Will Jesus return to reign one thousand years on earth?
I can hardly think of a famous televangelist today who does not teach that there is coming a rapture of the church and a period of tribulation. Then upon the earth, a great battle involving Christ and then a literal period of a thousand years when Christ will bodily live here on the earth and reign over all of the nations. You may have read books to picture what it will supposedly be like when the church has been taken out of the world and the unsaved are quote “left behind.” Or you have heard the well known preachers on television and radio warn that the political events of our day are part of a countdown in the Middle East to the ultimate appearing of Jesus and the commencement of his kingdom reign on earth.
You don’t have to look very far at all to find that doctrine espoused. There are many views of eschatology today, but what I just described is by far the most widely accepted and popular theory in what is often coined “evangelical Christianity.” But it hasn’t always been so. John Nelson
Now, today, it’s hard to think of a popular and well known preacher who doesn’t preach some form of pre-millennialism. The theory hinges upon a literalistic interpretation of prophecy both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Book of Revelation. In fact, the major proof text is found in Revelation 20:1-10.
“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, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” Revelation 20:1-10.
Is this passage teaching that a millennial kingdom of Christ is yet to come here on this earth? Notice that no where does this passage even say Christ establishes an earthly throne.
Dispensational pre-millennialism is based upon the idea that all of church history can be broken down into seven periods of time beginning with the age of innocence then conscience, then human government, then promise, then law and so forth. And when we come to the New Testament, we supposedly have the “dispensation of grace” otherwise known as the Church Age, and we’re waiting on the final era of time to commence. And that is what proponents of this doctrine called the “kingdom age or dispensation.” In other words, we’re waiting on the kingdom to come and it has not come yet.
They tell us that Jesus came to Earth 2000 years ago preaching the Kingdom. The problem is the Jews rejected it, and since they rejected it, he delayed the kingdom until they get future time. And instead established the church. We’re currently living in that era where we as Gentiles can enjoy the blessings of God, but we’re told that God really has two plans.
He has a plan for the Gentiles and that God still has a plan in place to set up the Jewish kingdom and reign over it from the city of Jerusalem. The theory says that when the redemption of the Gentiles is complete, that the Lord will secretly rapture the church out of the world. And that will be the beginning of a seven year period of tribulation on the earth. The antichrist will arise, darkness will reign over the earth, but at the end of that seven years, Jesus will return with his saints and a great battle will take place at the valley of Armegeddon in the Middle East, that Jesus will win the battle. He’ll bind the devil and he will reign from Jerusalem over the whole earth for a thousand years. And at the end of that literal 1000 years, Satan will be loosed. He’ll unleash his fury and try one last time to get the upper hand. Then the last judgment of God will come. Satan and his forces will be cast into hell forever and eternity will begin.
You’ve likely heard some version of that scenario many, many times, but is it what the Bible teaches? Many televangelists preach that theory regularly. Many books that you can buy at just about any religious bookstore, advance that theory. There was a series of books written a number of years ago called the “Left Behind” series that advocates that theory. It was even made into movies. But does that match what Jesus and his apostles said about the kingdom?
We could go through the theory of dispensational, pre-millennialism point by point, and we could look word by word, phrase by phrase and verse by verse at Revelation 20 and learn a great, great deal, but the whole argument really comes down to a two or three major points of contention, so in our limited space, we’ll deal with those.
- Number one, how do we interpret Bible prophecy such as what we have in Revelation? Is it to be read literally or is it to be looked at figuratively?
- Number two, are the Jews still God’s chosen people? Does God still have a plan for the fleshly Jewish nation?
- Number three, what do plainer passages in the Bible,
non symbolic or figurative passages in the Bible say about the kingdom?
How we answer those questions will tell us whether or not there’s any truth to pre-millennialism.
Number one, how do we interpret Bible prophecy such as what we have in Revelation?
First, how are we to interpret prophecy and specifically the book of Revelation? Many people, including preachers, have a field day with the Revelation given to John when he was on Patmos, and if you don’t consider the timeframes, style and purpose of the book, your imagination can easily run wild.
In the very first verse of the book, it is called the Revelation, which is translated from the Greek word “apokalypsis.” That means an unveiling. It is the apocalypse and it belongs to a specific kind of literature that was popular leading up to the first century among the Jews. Now, there were many of these types of writings. Some of them were inspired and included in the Old Testament, such as the book of Daniel. And then there were many uninspired apocalyptic type writings. These were all visions that we’re steeped in, signs and symbols that were intended to convey a greater message. Now, don’t lose sight of that definition of this kind of literature. They were all one type or another. Have a vision that we’re all steeped in symbolic language and signs that were intended to convey a greater message.
Now in the case of Revelation, it was written in code, so to speak, in order to smuggle a message of hope to the rest of the world that its Roman persecutors would not be able to understand and Revelation signaled their victory over the crushing forces of earth, but if it had fallen into the hands of the emperor and the Roman authorities will, they would have decimated the church for suggesting such a thing.
So Revelation was written in the symbolic language of an apocalypse that Jews in the early church would be very familiar with. It’s language, it’s signs, it’s symbols. They would understand it, but the pagans specifically the Romans would not. What that means is that the specific prophecies of Revelation are not to be seen as literal events, but rather as symbolic of something else.
How can a person read the book of Revelation and not immediately recognize that the things spoken are not literally what they’re pictured as, but that they represent
It says in verse four that those who were beheaded for Christ’s sake reign with Christ. What does that mean? That if a person was not martyred and more specifically by beheading, that they cannot be part of Christ? Reign will of course not. There’s a symbol of the dragon, the serpent, the chain, the key, the bottomless pit, and the numbers in Revelations. Especially in the numbers we find all throughout apocalyptic type literature, they’re all symbols that are employed to draw a larger picture for the persecuted Church of the first century.
