Footsteps of Messiah, we talked a little bit about the different branches of government. Now we're going to dive right into it and really get into how this government is organized. And then when you're looking at this, there's a lot of information we're going to unpack, but you have to know it to understand the messianic kingdom because very few Christians understand the kingdom of God. So the first thing we're going to look at then is the establishment of the throne of the Messiah. And so here's the first thing I need to throw out there. Many Christians don't understand that Jesus is not on a particular throne. He is on one throne, a throne that's in heaven, but you have to be specific about what throne that is. So let's get that out of the way, because let's say you talk to your Christian buddy that goes to first whatever, and he says, well Jesus is on the throne now. Okay, what throne? What throne is he on? And that's important to understand, because the function of Jesus will be explained by the throne he's on. So what throne is he on right now, currently? He's on the Father's throne. And then he will share his throne with us when we're in heaven in the new jerusalem But that makes a very poignant statement to know that jesus is on the father's throne And the father's throne is not david's throne And that is a huge difference. David's throne is a political Jewish throne on planet Earth that has been established through David's line. And that was where the Davidic covenant comes from. So when you have people say, well, you know, the kingdom is already not yet. It's already started. And Jesus is ruling and reigning from David's throne. and it's like, whoa, time out, time out, time out. He is not ruling from David's throne because he would have to physically be on the political throne in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and he is not. And that is a major theological mistake to say that the kingdom has already started. It has not started because you have to have all the conditions met, which means the physical return of the Messiah on planet Earth. I know that maybe I'm preaching to the choir, and you already know that, but I'm telling you, the majority of Christians have no clue about this. They think they're in the kingdom, they think they're bringing in the kingdom, and all this nonsense. So then when you go and dive into the scriptures and you're in Psalm 2, then now it starts explaining things. So let's dive into Psalm 2. This is a very famous psalm, but it's a messianic psalm for the kingdom. Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of zion. I'll tell of the decree Yahweh said unto me You are my son This day I have begotten you Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance And the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession Okay, so obviously psalm 2 is referencing to a descendant of david. It is not david but it is definitely a descendant of David, and Yahweh is calling this descendant his son, and that he has begotten him at a point in time. And this really threw a lot of the rabbis into kind of a tailspin, I guess, because anytime in the Hebraic culture that you call someone your son, you're equating them to equality with you. So to send the son, to send your son, let's say in that culture, it was as good as you going. It was an equality. And this is why Jesus was constantly threatened with death, because he would call himself the son of God. And doing so made him equal with God, and they knew it. And how did we know that? Because they picked up stones to kill him. And he goes, why do you pick up stones? He goes, because you and your man claim to be God or equal with God. That obviously is the dilemma that the rabbi started seeing. But if you just take it on face value, obviously it's showing you that there's another power that's equal to Yahweh, and we find out that the Son is Yahweh, and that He's going to rule this particular throne from David, and the nations are the inheritance. It's not just the Jewish nation and the Israelites, it's beyond that. It is the entire world, and He mentions the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. And we get that, that Messiah will rule the entire planet and all the Goyim nations of the world. Okay, but what does this mean that this day I have begotten you? Now, your King James versions will say that the Messiah is begotten. And it doesn't mean begotten like having birth. It means the one and only unique son of God. But in this passage, it references a day. in which God has decreed that He will call the Son that He has been begotten, that He is a firstborn of something. And it refers to a day. And a lot of the Old Testament writers probably didn't really grasp the entire meaning of this. So, there is a day in the life of the Messiah where God the Father had declared Him to be begotten. And it was a very particular day. And where we get this, we find this in other passages, and you might want to write these down. Acts 13.33, Romans 1, 3-4, Colossians 1.18. Alright, I'll come back. Acts 13.33, Romans 1, 3-4, Colossians 1 18 and then you want to add Revelation 1 5 and Revelation 18 So let me repeat that Acts 13 33 Romans 1 3 through 4 Colossians 1 18 Revelation 1 5 Revelation 1 18 Now when you put all those together we can pinpoint the day when the Messiah was declared begotten. Because in those passages, He is declared the firstborn from the dead. So what day would that be? When