Can someone explain?
 

I know that because the 3 elven rings have not been idle since the fall of sauron, so if sauron regained the one the bearers minds and works would be laid bear to him even if they hid him, but how would he then be able to rule middle earth, surley men and the other elves would have resisted?

It basically comes down to the fact that Sauron was far more powerful than all the Elves and Men.

Wouldnt there have been a small uprising of the more powerful elves? i mean, they did the last time...

There remained very few elves in Middle-Earth east of the sea at the end of the Third Age.
And Sauron had a much bigger army than all the captains of the west together, so if he had gained the wrong ring, he could have easily ruled the lesser rings and triumph over the world rather quickly, I think. Resistance wouldn't have lasted long.

The forces of the west would have been powerless to defeat Sauron if he regained the one ring. Remember he pretty much defeated them without the ring and if he had regained it he would've been much more powerful. At the battle in front of the black gate, the army led by Aragorn was almost all killed by a much more numerous force, only the destroying of the one ring made his forces flee which gave the Aragorn and co. the upper hand. If he regained the one ring, Sauron would quickly have defeated Gondor the moved on to Rohan and any other pockets of resistance until he had conquered all of middle earth. The elves would've abandoned middle earth and gone west so they wouldn't give much resistance.

[ April 07, 2003: Message edited by: Voralphion ]

It wasn't only the sheer force- don't forget the Ring itself. It would give both Sauron and all the Nazgul an extreme power of fear. It would probably be something like the scene in the beginning of FotR when Sauron is just flinging everyone aside with his mace, just much, much, worse. I think. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]