Revelation 20:1-6 (NASB)

¹ Then
I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a
great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old,
who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; ³
and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over
him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand
years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

⁴
Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I
saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony
of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the
beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on
their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
⁵ The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years
were completed. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy
is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second
death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will
reign with Him for a thousand years.

Introduction

The “end times” have always
been a source of wonderment, research and contention in Christianity.  It can be shown in the writings of the early
Church Fathers that the early Church was pre-millennial and held to the literal
thousand-year reign of Christ. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Augustine (in his
early days) were all believers in a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ after
the Tribulation times. Irenaeus gave evidence he believed in a literal
Tribulation and a literal Millennial reign in his Adversus haereses: “For in as many days as this world was made, in
so many thousand years shall it be concluded…For the day of the Lord is as a
thousand years…” (Irenaeus n.d.) Augustine, in his
work City of God, states “But while
the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand
years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming.” (Augustine
n.d.)
Later, the church divided into three separate camps regarding the thousand-year
reign of Christ.

Three Views of the Millennium

The
three main views of the millennial reign of Christ are known as
pre-millennialism, post-millennialism and amillennialism. Each of the three
claim to have their basis in scripture and support their view with scripture.
However, each one should be evaluated against what is actually written, not
just in Revelation 20:1-6, but in other passages such as 1 Thessalonians
4:13-17, Isaiah 65:17- 25, Zephaniah 3:11-13, and Zechariah 9:9-10, 14:16-21.

Amillennialism

Amillennialism
is the belief that there will not be a literal thousand-year reign of Christ.
This is most popular in the Roman Catholic Church. Amillennialism is the belief
that the world will stay the same and the kingdom of God will never arrive on
earth within human history. Amillennialists do not believe that people should
look for an earthly utopia. They believe that believers should focus on what
Christ has already done and that He is already reigning on earth. There will be
no rapture of believers as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. This view
takes Revelation 20: 1-6 as symbolic.

The book
of Revelation is full of symbolic numbers. Obviously the number “thousand”
which is used here must not be interpreted in a literal sense. Since the number
ten signifies completeness, and since a thousand is ten to the third power, we
may think of the expression “a thousand years” as standing for a complete
period, a very long period of indeterminate length. In agreement with what was
said above about the structure of the book and in the light of verses 7-15 of
this very chapter (which describe Satan’s “little season,” the final battle and
the final judgment), we may conclude that this thousand-year period extends
from Christ’s first coming to just before his Second Coming. (Hoekema n.d.)

 

Amillennialists believe that Satan
is already bound using Matthew 12:29 as a reference. They believe that Satan is
already hindered from acting in this present age because the Gospel is being
spread throughout the world. They take much of prophesy as symbolic instead of
literal.

This
view comes from the allegorization of scripture interpretation as proposed by
Origen of Alexandria. Augustine was exposed to this through the hermeneutics of
Tyconius. Augustine’s change in eschatology was driven by his change in his
soteriology where he came to understand Matthew 24:13 as meaning that salvation
was not certain and one had to persevere in faith until the end of their
physical life and then hope they would be saved. Amillennialism has been
defined as the official Roman Catholic belief. From the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, paragraph 676:

The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take
shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that
messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological
judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of
the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the
“intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.

 

This belief does not speak at all
to the return of Christ. There is no accounting for the role of Israel in the
last days or who will enter into the kingdom. It seems to offer some sort of
universal salvation to all men. It gives no timing for the return of Christ and
seems to ignore other passages in scripture that speak to the rapture (1 Thess
4:13-17) and tribulation times (Daniel 9:24-27) that would precede the
millennium as written in Revelation and other prophetic passages. It ignores
Matthew 24 where Jesus gives the signs of his return. It does not take into
consideration that the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments are literal. All of
Revelation has been spiritualized and symbolized. Amillennialism does not give
any opinions on what the relationship between the Jews and Christians will be
at the end of time, it seems to completely ignore the question. From the
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 839-841:

839 “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to
the People of God in various ways.”³²⁵

The
relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery,
the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the
Jewish People,³²⁶ “the first to hear the Word of God.”³²⁷
The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response
to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship,
the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is
the Christ”,³²⁸ “for the gifts and the call of God are
irrevocable.”³²⁹

840 And when one
considers the future, God’s People of the Old Covenant and the new People of
God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of
the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from
the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming
of a Messiah, whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter
waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ
Jesus.

841 The
Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also
includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are
the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us
they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”³³⁰

 

Postmillennialism

Postmillennialism
is the belief that Christ’s literal return to earth after some period of time,
after Christians have established the kingdom of God on earth. They believe
that the human race will get better and better and by their own efforts they
will usher in the Kingdom Age.

