Finally we get to the fun chapters of Revelation, more the good news about the future. Babylon has been destroyed, the world system of Satan is no longer, and in chapter 19 now we hear the rejoicing in heaven over this victory.
We must be very careful in chapter 19 and 20 not to read this in chronological order. The first five verses of chapter 19 are a celebration of the defeat and end of Satan’s system, his rule in the world.
Verses 6-10 describe the celebration and preparations for the coming of Christ and the New Jerusalem, or the marriage and coming together of Christ and His church, often referred to as the marriage supper of the Lamb. Verses 11-21 describe the battle of Armageddon.
Then in chapter 20 we go back in time and hear a brief description of the entire history from the time of Jesus resurrection to the very end of time on earth, the final Great White Throne judgment.
I won’t spend too much time on the first half of chapter 19, because basically we are just hearing the celebration in heaven as Satan’s world system collapses and the final literal union of Christ and His church, the marriage of the Lamb to His Bride is about to take place. This is a great piece of worship that we can learn from.
There has been some disagreement about the rider on the white horse that we are introduced to in verse 11. Remember in chapter 6 there was another rider on a white horse? That was antichrist, the false Christ who came to conquer. Here in chapter 19 there is no doubt this rider is Christ. He is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war having a name that no one knows but himself.
What is this name? We don’t know for sure but it’s probably another aspect of his character that hasn’t been revealed to the world before. We know from verses 13 and 16 that he is called the Word of God, and he has written on his robe and thigh King of kings and Lord of lords, but on his head apparently there is a name no one knows. If we look ahead though we see that we will all have this name on our foreheads in the New Jerusalem.
I am pretty sure this refers to the fact that no one on the earth, the unbelievers who have been worshipping the beast, knows Jesus. He and His church are now one, so I believe himself includes the church. I think this says that those left in the world do not know him and therefore are not part of him and will not be saved. We may not know this name yet, but we will when he comes back to earth with us – His church.
A question we need to ask here is, does this coming on the horse actually happen on earth? Babylon has been utterly destroyed, it says in the previous chapter that Babylon will be found no more.
It never says that Jesus and his armies come to earth here, only that heaven was opened. If we look at verse 9 in chapter 20 it says that at the end, fire comes from heaven and consumes his enemies. Could this fire be representing Christ and his judgment?
There seems to be no reference that Jesus ever comes to the earth when he destroys his enemies at the final judgment. What do we see here? Eyes like fire, many crowns on his head, him and his army on horses, probably not literal horses, and a sword coming out of his mouth that slays the people. The blood sprinkled on his robe is not his but his enemies, remember he was trampling the winepress of God’s wrath in Chapter 14.
This is most certainly symbolic Hebrew language representing judgment in his eyes, the horse as a symbol of war, the many crowns representing his complete rule, and the sword representing the Word of God. From this it appears that he slays people with the Word of God coming from his mouth, meaning they have been judged based on what it says in the Bible, and this is the final condemnation of their unbelief.
We’ll get to the lake of fire in a moment. I can’t be certain of this interpretation, but it makes the most sense to me based on what the rest of scripture says and how it uses these symbols.
Ok then, let’s look at the very controversial chapter 20, the thousand years, otherwise known as the millennium. As you should know by now, my first response is usually to take scripture literally, and I must say that when I went into seminary studies I believed in a literal pre-tribulation rapture, a literal seven year tribulation, and a literal thousand year reign of Christ on the earth.
Let’s now examine this chapter and see if there is support for this. An angel comes down from heaven with a key to the abyss and a great chain. From this we know that the angel is coming down from heaven, all the way to earth? It doesn’t say that. Does he have a literal key and a literal chain? Not likely.
And what is this bottomless pit or abyss? This word is used a lot in the OT and when you put this together with the NT Greek word it means a deep prison. This is not hell, it is a temporary prison sealed by God. Some associate it with Sheol and I believe it means he is not allowed to have a full physical presence in the world, only a spiritual one and thus is restrained from having his full impact. That I believe is what the chain refers to. Basically he is not allowed a presence in heaven anymore as we read earlier, and he is not allowed a physical presence on earth until God releases him.
So then when does this refer to? I’m convinced this happens at the Cross and therefore is what happened to Satan when Christ had his victory at Calvary.
Satan was defeated in the sense that he was restrained. Now the word “deceive” here is probably one of the most difficult translations in the Bible.