did He become the firstborn from the dead? The resurrection. Okay, so that might have been a mystery in the Old Testament, but now with the New Testament writers, they expanded on this and they interpreted that, that when He is declared that this day I have begotten you, that is a direct reference to the resurrection. Okay, so we obviously know the Son is always the Son, but what does this mean in terms of sitting on David's throne and yet that the connection to the resurrection, how is that related to those two concepts to themselves? Him being the Messiah, obviously. Any ideas? When David is promised that he will have a descendant that will sit forever on his throne, there are two requirements for that. The first requirement is that the descendant must be from the line of David. He must be genealogically connected to David. He must be human. And from Judah and Davidic line. The second qualification though is that the individual must not only be human, but he must be able to sit eternally on this throne. Okay. So it obviously includes that the Messiah is God and man at the same time. And you would have to conclude that as even the rabbis looked at that, the Messiah must be God. And you see this in Isaiah nine, and other passages, but if he is to be human, a descendant of David, he must be alive. He can't be a dead human, right? But they killed Jesus. So do you see where the logic is going with this? The man must be resurrected from the dead if he's put to death. in order to sit on David's throne. Hence, this is the connection of the resurrection to Psalm 2 and the fact that that day he's declared, okay, now, once it's all done, the work of redemption is done, I have resurrected the Messiah back to life, he now, at this point, can sit on David's throne forever. He is a glorified human and also God at the same time. Hence this works why he must become, one of the conditions of why he must come back to life in the resurrection. Now everything is set for this to happen. Now if you continue to read other Psalms like Psalm 110, it will talk about Messiah resting while the Father makes his enemies a footstool for him. So we're in that period of time where the father is bringing things to fruition and then eventually culminating in tribulation to where all the enemies of Messiah will be put under his under his feet and Destroyed and ultimately the Messiah will do it himself. He'll finish the deal at the end of the day but until then He will not take David's throne until all of these enemies are put to rest and then the nations will be for his inheritance and all the earth will be his possession. And so Psalm 2 brings in all of this, these aspects of the Messiah of why he's guaranteed the throne of David. Okay, now let's move on to Isaiah 9. And in Isaiah 9, you have more information that's given, obviously about the Messiah, but obviously about the throne. For unto us a child is born, and this is a Christmas card, you know, usually, unto a son is given. Obviously, there's a direct reference to the hypostatic union of the Messiah, that he's both God and man, because a child is born, human, but a son is given, that's the deity. Okay, so a son is given to mankind, the child is born. And the government, which is the messianic kingdom, shall be upon his shoulder, so he's the ruler. And his name shall be Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, obviously he's more than a human being, he's called the Mighty God. Everlasting Father, don't get that phrase confused with the father of the Trinity, it means that he's the father of time. He holds time in his hand, is the idea. Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and of the peace, there should be no end. And upon the throne of David, notice that reference to David. upon his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it and justice and with righteousness from henceforth forever the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will perform this and so again another reference to the throne of David but how this happens is the last phrase that it is God's enthusiasm it's God's pursuit that this will happen okay Makes perfect sense. But yet, what do you do with Christians who say there is no kingdom? Or that we're in the kingdom now? Or that we're going to Christianize the world and then Jesus will come back? Why are they having that kind of mindset? That they can personally usher in the kingdom? Why would anyone think that? When right there it says, it's Yahweh who does this, not human beings. What do you think's happening with Christendom? Where do you think this mindset's coming from? Satan, yes, true. So why would Satan inspire human beings to build or think they're in the kingdom or to build a counterfeit kingdom? Right, that's a problem, okay? So you either have to allegorize that or spiritualize it or actually think you're in it now or think you're gonna build it. Okay, so if I really think I'm in the kingdom or I'm gonna build it, what do I do? What is my responsibility as a Christian if I really think I'm gonna usher in the kingdom or I'm in the kingdom currently? What would I pursue to do this? It's a good question. I wanna know how they answer that. What do you think they do? Yeah. Sure. Okay, so let's play that out. If I believe that I'm in the kingdom now or I'm going to usher in the kingdom, you're getting very dangerous theologically into replacement theology, okay? And what I mean by that is, then do you think