The millennium. The period of Christ's coming reign with His saints over this earth, delivered from Satan's presence. As Satan and His kingdom in successive stages sink, Christ and His kingdom rise (<Rev. 19--20>). Satan, having been foiled in his last desperate attempt to overthrow Christ's kingdom by ANTICHRIST (which see) or the beast, shall by the just law of necessary retributive consequence be bound immediately afterward and imprisoned in the bottomless pit a thousand years. On the same just principle they who have suffered for Christ, and not worshipped the God-opposed world power, shall come to life again and reign with Christ (<2 Tim. 2:12>), at His coming, a thousand years. Their RESURRECTION (which see) is "the first resurrection." "The rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished: blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Ten, the world number, raised to the third power, the divine number, expresses the world pervaded by God. Possibly the "thousand" may extend much longer than the literal number. So also (<Phil. 3:10>) Paul's ambition was to "attain the resurrection from out of the rest of the dead" ([exanastasis (grk 1815)]). So our Lord declares (<Luke 20:35>), "they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead cannot die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection." Again, to the apostles (<Luke 22:18>), "ye are they who have continued with Me in My temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and drink with Me at My table, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Again (<Mt. 19:28>), "ye that have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

 Those "beheaded (virtually or actually, literally, hatcheted) for Jesus and for the word of God" stand first; then they" who have not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands," i.e. did not treat the world's riches, ambitions, and pleasures as their portion. Jesus implies, in reply to the request of Zebedee's two sons, that there are places of peculiar honour reserved by the Father for those who drink Christ's bitter cup (<Mt. 20:22-23>). Thus, "whosoever shall lose his life for Christ's sake (in will or deed) shall save it" (<Mark 8:35>). Satan thought to destroy God's people by persecutions (just as previously to destroy Christ, <Rev. 12>); but the church is not destroyed from the earth, but raised to rule over it; Satan himself is shut up for a thousand years in the "abyss" ("bottomless pit"), preparatory to the "lake of fire," his final doom. As before, by Christ's ascension, he ceased to be accuser of the brethren in heaven, so during the millennium he ceases to be seducer and persecutor on earth. As long as he rules in the darkness of the world we live in an atmosphere tainted with evil physical and spiritual (<Eph. 2:2>). Christ's coming will purify the world (<Mal. 3:3>). Sin will not wholly cease, for men shall be still in the flesh, and therefore death will come, but at long intervals, life being vastly prolonged as in the days of the patriarchs (<Isa. 65:20>); but sin will not be that almost universal power that it is now. Satan will no longer seduce the flesh, nor be the "god" and "prince of this world" (<John 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4>), which now "lieth in the wicked one" (<1 John 5:19>). The flesh, untempted from without, shall become more and more subject to the spirit. Christ with His saints, in transfigured bodies, will reign over men in the flesh. The millennial nations will be prepared for a higher state, as Adam would have been in paradise, had he never fallen (<Rev. 21:1,24,26>). This will be the manifestation of "the world (age, [aion]) to come" already set up invisibly in the saints in "this world" (<Heb. 2:5; 5:5>). As each seventh year was Israel's year of remission, so of the world's seven thousands the seventh shall be its sabbatism (<Heb. 4:9>, margin).
 Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Cyprian, expected an earthly millennial kingdom; not until millennial views carnally confounded the state of the transfigured king-priests with that of the subject nations in the flesh, and the church itself sought a present visible kingdom with Rome as its center, instead of hoping for it only when Christ shall come, was the doctrine abandoned by the church and apostasy set in.

 Earth, not becoming transfigured until after the millennium, shall not be, during it, the meet home for the transfigured saints; but from heaven they with Christ rule the earth, the comparatively free communion between the heavenly and earthly churches being typified by Christ's communion at short intervals with His disciples during the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension.

 Old Testament prophecy everywhere anticipates Christ's kingdom at Jerusalem: <Jer. 3:17; Isa. 4:3; 11:9; 35:8; 60:61,65-66; Ezek. 37> to 48, etc., etc. He confirms His disciples' expectation of it, but corrects their impatience to know the time (<Acts 1:6-8>). The kingdom begins, not as the carnal Jews thought, from without, but from within, spiritually; then when Christ shall be manifested it shall be manifested outwardly (<Col. 3:4; 1 Jn. 3:2>). The papacy blasphemously anticipates the visible headship which Christ shall then assume, "reigning as kings" without Christ (<1 Cor. 4:8>). "When Christianity became a worldly power under Constantine, the future hope was weakened by joy over present success" (Bengel); the church becoming a harlot ceased to be the bride going to meet her Bridegroom. The saints' future priesthood unto God and Christ "in His temple" (<Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 7:15; 20:6>) is the ground of their kingship toward men. Men will be willing subjects of the transfigured priest-kings whose power is the attraction that wins the heart, not counteracted by devil or beast.