The Greek word means “roam or wander, or go astray from truth”. Certainly Satan is still today deceiving individuals mentally and spiritually, but he and his demons are restrained from physically incarnating and roaming the nations to really lead them astray on mass, which they will do when he is released.
This begs the question, was he physically roaming the earth prior to Christ’s death on the Cross and resurrection, and I think the Old Testament and the Gospels make it very clear that he was able to incarnate and lead nations before Christ died.
If we go by this then, the thousand years begins at Christ’s death and resurrection. And if that is the case, it cannot possibly be a literal thousand year period. And this makes sense, because where the number one thousand is used in other parts of scripture it never literally means a thousand. There were not a thousand literal generations in Deuteronomy 7, or a literal thousand thousands in Daniel 7, it meant the fullness of the generations, or a multitude. And in 2 Peter 3 it represents a day, or an age.
Everywhere else in the Bible where a number comes before a thousand it appears to be a literal number, but when just “a thousand”, it is not a literal number. The one other place a thousand refers to time in 2 Peter, it is not literal and means fullness of time or an age.
The millennium, which I believe is the age of the Church, is initiated at the first coming of Christ. Is there other evidence of this? First of all, it says nowhere in Scripture that Christ literally reigns on the earth during this time. It just says all these saints, martyrs, and believers came to life (the first resurrection which was initiated at Christ’s resurrection and continues through the tribulation for everyone who is saved), and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. It doesn’t say they were physically resurrected, or that they reigned on earth.
Secondly, the new heaven and earth and New Jerusalem come after this thousand years. Christ’s dwelling place comes to man after the millennium, so if he is reigning on earth during the millennium, where is he living? At best we can say he dwells and therefore is reigning in and with believers, he lives in us. There is no indication anywhere in the Bible that he is physically on earth again until possibly the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven. I hate to say that we have been influenced in our beliefs by the Mormons, who believe he has come already.
Thirdly, where does the Great White Throne Judgment take place? Well look at verse 11. “I saw a great white throne and the earth and sky fled from him. Then all the dead from everywhere were given up and everyone not in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire”. Does that sound like earth, does it sound literal to you? Could the earth even hold all the people who have died and will die?
John sees this throne probably not on earth because it says the earth fled from the throne. These dead are most likely spirits, souls. Just as those in the first resurrection are spirit. So the first resurrection is a spiritual one of only believers which I call the rapture, and the resurrection at the end (the final trumpet) is a physical one for everyone. More on that in a minute.
Finally, never does the Bible say there will be a literal utopian peaceful world ruled by Christ on earth until the New Jerusalem after the millennium. In fact it says the opposite, things are going to get worse. And if Satan is going to gather people like the sand of the sea from the four corners of the earth, where is he going to get them after from this wonderful reign of Christ and the saints for a thousand years? There would have to be billions of false professing believers rebelling after living with Christ.
I’m sorry for those of you, and me included in the past who believe this, but there is no evidence from the Bible that we will experience a time on earth that will be peaceful and under Christ’s perfect rule before his second coming, which scripture clearly shows is after the millennium. I want it to be true, just as I want a literal pre-tribulation rapture to be true, but I can’t get Scripture to say that. I’m not saying I am right, but I haven’t been able to get that from the Bible without really throwing my own desires into the interpretation.
This is how the church has traditionally wanted things to go. There is a rapture of all believers prior to a literal 7 year tribulation period, where Satan is released. The only real scriptural evidence used in support of a rapture of this kind is in 1 Thessalonians and it is sketchy at best.
It says that the sleeping and those who are alive at the final trumpet sound will meet Christ in the air. I already described weeks ago how this could easily be a spiritual meeting in the air that no one in a physical body can see. Those who are alive simply dying physically and their spirits raised to be with him in the air, heaven.
Now the word for meeting here is literally a word used to describe when people go outside the gates of a city to meet and accompany royalty into the city, much like people did when Christ rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. Our spirits are going to meet Christ in the air and accompany him back to a physical new earth with the New Jerusalem. That is when we will be transformed and given our eternal physical, resurrection bodies.
Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 15 that there will be a resurrection of the dead and there is a spiritual body and at the last trumpet in the twinkling of an eye the dead will be raised and the living will be changed, into what? Spiritual bodies, or as I explained before ethereal or air bodies, not physical, because we don’t need physical bodies until we come back to a physical earth. And besides, when is the final trumpet, not when Christ was resurrected, but when he comes back in judgment.
