- Pre-Millennial – dating from the early Church Fathers, states that when Jesus returns he will establish his kingdom upon the earth for 1,000 years.
- Amillennial – also dating from the early Church Fathers, states that the earthly millennium described in Revelation 20:1-7 can’t be taken literally. Satan is currently bound in the sense that he cannot prevent people from hearing the Gospel. How does this fit with the biblical viewpoint that the only thing preventing people from hearing the Gospel is the failure of God’s people to tell them?
- Post-Millennial – dating from the time of the church’s incorporation into the state about 300 AD, popular with the Roman Catholics and Puritans, states that the church brings about a era of great peace, not necessarily a literal 1,000 years.
If we can’t take any part of the Bible literally, can we take any of it literally?
There is no justification for controversy over the start of the Millennial reign reported in Revelation. The same prophet who
- substantiates Jesus the Christ’s claim to be God’s Savior from sin and death when “he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” Isaiah 53
- also describes an era of restored human rule over mortal / dying humans prior to the passing away of this old earth, exactly in the same sequence as Revelation.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind…for the child shall die an hundred years old…the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD. (Isaiah 65)
“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…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.
We can deduce from these clues that the restoration of human dominion is a redo of the original earth
- when humans lived about 1,000 years.
- before there was violence in nature
- for which Lucifer was imprisoned for inciting with the serpent.
While Isaiah does not specify 1,000 years, Isaiah’s details connect his prophecy to the Millennial Reign referenced in Revelation.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them:
- the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus / YHVH’s Savior,
- 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 / were restored to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years…they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years…
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 [ominously] the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.“ (Revelation 20:1-6))
When we accept the entire word of God from beginning to end as a coherent, cohesive, continuous narrative we recognize that the qualification to rule as the Christ’s partners / Melchizedeks by enduring chastening, tribulation, suffering and death
- based on response to the beast during a proscribed period of greatest episode of tribulation ever experienced, at the end of this age
- is just the most recent occasion throughout history
- and the Millennial reign is not a uniquely “Christian” experience.
Anyone who reigns as priest-kings of God and Christ is, by definition, a Melchizedek dating back to the “first Adam”, perfected in the “last Adam.” (I Corinthians 15:4, Hebrews 5:5-6).
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
- in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
- Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
“I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will so persecute you…Father…I have given them thy word…I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil…
- As thou hast sent me into the world,
- even so have I also sent them into the world…
- Neither pray I for these alone, but
- for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
- And the glory / victory which thou gavest me [over sin and death]
- I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one…
- the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
- And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” (John 15:19-27)
“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.” (Hebrews 12:22-25)
“it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
-
- Where their worm / σκώληξ dieth not…
- Where their worm dieth not...
- Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43-48)
Homer’s ancient Iliad (13, 654) describes σκολιός as the microorganisms that which feed upon dead bodies. Microorganisms that live in the soil classified as fungi, bacteria, archaea, protozoa, or viruses are directly involved with decomposition.
What more can Jesus say to emphasize this point?
“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.”
That was quick. Sounds like someone just plucked his last nerve and God has run out of patience.
“And the devil / Satan, Lucifer’s clone that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast / hybrid / antichrist / alien savior and the false prophet / Babylonian Father are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away / we’re in hyper drive now.
“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God;
- Stand is the accomplishment of having risen up. These are humans who had already experienced the first resurrection as reward for faithfulness under persecution.
- AND the sea [AKA chaos in ancient times / outer space in modern times] gave up the dead which were in it;
- These are the fallen angels / aliens imprisoned for crimes against humanity.
- AND death
- The condition of being completely disconnected from all sources of energy experienced as immobility by unrepentant humans in the underworld as the grounded energy of bodiless souls without a spirit, acknowledged even by pagans.
- AND hell / hades / the underworld delivered up the dead which were in them:”
- These are the humans who did not have part in the first resurrection and are subject to a second death based on their sentence following judgment.
and they were judged every man / every one [mortals and immortals] according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death…[being] cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:7-15)
Kingdom Come 