 Church and state will be coextensive; and the church and the world no longer in mutual repulsion. The distinction between them shall cease, for the church will be co-extensive with the world. The veil shall be taken off Israel first, then off all people, and the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of Christ (<Rev. 11:15; Isa. 25:7>). Christ's glorious appearing, the church's transfiguration, antichrist's destruction, and Satan's binding, will dispose the nations to embrace the gospel. As a regeneration of elected individuals "taken out" from Jews and Gentiles (<Acts 15:14>) goes on now, so a regeneration of nations then. As the church begins at Christ's ascension, so the visible kingdom at His second advent. What the transfigured priest-kings shall be in heaven, that the Israelite priest-kings shall be on earth. A blessed chain of giving and receiving: God, Christ, the transfigured bride, i.e. the translated church, Israel, the world of nations.

 The outpouring of the Spirit on Israel (<Zec. 12:10>) will usher in the new period of revelation, which has been silent so long as Israel, God's chosen mediator of revelations, and of establishing His manifested kingdom on earth, has been in the background. God from the first, in dividing to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, set their bounds "according to the number of the children, of Israel" (<Deut. 32:8>). Now is the time of preaching; then shall be the time of liturgy of "the great congregation" (<Ps. 22:25; Ezek. 40> to 48; <Zec. 14:16-21; Isa. 2:3>). Art and music will be the handmaids to spiritual worship, instead of drawing off the soul to sensuousness. Society will be pervaded by the Spirit of Christ. Earthly and heavenly glories shall be united in the twofold election: elect Israel in the flesh shall stand at the head of the earthly nations; the elect spiritual church, in the heavenly kingdom, shall reign over both. These elections are for the good of those to whom they minister respectively; compare, as to Israel's mediating blessedness to the nations, <Rom. 11:12,15; Micah 5:7>. The extent of rule (the "ten" or "five cities") is proportioned to the degree of faithfulness, as the parable teaches (<Luke 19:13,15,17,19>); all vessels of glory are filled, but those of larger dimensions are of larger capacity for glory (<2 Tim. 2:20-21; Isa. 22:24>). Peter (<2 Pet. 1:16-18>) makes the transfiguration the earnest of Christ's coming in glory (<Mt. 17>); it is the miniature specimen of the millennial kingdom: first, Christ in glory, then Moses a specimen of those raised from the dead at Christ's coming, then Elijah a specimen of those who never taste death, but being found alive are transfigured in a moment (<1 Cor. 15:51-52>); finally Peter, James, and John, the specimen of Israel and the nations in the flesh who shall desire the tabernacling among them of Christ and the transfigured saints: "Lord, it is good to be here," etc. The privilege of our high calling in Christ is limited to the time of Satan's reign; when he is bound there will be no scope for suffering for, and so no longer the reward of reigning with, Him (<Rev. 3:21; 1 Cor. 6:2>.).

 Even during the millennium there is a separation between heaven and earth, humanity transfigured and humanity in the flesh. Hence, apostasy can take place at its close; out of the one element of evil in it, the flesh, man's birth-sin the only influence then preventing the saving of all souls. In the judgment on this, the world of nature is destroyed and renewed, as the world of history was before the millennium. Only then the new heaven and earth are perfected. The millennial heaven and earth, connected but separate, are but a foretaste of the everlasting state, when the upper and lower congregations shall be no longer separate and new Jerusalem shall descend from God out of heaven. The millennium shall be the last season of grace; for what can move him in whom the church's visible glory, evil being circumscribed on all sides, evokes no longing for communion with the church's King? As the history of nations ended with the church's millennial manifestation in glory, so that of mankind in general shall end with the separation of the just from the wicked. (Auberlen, Daniel and Revelation.) As "kings" the transfigured saints shall have subjects; as "priests" they shall have people to whom they shall mediatorially minister blessings from God, namely, the men on earth. The scene of the kingdom is not in, but "under, heaven"; on or over the earth (<Rev. 5:10; Dan. 7:27>). The kingdom shall be where the tares once were (<Mt. 13:41>), i.e. on earth. "The meek shall inherit the earth"; like Caleb, alone faithful among the faithless, inheriting the very Mount Hebron on which his feet trod 40 years before (<Mt. 5:5; Num. 14:23-24; Josh. 14:9>). It will be a time of Sabbath peace, uninterrupted by war (<Heb. 4:9; Isa. 2:4; Zec. 9:10; Hos, 2:18>). Even the savage animals shall lose their ferocity (<Isa. 11:6-9; 65:25>). Christ's king-priesthood (<Zec. 6:13>) shall be explained in the services of the glorious temple at Jerusalem (<Ezek. 40--48>). The marriage of the Lamb and bride, then begun in heaven, shall unfold the mysteries of the now obscure Song. The theocracy, or rule of God in Christ, shall supersede the misrule of earthly potentates who ruled for self.

