Mary Fairchild
The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry.
This is one of the greatest chapters in all of the Bible. It is the description of the long awaited events on the earth of the literal kingdom of God and of the reign of the Messiah. An age of peace and prosperity, enlightenment, and it is the fulfillment of hundreds of Old Testament prophecy. This is also one of the most controversial chapters in the Bible.
Many challenge whether there will be a literal 1,000 year period of time in which Jesus Christ reigns on earth in a world kingdom called the kingdom of God. We call it the millennium. There are three viewpoints on this; premillennial, post-millennial, and
amillennial. There are some serious issues at stake here. How is the Bible supposed to be interpreted? How should Christians view the course of history? Where is this age headed? What is the historical drama that the church will play in this plan of God?
Premillennialism is the oldest interpretation. This is when Christ returns before he establishes an earthly millennial kingdom. That kingdom will last a literal 1,000 years, He will reign from the throne of David, from a rebuilt Jerusalem and a restored earth. The millennial kingdom is a
fulfillment of unconditional promises and covenants to Israel. In spite of the
fact that Israel has been unfaithful many times in its history and, in fact,
rejected its own Messiah, yet those promises were unconditional and they will be
fulfilled literally. The church will also be a recipient of these promises
because we are the adopted sons of Abraham. The basis for this position is a
normal literal interpretation of the Scripture and we believe that this book
should be interpreted normally, and literally. It is part of the historical
grammatical literal interpretive method. We recognize that there are figures of
speech and symbolism in this book just like there are in a lot of different
books. But the Scriptures give you clues when that is being used. But normally
we read the Scriptures literally and we still take the normal meaning of the
word. If you do that, you will become a premillennialist. This was the viewpoint
of the ancient Jews and of the early church as well. Ancient Jewish rabbis
taught that there would be a 1,000 year sabbatical on earth. The early church
was the same, aside from just the biblical authors, Papayas was a man from
70-155 AD. He was taught by a man named Polycarp, this man was a disciple of
John who wrote the book of Revelation. Papayas wrote that there will be a
millennium after the resurrection from the dead when the personal reign of
Christ will be established on this earth. Within just a few years of John
writing this book we have early church scholars telling us that there was a
literal millenium expected. Justin Marter was another church father from
110-165AD and he said, “But I and others who are right minded Christians on all
points are assured that there will be a ressurrection of the dead and 1,000
years in Jerusalem which will then be built, adorned and enlarged as the
prophets Ezekiel, and Isaiah, and others declare.
One of the major tenants of premillennialism is that the earth is getting worse, not better. That
the course of this age is headed towards apostasy. The kingdom age cannot begin,
according to this viewpoint, until Christ comes and destroys the kingdom of
darkness. That’s a very big distinction to make when you take a look at the
church and where we are headed. Are we supposed to be building the kingdom
ourselves on earth? Or are we looking for the day when Christ will do that.
Premillennialism teaches that the earth is getting worse, not better and that
the earth will not have peace without the Prince of Peace.
Amillennialism was begun by the church father Augustine in the 4th
century. It is the viewpoint of Catholicism, Lutheranism, of most Presbyterian
churches, most Methodist and Covenant churches. This viewpoint says that the
kingdom of God is now spiritual, it’s not earthly. The reason they believe that
is because Israel forfeited her earthly kingdom when she rejected the Messiah
and so the church has inherited Israel’s promises in a spiritual way. The Greek
alpha privitive (a), which negated something in Greek, is put before
millennialism and so amillennialism means there is no earthly kingdom. They
allegorize and spiritualize the prophecies concerning the coming kingdom of God.
And the church is the new Israel and inherits these kingdom promises. The church
age, what we are in right now, for the amillennialist, is the kingdom. Sometimes
you hear hymns being sung about the church triumphant (probably written by an
amillennial theologian because they believe that even now the church is reigning
from heaven). A few problems with this viewpoint are:
1. The understanding of the words that describe resurrection. In verse 4 when it says
that they came to life, they say that this is the new birth. So when a person
becomes a Christian and is born again, that is them coming alive and now
reigning with Christ. In verse 5 they say that this coming alive is an actual
physical resurrection. There is a contradiction.
