The return of the Lord includes the resurrection of the bodies of His saints and a carrying up into the clouds of the royal priesthood to meet the Commander in Chief in the air.

Isaiah 60:2 is portraying the rising of God's Glory on His Church in an hour of darkness, and the multitudes of the earth coming to the saints so they may partake of the Presence and blessing of God.

Micah prophesies of the nature of Kingdom Age ministry. It is quite different from the current Gospel ministry of building churches to house the Christian religion. The Gospel preached throughout the centuries, let us remember, is the Gospel of the Kingdom.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. (Micah 5:8)

The Kingdom Age witness will begin before the Lord returns. It will attain great power and revelation. It will be overcome for a brief season by Antichrist under the precise control of the Lord Jesus. Then it will be resurrected to greet the visible coming of Christ from Heaven, and through His Glory will usher in the Kingdom Age, the day of image and union—the thousand-year reign of Christ and His saints known as the "Millennium."

When Revelation, Chapter 11, speaks of the Beast overcoming and killing the two witnesses it does not mean that Christ is killed or that the saints are separated from Christ. Christ cannot be overcome, and the members of His Body, when they are abiding in Him, cannot be separated from Him.

No power in Heaven or on the earth can accomplish that!

Rather, what is being portrayed in symbolic form in Revelation, Chapter 11, is the overcoming of the testimony for a season, according to the will of God. What is hindering the full revelation of Antichrist, as Paul teaches us in the second chapter of Second Thessalonians, will be removed from his path.

God will permit Antichrist to force the saints from the cities of the earth into hiding in wilderness areas until the coming of the Lord.

When sin has attained maturity in the world the Spirit of life from God will enter the persecuted saints. At that time their glory will be revealed. God will "roar" through them in fulfillment of the prophecies of Joel and Isaiah.

The enemies of Christ will be terrified because of the power of the Lord revealed in the raising and transforming of the saints.

And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. (Revelation 11:11)

The saints will be caught up in a cloud to meet the Lord in the air while their enemies watch them in helplessness. They will be gathered together with their Commander in Chief in preparation for their irresistible descent in the attack of Armageddon.

To be continued.