Life In The Millennium

ISAIAH 2:1-4

LIFE IN THE MILLENNIUM

“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the LORD

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

and many peoples shall come, and say:

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.’

For out of Zion shall go the law,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore.”

I believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and that He was buried in a borrowed tomb; and on the authority of Scripture I believe that He was raised from the dead on the third day. I believe that He was seen by witnesses whom God chose before hand and that after fifty days He ascended into Heaven where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Moreover, I am convinced that Jesus will return to this earth as He has promised and that He shall reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years. I believe that all who are saved during this present Church Age are appointed to reign with Him throughout that glorious time known as the Millennium. This is the Faith I have received from my spiritual forebears.

Within Christendom are numerous professing believers who deny that Christ shall physically reign on the earth. Even among evangelical Christians are a surprising number that deny that He will reign for a thousand years. I confess that I am a naïve literalist when it comes to Scripture. When the Bible makes a declaration, I see no reason to discount what is taught. Therefore, when I read the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, I accept that Satan will be bound and Christ will reign for a thousand years.

John recorded the glorious revelation, “I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

“Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” [REVELATION 20:1-10].

The word “millennium” is derived from the Latin phrase mille anum, which means “thousand years.” Those who believe there will be a Millennium are sometimes referred to as millennialists or chiliasts (from the Greek term chília, for one thousand). When people dismiss belief in the Millennium because they say that the term only occurs in Revelation 20, the appropriate response is that though the statement is true on the face, in that one passage there are six references to the thousand years. Moreover, the concept of Messiah reigning on earth occurs repeatedly throughout Scripture. And it is one of those references that serves as a text for our studies this day.