| In Rev 20:1-7 the Bible introduces us to the concept of
"the thousand years". During this period of the thousand years Satan is
bound and Christ rules on His Father's throne (Rev 3:21, Rev 20:5). The
early church held that Christ is now reigning, and during the first
thousand years many believed that it was a literal number. When the
millennium changed in 1000 AD there was great fear in many places that
the end of the world was near. Since the end did not occur at the end
of the literal first thousand years of Christ's reign, it soon became
obvious that:
1) John was entirely wrong about the 1000 years or,
2) The thousand years has not begun yet or,
3) The thousand years was symbolic of a long period of time.
Clearly from what we know about Bible prophecy, it is
never wrong (Dt 18:22). It has proven itself over and over to be
completely reliable (e.g. Dan 2 and 11). Therefore, if the Second
Coming did not happen at the end of the literal 1000 years, then our
understanding was wrong, and not the scriptures. Since the Bible cannot
ever be wrong, we can discard option 1
based on our confidence in the scriptures (Jn 10:35).
The second option is the one that has been adopted by
most denominations today. In 1830 John Nelson Darby introduced the
dispensational theory of premillennialism that teaches that Christ must
return to the earth and reign for 1000 years before the end of the
world. Based on the thousand-year reign of Christ discussed in Rev 20,
the premillennialists have used Rev 20 as a keystone for the
interpretation of all the unfulfilled prophecy in the Bible. In
contrast to the preterists and continuous historicists who hold that
nearly all prophecy is fulfilled, the premillennialists do acknowledge
that there is a large amount of Bible prophecy that is not yet
fulfilled. The premillennial theory is, however, flawed in several
significant respects.
Probably the simplest example that shows that
premillennialism is in error is found in Mt 13:24-43. In that passage
Jesus speaks of the present world as a place where the devil has sown
evil seed among the Lord's good seed (Mt 13:27-28). The Master lets
both the good and bad plants grow together until the harvest (Mt
13:30), but the harvest is the end of the world (Mt 13:39).
Premillennialism does not permit that. It roots out all the bad plants
at the beginning of the millennium, and places the harvest at the end
of the thousand years. The theory thus has the bad plants rooted out
before the harvest. The premillennial theory does not harmonize with
Christ's teaching that there is only the present world, the harvest at
the Judgment, and then the world to come (Mt 12:32, Mk 10:30, II Pet
3:13, Eph 1:21).
Probably the most significant error of premillennialism
is the denial of the current reign of Christ. Premillennialism places
the reign of Christ on the throne of David during the millennium, and
says that God failed to establish the kingdom during the first century.
While premillennialism is correct in noting that Jesus is not now
sitting on David's throne, they fail to notice that there are two
reigns of Christ. One is Christ's present reign in His Father's throne
(Rev 3:21, Col 1:13). Christ speaks
of this reign in God's throne in the present tense as a reign that
presently exists. Paul tells us that Christ must reign until God has
put all enemies under Christ's feet (I Cor 15:25). The last enemy that
will be destroyed is death (I Cor 15:26). Death will be destroyed at
the Resurrection and that happens after the Second Coming of Christ (I
Thes 4:16). When the last enemy is destroyed, Christ will "deliver up"
the kingdom to the Father (I Cor 15:24) and will Himself be subject to
the Father (I Cor 15:28). At the time when Christ is subject to the
Father in the world to come, He will sit on His throne, the throne of
His father David (Mt 25:31, Rev 3:21, Lk 1:32), for God has promised
Him that He will have a name that is above every name in this world and
also in the world to come (Eph 1:21). The reign in the world to come is
a reign that has no end (Lk 1:33). Premillennialism does not understand
the two reigns of Christ.