 Finally, when the corrupt flesh and Satan shall have been cast out forever after the millennium, the general resurrection, judgment, and REGENERATION (which see) of our home shall follow. The same Spirit regenerates the believer's soul now (<Rom. 8:11>), his body at Christ's coming, and his home (<Ps. 104:30; Rev. 21:1>) after the millennium. The earth, once baptized with water, shall be baptized with fire (<2 Pet. 3:7,10-13>). Earth and nature shall be regenerated, as the nations were previously in the millennium. The saints not merely, as in it, reign from heaven over the earth; but the heavenly Jerusalem, having the glory of God, shall descend on earth, far eclipsing Israel's Jerusalem in the millennium. The saints shall be God's city and bride, God causing His glory to shine out through them, as the flame through a jasper colored lamp (<Rev. 21:10-11,23>). "The nations of them which are saved," namely, during the millennium (which will be the age of the regeneration of nations as this is the age of the regeneration of individual souls) "shall walk in the light of" the heavenly Jerusalem, i.e. the wife of the Lamb; for the elect church shall hold the primacy among the redeemed throughout eternity, because she alone shall have witnessed for Christ in the face of an opposing world and the prince of darkness (<Rev. 21:24>). In the primitive paradise there was but a garden with a solitary pair; but in the final paradise and the regenerated earth city and garden shall be combined, the perfect communion of saints with individual blessedness and perfection. Satan loosed no more; the saints under the blessed necessity of sinning no more; the groans of nature hushed (<Rom. 8:18-23>); no more sea, literal or figurative (<Dan. 7:2-3; Isa. 57:20; Rev. 21:1,4>); no more pain, crying, death. When Christ shall have accomplished the purpose of His mediatorial kingdom by bringing all things into subjection to the Father, God will be all in all. The unity of the Godhead will then be prominent, as His Trinity is now; "His name will be one," and He will come then first into direct communion with His redeemed. Lord, hasten it in Thine own time (<Zec. 14:9; 1 Cor. 15:24>).
(from Fausset's Bible Dictionary)

 (mi-len'-i-um)
 -------------------
 Divergent Views-- Scope of Article
 I. THE TEACHING OF JESUS
 .. 1. The Millennium Not before the Advent
 ...... (1) Parable of the Wheat and Tares
 ...... (2) Parable of the Pounds
 II. TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES
 .. 1. Expectation of the Advent
 .. 2. Possibility of Survival-- Its Implications
 .. 3. Prophecy of "Man of Sin"
 .. 4. No Room for Millennium
 .. 5. Harmony of Christ and Apostles
 LITERATURE
 -------------------
 Divergent Views-- Scope of Article: The great majority of evangelical Christians believe that the kingdom of God shall have universal sway over the earth, and that righteousness and peace and the knowledge of the Lord shall everywhere prevail. This happy time is commonly called the Millennium, or the thousand years' reign. Divergent views are entertained as to how it is to be brought about. Many honest and faithful men hold that it will be introduced by the agencies now at work, mainly by the preaching of the gospel of Christ and the extension of the church over the world. An increasing number of men equally honest teach that the Millennium will be established by the visible advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. The aim of this brief article is to set forth some of the Scriptural grounds on which this latter view rests. No reference will be made to objections, to counter-objections and interpretations; the single point, namely, that the Millennium succeeds the second coming of Jesus Christ, that it does not precede it, will be rigidly adhered to. Those who hold this view believe that neither Christ nor His apostles taught, on fair principles of interpretation, that the Millennium must come before His advent.
 I. The Teaching of Jesus.-- The Lord Jesus said nothing about world-wide conversion in His instructions to His disciples touching their mission <Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15; Lk 24. 46-48; Acts 1:8>.