One thousand for example, is not to be taken as a literal quantity anymore than 144,000 in chapter 14. Now the Jehovah’s Witnesses try to make the 144,000 a literal number and some who argue with them. It’s very ironic that some who argue with them over that, then turn around and try to make Revelation 20 mean a literal 1000 year reign on the earth.
The number 1000 is used throughout scripture to measue the immeasurable. It merely symbolizes a great amount. This reign of Christ isn’t talking about a literal earthly government because Jesus said in John 18:36, “my kingdom is not of this world.” it is not like earthly kingdoms. It doesn’t have the characteristics of an earthly kingdom. It didn’t originate with this world and it’s not headquartered here in this world. Revelation 20 is simply talking about the unfettered spread of the Gospel and as long as the Gospel exists and is preached in this world, Satan has no power over your heart and mind that you don’t give him. That is a critical point. There is no excuse for being deceived as long as we have access to the word of God.
Now, there may come a time and it seems this may be what John is talking about when he says that Satan will be loosed for a short season when faith will virtually vanish from the earth, but this is all symbolically referring to the Christ mastery over sin and evil to the reality and availability of redemption to the whole world who will turn to Jesus and be saved. I hope that if you did not see my study about the nature of the kingdom and the timing of the kingdom, that you’ll go back and review it. Study it because it’s critical to understand that in view of Revelation chapter 20.
So number one, prophecies like revelation are written in symbolic, not literal language. The premillennial theory about the kingdom requires a literal reading and interpretation of revelation. And yet, they actually pick and choose what to take literally and what to take symbolically.
Number two, are the Jews still God’s chosen people?
That’s really the crux of the matter. What dispensational pre-millennial suggests is that God has two different plans or programs for two different groups of people. The promises made to Abraham in Genesis and later expanded to David in 2 Samuel. Those are physical promises for the racial Jews or the Jewish nation. And then the church in this age has received other promises from God that are spiritual, so says the dispensationalist. God is supposedly working these two plans, one for the church, one for the Jews, and this church age that we’re living in is sort of a parentheses in God’s plan. The church is a stopgap measure that came about after the Jews rejected Jesus and is here until Jesus comes and fulfills the plan pertaining to the Jews.
Pre-millennialism says that God deals with the Jews in the millennium. When Jesus comes and sets up his kingdom, the Jews will finally have all of the promises fulfilled and the Old Testament system of worship will be resumed and the temple reestablished and even animal sacrifice will be resumed. Sacrifices will be resurrected in Jerusalem during this purported era to come.
That’s really what the pure doctrine of a dispensational pre-millennialism says.
First of all, according to the Old Testament, all of God’s promises to Israel were fulfilled. The Nation Promise was fulfilled. God made them a nation. The Land Promise was fulfilled. God brought them into the land that was promised. Solomon reigned over all of the promised land according to 1 Kings 4:21. The seed promise was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus through their lineage.
Joshua 21:43-45 “And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.”
Read that again…. not one of God’s promises to Israel failed to be fulfilled. There are no promises left unfilled.
None of God’s promises were left unfulfilled, but we should also remember that their enjoyment of God’s promises to Abraham was conditional and all of God’s promises to us are conditional. Pre-millennialism says the promises were unconditional. That despite the Jews rejection of God, that he will still fulfill all of the promises made thousands of years ago.
God placed conditions on those promises such as the promise to give them a land conditions that ancient Israel did not keep.
Deuteronomy 28:63 says “And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
You see, the promise of the land was conditional. According to 2 Chronicles 36:14-17, they did in fact lose the land because they didn’t obey the Lord.
Chronicles 36:14-17 “Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.”
Now they had a kingdom. The Jews had kingdom and they lost it. There is no prophecy of the Jewish kingdom to be found in the New Testament. The Bible teaches that upon God casting them off as his people that the promises were given to the new Israel instead.
So what is this new Israel? What is the new Israel as compared to the old Israel? Paul says, ” For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 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,” Galatians 3:26-29.
Well, there you have it. Now, preachers may try to explain it away but that’s what your Bible says. There is no such thing in God’s sight as a Jew or a Gentile. We are all one in Christ Jesus in this era of time. That is those who are in Christ Jesus by being baptized into Christ Jesus.
Now number three, what do the nonfigurative passages plainly say about the kingdom?
The whole debate boils down to when did the kingdom come and what is the kingdom?
Is the kingdom yet to come? Are we in the church age and still waiting on the kingdom, as the pre-millennialist alleges? Is the Kingdom a literal earthly kingdom to come or is Christ reigning in the hearts of his subjects from the right hand of God today?
Let’s quickly notice these comparisons.
Christ is the head of the church
Ephesians 1:22 ” And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
The church is an everlasting institution.
Ephesians 3:21 “ Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Daniel
The parables in Matthew 13 have long been understood to refer to the church, but all seven of those parables are said to pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven.
The church was established in the lifetime of the apostles when they received power from the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2, and yet Jesus said, the Kingdom of God would come in the disciples’ lifetimes with power.
Mark 9:1 “And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”
We are in the kingdom now:Colossians 1:13, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
Revelation 1:6,9, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Finally the Church of Christ is called the Israel of God in Galatians 6:16, “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
Well, that all tells us the Kingdom of God has come. It is a spiritual reign now, as long as the Gospel is preached and obeyed in this world. Pre-millennialism says that Jesus will take up his reign when he comes back to Earth, but Paul said, Christ will deliver up the kingdom to his father. The kingdom is not coming, it is here and it will be delivered to the Father at Christ’s second coming.
1 Corinthians 15:22-24, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.”
The doctrine of dispensational pre-
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