you're the new Jew? Because the kingdom is very Jewish, and you're not going to get away from that. And you're not going to get away from God reestablishing the kingdom through the Jewish nation in the kingdom. So it's a position of arrogance, first of all, because you start now thinking, well, I'm the new Jew. Every cult on the planet thinks they're the new Jew. from Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses, Roman Catholicism, you name it, you get replacement theology. Okay, so then if I believe I'm the new Jew, number one, I take a position of arrogance against the nation of Israel itself today, it lends itself into anti-Semitism, and then What it lends itself and what we're seeing right in front of our very eyes is churches practicing social justice movements and every one of them that does that is trying to usher in the kingdom. that they're going to repair racial reconciliation and reparations and redistribute money and make the economy where everyone benefits and we're just going to have peace. And you want to say, you think you're going to do the job of the Messiah? That's Messiah's job, not your job. And so what it does, unlike what happened with David was saying with them going to evangelize, which was a good thing, the churches who practice social justice have ceased giving the gospel out now. They now broaden the Great Commission to include social works. which is not part of the Great Commission. In fact, they go so far in including the dominion mandate into the Great Commission, which you cannot do. The dominion mandate from Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and Genesis 9 all have to do with nations and people groups and stuff. It's not the church's job. And so now you have a confusion in the church where the pastor will get up there and say, hey, look, this is what we're going to do. We're going to have a three-day conference on white privilege. What? Yeah, serious, man. I mean, David Platt, Matt Chandler, having conferences on racial reconciliation. What are you talking about? And then blaming pastors for the racial divide in our country. What? Where is this coming from? It comes from the idea that I think I'm in the kingdom or I'm going to usher in the kingdom, whether it's all-millennial, post-millennial, whatever spiritualized in the kingdom, and it turns the church into a social justice factory. And all of a sudden, they're not sharing the gospel anymore. They're about whatever service project they can come up with, which in and of itself, those are not bad, but they've stopped giving the gospel. And so this whole idea of the kingdom really will decide where you're at on many things in understanding the Great Commission. If you get the Great Commission messed up, you're in deep water. The majority, and I can't remember the stat, the majority of Christians cannot tell you what the Great Commission is. That's how ignorant they are. Our kids in our Sunday school class can tell you what the Great Commission is, but the average Christian out in this poll, hey, tell me what the Great Commission is. Uh, I don't know. How do you not know? So anyway, that's why it's important to get this. Okay. So we understand that. Let's move on then to the next page. And this is a statement in Isaiah 16, 5. And it says, And a throne shall be established in Chesed, or lovingkindness. This is the Chesed of God, right? And one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of what? David. Judging and seeking justice and swift to do righteous again always a Jewish background the tent of David then not this Gentile God that you know that People have conceived in their minds. It's a everything is very Jewish here Jump down to Jeremiah 23 5 through 6 Behold the days come says Yahweh that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and We'll talk about that, okay? That's an important phrase. And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. What land? First of all, Israel, and then beyond that. Notice that it's dealing with the earth. The Haaretz is the reference to the land. It's a direct reference to Israel. These people who do not believe in a kingdom always reference these passages, oh, that's heaven. He's ruling in heaven, in heaven. No, it's the Haaretz, the land. In his days, Judah shall be saved. Israel shall dwell safely so the split that happened between Judah and the ten tribes Will be bonded back together and they'll dwell safely in the Millennial Kingdom. And this is his name whereby he shall be called Yahweh our righteousness and so again another reference to his name References that the Messiah is the God man, but then let's talk about a righteous branch that he's usually called, he's usually called the branch. The idea is this, that obviously David comes from Jesse. It's called the stump of Jesse because what had happened is so many of David's kids were disqualified many times There's a few that still were made it even through Solomon like Nathan but some of the lines of David were disqualified and basically the idea is that the Davidic line would get down to like a stump there wouldn't be any growth there and But then out of the stump would come this shoot, this branch that would pop out of it. And that branch that pops out of the stump of Jesse would obviously be the one who will be king. Now, interesting enough, if you go to the next page, more is expanded on this about the stump. This is in Jeremiah 33. