire site inventory is both browsible and searchable. Each title comes complete with easy viewing tools, a clickable table of contents. A variety of bookmarking and note-taking tools allow you to leave and come back without losing your place. We also have a preview mode for every title, free of charge, so drop by the online library and give it a whirl!
Of course, please email us with your questions and comments!
this is not an Ebooks for Tablets site, it is an online Flash reading experience. an App will deliver the Ebooks to tablets but it isn't completed yet. PDFs are for sale in our store.


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They have one of the best prix fix lunches in town ($29! for 3 courses)
Bowers of orchids greet you in a gracious, airy space...
Lovely watercolor. Lovely lunch too. I want that chocolate goodie the Niece's fiance ordered. :-)ReplyDelete
I really like how you simplified the BW dishes--my grandmother gave me a tea set of BW dishes and a matching tablecloth,too. It's one of my prized possessions, because it reminds me of her...
love these wc's, Carol.
Oh, such bounty! Never would I have imagined that simple risi e bisi of my youth (rice and peas). one day would come sprinkled with gold!
The painting is exquisite, it sings of spring.
Just how attached to the fiance is your niece? I'm not sure he sounds like family material with that no-bit policy.....
painting of Kitchen Aid and new batch of macs coming right up. Bear's wish is my command!
HAHAHAHAHAHA Nikon!
The main was really BIG.
I cleaned my plate
Well several times over :)
Yr truly
The Plate Cleaner
that's pretty amazing for 29.00 for lunch.
Looked lovely.
Good ideas.
Now I am hungry...what a meal!! I loved the first picture! It's great! And what about that cat?? Cute!!! xxReplyDelete
Another delicious post, Carol.
Love it when you include your little studies (works of art unto themselves, for sure) showing how you and your brush think, leading up to the painted entree. Yummy.
Maybe someday I'll get to meet the fiance?
I have yet to get here as I know it is wonderful and the lunch is a great way to go. Glad to hear you are feeling better with your back. Just saw the Phillie Flower Show yesterday and it was wonderful. Springtime in Paris..you would be painting like crazy!!ReplyDelete
Mmmmmiam! $29 lunch special? Sign me up - looks wonderful! (good practice for Paris, n'est-ce pas??)ReplyDelete
Hi Carol - that is some lunch! Every dish looks so delicious, what a terrific deal!
Nice to connect with you again. Thank you for all the kind words on my blog photos.
I think of you often because I have your paintings hanging in two of my rooms, and enjoy them as much as ever!


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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wandy's arbitration case: A poll
Labels: Arbitration, Poll, Wandy Rodriguez
2 comments:
- Lane said...
I like the fact that Wandy has improved every season. I say give him his seven, hope he improves on an already good season from last year and sign him to a longer contract coming off an even better season... but that is just the optimist in me talking I guess.
- January 26, 2010 at 9:18 AM
- The Constable. said...
The idea that the Astros and Wandy couldn't bridge a $2m gap is odd to me. Hitting the midpoint is (obviously) a difference in $1m - not a small sum if you work in any other profession than baseball. Still, at $5m or $7m, if 2010 Wandy is as good as 2009 Wandy, either is a pretty good deal.
I'm fine with going to arbitration and seeing what happens in 2010.
- January 26, 2010 at 12:06 PM
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October 21, 2010
This is part of a series of articles summarizing presentations from the 1st International Workshop on HIV & Aging, which took place in Baltimore, Md., from Oct. 4 to Oct. 5, 2010. Jump to the table of contents to see the other articles in this series.
Alan Landay, Ph.D., from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Ill., reviewed data on what happens to the immune system as people age. Memory CD28 negative immune cells decrease, which hurts the immune system's ability to fight pathogens based on prior, archived experience that it had built up through our lives. However, Landay explained that the number of memory CD4 cells in the average 50-year-old person with HIV is similar to the number of such cells in 70-year-old HIV-negative people.
Landay also brought up an interesting term: "inflammaging." Immune activation occurs with aging and seems to be higher in people with HIV, even if their HIV viral load is suppressed. This activation creates inflammatory responses and decreases the ability for the immune system to fight pathogens, causing "aging" of the immune system, which is also called immune system "senescence." This immune activation also decreases the elasticity of arterial walls, which may increase a person's risk for cardiovascular disease.
Another approach being investigated is to decrease inflammatory cytokines by using TNF inhibitors like pentoxifylline. Another mechanism could be controlling the way toxic LPS proteins get into the bloodstream from the intestines, which as I mentioned earlier is a process that may be involved in immune insult and activation.
Yet another strategy may involve using antibiotics to balance the intestinal flora. A U.S. AIDS Clinical Trials Group study is evaluating rifaximin, an antibiotic (approved for the treatment of travelers' diarrhea) that does not absorb easily into the bloodstream. Other options might be products that modify the intestinal flora, such as prebiotics or probiotics.
Russell P. Tracy, Ph.D., reviewed how the presence of HIV infection increases inflammation. However, he noted that increased HIV viral load has not been correlated with increased inflammation. In the SMART study, inflammatory markers such as D-dimer increased in the absence of HIV medications. (Cardiovascular events were 49 times more likely to occur in people with higher-than-normal D-dimer. Other cytokines, such as IL- 6 and C-reactive protein, also increased cardiovascular risk, but to a lesser degree.)
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