2. The problem with Satan having been bound. 1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan is prowling around like a
roaring lion. There answer is that Satan was bound at the cross, during Christ’s
death he was defeated. That is true, but that’s were they find the fulfillment
to this passage.
3. Another problem is the idea of the saints reigning. Primarily they believe they are reigning from heaven, that is the dead saints are in heaven with Christ reigning. But Rev. 5:10 says that the twenty-four elders will be reigning on earth and they are symbolic of the Church.
4. The final is that there is a change in their interpretive method. They interpret all of the prophecies about Christ’s first coming literally. But then when it comes to Christ’s second coming in the kingdom passages, now they spiritualize them. They say they are being fulfilled today in the life of the church
spiritually. That’s a problem. Why change the interpretive method? Because of a
theological beginning point, presupposition. That is a problem.
Amillennialism optimistically sees the church as moving triumphantly to victory. There is a lot of confusion with regard to prophecy in amillennial systems. Most will never preach the book of Revelation because they really don’t have a clue about interpreting this.
The third view is Postmillennialism. That is that Christ returns, post, or after the millennial
kingdom on earth. They believe that this kingdom is going to be ushered in to
the earth through the preaching of the Gospel. That the world is gradually going
to be “Christianized.” They call it the “triumph of the Gospel in this age.”
Because of that, eventually the world will move into this golden age of
righteousness. The Church will be ruling, Christ is not actually here ruling,
and there will be a thousand years of peace and joy in an earthly millennium and
then Christ will return for a general judgment. This view started in the
nineteenth century and paralleled the theory of evolution that Darwin brought
forth and the idea that mankind is progressively getting better. The problems
with it, aside from the multitude of contradictory Scripture passages, is the
course of history. The first and second world wars pretty much did away with
this theory, yet there are some who still believe it. There are some who are in
what is known as the Reconstructionalist Movement, a latter day
postmillennialism, and their activity is that they believe that we as the Church
should be Christianizing all of the institutions of the earth. The idea is to
bring some sort of a kingdom on earth, but that’s not the church’s mission. The
Church’s mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to wait for Him as He
will come and establish His kingdom.
SATAN’S RESTRAINT
In Revelation 20 verses 1-3 we see the restraint of Satan. The setting is
immediately after the second coming of Christ. A powerful angel is given
authority for six things; he is able to lay hold of the devil, to bind him for a
thousand years, to cast him into the abyss, to shut the abyss, to seal the abyss
so that there is no possibility that he can deceive the nation, and then he must
loose him after a thousand years. The abyss is the prison of fallen angels. It
is the prison house of the demons. Not all the demons are there, but there are
this hour a multitude of demons that are in that prison. Jude 6 says that they
were put there since the flood. That prior to the flood they mingled with
daughters of men and they did other things that were not their first estate and
God confined them to this prison called the abyss or the bottomless pit. Several
time in the Gospels, demons that Jesus had cast out, pled with Him not to send
them to the abyss.
The worst thing about the book of Revelation and the tribulation period is the increased demonic infestation of the earth. Back in chapter 9 Satan, himself, was given the key to this abyss. In chapter 9:2 it says he opened the bottomless pit of the abyss and smoke went about from the pit
like the smoke of a great furnace. Out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the
earth and power was given them as scorpions of the earth have power. The
symbolism that is taken up in other passages in the Bible, is that these are
demons. These are some of the worst demons that have ever been. They are
confined today, but in the tribulation period God will permit them to be
released and to infest the earth. Their chaos is written in chapter 9.
Satan is going to now be put unto the prison himself and with him all of
the demons. The millennial kingdom is to be a time of uncontested rule by Jesus
Christ. There is to be no other king. Satan will be totally inactive and out of
touch with the world. His presence in the world has been manifested by his
deceiving of the nations. He is the “father of rebellion against God” and the
“father of lies.” Evidence of his existence today is in the world. He deceives
the nations in deception into thinking they can build a better world without
Christ. He deceives us into thinking that the only way to solve problems, in
some cases, is war. He deceives the nations in thinking that education,
environment, and religion is going to save the world. This will remove man’s
favorite alibi, “the devil made me do it.” It will be a reign of righteousness
and the king will rule with a rod of iron. Those who sin during the millennial
kingdom will be immediately disciplined and judged. Sin will only come from the
depraved human heart at this time.