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will perform a good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. In those days, at that time, I will cause a branch of righteousness to grow up unto David. and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby he shall be called Yahweh Righteous. For thus says Yahweh, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel." And so the idea is even though Jesse Stump got to the point of It was just a stump and nothing was growing out of it. The promise is that David is never going to lack a descendant who sits on the throne. And so there are times in the Old Testament when you'll look and there's basically one descendant alive. and Satan will go to try to destroy that one descendant and God will make sure they survive and get through this and then even to the point to where there was no one sitting on the throne in Joseph and Mary's time and the house of David was basically a stump there was no one to sit on the throne and it was extremely poor did come to nothing and you can tell how poor David's line had actually become because when they go to do a sacrifice for Jesus for him being born they have to sacrifice turtle doves which meant that that was the poorest offering you could make for your firstborn, is to get turtle doves. And what the writer is indicating, I think it was Matthew, is indicating is that is how poor David's line has become. It is almost destitute, extremely poor. But the promise is, I will not allow it to go extinct, and he didn't. So then you move on, And it says in Zechariah 14, and Yahweh shall be king over all the earth, and in a day shall Yahweh be one, and His name one. He will be the head of the world, and all humanity will be subservient to Him. Now, even if you go jump into the New Testament, Luke mentions this as well in Messiah's birth. And the angel said to her, fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you shall conceive in your womb. and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus, or Yeshua. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom there shall be no end." So even you see in the birth records that he's supposed to have that throne. Okay, that being stated, there's a problem though. And if you look in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, have you noticed that there's two genealogies and two lines that are coming from one? There's a line in Matthew and then Luke's very different in that line. And what people can't figure out is why is Luke doing that and Matthew doing that? Well, if you watch what Luke's doing, He traces the line through Mary's line. And he traces it all the way back to Adam, obviously showing that Messiah is a human being, which is important. And we'll have to discuss why that's important. But second, it's coming from Mary, which Mary's ancestry comes from David and Nathan. If you go over to Matthew's genealogy, he throws in there that he's descending from Joseph but then he stops and he says he shows the people in Matthew's gospel that Joseph's line is from the line of Jeconiah and you and I read that and some commentators will say well it's to show that he's physically from the line of David and then he's positionally or federally from Joseph's line and he has the right to rule and that's not what Matthew's doing at all Matthew is trying to disconnect Joseph from Jesus. And why? Joseph's line cannot be king. So this is what Matthew's trying to prove. Matthew anticipates, because he's writing to Jews, that the Jews right off the bat would say, whoa, wait a second, you're saying Joseph, he's from Joseph? Or he's from that line? He can't be from that line, because that line is cursed. That line cannot rule Israel. So what's Matthew's answer to that? He shows the genealogy, but then goes into what? He's expecting the Jews to say he can't be from that line. So why show the line? That would be something you would seemingly want to bury, right? Because according to Joseph's line, he couldn't rule. So why does Matthew show it? He's telling the Jews, I anticipate your reaction. I'm fully aware what you're about to say. You're right. Joseph is not his biological father. Okay, but then he's illegitimate then. If he doesn't have a father, then what's the issue here? Well, what is Matthew's answer to that? Because if he's definitely illegitimate, he can't rule. So if you're telling me Matthew doesn't have a biological father, and his biological father's not Joseph, is that what we hear you say? Matthew's saying, that's exactly what I'm saying. And so you can't use your argument that he's cursed. Well then, Matthew, then who is his dad? And what's Matthew's answer? Yeah, he quotes Isaiah, right? And so that's Matthew's point. You're right, he doesn't have a human father, he's virgin born, boom. Matthew is in an argumentation with the Jews and if you watch what he's doing He is laying out an argument which he totally expects the Jews to throw at him He's saying no Joseph can't rule. He's his line is cursed. Jecon. I his line is cursed. He goes you're right Well, then Matthew tell us who his dad is. He doesn't have an earthly father. He is virgin-born. Don't you remember what Isaiah said? bingo, oh You're saying that the passage in Isaiah 7, and what you're saying is that he would be virgin born of the Holy Spirit? