I think I was a teenager when I had first heard the word “millennium.” The 1990s were coming to a close and the world was on the brink of a new era: “AD” would now begin with a “2” instead of a “1”. All sorts of people and groups were predicting the end of the world at the stroke of midnight, not the least of which was Prince whose pop-culture prophecy “1999” was played and re-played on the radio in exponential fashion as December 31 drew closer (I know because I graduated high school in 1999 and got very sick of hearing that song!). All this coupled with the threat of the supposed “Y2K” computer glitch that could have potentially sent the first world back into the Dark Ages, “Millennium” became a buzz-word for feeding the “End-of-the-World” anxiety.
It wasn’t until college that I understood “Millennium” as a theological concept. Revelation 20 introduces “thousand years” as a frame of time in which Satan is “bound” (20.2), after which he would be subsequently “set free” (20.3). Additionally, the saints “reigned with Christ” for that duration (20.4).
Unfortunately, much fruitless discussion has centered around the exact nature of this “Millennium,” with respect to where Jesus’ Second Coming fits. Some church traditions take the Millennium as a literal time frame, an exact number of years in which Jesus will rule as king on the earth, providing peaceful bliss to his followers. In this model, “Thousand Years” then is but a teardrop in the ocean compared to the “eternity” that is to follow. Thus, they believe Jesus’ Second Coming will happen Before the thousand years. If you believe that, you are “Pre-Millennial”. Then, within that model there are questions about precisely when before the Millennium the Rapture of the church will take place. Before the 7 years of tribulation? Halfway through? At the end?
But what if the thousand years is not a literal but a spiritual Millennium? What if Jesus’ Second Coming happens after the thousand years of ruling? Then you would be Post-Millennial. This does not come without its own questions: If it is spiritual, when did the “Millennium” begin? When will it end? What does a “spiritual” millennium look like?
But what if there will be no Millennium? What if the numbers are purely symbolic and nothing else? Then you would be Amillennial. As with the other positions, this also has questions of its own. Sometimes, people hold on so tightly to their prescribed “Millennial” position that they accuse others of being false-teachers. I actually heard a well-respected pastor and author say, “Jesus is coming back before the Millennium to rapture the church, and if a brother or sister in your church doesn’t believe that, well friend, they aren’t a Christian! After all, the Bible says that in the last days, some will fall away from the teachings!”
Apparently I have fallen away from the teachings.
One of the dangers surrounding these discussions is that they add one more litmus test toward identifying who is or isn’t a true disciple of Jesus. Forget “Saved by grace through faith alone”: believing the wrong end-times position makes your salvation null-and-void! While I personally think the “Left-Behind” Series is a theological train-wreck, it would be unholy of me to question the sincerity of Christians who believe it is accurate.
Another danger is that an unhealthy focus on these discussions further reduces the book of Revelation to a mere formula for predicting the end of the world. Only a few bold and ignorant individuals will go so far as to set a specific time for the “Revelation Events” to take place, but many more suffice to say, “I don’t know when it will happen, but I do know it will happen like this!”
I would like to say quite frankly, I do not know when or how the end will take place. Focusing on the time-frame of the Millennium and the end-times is not only unhelpful in putting the “End-Times-Puzzle” together, but ultimately misses the point.
Consider all the things we miss when the focus shifts toward the thousand years: There is an angel (presumably Jesus) who chains the Dragon, Satan, and locks him in the Abyss. Immediately after that, the “souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God” appear in Heaven, reigning with Christ: Those who were dead Came To Life!
The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years (Rev. 20.6).
Reigning with Christ for a Millennium seems very much worth the “ten days of testing” saints endure (Rev. 2.10; see also Daniel 1).
Even when the Millennium draws to a close and Satan is “released” to continue his deceptive activities, gathering a giant army to oppose God (the same army described in Rev. 16.16), that very army is devoured by fire and Satan is thrown in the Lake of Fire. Finally, the dead are judged according to what they had done, receiving either the blessing or punishment of their actions (the only “action” that matters is whether or not one was faithful to God, even unto death).
At long last, chapter 21 pictures the emergence of a new heaven and earth, securing the eternal reward for those who had, in the end, proved faithful to God by enduring the “test”. Consider the beautiful picture that we miss if we focus on a particular understanding of “Millennium”:
- The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.
- He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
- There will be no death or mourning or crying or pain.
- The old, insufficient and corrupted order of things has passed away.
- God is making everything New.
- To him who is thirsty God will give—without cost—from the water of life
- God will be our God and we will be His Children
While there are many interpretations of the “millennium”, these are the things most worthy of the readers attention! Let us never forget that in the end, evil is done away with for good. Let us never forget that in the end God wins and makes all things new. Let us never forget that though all men die, death does not have to be the final answer! An unhealthy focus on the exact nature of the “millennium” creates a tendency for us to forget these things.
Personally, I believe the “thousand years” is figurative, as are all the references of “thousand” throughout the Bible. More than once in the Old Testament, God promises his steadfast love “to a thousand generations of those who love him” (Dt. 7.9). This doesn’t mean that at generation 1001, God’s steadfast love ends. It is a metaphorical way of saying that his love Never exhausts, as is evidenced by 1 Chronicles 16.15: “He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations.”
Applied to Revelation, perhaps we could understand the “Thousand Years” in similar fashion, that our reigning with Christ will endure indefinitely, symbolizing the complete and final victory of believers over all threats of evil and compromise. But even so, what I believe about the "Millennium" is not nearly as important as understanding the glorious future that awaits God's faithful servants and the equally horrific future that awaits his enemies.
I think that is the whole point of Revelation 20.1-21.8. The original readers of the book of Revelation faced certain persecution whether through economic injustice, being socially ostracized, or even killed, all because they remained faithful to God. For those saints who endure such persecution, even if they die, they will ironically and ultimately be victorious over their persecutors, ruling with Christ for a Thousand Years!
So it is with us. There may come a time when our own faith is put to the test, and certain persecution comes our way. How will we respond? Will we respond as cowards (Rev. 21.8) who turn their backs on the God who saved us? Or will we respond as overcomers, who remain faithful to God, even if it means we die? Should we turn our backs on God, our fate would be the same as those who end up in the “Lake of Fire” (21.8). Should we remain faithful, we would rule with Christ eternally.
Paul makes a case for this understanding of a “millennium” in an appeal to Timothy:
If we died with him, we will also live with him
If we endure, we will also reign with him (2 Tim. 2.11-12).
Similarly, he tells his Roman audience:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8.18).
We miss the absolute beauty of the picture John is painting when we create unhelpful speculation about what this “Millennium” entails. Instead of advancing some theological agenda, perhaps we could read and use Revelation 20 for its intended purpose: To encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ endure the present sufferings, because the reward that awaits those who remain faithful to Christ, even to the end, will be far greater than what we can imagine.
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