 The Millennium Not before the Advent: They were to be His witnesses and carry His message to the race, but He does not promise the race will receive their testimony, or that men will generally accept His salvation. On the contrary, He explicitly forewarns them that they shall be hated of all men, that sufferings and persecutions shall be their lot, but if they are faithful to the end their reward will be glorious. But world-wide evangelism does not mean world-wide conversion. The universal offer of salvation does not pledge its universal acceptance. In His instructions and predictions the Lord does not let fall a hint that their world-wide mission will result in world-wide conversion, or that thereby the longed-for Millennium will be ushered in. But there is a time to come when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters the sea, when teaching shall no longer be needed, for all shall know Him from the least to the greatest. Our dispensation, accordingly, cannot be the last, for the effects stated in that are not contemplated in the instructions and the results of this. To the direct revelation of Christ on the subject we now turn. In two parables He explicitly announces the general character and the consummation of the gospel age, and these we are briefly to examine.

 (1) Parable of the Wheat and Tares <Mt 13:24-30,36-43>.-- Happily we are not left to discover the meaning and scope of this parable. We enjoy the immense advantage of having our Lord's own interpretation of it. Out of His Divine explanation certain most important facts emerge: (a) The parable covers the whole period between the first and second advents of the Saviour. The Sower is Christ Himself. He began the good work; He opened the new era. (b) The field is the world. Christ's work is no longer confined to a single nation or people as once; it contemplates the entire race. (c) His people, the redeemed, begotten by His word and Spirit, are the good seed. Through them the gospel of His grace is to be propagated throughout the whole world. (d) The devil is also a sower. He is the foul counterfeiter of God 's work. He sowed the tares, the sons of the evil one. (e) The tares are not wicked men in general, but a particular class of wicked brought into close and contaminating association with the children of God. "Within the territory of the visible church the tares are deposited" (Dr. David Brown). It is the corruption of Christendom that is meant, a gigantic fact to which we cannot shut our eyes. (f) The mischief, once done, cannot be corrected. "Let both grow together until the harvest." Christendom once corrupted remains so to the end. (g) The harvest is the consummation of the age. This is the culmination of our age; it terminates with the advent and judgment of the Son of God. He will send forth His angels who will "gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire ..... Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

Here, then, we have the beginning, progress and consummation of our age. Christ Himself introduced it, and it was distinguished for its purity and its excellence. But the glorious system of truth was soon marred by the cunning craftiness of Satan. No after-vigilance or earnestness on the part of the servants could repair the fatal damage. They were forbidden to attempt the removal of the tares, for by so doing they would endanger the good grain, so intermixed had the two become! The expulsion of the tares is left for angels' hands in the day of the harvest. This is our Lord's picture of our age: a Zizanian field wherein good and bad, children of God and children of the evil one, live side by side down to the harvest which is the end. In spite of all efforts to correct and reform, the corruption of Christendom remains, nay, grows apace. To expel the vast crop of false doctrine, false professors, false teachers, is now as it has been for centuries an impossibility. Christ's solemn words hold down to the final consummation, "Let both grow together until the harvest." In such conditions a millennium of universal righteousness and knowledge of the Lord seems impossible until the separation takes place at the harvest.
 (2) Parable of the Pounds <Lk 19:11-27>.-- Jesus was on His last journey to Jerusalem, and near the city. The multitude was eager, expectant. They supposed the Kingdom of God was immediately to appear. The parable was spoken to correct this mistake and to reveal certain vital features of it. "A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." There is little difficulty in grasping the main teaching of this suggestive narrative. The nobleman is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; the far country is heaven; the kingdom He goes to receive is the Messianic kingdom, for the victorious establishment of which all God's people long and pray. The servants are those who sustain responsible relation to the Lord because of the trust committed to them. The rebellious citizens are those who refuse subjection to His will and defy His authority. His return is His second coming. The parable spans the whole period between His ascension and His advent. It measures across our entire age. It tells of Christ's going away, it describes the conduct of His servants and of the citizens during His absence; it foretells His return and the reckoning that is to follow. Mark the words, "And it came to pass, when he was come back again, having received the kingdom." It is in heaven He receives the investiture of the kingdom <Rev 5:6>. It is on earth that He administers it. The phrase, "having received the kingdom," cannot by any dexterity of exegesis be made to denote the end of time or the end of the Millennium, or of His receiving it at the end of the world; it is then He delivers it up to God, even the Father <1 Cor 24-28>.