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Hence, he has the right to rule because his biological line, his line to David is traced through his mom. And hence he has the legal right to rule through his mother. Issue solved. And to you and I as Gentiles, we're like, what's the big deal? I don't get that. To Jews, it is a major problem. You and I look at those genealogies and we don't think anything of it. But man, when a Jewish man or woman converts, it is the genealogies that wake them up. Isn't that weird? They look at those genealogies and say, whoa, wait a second. I see what you're doing here, you're tracing the Jewish line of the Messiah. We thought he was a Gentile, this Jesus who you worship. And when they see it, they go crazy. Any other questions on that so far? So that's where the turn comes in understanding his legal right to rule from a Jewish standpoint. Anything else? Okay. Let's do a couple more minutes of the character of his reign. And this is one that's pretty hard to grasp. This is in Revelation 12 5. And she was delivered of a son and man child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up into God and into his throne. So the first instance that we see here is in Revelation 12, is this reference to a rod of iron. And then you've moved down to Revelation 19, at the second coming, out of his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that which you should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. Okay, this idea of rod of iron, as a shepherd would have a rod and a staff, The rod was used to beat away enemies in a shepherd's life, whether it's a lion or a bear or whatever animal that was attacking the sheep, you use the rod to beat away enemies. And so figuratively it's being used in reference to Messiah that he will beat down sin in the messianic kingdom. In fact, it's not permitted. It's not allowed. There's no outward manifestations of it. If it does pop up, he immediately puts it down. So, in one sense, this is an absolute reign. There is no freedom to do anything you want in the Millennial Kingdom. You do not have the freedom to do drugs. You do not have the freedom to go crazy. You do not have the freedom to check out of reality. You do not have the freedom to rob banks. You do not have the freedom to steal, rob, kill, murder, anything. It is not allowed. Because if you attempt to do it, you're immediately put down. Now that's an environment that is very difficult for us to understand, but it is the only way that Messiah can rule if you have sin natures still embedded in people, you must have then an absolute monarchy. Will there be a restraint of some will? Absolutely, because that's what you have to have in an absolute monarchy. For me right now, if you and I want to mess around, goof off, get into seasons of sin, get messed up, you have the freedom to do that. But our judgment comes at the end of this age. at the Bema seat, and we have to give an account at that point in time for the goof-offs, the mess-ups, this and that. Yes, we ask for forgiveness, but it affects our reward systems, as you know. In the Messianic kingdom, with a rod of iron, judgment happens immediately. I mean, on the spot. You don't need to wait for the cops to show up. Okay? There is nothing like that. If someone's messing up in a corner or pocket of the world, it's instantly taken care of by the Messiah by His power. And so there's no need of a police force. There's no need of prisons or any of that because it's immediately put down. And that is really sometimes hard for people to grasp. But how else are you going to rule and have a perfect environment without humans screwing up the environment. There's no other way. If you can figure out another way, then you can conjecture that, but you obviously see humans that go into the kingdom from the tribulation, Jew and Gentile, will have babies, okay? It doesn't mean they're not saved. You know, these Jews and Gentiles that make it into the kingdom are saved, but they're not glorified like us, so they have us in nature. And hence, if they have babies, that sin nature's passed on, and that sin nature's passed on as they multiply and multiply and multiply, and you have individuals that still have a sin nature and have free will. It's just outwardly, they won't be able to do anything about it, because they're put down. Now, the other caveat, and we'll see this later on, if you don't make a decision for Christ within the first 100 years of your life, you die at age 100. you're immediately put down according to Isaiah 65. So you can mess around for a hundred years and stay within your enclave that you're in. There will be no outward manifestations, but if you don't make a decision to accept Messiah as your savior, you die, which is actually more time than you have now. The average person dies at age 76 today. So you're given a few more years to the age of a hundred, and then you end up dead if you don't make that decision. Again, if you have this rod of iron, You tell me, then where is the liability with humans? You have no outward manifestations of sin, then where would the manifestations of sin happen then? In the heart. That is where the center of the rebellion would be in humans who did not want to accept Messiah. Now, they die. But then that makes sense of, okay, what happens then at the end of the millennium when there's a massive rebellion against Jesus on the throne? Well, it's obviously the last generation and he allows it to happen. He allows it to happen. He allows Satan to come out and tempt them. And so here's the question, why would he allow that? Why would