Another problem with premillennialism is that it holds
that Satan is not currently bound. Rev 20 speaks of the same
thousand-year period as spanning the binding of Satan and the reign of
Christ. Though Christ now reigns on His Father's throne (Rev 3:21),
premillennialism denies that Satan is currently bound. The theory holds
that the binding of Satan means
his complete incapacitation. Since Satan is not currently incapacitated
(I Pet 5:8), he is in their view not bound. However, Jesus defined the
binding of Satan as the restriction of his miraculous powers (Mt
12:28-29, Mk 3:26-27), not his complete incapacitation. Since Satan's
powers are currently restricted (I Cor 13:8, Zech 13:2, Micah 3:5-7),
he is currently bound. Premillennialists, however, vigorously deny that
Satan is now bound and that miracles still occur today. If there are
miracles at present, then it means that there is no time when I Cor
13:8, Zech 13:2, and Micah 3:5-7 can be fulfilled. These verses teach
that there is a time when prophecies shall fail, miraculous tongues
will cease, and supernatural knowledge will vanish away.
At the same time that God's revelations cease, the evil
spirits will cease out of the land (Zech 13:2). However, if prophets
and evil spirits are still extant then prophecy has failed. The
prophets have failed because there is no time in which all of the
prophecies can be true if miracles persist in the present day. There
are only three possibilities for the cessation of spiritual gifts from
the premillennial point of view. They could cease during the present
age, the millennium, or the new earth. The premillennialists, however,
deny that miracles have ceased during our present age. Miracles could
also possibly cease during the millennium, but Ezk 36:27, Ezk 37:14,
and Joel 2:28 that the premillennialists understand to be references to
the millennium show that there will be miracles during their concept of
the millennium. Miracles could also cease during the world to come, but
Heb 6:4-5 and Acts 2:39 show that there will be miracles then.
Therefore, there is no time when I Cor 13:8 can be fulfilled if it is
not true at the present time.
A third problem with premillennialism is that it does
not acknowledge that the reign of Christ in Rev 20 occurs at the same
time that the righteous are still dead. The text says, "And I saw the
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the
word of God" (Rev 20:4). These lived and reigned with Christ a thousand
years. Premillennialists believe that this verse teaches a literal
1000-year reign upon the earth. However, the text does not say the
reign is upon the earth. The reign is in the place where the souls of
the righteous are located. However, the souls of the righteous are in
heaven. In Rev 6:9 the text says, "I saw under the altar the souls of
them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which
they held." These are exactly the same souls as in Rev 20:4. However,
these souls were in heaven, not on earth, even as the NT promises to
Christians upon their death (Php 1:23, II Cor 5:6). Christ is reigning
in heaven now (Mk 16:19, Acts 2:33-35, Acts 5:31, I Cor 15:25, Rom
8:34, Col 1:13), and the souls of the righteous are in heaven now.
Therefore, Rev 20:4 speaks of the present age before the souls of the
righteous obtain their bodies at the Resurrection.
This present world and the one to come were all that the
apostles knew anything about (II Pet 3:13, Heb 2:5, 6:5, I Tim 4:8,
etc.). Premillennialists insert a third world, the world of perfect
peace and prosperity, the world of the millennium. The scriptures know
nothing of a third world of millennial peace. Those prophecies applied
to the world of peace during the millennium actually refer to the new
earth (II Pet 3:10). Premillennialism everywhere assumes that
prophecies like Isa 11:6 and Isa 65:25 refer to the millennium. There
is not a single scripture that unequivocally ties Rev 20 into the
prophecies of perfect peace. The prophecies of the trumpets, vials,
seals, and beasts (Rev 8, 15, 6, 13) apply to the world that now is and
do not support premillennialism (I Thes 4:16, I Cor 15:52, Mt
13:30,39). When the events prophesied by these visions are complete,
the time is such that "the mystery of God should be finished, as he
hath declared to his servants the prophets" (Rev 10:7) and "it is done"
(Rev 16:17). There is no millennial reign to follow the "last trump"
before the earth is destroyed.
Part II will consider the resurrection of Rev 20:4 and
the state of the righteous at death in the present day. Part II will
close with a explanation of what the thousand years means in harmony
with the scriptures.
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