 The order and sequence of events as traced by the Lord disclose the same fact made prominent in the parable of the Wheat and Tares, namely, that during the whole period between His ascension and His return there is no place for a Millennium of world-wide righteousness and prosperity. But Scripture warrants the belief that such blessedness is surely to fill the earth, and if so, it must be realized after Christ's second coming.
 II. Teaching of the Apostles.-- There is no unmistakable evidence that the apostles expected a thousand years of prosperity and peace during Christ's absence in heaven.

 1. Expectation of the Advent: In <Acts 1:11> we read that the heavenly visitants said to the apostles, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven?" This attitude of the men of Galilee became the permanent attitude of the primitive church. It was that of the uplifted gaze. Paul's exultant words respecting the Thessalonians might well be applied to all believers of that ancient time, that they "turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven" <1 Thes 2:10>. It is the prominent theme of the New Testament epistles In the New Testament it is mentioned 318 t. One verse in every thirty, we are told, is occupied with it. It is found shining with a glad hope in the first letters Paul wrote, those to the Thessalonians. It is found in the last he wrote, the second to Timothy, gleaming with the bright anticipation of the crown he was to receive at the Redeemer's appearing.

 James quickens the flagging courage, and reanimates the drooping spirits of believers with this trumpet peal: "Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand" <James 5:8>. Peter exhorts to all holy conversation and godliness by the like motive: "Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (<2 Pet 3:12> margin). Amid the deepening gloom and the gathering storms of the last days, <Jude 1:14> cheers us with the words of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, `Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon .... the ungodly. ' John closes the Canon with the majestic words, "Behold, he cometh with the clouds," "Behold, I come quickly." These men, speaking by the Spirit of the living God, know there can be no reign of universal righteousness, no deliverance of groaning creation, no redemption of the body, no binding of Satan, and no Millennium while the tares grow side by side with the wheat; while the ungodly world flings its defiant shout after the retiring nobleman, "We will not have this man to reign over us"; and while Satan, that strong, fierce spirit, loose in this age, deceives, leads captive, devours and ruins as he lists. Therefore the passionate longing and the assurance of nearing deliverance at the coming of Christ fill so large a place in the faith and the life of the primitive disciples.

 2. Possibility of Survival-- Its Implications: In <1 Thes 4:17> Paul speaks of himself and others who may survive till the Lord's coming: "Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (compare <1 Cor 15:51-52>).

 This implies fairly that the apostle did not know that long ages would elapse between his own day and Christ's advent. There was to his mind the possibility of His coming in his lifetime; in fact, he seems to have an expectation that he would not pass through the gates of death at all, that he would live to see the Lord in His glorious return, for the day and the hour of the advent is absolutely concealed even from inspired men. The inference is perfectly legitimate that Paul and his fellow-disciples did not anticipate that a thousand years should intervene between them and the coming.

 3. Prophecy of the "Man of Sin": Furthermore, the Thessalonians had fallen into a serious mistake <2 Thes 9:1-12>. By a false spirit, or by a forged epistle as from Paul, they were led to believe that "the day of the Lord is now present" (English Revised Version), verse 2. The apostle sets them right about this solemn matter. He assures them that some things must precede that day, namely, "the falling away," or apostasy, and the appearing of a powerful adversary, whom he calls "the Man of Sin," and describes as "the Son of Perdition." Neither the one nor the other of these two, the apostasy and the Man of Sin, was then present. But the road was fast getting ready for them. There was the "mystery of lawlessness" already at work at the time, and although a certain restraint held it in check, nevertheless when the check was removed it would at once precipitate the apostasy, and it would issue in the advent of the Man of Sin, and he should be brought to nought by the personal coming of Jesus Christ. This appears to be the import of the passage.

 Here was the appropriate place to settle forever for these saints and for all others the question of a long period to intervene before the Saviour's advent. How easy and natural it would have been for Paul to write, "Brethren, there is to be first a time of universal blessedness for the world, the Millennium, and after that there will be an apostasy and the revelation of the Man of Sin whom Christ will destroy by the brightness of His coming." But Paul intimated nothing of the sort. Instead, he distinctly says that the mystery of lawlessness is already working, that it will issue in "the falling away," and then shall appear the great adversary, the Lawless One, who shall meet his doom by the advent of Christ. The mystery of lawlessness, however, is held in restraint, we are told. May it not be possible that the check shall be taken off, then the Millennium succeed, and after that the apostasy and the Son of Perdition? No, for its removal is immediately followed by the coming of the great foe, the Antichrist. For this foe has both an apocalypse and a parousia like Christ Himself. Hence, the lifting of the restraint is sudden, by no means a prolonged process.