he allow a rebellion at the very end of the age? of humans just to try to come and wipe him out. Wipe out the Jews, wipe out Jerusalem, wipe him out in the whole process. Why? Why would he allow that to happen? Yeah, it's to prove that, look, I can outwardly constrain humans anytime I want as God. I can prevent them from doing their free will and activity and corrupting this world, but at the end of the day, the human heart's desperately wicked I'm showing you if I lift my constraints. This is what they do. Oh Man, I don't even know if that's even you know You have a fourth of humanity being wiped out and then in towards the end you have a third so there's not much left a billion people maybe Maybe a billion, maybe close to two billion, based on the calculations, if you use the, you know, what is it, seven billion people on the earth? So you got a fourth and a third, and then who knows all the other collateral damage. So maybe you're left with two billion, maybe, maybe one and a half. It's not a lot compared to who gets wiped out, man. There's a lot of people get wiped out. this is what people struggle with when you start reading into the kingdom it's a very different time period okay well i think a lot of us can understand it from one aspect if you go into israel's theocracy when god was at the tabernacle right you remember instances where people just died doing stupid stuff right and you remember was it usa that tried to keep the ark from falling. You remember that, David's taking the ark into Jerusalem from Shiloh, and one of the priest guys, which they're told, don't touch this. He sees it getting ready to tip. And what does he do? Boop, and boom, you're dead. And then you have the priest that did unholy fire on the altar of incense, and boom, they're dead. Abinadab and Abihu, remember those guys? They got smoked. And you have situations. Miriam, you remember Miriam? She starts talking bad against her brother Moses. Boop plague. And it's just like, oh wow. So what you see is that anybody that messed off in a theocracy were immediately put down. So Miriam, you gonna talk bad against your leader? Boom, you got the plague. I guarantee she never said another word against Moses ever as long as she lived after she had leprosy. By the way, the warnings that Miriam got about leprosy, this put the Jews in a position of tilting the pendulum. I'm not just simply submitting to authority, but blindly following authority. They were so afraid after that situation, and it cost them, because then the nation of Israel was blindly following the Pharisees and rabbis who were misleading them. They never questioned them. And even to this day, the Jews almost religiously, cultically follow what the rabbis say to a fault. They won't question the rabbi. And it always goes back to this situation where when they saw Israelites but the system, what happened to them? They're deathly afraid of that. And you can see why. Do you know that since Miriam, there had been never a Jew that was cured of leprosy until Messiah came? All that period of time. There's no record of it. It's only Gentiles that got cured of leprosy. It was one of the Gentile kings. It freaked them out. And I think it would freak you and I out when you saw people like, oh, he just dropped dead. Oh, that's no good. Well, what happened to him? Well, he put the wrong incense on there. Oh, I'm not going to do that. I mean, you can see the fear that would strike in someone's heart like, hey, that's what we're talking about, man. And then, hey, you know, then you're with Joshua and you're on the fields there and you say, well, that's going to take a little bit. No one will know. And so you and your wife gather whatever you can and hide it in your tent. And God goes, wait a second, Joshua, time out. There's somebody that has something in here. I told you guys not to take something. And you obviously know the sin of Achan, right? That's a foreign world that most Christians would have a hard time understanding. A very frightening situation to be with the living God and Him, you mess around, you're getting taken out. Yeah, that's the new heaven and the new earth because the millennium is the final purging of evil and sin. It's the final, so it's not the tribulation. I know, wow, there's a lot of, the tribulation only prepares earth for the reception of the Messiah, but it's the millennial kingdom that finally purges all evil out from existence and then obviously into the lake of fire. So yeah, that eternal heaven and earth that's gonna be created in the future, is without any scars, is without any sin, any evil, and it's a perfect environment. Even the millennial reign of Christ, there are scars on the planet that remind the people of the problems that humans have. And I think I mentioned this on Sunday about the two areas, one is Babylon and one is Edom that perpetually burn of fire and sulfur. and brimstone throughout the whole thousand years. Revelation 18 talks about this. And so you have this paradise restored, but then in these two locations on the planet are a reminder of fire and brimstone perpetually burning. As a reminder, these are where the demons are. This is where things happen. This is where Babylon was. This is where Edom was, where they tried to wipe out the Jews. And demons are assigned there as a perpetual reminder that this planet is still scarred with sin. And eventually, all of it's just removed and a new heaven and new earth are created.