The Millennial Kingdom

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Introduction

More precisely, the Messianic Kingdom, Kingdom of Messiah, or Davidic Kingdom.

The Angel Gabriel announced this kingdom while revealing the blessing of the virgin birth to Mary.

Luke 1:26-35 “The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

The Millennial Kingdom is referenced in various books of the Old Testament, but the duration of that kingdom is given in the first verse of Revelation chapter 20, shown below. In keeping with the idea of Progressive Revelation, the Old Testament reveals the main idea of the kingdom through the promise of the Davidic Covenant. Beyond that we get a glimpse into Kingdom life itself through Old Testament prophecy. In Luke (above) we learn the Identity of the Messiah who will be King.

Revelation 20:1 – Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years

The Bible doesn’t use the term ‘Millennium’, but specifies the Age as a thousand years. It truly is a future and unique Age or Dispensation in history. This is the promised kingdom that the Jews were expecting when Jesus came the first time. The Jews of the post-exilic first century AD were looking for the overthrow of Rome, and a return to the Theocracy of their forefathers. They saw the Old Testament prophecies about the future kingdom –  “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)  That wasn’t to happen as National Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah. (Daniel 9:26, Acts 28:28, Matthew 12:22-32, Matthew 22:1-14) Once again, no one saw the Church Age that would come out of that action. (Luke 19)

 

The King

We learned about the Davidic Covenant that God made with King David and Israel — that one of his descendants would sit on the throne of an everlasting kingdom. This is the future Messianic or Millennial Kingdom. Jesus was uniquely qualified to be King as shown in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. This shows Jesus place in the kingly line of King David, and yet he was not impacted by the curse pronounced on Jeconiah – (Jeremiah 22:30 – For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.) Jesus was legally related to Jeconiah through his father, but not a blood relative (descendant). He was physically related to King David through his mother Mary’s line. Another amazing miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

The Son of Man and the Millennial Kingdom

In Daniel 7, a prophecy is given to one called the Son of Man. This was Jesus favorite title for himself in the New Testament, and clearly he was identifying himself with the following Old Testament prophecy:

First, Daniel 7:9-10 describes Heaven, with God the Father (Ancient of Days) taking his seat on the throne.

Next, the Son of Man is given the Kingdom:

  1. “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.
  2. “And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him.
  3. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away;
  4. And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

Hebrews 1 most beautifully expands the subject:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world

 

The Nature of the Kingdom

Isaiah 11, Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 3:15-18, Zechariah 14, Micah 4

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. 7Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

 

His Righteous Rule

“But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.”

 

The People of the Kingdom

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 – Believers resurrected at the Rapture along with all believers from the Church Age (1 Cor 15)

Rev 20:4 – All resurrected believers from the Tribulation will reign with Christ for 1000 years.

Daniel 12 – All of the Old Testament Saints (believers)

Matthew 24:31 – All living believers at the Second Coming

Rev 20:5 – The rest of the dead (Unbelievers) didn’t come to life (bodily resurrection) until the thousand years were completed. 

Rev 20:7 – When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison.

 

Why interpret Revelation Chapter 20 literally?

Revelation chapter 20, the second to the last chapter of the Bible, in a book totally dedicated to Endtimes prophecy, six times foretells aspects of a future age of a thousand years. We call it the Millennium, and the purpose is the literal fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant – The Messiah, son of David reigns on the throne. (Revelation 20:1-10)

 

Here is what it says. At the end of the Tribulation…

  • Satan, the Devil, and the enemy of God will be bound for a thousand years
  • Satan will not be able to deceive the nations for a thousand years
  • Believers that will be killed during the final 7-years of earth’s history (the tribulation period) will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years
  • Unbelievers are not to be resurrected (yet) as believers are, and will therefore not be part of the thousand years Kingdom of Jesus Christ
  • Believers again, “…will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years“
  • Satan, after a thousand years will be released from his prison, ending in the final battle of the devil and all that follow him

There are some good reasons that these passages should be interpreted literally, and not symbolically.

  • The passages themselves don’t give us any indication that they are symbolic.
  • The number 1000 is repeated many times, and no other symbolic term is ever used to indicate some long period of time.
  • If the Lord wanted us to know that it was a literal 1000 years, how else could He have indicated this to us? If after reading verse after verse very literally say that “such and such an event will be 1000 years, and then the next thing will happen, lasting 1000 years, and then at the end of the 1000 years so and so…” we still say it’s symbolic, I would submit that it would be impossible for the Lord to have told us that it was literal without using the word “literal 1000 years”, and this doesn’t happen in the Bible.

 

The Final Battle

When Satan is turned loose again, released from Hell, he will do what he always does – deceive the masses and try to take over. But this time it won’t last long. This battle against God is truly the final battle of all ages.

Revelation 20:7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. 

 

Who would follow Satan in the Millennial Kingdom?

If all of the inhabitants of earth are redeemed and perfected, being like Christ, without a sin nature, who in the world would follow Satan? (An innumerable number) How could they be deceived? I thought this was no longer possible?

This initially sounds like a dilemma. However, the key to this is found in the timing of the resurrections of the Saints (believers).

  1. All believers from the Church Age, those that died or were resurrected at the Rapture,  as described in 1 Corinthians 15, could never be tempted or deceived by Satan again. They possess Eternal Life, not with an option to leave.
  2. All believers that died during the Tribulation (shown in Revelation 7) would be resurrection at the end of the Tribulation and enter the Kingdom
  3. All Old Testament believers that died before or during the Jewish Age are resurrected at the end of the Tribulation. (Daniel 12)

Who is left?

That leaves only those believers that are alive at Jesus Second Coming when the Angels gather the elect from the four winds. (Matt 24:31) They will go into the Kingdom in their mortal bodies, as they never died. They and their children will re-populate the earth for 1000 years. The assumption then is that when any of these believers die in the Kingdom, they will be resurrected immediately. However, the future children of these will have the opportunity to believe in Jesus the King, he that sits in their very presence, or follow Satan when he is released from his temporary prison. There is some speculation here in an attempt to answer this tough question. However, this does line up with some of the prophecies about the Millennial Kingdom. (Isaiah 65:17-25) For the youth will die at the age of one hundred, and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed.

 

 

The Great White Throne Judgement – The Books are Opened

Revelation 20:11-15

Different Millennial views

  • Premillennialism – The view that endtimes.org holds, teaches that there will be a literal 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth, and that it will begin a number of days after the second coming of Christ, which happens at the end of the tribulation. (The rapture views are different within Premillennialism)
  • Postmillennialism – Teaches that the 1000 years is not a literal thousand years, but a long period of time, and that the world will be Christianized by the gospel, thus bringing in the kingdom, and then a long period of peace called the millennium will ensue, ending with the second coming of Christ, and heaven.
  • Amillennialism – Teaches that the millennium is symbolic, that we have already realized the millennium, and that we will go directly into eternity at the second coming. No literal 1000 year reign of Christ after the second coming. Current day Amillennialism teaches that Christ’s present position at the right hand of God fulfills the OT promises of the kingdom.