In verses 7-10 we find out that Satan is released to reveal the depravity of man’s hearts of those who have not received Christ as their Savior. In the kingdom age there are two groups of
people. There are those who are immortal who have been raised and given
glorified bodies who will never die again, and there are those who are mortal
who will populate the kingdom and repopulate the earth. The children of those
will have to receive Christ as Savior as each on of us has in this age. If they
do not, even though outwardly there will be righteousness in the world and lives
will be lived outwardly as righteous lives, yet there will be those who in their
heart are still rebels and will have never accepted Christ as their Savior. In
spite of living in a perfect environment, the personal presence of the God man
Jesus Christ, all of the advantages and the opportunities of a perfect society…
When a thousand years is completed, Satan will be released from his prison and
will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth
to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the
seashore…. It happens all over again…. Apart from a work of grace in your heart,
apart from you being born again, the depravity of man is still there. When Satan
is released, those who have never received Christ will be revealed by their
rebellion; the final rebellion.
We should learn something from this. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:3 that we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the
flesh. We should never put confidence in the flesh; it cannot produce godliness.
Only the work of the Spirit of God in your heart can make you godly as it uses
the Word of God, no self-help confidence in the flesh. Revelation 20 proves the
flesh produces nothing.
THE REIGN OF CHRIST
In verses 4-6 we see the actual reign of Christ described. The rest of the dead did not come to
life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these
the second death has no power because they are now immortal. But they will be
priests of God and Christ and will reign in a thousand years. We need to first
understand the order of the resurrection. Both the Old Testament and the New
Testament speak of a bodily resurrection of both the righteous and the
unrighteous. About two thousand years before Christ, Job said in Job 19:25-26,
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon; and
after my skin has thus been destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God.” He
foresaw a resurrection bodily for him. The New Testament mentions it forty
times, but Jesus gives us a wonderful insight in John 5:28-29; He speaks of two
distinct types of resurrections, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming
when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have
done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the
resurrection of judgment.” Jesus says there are two types of resurrections. The
first is the resurrection into life. And those who do the good are part of that.
These are the justified. They have received righteousness from God and have
changed and have the opportunity to do good. Those who do evil are the
unjustified. They have never received Christ as their Savior. One resurrection
is into eternal life and the other is a resurrection into eternal judgment. Our
bodies disintegrate, and our souls live eternally.
WHEN YOU DIE
When you die your soul is either going to go to heaven or to Hades.
If you are a Christian it is going to go to heaven to be with Christ to wait for
that bodily resurrection day. If you are an unbeliever you are going to go to
Hades to wait for a bodily resurrection at which time you will be judged and
condemned for eternity. The first resurrection has a number of different phases
to it. 1 Corinthians 15:22-25 tells us the order of the resurrection, “For as in
Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own
order: Christ in the first fruits, then at His coming those who belong to
Christ. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after
destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He
has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is
death.” The first is Christ, the firsts fruits. Jesus’ resurrection was the
first of that first resurrection kind. He was risen immortal, glorified.
Following the Old Testament harvest practice when the harvester would bring the
first shocks of the harvest in to give to the priest as the first fruits
offering, it represented the great blessing God had given to Him and the great
harvest that was going to follow. Jesus was our first fruits; the great harvest
of our resurrection that is coming. Where it says “those that are His at His
coming” has two phases. The first phase is the rapture of the Church when Christ
will catch us up to Himself and we will be changed, and those who are dead in
Christ will be raised and we will be given those glorified immortal bodies. The
second phase of that is when He returns to the earth and people are raised there
to begin to rule in the kingdom. Then comes the time when He delivers up the
kingdom to God the Father when He has abolished all rule and all authority and
power after the millennial kingdom. That is most likely the second resurrection.
THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM
The millennial kingdom will be like the garden was with the curse removed. Men will live to old age to one thousand years and some believe that no one will die in that kingdom age except those who
are the unrighteous. If some were to die for various reasons, they would be
raised but their resurrection would be of the first kind, to life. Both
resurrections are mentioned in Revelation 20. The first resurrection is
mentioned in verses four and six and it is the royal family. In chapter 3:21 one
of the promises to the churches was that they would sit on thrones with Jesus
Christ and His kingdom. But there is even a more specific one that was given to
the apostles, the Church foundation layers. Luke 22:29-30, He says just as my
Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you, that you may eat and drink at my
table in my kingdom. And you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel. They will be given the great honor and privilege of governing the twelve
tribes of restored Israel. So there we see the church members on the thrones.