 4. No Room for a Millennium: The apostle speaks of the commencement, progress, and close of a certain period. It had commenced when he wrote. Its close is at the coming of Christ. What intervenes? The continuance of the evil secretly at work in the body of professing Christians, and its progress from the incipient state to the maturity of daring wickedness which will be exhibited in the Man of Sin. This condition of things fills up the whole period, if we accept Paul's teaching as that of inspired truth. There appears to be no place for a Millennium within the limits which the apostle here sets. The only escape from this conclusion, as it seems to us, is, to deny that the coming of Christ is His actual, personal second coming. But the two words, epiphaneia and parousia, which elsewhere are used separately to denote His advent, are here employed to give "graphic vividness" and certainty to the event, and hence, they peremptorily forbid a figurative interpretation. The conclusion seems unavoidable that there can be no Millennium on this side of the advent of Christ.

 5. Harmony of Christ and Apostles: Our Lord's Olivet prophecy <Mt 24-25; Mk 13; Lk 21> accords fully with the teaching of the apostles on the subject. In that discourse He foretells wars, commotions among the nations, Jerusalem's capture and the destruction of the temple, Israel's exile, Christians persecuted while bearing their testimony throughout the world, cosmic convulsions, unparalleled tribulation and sufferings which terminate only with His advent. From the day this great prophecy was spoken down to the hour of His actual coming He offers no hope of a Millennium. He opens no place for a thousand years of blessedness for the earth.

 These are some of the grounds on which Biblical students known as Premillennialists rest their belief touching the coming of the Lord and the Millennial reign.

 LITERATURE.-- Premillenarian: H. Bonar, The Coming of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus; Wood, The Last Things; Guinness, The Approaching End of the Age; Seiss, The Last Times; Gordon, Ecce Venit; Premillennial Essays; Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom; West, The Thousand Years in Both Testaments; Trotter, Plain Papers on Prophetic Subjects; Brookes, Maranatha; Andrews, Christianity and Antichristianity; Kellogg, Predition and Fufilment.

 WILLIAM G. MOOREHEAD
(from International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (C) 1996 by Biblesoft)

 These and many other Old Testament passages are often taken to refer only to the thousand-year period itself. However, it is often difficult in these passages to see a clear dividing line between the earthly period of the millennium and the eternal state of new heavens and earth. Therefore, it is best to let one's teaching about the millennium be drawn specifically from the words in <Revelation 20>. The other great promises to Israel, while they have a temporary fulfillment in the thousand years, still await the fulness of the new heavens and new earth and the unhindered presence of Israel's king and the church's husband-- Jesus Christ our Lord.

 During that thousand-year period, Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit so he will not deceive the nations until his short period of release <Rev. 20:3,7-8>. The faithful martyrs who have died for the cause of Christ will be resurrected before the millennium. They will rule with Christ and will be priests of God and Christ <Rev. 5:10; 20:4>. The unbelieving dead will wait for the second resurrection <Rev. 20:5>. After the thousand years, Satan will be released and will resume his work of deceit <Rev. 20:7-8>.

 The most important aspect of the millennium is the reign of Christ. Peter taught that Christ now rules from the right hand of God <Acts 2:33-36>. That rule will last until His enemies are made His footstool <Ps. 110:1>. The apostle Paul also understood Christ to be presently reigning in a period designed to bring all of God's enemies underfoot <1 Cor. 15:25-27>. Thus the impact of Christ's present rule over the earth from God's right hand must not be seen as unrelated to His future reign during the millennium.

 The millennium is viewed by interpreters in several different ways. One position holds that the millennium only refers to Christ's spiritual rule today from heaven. This symbolic view is known as the amillennial interpretation. Another position views Christ's spiritual rule as working through preaching and teaching to bring gradual world improvement leading up to Christ's return. This is the postmillennial view.

 The position that holds to an actual thousandyear period in the future is known as the premillennial view. This interpretation does not diminish the power of Christ's present rule from heaven or limit that rule to the church only. That position sees the need for a thousand-year place in history for an earthly fulfillment of Israel's promises of land and blessing. It stresses that the one thousand years in <Revelation 20> are actual years and are not symbolic.

(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
(Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

Christ's future return to the earth at the end of the present age. Although the Bible explicitly speaks of Christ's appearance as a "second time," the phrase "second coming" occurs nowhere in the New Testament. Many passages, however, speak of His return. In fact, in the New Testament alone it is referred to over 300 times.