A definition of
postmillennialism is as follows:

Postmillennialism
expects the proclaiming of the Spirit-blessed gospel of Jesus Christ to win the
vast majority of human beings to salvation in the present age. Increasing
gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ’s
return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the
affairs of people and of nations. After an extensive era of such conditions the
Lord will return visibly, bodily, and in great glory, ending history with the
general resurrection and the great judgement of all humankind. (Bock 1999,
13)

 

Postmillennialism
believes that man can bring about the kingdom of God. The biblical basis for
this belief is based on certain interpretations of passages such as Matthew
13:32-33, 1 Corinthians 15:24, and others which seem to say that the kingdom
will be spread by believers until the whole world has come to faith in Christ,
then the end will come.

Once
again, there is a picking, choosing of scripture passages, taking some
literally and some figuratively, and ignoring others. This position ignores the
descriptions of the end times in Matthew 24, the description of the Rapture in
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and Daniel’s seventieth week in Daniel 9.

Postmillennialism
gives no answer to the basic questions of the millennial kingdom. Again, there
seems to be a belief that all of mankind will go into the Kingdom, to be sorted
out into the sheep and the goats at the final judgment of Revelation 20:11-15.  It completely ignores or allegorizes the seal,
trumpet and bowl judgments in Revelation 4-19 and the lack of mention of the
church on earth during that time.

Premillennialism

Premillennialism
is the belief in the literal return of Christ to reign and rule for a literal thousand-year
period. This belief takes Revelation 20:1-6 literally. In summary, most premillennialists
believe that at some unknown point in human history, all believers will be
raptured to heaven as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and that will usher
in the rise of a literal Anti-Christ and a literal seven year tribulation
period which is also known as Daniel’s Seventieth Week (Daniel 9:24-27) (LaHaye and
Ice, Charting The End Times – A Visual Guide to Understanding Bible Prophesy
2001, 128).

There are other
views as to the timing of the Rapture. One group believes that the rapture will
occur halfway through the tribulation period. Another believes the rapture will
occur before the “great wrath”, that is, before the final defeat of
Anti-Christ. Still others believe that there would be a “partial rapture” of
only those believers who are faithful in the church. There is also the belief
that believers will only be raptured after the tribulation. These views, while
honestly held by some do not make sense when held to Daniel’s seventh week.

After the seven-year
tribulation, as described by John in Revelation 4-19, Christ will return along
with all the believers who were raptured and those who were martyred for their
faith during the tribulation. There will be a remnant of believers who survive
the tribulation who will witness Christ’s return. This belief was held by the
early church that believed that Christ could truly return at any time, taking
his words in Matthew 24:36 literally. Jesus says “But of that day and hour no
one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Matt
24:36 NASB). The premillennial position is that Christ can return at any time,
could have returned at any time in human history and there is nothing man can
do to bring about the kingdom. Believers are cautioned throughout the New
Testament to be ready for Christ’s return. Jesus gives this command in Matthew
24:42-44 among other passages.

Premillennial
believers take the plain meaning of the scriptures at their face value. It is
understood that much of Revelation is written symbolically but those symbols
have a certain meaning. Premillennialism has the only biblical answers to the
key questions of Christ’s return. Christ will return visibly as told by the
angel in Acts 1:11. The time of his return is unknown as stated in Matthew
24:36 and Acts 1:6-7. The millennium will be exactly a thousand years as stated
in Revelation 20:2, 3, 5 & 6. At the end of the millennium, Satan will be
released to attempt to turn the believers in the kingdom against Christ as
stated in Revelation 20-7-9. In a careful reading of Revelation chapters 4-19,
the church is never mentioned. This would lead one to believe that the church
will not be on earth during the time of the judgments.

Conclusion

Premillennialism
is the only position that takes all of prophesy into account. This position
explains the “how, why, when, what and where” of Christ’s return. The Pre-Tribulation
Rapture will set the events into motion. That will be at some unknown time.
After the Rapture, there will be a seven-year tribulation period. At the end of
the tribulation period, Christ will return with all the raptured believers and
those who were martyred during the tribulation.

The other two
positions, Amillennialism and Postmillennialism seem to ignore the plain truth
of scripture. It takes a lot of manipulation, allegorizing and substituting
symbols into what can and should be taken literally. The literary styles of
each passage must be taken into account. As it has been said over and over,
“when the plain sense makes sense, look for no other sense”. Also, when
attempting to understand Scripture, the place to start is with other
Scriptures. When one takes the prophesies from Daniel’s seventy weeks, the
statements of Jesus in the Gospels, the writings of Paul and the other
prophesies in Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah as a whole, the premillennial position
is the only one that one can reasonably conclude holds any justification in
scripture.