Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. After that, he must be released for a brief period of time. Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. – Revelation 20:1-6 BSB
Warrior;
Hallelujah! The Millenium chapter in the Bible. The only thing that causes more uproar in Christian circles than the Word Rapture is the word, MILLENIUM. My purpose is NOT to convince you to believe differently about the Millenium, nor you giving me your rebuttal and working to change my opinion. It is about the WORD OF GOD. However, to get us on the same page, let’s have some basic understanding of the subject. When it comes to the MILLENNIAL RULE of Jesus Christ, there are 3 basic positions of belief. Premillennialists believe that the second coming of Jesus will initiate a 1000-year reign of Jesus on this earth, in physical form, in a physical Jerusalem, for a literal 1000 years. and of course He will return before the 1000 years, so it is PRE. They are literalists in the understanding of Revelation chapter 20. Believers in the Rapture of the church (that the beginning of the millennium will be marked by a “rapture” of faithful Christians) is generally associated with premillennialism. Postmillennialists believe that there will be a 1000-year golden era, but it IS THE END of the Time of the Gentiles. In summary, Christianity makes the world so good, we set the table for Jesus to step back onto the planet and lead us. They believe in a world where Christianity will reign supreme, before Jesus comes back to usher in the final kingdom: heaven. One group believes this 20th Chapter of Revelation is FIGURATIVE, where PREs believe it is LITERAL.
Leader, In my opinion, the Amillennial viewpoint is the majority view within the Church today. Amillennialists believe there is NO LITERAL MILLENNIUM. They posit that the 1000 years of Revelation chapter 20 IS NOT a literal 1000-year period of time. They see the events of Revelation 20 to be symbolic of what has already happened or is happening now. Satan is somehow “bound” during this last Christian age before Jesus comes back. They do not agree that Jesus will reign over a revived physical Kingdom of God, and they do not agree that the world will become “Christian” before the return of Jesus to bring in the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21). With this Basic understanding of the 3 perspectives, as a premillennialist and pre-Tribulation believer in the Rapture, there are a few points I would like us to consider and seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit, because He is the illuminator of scripture. Hear the Word of the Lord; For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (1 Corinthians 2:11, John 14:26) Many people falsely believe that the only place where the Millenium is mentioned is in Revelation 20, they are WRONG. There is an Old Testament prophecy contained in Zechariah 14:1-9 that polemically challenges that falsehood. This prophecy states that a day will come when Jerusalem will be surrounded by enemy forces. Half the city will fall, and then the Lord will return to the Mount of Olives. When His feet touch the mountain, it will split in half, and the Jewish remnant will flee from the city and hide in the cleavage of the mountain. The Lord will then speak a supernatural word, and all the enemy forces will be instantly destroyed. And at that point, “…the Lord will be king over all the earth” (verse 9).
Conduit, in the model prayer that Jesus gave His disciples (Matthew 6:9-13), we PRAY: Thy kingdom come. On earth as it is in heaven”. In the words of J Vernon McGee, “This is the kingdom Jesus was talking about, this is the Kingdom predicted in the Psalms and in the prophets. All of the prophets spoke of this kingdom. Not one of them missed it. The minor prophets as well as the major prophets. There is a manifold of scriptures that we could bring forth to validate the previous statements. Actually, the theocratic kingdom was the great theme of all of the prophets in the Old Testament. This is the kingdom, the theocratic kingdom that’s coming here upon this earth.” Most people don’t STUDY the Old Testament, they have some belief system that tells them it is not relevant, important, or applicable since the first advent of Christ. Dr. David R. Reagan says, “This spiritual malady of ignoring the Old Testament is epidemic in the Church today, and it is a serious problem because there is no way to understand the New Testament without knowledge of the Old Testament.” The book of Revelation contains more than 300 quotes or references to Old Testament passages, and not a single one is identified. A person without knowledge of the Old Testament could read the book of Revelation and never realize how interlaced it is with Old Testament prophecy. It looks like Ezekiel was also a Premillennialist. Ezekiel 43:7 where Jesus, in a pre-incarnate appearance, takes Ezekiel on a visionary tour of the Millennial Temple, and in the midst of that tour, He says, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever…”Also consider that the prophet Ezekiel states that when the Lord returns, the name of the city of Jerusalem will be changed to “Yahweh-Shammah,” meaning “The Lord is there.” It looks like Isaiah was a Premillennialist too. Consider this; The book of Revelation is about the Tribulation; however, the book of Isaiah reveals details of the Millennium. One of the blessings of believing in Premillennialism is that you get to see a greater extent of God’s Mercy, Grace and Longsuffering. For at the end of the Millenium Satan will be released one last time…and people will have another chance to CHOOSE YAHWEH over the world’s way. The millennium, you see, is the time of the testing of man under ideal conditions. And as this passage illustrates, now as soon as Satan is released, a great company has been under the personal reign of Christ under ideal circumstances. You might ask yourself, ‘Where did such a company come?’ The answer lies in Prophecy, in the OLD Testament, in fact not only do multitudes enter the millennium, but multitudes are born during the millennium, see Isaiah 6, 11, 20, 65. Do Not let your human mind limit our ETERNAL GOD! That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