The night before His crucifixion, Jesus told His apostles that He would return (John 14:3). When Jesus ascended into heaven, two angels appeared to His followers, saying that He would return in the same manner as they had seen Him go (Acts 1:11). The New Testament is filled with expectancy of His coming, even as Christians should be today.

Various opinions exist about what is meant by the Second Coming. Some regard it as the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of PENTECOST. Others regard it as the coming of Christ into the heart at conversion. Christ's coming for the believer at the time of death is still another view. Careful examination of the New Testament, however, makes it clear that the Second Coming will be a climactic historical event. The Lord will return in the same manner in which He left. His coming will be personal, bodily, and visible.

The time of the Second Coming is unknown. In fact, Jesus stated that only the Father knew the time. Therefore, the return of the Lord should be a matter of constant expectancy. As He came the first time, in the "fullness of time" (Gal 4:4), so will the Second Coming be. The believer's task is not to try to determine the time of the Second Coming. We should share the gospel message diligently until He returns (Acts 1:8-11).
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
 

SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

The great event that will wind up this present age. Premillennialists believe that Christ will come to establish a visible earthly kingdom over Israel for at least 1,000 years. Amillennialists hold that the second coming of Christ will initiate the eternal state. The amillennialist rejects the future earthly program for Israel and mysticalizes the great OT prophecies concerning Zion and Jerusalem, etc., to refer to the Christian church. The postmillennialist believes that Christ will return to the earth after the Millennium. Premillennialists believe that the return of Christ consists of two events or stages. Pretribulation premillenialists hold that Christ will return for His church (1 Cor 15:51-55; 1 Thess 4:13-18), glorify it, and take it to heaven before a seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation (Jer 30:5; Dan 9:27; etc.). At the end of this cataclysmic seven-year period Christ will return in power and glory to judge the nations and set up His millennial kingdom. Midtribulationists believe that Christ will return in the middle of Daniel's seventieth week. Posttribulationists reject the idea of a separate appearance of Christ for the church and have the church going through the entire Tribulation. Exhaustive inductive study of Scripture seems to favor the pretribulation-rapture view.
(From The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.)
 

The setting is the end of the great period of persecution and the judgment of God. The war with the forces of evil has been fought and won by the rider on the white horse who is called "Faithful and True." Then comes the scene of which Rev 20:2 is a part. What does it mean that the devil is bound for a thousand years? Why put him in prison rather than destroy him, and why for a mere thousand years? What does this time period have to do with "the millennium," and what does that term signify anyway?

This verse is another of those places in Revelation in which there appear to be two levels of conflict. In Rev 12 we saw that there was a conflict in heaven between Michael and the dragon (Satan) and a parallel conflict on earth between the dragon and the saints. Here there is a conflict on earth in the physical realm between the exalted Christ, returning visibly as king, and the pseudo-Christ, "the beast," and his "unholy spirit," the "false prophet" (Rev 19:19-20). Both enemies have been summarily dealt with (they are tossed into the lake of fire, or hell) and their army has been destroyed by a word from Christ. All of that happens on a very physical level. But there is still the matter of the devil who inspired and embodied himself in "the beast" (Rev 13:1). Now we shift to the spiritual plane (although not to heaven, for the dragon was cast out of heaven in Rev 12).

In this prophecy Satan is taken captive by an angel, bound with a chain for one thousand years, tossed into the Abyss, the prison of evil spirits, and locked and sealed in. At the end of this period he is again released, again foments a rebellion among human beings on earth (although now in the tribes outside the Roman Empire), and in the end not only loses his army, but is himself tossed into the lake of fire, where he will remain forever (Rev 20:7-10).

"The millennium," then, refers to this thousand-year Satan-free period during which at least the martyrs are resurrected and reign with Christ on earth (Rev 20:4-6). The question that remains is how to interpret this information. There are three fundamentally different positions on the millennium. The first, the postmillennial view, interprets this passage as a look back on history. It sees the millennium as the period at the end of history that ushers in the reign of Christ. At times this is viewed as a spiritual rule of Christ through the triumph of the gospel and at times as a literal period of one thousand years characterized by the triumph of kingdom values at the end of time. The point is that the physical return of Christ comes at the end of the millennium.

