And They Came to Life and Reigned with Christ for a Thousand Years -- Revelation 20:1-15

The Twenty-Eighth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Revelation

For many Christians, the mere mention of the millennium (the thousand years of Revelation 20) brings to mind images of lions lying down with lambs, children safely playing with poisonous snakes and Jesus ruling over all the nations of the earth while seated on David’s throne in the city of Jerusalem.  It is argued that Jesus’ rule guarantees a one thousand-year period of universal peace upon the earth.  But is this really what we find in Revelation chapter 20?  No, it is not.  

The question of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ and the proper interpretation of Revelation 20 has been a divisive one almost from the beginning of the Christian church.  In those churches in which I was raised, premillennialism was regarded as a test of orthodoxy and anyone who wasn’t premillennial was probably either a theological liberal or a Roman Catholic, neither of whom took the plain teaching of the Bible very seriously.  Premillennialism, which is far and away the dominant view held by American evangelicals, teaches that in Revelation 20, John is describing that period of time after Jesus Christ returns to earth.

At first glance, the premillennial argument is iron-clad.  If Revelation 19 describes Jesus Christ’s second coming, then what follows in Revelation 20 must describe what happens after Christ’s return.  On this view, Christ’s return comes before the thousand years begin, hence his coming is “pre” millennial, or before the millennial age. 

Premillennarians believe that when John speaks of a thousand years, he means a literal one thousand years.  The first resurrection, mentioned by John in this passage, is thought to be a reference the bodily resurrection of believers at the end of the age when Christ returns.  Premillennarians believe that when John speaks of the binding of Satan, which begins the thousand years, he must be referring to that period of time after our Lord returns when Satan is literally bound with a chain by an angel, placed in a pit, and thereby prevented from deceiving the nations while Christ is ruling on the earth.  It is the binding of Satan which guarantees the thousand years of peace supposedly mentioned in this passage.

Having been taught premillennialism from my earliest youth, it came as a quite a shock when I learned that the historic Protestant position taught by all the Reformers, the Lutheran and Reformed churches which they founded, and expressed in all of the Reformed confessions, and which is still held by the vast majority of our theologians, is that known as amillennialism.  Although amillennialism literally means “no millennium,” it is better to understand this as a present millennialism.  Amillennarians believe that the millennial age refers to the present reign of Jesus Christ in heaven and that the thousand years is a symbolic reference to the entire period of time between Christ’s first coming and his second advent. 

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Comments

[Peggy Burke]

Thank you, Kim.. very timely and useful for me just now. --Peggy

[Isaac Bennett]

Where is David's throne?