Let’s look at what the writer of Revelation has Christ saying in John’s Gospel chapter 5. Read verses 21-29.
Believers have already passed from death to life, sounds like resurrection to me. The dead will hear his voice, but not all will hear, but those who do hear and are already dead, will live. This hour he says, is coming and is already here.
This is an ongoing resurrection of hearing, believing souls – the first resurrection. Remember only his sheep will hear his voice. But then there is an hour that is coming, not here yet, where all in the tombs will hear his voice. This is referring to the rest of the dead in verse 5 of our text today.
Clearly then he says in verse 29 of John 5 after all have heard his voice and come out of the grave, some go to the resurrection of life, heaven with Jesus, and some to the resurrection of judgment, Hell with Satan. One resurrection of all the dead (ongoing for believers, only at the end for unbelievers who are sleeping in Hades), two different destinations. I think we have to take Jesus’ word.
Look closely at 1 Cor 15:23-24, Christ the firstfruits (His physical resurrection), then at his (second) coming those who belong to Christ (our physical resurrection), then comes the end (not the millennium), when he delivers the Kingdom to God the Father. For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, the last enemy being death.
Christ reigns from heaven until all his enemies on earth have been subdued, then he comes to the earth.
Christ returns to an already subdued earth. His reign began with His physical resurrection in an eternal, imperishable body. Remember what Jesus said from the cross in John 19: “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), I thirst. Then he drank the wine and said, it is finished”. There is nothing left for him to do on earth or to save people, his next act will be to come back, judge people, and rule forever, not just a thousand years.
The rapture I believe is an ongoing process of spiritual resurrection or regeneration throughout the millennial age when one comes to believe in Christ and is resurrected with Him spiritually, then we are physically given our new body when we come with him back to a new earth at his second coming.
What does it mean to reign with Him? Romans 5:17 … “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ”. We already reign with him at the moment we receive his grace. We, being his temple and the Church body. It doesn’t look like we are reigning in worldly terms today, but we are because we have life through him.
Some use 1 Cor. 6:2 as evidence of a millennial reign on earth. “Do you not know that saints will judge the world and angels?” Yes, as his body when we come with him at the final judgment, it says nothing about a millennium in that verse.
OK, so the church wants this rapture before a tribulation period that happens before we come back to reign with him for the millennium. Well we have already talked about the idea that the first part of the tribulation is happening now and is during the millennium, but any believers left will be raptured at least through death, in the second part of the tribulation when it says the beast will slay all who do not worship him.
Then we want there to be a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth where there is perfect peace and Christ is physically with us as resurrected believers. To put it bluntly, this is sheer fantasy if we look at all of Scripture. We made this up. Why would Jesus do this only to have Satan released at the end and have chaos break loose again? To give people a second chance? That doesn’t fit with any scripture.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just get it all done with and then come to reign on earth for eternity? Why interrupt his own reign after a thousand years? We never hear a description outside of heaven or the new earth where there is a utopian world with Christ present in it.
Then in verse 5 it says that the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over. What is the first resurrection? The ongoing spiritual resurrection of believers initiated at Christ’s resurrection.
Believers are spiritually resurrected to be with the Lord in heaven throughout the millennial church age, and those who are not believers rest or sleep in Hades, the grave, until the end of the church age when they will be spiritually and physically resurrected in a new eternal body just like believers, to be immediately in Christ’s presence for judgment, and to then be thrown into the lake of fire, the second death, the first death being all of our physical deaths.
In verse 12 we read that everyone including believers stand before the throne. We are judged based on what we have done as well, Romans 14:10-12, “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
But we are in the book of life and will not receive any punishment, while the others will be judged solely based on the other books. There’s no reason to believe this is a different judgment seat, and more reasons to believe it is the same Great White Throne when we read Revelation 20:12. We will be judged for our actions as Christians but not punished, scripture makes that very clear.
Now we don’t know when the millennium ends, but we do know the sign that ends it and brings about the final phase of the tribulation, Satan is released and incarnated as the symbolic beast of the sea. He is now physically incarnate and given full power and rule over the earth as the antichrist. Again this is before chapter 17-18 the fall of Babylon. This release here in verse 7 is the glorious time of Babylon unlimited under the rule of the Antichrist.
So the rapture, millennium, and first part of the tribulation in this view are all taking place simultaneously during the church age between Christ’s resurrection and second coming. When you become a believer you are resurrected spiritually in the twinkling of an eye, and when you experience the first death, the death of your body, that Spirit is immediately, in the twinkling of an eye, released from the body to be with Christ in heaven/air where you reign with him until he physically comes again.