The second, the amillennial view, does not really believe in no millennium (which is what "amillennial" should mean etymologically), but in a spiritual millennium. The binding of Satan has been accomplished during the lifetime of Jesus (see Matt 12:29; Luke 10:18; John 12:31; Col 2:15). During the age of the church Christ reigns in heaven and the power of Satan is limited in that he cannot stop the spread of the gospel. The first resurrection is the spiritual resurrection of the person's soul coming to life upon conversion. Therefore the millennial period (the thousand years being symbolic of a long time) overlaps the church age, the rebellion in Rev 20:7-10 being essentially the same as that in Rev 19:19-21.

The third position, the premillennial view, argues that the text should be taken at face value to indicate an actual period of time, during which Christ reigns and Satan is unable to deceive the nations. This fits with both the New Testament concept that Satan is alive and active on earth during the present age (see Luke 22:3; Acts 5:3; 2 Cor 4:3-4; 11:14; Eph 2:2; 1 Thess 2:18; 2 Tim 2:26; 1 Peter 5:8) and a common idea found in Jewish apocalyptic. For example, the pseudepigraphical book 2 Enoch mentions the idea that there are seven thousand-year periods to world history, the last being a thousand-year sabbath when God returns (2 Enoch 32:2-33:2). A similar idea is found in a passage in the Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 97 b) and in the early Christian Epistle of Barnabas(Barnabas 15). Other Jewish works reveal a belief in a shorter millennium (four hundred years or even just forty years) or mention no millennium. In the rest of the New Testament only one other passage (1 Cor 15:23-28) may indicate two stages in the overcoming of evil, but of course the interpretation of this passage is also disputed. At the same time, no New Testament passage excludes this view.

In John's view the millennium consists of several elements. First, Satan is bound so that he cannot deceive the nations (Rev 20:3). Second, the martyrs are resurrected and reign with Christ (Rev 20:4-7). This means that the armies destroyed in Rev 19:21 are in fact armies, not all the people alive. The population of the earth not destroyed in the final series of judgments remains alive and is ruled by Christ and his martyrs. Third, the end of the period is marked by the release of the devil and his renewed deception of the nations, specifically Gog and Magog, which Ezek 38-39 locates in the far north (Asia Minor or beyond) and the Jewish historian Josephus identifies with the Scythians, a tribe outside the Roman Empire (Antiquities 1.6.1). All of the identifications appear to indicate that the nations outside of the Empire (now ruled by Christ) gather against the rightful King. Fourth, the rebellion is ended by the destruction of the opposing armies, the consignment of the devil to the lake of fire, the resurrection of all of the dead, and the final judgment (Rev 20:8-15). This is the end of the history of the earth, for the next chapter takes up the topic of the new heaven and new earth.

One might wonder why there should be a millennium. Several reasons can be given. First, it is a reward for the martyrs (or perhaps the martyrs and those who did not worship the beast, but Rev 13:15 seems to indicate that these would all be martyrs). In their faithfulness they lost their lives. Now they are rewarded with a long life, reigning with Christ. Second, it demonstrates the victory of Christ. That he holds power for a thousand years will vindicate the rule God has given him and which now is hidden in heaven. His triumph is complete. Third, it vindicates the righteous rule of God, redeeming history. Is it possible that God could not rule this earth any better than human beings (and Satan)? The millennium points to the idea that God can rule righteously and justly from within history. He does not have to simply end history. Presumably this would be when people would experience the just rulership that the world has been rejecting (and yet longing for) since the Fall.

We might further question why the antichrist and false prophet would be destroyed and Satan preserved. It is clearly not out of any love for or mercy toward Satan! The fact is that when the embodiments of satanic power have been exposed and lost their power, God has no more use for them. Their future on earth has come to an end. On the other hand, God appears to have a use for Satan, but not in the immediate future. He is used for the final probation of human beings after God has demonstrated his just rule. Thus Satan is not kept out of hell for his own sake, but is reserved for God's own good purposes (although in his own mind he surely rejects this idea). Even to the end God remains in control, including in control of Satan.

As we saw above, the millennium is symbolic for many people. But in calling it symbolic (or in calling it literal, my own preference) we must be careful to preserve the values that John expresses. The reign of Satan is doomed. He will be (or has been) chained. Christ will reign; his victory on the cross will be consummated. His martyrs will be rewarded. And rebellion against God will meet its end. These are the essence of the millennial teaching that must be preserved by any view. The test of a view is whether it best explains the data of Scripture and whether it preserves the values that John is trying to teach.
 

(from Hard Sayings of the Bible copyright (C) 1996 by Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F.F. Bruce, Manfred T. Brauch, published by InterVarsity Press. All rights reserved.)