© F. O’Donoghue 2006
How one views the events surrounding the second coming of Jesus Christ in glory is determined largely by how one interprets the term ‘millennium’ (the thousand years) in Revelation 20:1-7. We are to be living in expectation of Christ’s return, and we need to be clear about every aspect pertaining to the second advent.
Rev 20:1-7 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison…
There are three prevailing interpretations: Postmillennial: The optimistic view which holds that Christ shall return after the millennium (a long period of time, not necessarily an exact thousand years), and find the world thoroughly Christianized with only a few vestiges of sin remaining. It will be a golden age of righteousness and peace, where the majority of mankind shall be saved, and war shall have disappeared from the face of the earth. Such an interpretation is inconsistant with many portions of the Holy Scriptures, and therefore must be rejected. Premillennialism: Historic premillennialism is the view of the last things which holds that the second coming of Christ will be followed by a period of peace (an exact one thousand years) during which time Christ will reign on this earth in an earthly kingdom; then shall come the end.
A more radical form of this view is called dispensationalism. The dispensationalist divides the history of mankind into seven distinct periods or dispensations, and teaches that God deals with the human race during each period according to a different principle: innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, kingdom. Also, this view insists that the Church will be removed from the earth by rapture before the great tribulation (see Matt. 24:29). This latter view, espoused by John N. Darby in England about 1830, and disseminated widely in this country by the Scofield Reference Bible, is really the unique phenomenon called American Premillennialism. It is not taught in the Bible, but it is propounded in the Scofield Reference Bible. Do not confuse the two. The Bible is the infallible Word of God; the Scofield Reference Bible is a deceiving commentary that contains “explanatory notes” on the same page with the text of Scripture. Premillennialism has never been incorporated into any of the creeds, but is the private interpretation of individuals from many denominations. It has never been maintained by outstanding theologians, and it is not taught in seminaries where scholarship and exegesis are prominent. However, it is propounded by various Pentecostal and Holiness groups, and Bible institutes.
The main tenets of Dispensationalism are: 1. The Jews are God’s originally intended people, they are His Kingdom people. To them God spoke the entire Old Testament and to them He promised the Messiah. 2. When Christ came, He was not recognized nor believed on by the majority of the Jews. This contingency was not foreseen by the prophets, nor was it in the original plan of God. However, since Israel, the twelve tribes, rejected the Christ, as an expedient He resorts to the Gentiles, which people constitute the Church in distinction from the Kingdom. Thus the Church is a parenthesis in history. It began at the cross and shall end at the beginning of the millennium. Also, this implies that Scripture has been written for two distinct recipients; Part is for the Jews: the entire Old Testament, most of the gospels and especially the Sermon on the Mount, and parts of Revelation. Part is for the Church: The epistles plus other parts of the book of Revelation. 3. At any moment, without signs or announcement, there shall be a Rapture. See I Thess. 4:13-17, Matt. 24:40-41, and Matt. 25:13 (by the rapture is meant the sudden and secret coming of Christ to take to Himself in the air the bodies of the resurrected and living saints. The wicked dead remain in the grave. This is Christ’s coming for His saints and is scripturally known as the first resurrection). 4. Next is a seven year period called the Tribulation (the seventh week of Dan. 9:24-27). During this time all the events of Rev. 4:9 and Matt. 24 take place. The Church, however, is not under tribulation but is with her Lord in the air. 5. Then Christ comes with His saints to this earth once again in the Revelation. At this time there is a second resurrection of those saints who died during the tribulation. The second coming of Christ ushers in the Millennium. 6. With the advent of the Millennium, prophetic time resumes, for God returns to His favored people, the Jews. Christ comes to this earth and reigns in an earthly kingdom of peace and prosperity, a kingdom which has its center in Jerusalem. The Jews are restored to Palestine, and at the sight of Messiah are turned to Him in a great national conversion. At the beginning of this period Satan is bound, and Christ destroys the Antichrist in the battle of Armageddon. The curse is removed from nature: deserts bloom and wild animals are tame. Great numbers of Gentiles are also converted and incorporated into this Kingdom. 7. At the end of the Millennium Satan is loosed for a short time. 8. Then is the third resurrection, that of the wicked at the end of the world. They are judged with the Devil and his angels, found wanting and assigned forever to feel the sting of hell. 9. Finally, the eternal state with all the fullness of heaven and emptiness of hell is ushered in. Some say all the redeemed mingle in a new heaven and a new earth. Others keep the Kingdom and the Church separate forever, the one in earthly Palestine, the other in heaven.