Daniel 12 speaks of Daniel’s resurrection. In Daniel 12:13 the angel says go your way to the end then you will enter into a rest, that means you are going to die and enter a rest, and you will rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age. So Daniel will have his portion in the kingdom. He will
be there ruling and governing with Christ as well. Next the tribulation martyrs
are specified; those who did not take the image of the beast, did not worship
him. They now are raised from the dead as well to rule with Christ. All of these
are glorified and immortal now and they will rule the mortals that have lived
through the tribulation. Matthew 25 talks about Jesus having the great judgment
of the sheep and the goats; that is all those who have lived through the
tribulation. The goats are those who are the unbelievers who are going to be
removed from the earth. The sheep are the believers who will then enter into the
kingdom and they will repopulate the earth and they will live in this restored
earth with this wonderful kingdom of God. This is the “royal family.”
In verse five we see the “rebel family;” the rest. They are not raised at this
time. They will be raised after the kingdom in verses eleven through fifteen you
see they’re in. John’s response in verse six, he said blessed and holy is the
one who has a part in this resurrection they will reign with Christ. The
millennial kingdom is going to be a earthly society that needs to be governed.
There is going to be a tremendous population on the earth even at the very
beginning of this kingdom age. Right now there are about six billion people on
the earth. If the tribulation were to start today, we have studied this book and
we see that through the devastation of all of these judgments, most likely
three-quarters of the earth’s population will be killed. But that still leaves
1.5 billion people. Then if we go to the judgment of the nations in Matthew 25,
the separation of the sheep and the goats, even if just five percent of those
who are left are believers and will enter into the kingdom, that’s seventy-five
million people. It’s possible that there will be many more. Ten percent would be
a hundred and fifty million people. Right from the beginning there is going to
be a tremendous population that is going to spread out and repopulate the earth
and be governed. Jesus Christ is going to be the king. He is going to have His
court and that will be a great honor to be assigned to His court. The courts
will take care of the things that all of the ancient king’s courts took care of.
They will be in charge of protocol for the visiting delegations in the nations
who have come to worship the king and involved in keeping the palace…. Maybe
some of you will be assigned to the court of the king. There will be this great
civil administration. Looking back at some of Israel’s governmental structure;
it’s not that much different than any government. There was a royal secretary
and a staff that was involved in communication. There were territorial governors
and their staff. District administrators, local governors and their
administrative staff, revenue officials and staff, and courts and legal staff…
You will be involved, as Christians reigning with Christ, in the royal family.
Then there is the religious administration. It says that we are all going to be
priests to God, the royal family, but there will be custodians of the millennial
temple that Ezekiel describes in great detail, a temple treasury and staff,
there will be festival administrative staff for when the nations come for the
festivals… Zechariah mentions that in verse 14:16, “Then it will come about that
any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from
year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast
of booths(that is the feast of tabernacle). And if any of the families of the
earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there
will be no rain upon them.” The King is not going to put up with any sort of
rebellion, it says He rules with a rod of iron. There will be these
administrative details that will be part of the reign of Christ in the kingdom
of the earth along with all of the wonderful audiences that we will have with
the Messiah, the King, to be able to talk to Him and listen to Him teach us and
teach the world…. A wonderful kingdom.
WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS
We are very near to this kingdom. We are very close. If, in fact, the ancient idea of kilism, a thousand days and a thousand years is as one day Peter says, is true, then we are rapidly coming to the conclusion of the sixth millennium on earth since Creation. The seventh millennium, the kingdom age is on the horizon. It is probable in our lifetime if we live to be a normal age you
will be raptured. Which family are you in? Are you a member of the royal family
of Christ? The only way you become a member of that family is not by anything
that you have. You are born again through faith in His finished work. When Jesus
hung on that cross He took our sin and God judged Him in our place. Receive the
pardon that God the Father that He has extended to you. Just in the quietness of
your heart.
WORKS CITED
- Revelation and Church History
- Church Age
- “THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM,” Revelation 20:1-10, #JMREV36; The Faithful Word. Pastor Jim Mooberry.