THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM

Revelation 20:1-10

By Timothy C. McKeown 

The Millennium Kingdom will be that time when, for the first time in all of humanity, we see what God really intended for all of humanity. The word millennium means one thousand (mille) years (annum). Those of us who are “premillennial” are those who believe that Christ will come back to earth as promised before the thousand years of Satan being bound. Reading Revelation 20, especially the first word of “then”, it is hard to understand how people could be anything but premillennial! Virtually all of the Old Testament prophecies of the promised reign of God on earth and the blessings of Israel will be fulfilled during this time.

For the purposes of this study, there are just too many references in the Old Testament to do them justice by citing. I would recommend getting The Apocalypse, by Joseph A. Seiss written in the late 1800s or The Book of Revelation, by Clarence Larkin, (1919), and Revelation, by H.A. Ironside (1920) for historical references, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, by John F. Walvoord (1966), Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, by Dwight J. Pentecost (1976), or Revelation Unveiled, by Tim LaHaye (1999) for in depth studies on Revelation.

¹ Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ² He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; ³ and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

The Son of Man will appear in the sky (Matt. 24:27), the armies of Gog and Magog will be annihilated (Ezek. 38-39), and the bride is ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7). 

But there are some uninvited guests, and one in particular. The anti-Christ and false prophet will be thrown alive into the lake of fire. An angel comes down from heaven and takes Satan and binds him for 1,000 years in the Abyss (bottomless pit), where he and his deceptions are sealed. Christ holds the keys of “Hades and Death” (Rev. 1:18). 

He had given the keys to heaven to the kingdom of heaven to the church, beginning with Peter (Matt. 16:19), but the key to the Abyss had been given to a fallen star, likely Satan, to release demons bound there, but where even the legion of demons did not want to be cast (Luke 8:31). The same place where angels were chained awaiting judgment (2 Pet 2:4, Jude 6) is now where the devil himself is cast.

This explicitly states that Satan can be bound at any time by God, but He chooses to let him roam the earth, roaring, walking, and devouring (1 Pet 5:8). By Christ’s own death, he destroyed the devil’s power of death (Heb. 2:14), and here is the continuation of that destruction. Nowhere else but here in chapter 20 is the thousand year duration of the binding Satan and the reign of Christ mentioned, but for God to say it even once is enough, but here in the space of six verses is it reaffirmed six times. 

This coincides with God’s six days of creation and the seventh day of rest (Yes, I believe in a literal reading of Genesis!). Six thousand years have transpired since creation and now at the dawn of the seventh millennium, Christ is poised to return. Even Peter spoke that to God, a day is a thousand years (2 Pet 3:8) and this was spoken in terms of Christ’s return.

(Know) this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." ⁵ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, ⁶ by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. ⁷ But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. ⁸ But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

I hope that when the angel takes hold of Satan, that we, the church, will see that happen! When we see the tragedies which the devil has caused in this world, and even greater ones which have not been seen until the Tribulation, which will be worse than ever the world has seen (Matt. 24:21), I hope the angel has a huge chain, and in humiliation we see him cast into the abyss, along with his lies, death and destruction. 

Why is he bound, rather than destroyed? Because God is not yet through in writing His story, history!

⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

There will be thrones of judgment given not just to those martyred in the Tribulation (verse 4b), but to the entire church (verse 4a, also Matt. 19:28, Luke 22:28-30). But in addition to those saved during the church age and those called “the bride,” are those saved in the Tribulation, who bore witness for Christ and the word of God. The refused to worship the beast and did not receive his mark on the foreheads or hands. Whatever the mark is, it is primarily an identification with the antiChrist. It will be related to buying and selling (Rev. 13:17).

To the right is a picture of what technology is available today, called RFID (radio frequency identification) chips. Wal-Mart is mandating that these be installed on all products and they will eventually replace bar codes. People, including former President Bush official Tommy Thompson, the Health and Human Services Secretary in President Bush's first term and a former Governor of Wisconsin, have already implanted RFID chips in their bodies for identification, but just like debit cards, these bio-chips will eventually be programmed to allow those who have them buy items at stores, without having to pull out a wallet, lose a card, or have the “thank you” cards attached to their key rings. As Christ delays His coming, technology will only advance more rapidly as will the need to prevent identity thefts and ensure the national identities of residents and non-residents.

⁵ But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Who are those who are the rest of the dead? Those who are the dead in Christ shall rise first (1 Thess. 4:16), followed by those who are alive at the time of the rapture, (4:17), then those Old Testament saints shall be raised bodily at the end of the Tribulation (Dan. 12:1-2), along with those killed for Christ in the Tribulation (Rev. 20:4). Martha apparently thought that Lazarus who at the time of his “first” death, would be raised at the “last day” with the rest of the Old Testament saints (John 11:24). But all of these are part of the first resurrection which started with Christ. There are two resurrections, of the just and unjust (Acts 24:15). Those justified will never be under the power of the second death but are priests of God  (1 Pet 2:5,9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10) “And (You, Christ, the Lamb of God) have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

⁷ Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. ⁹ They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. ¹⁰ The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

After the 1,000 years, Satan will be released to deceive again the nations who have been born during the millennium. John uses the name Gog and Magog from Ezekiel 38-39, but like Sodom, and Babylon, it is a generic term for those who will rise up against Christ. 

During the 1,000-year reign, the people will not be deceived, but those who have not truly trusted Christ, born after the beginning of the millennium, will be numerous. That shows that while we and Christ are reigning, it is not yet the perfect heaven and earth. People will still die. Sin will still be possible. But it will be for those who are not redeemed and those who are not part of the first resurrection.

to be continued...