A brief catalog of the important premillennial points is as follows: seven dispensations, eight covenants, two second comings, three or four resurrections, and at least four judgments. It is difficult to conceive this as the teaching of the Bible, which was written in simple language.
To the refreshing, uncomplicated, clear Word of God we now turn for light on these matters. Underpinning all Premillennial thought is the separation made between Old dispensation Israel and the New dispensation Church. The question is, are national Israel God’s Kingdom people and are the Gentiles His Church? Or is Israel a spiritual concept, so that Israel is the Church and the Church is Israel? This bears some study. If the basic unity of the covenant of grace can be established; if Abraham , for example, and the New Testament Gentiles are one in the eyes of God, and He deals with His people in every age according to the same principle of faith, then Premillennialism falls. With that man of faith Abraham, to whom all Jews proudly traced their ancestry, God established His everlasting covenant of grace. Gen.17:7. That covenant was established also with Abraham’s progeny. Gen. 22:17. The Lord makes clear that in His seed (Christ) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen. 22:18) In the book of Galatians, Paul (the apostle to the Gentiles) takes up the example of Abraham as he rebukes the foolish Galatians for their attempted work of righteousness. In making clear that God accounts faith in Christ for righteousness, the apostle speaks these amazing words: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Gal. 3:7. Later he writes “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” He concludes this chapter with the words: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Can anyone miss the unity of God’s work of redemption? Abraham’s seed, true spiritual Israel, is composed of all those who have been given faith in His dear Son. In close connection with the above is the fact that Paul also stresses the unity of the Church of all ages in such passages as Rom. 9:6-9, Eph. 2:19-22, Eph. 4:4-6, and Col. 1:16-20. Jesus Himself as the Good Shepherd was intensely conscious of the unity of those given Him of God to redeem; He said to the Jews on Solomon’s porch: “And other sheep have I which are not of this fold; them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” John 10:16. Another passage of scripture used by Premillennialists is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17;
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
This passage simply does not prove a sudden, silent “rapture”, and a separate resurrection of the righteous and wicked. Rather it teaches: a visible, noticeable (shout, voice, trump) return of Christ. The resurrection of the bodies of dead saints is followed immediately by the translation of those saints who are alive at Christ’s coming, without saying anything about the wicked. The saints shall remain forever with their Lord, which suggests that they remain with Christ in heavenly glory (not that they return to this mundane earth again in their glorified, spiritual, incorruptible bodies). Furthermore, Christ Himself makes clear there is but one resurrection in John 5; John 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice 29 and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation The Scriptures reveal one second coming of Christ, one resurrection at His coming, and one judgment. A sound hermeneutic rule when dealing with difficult passages of the Word (which Rev 20 certainly is), is to seek explanation in the light of simpler texts. One can easily observe however, that with this view a preconceived theory is brought to Scripture. Subsequently, difficult passages are appealed to as proof, and then the attempt is made to bring many simpler passages into line with the theory. The result is a forced interpretation of the Word, and thus of the redemptive work of God! But God is one. His Word is one (presented in two testaments, prophecy and fulfillment). Positively, we live near the end of what Rev. 20 calls the “thousand years”. This millennium began at Pentecost and will end when time and history finally come to an end. Christ shall return personally and visibly. He shall call forth the dead from the grave, He shall judge all men according to their works, and will bring His sheep into one fold; the heavenly house of many mansions.