Essentially chapter 20 from verses 7-15 is a short recap of chapters 14-19, the last part of the tribulation. We see first Satan being released to roam the nations gathering a huge army to fight against Jesus. They march over the broad plain of the earth, remember at the end the mountains and Islands have disappeared making it very easy to travel.
Then it’s here in verse 9 that it gets tricky. They surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city. What is that and does it mean that we are actually back on the earth at this time? I don’t think so.
To learn about this camp we go to Hebrews 13 and through verses 11-14 we see the camp clearly representing the physical Jerusalem on earth. It’s hard to see the beloved city as anything but Jerusalem, plus we are told that this battle takes place in the valley of Armageddon near Jerusalem.
I believe this camp, this city, is the literal old, or current, or rebuilt Jerusalem where antichrist sets up his image in the last part of the tribulation. Satan just assumed Jesus would come back here because of God’s historical temple. Remember he doesn’t know when Christ was coming either, but it’s clear that Christ comes when everyone is gathered by Satan, that is Jesus’ cue. Satan does the gathering for him.
Then fire, the New Jerusalem, Jesus, the Church, comes down from heaven, everyone goes through the Great White Throne Judgment, and Jesus consumes unbelievers throwing them all into the lake of fire or Hell, Gehenna, where it says Satan and the beasts will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
We’ll talk about the New Jerusalem next time but here I want to address this lake of fire, what is it? We know its Hell, but is it a literal lake of fire? Fire always represents God’s judgment, so all we can really say about this for sure is that it is some kind of giant body of eternal judgment where people will be tormented as if by literal heat of a fire.
If we take the Greek words literally we see this lake of fire being a like a harbour or haven of lightning. Not a safe haven. I was also thinking that with the mountains and islands removed, being primarily originated from volcanoes and other subterranean activity, perhaps the earth becomes what we see in some ancient pictures and some movies, a place not unlike a flat Yellowstone Park, but where the geysers and bubbling mud pots are fire and pools of molten magma everywhere. Literally the earth becoming a lake of fire, liquid fire. Molten rock.
Have you ever been to Hawaii or another place where there are active lava volcanoes. The stench of sulphur is almost unbearable, the heat extends a great distance, and it is so hot that anything in its path is immediately incinerated. Yet people live very close to this.
Could it be that Hell is the destroyed earth and darkened sky that these people have to inhabit forever, with no refreshment and no ability to rebuild anything on earth, just walking around a giant flat volcanic crust, scattered with pools of Lava everywhere, a horrible stench, with no light coming from the sky, just constant darkness other than what little light the fire and lightning give? Jesus calls this place several times in Matthew, “the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
None of the good stuff the earth had to offer previously. No beauty, no food, no water, no relief from these horrible conditions. Just a place where everyone has gone crazy from the torment and Satan is the boss. Remember it says they were all thrown into the lake of fire much like Satan was thrown down to earth. Remember these bodies can’t die, they don’t need food or drink though they can enjoy those things as we saw Christ eat in his resurrection body, but they don’t need it.
I want to leave you with something to think about this week. It says that Satan and the beasts go to permanent torment forever and ever. And the Bible says believers have eternal life, which means life with Christ. I could not find a place in Revelation or anywhere else that says unbelievers will be tormented or in the lake of fire forever, they definitely go there but is it forever? It does say hundreds of times that God’s love lasts forever and his wrath will not last forever. Is this significant?
We will look at this more next week when we will see the new heaven and earth, but all we know for sure at this point – if your name is not found in the book of life at the final judgment, into the lake of fire you go. No more death, no more Hades or sleep, only people in eternal bodies either suffering or not. Everyone resurrected but with two very different destinations - with God, or with Satan as they chose.
It’s a very simple message. The world that you now see will perish because it is the domain of Satan and sin. You are welcome to choose it and enjoy its fruit while you are here. But it is a temporary illusion because if you choose not to follow Jesus, you get to continue to enjoy a destroyed version we call hell with Satan.
Choose Satan and his world now, and God gives you up to what you chose later. He tells us very clearly what it will be like. Choose Jesus, you get the wonderful place he is preparing for you. And he gives us lots of information on what that will be like.
No one has to be in the dark today about these things. If you love the world you will get the world, which is ultimately going to be destroyed and become a place of torment forever. Love God and live for your real home, then you get that for eternity.
