The Millennial Reign Of Christ, Parts 1 & 2 Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

We are now in a powerful point in the study of Revelation as we look tonight at the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ. This is a promised Kingdom from God that the world has attempted to imitate and the now destroyed Antichrist wanted to control. It is a utopia of perfect peace that can only be realized at the Second Coming Jesus. When he comes, he destroys the Antichrist’s world-system and the armies at the Valley of Armageddon with just a word from his mouth. We know that he arrives back to earth riding a white horse and he will have the Church Triumphant, the Old Testament Saints, and the armies of Angels with him. He will land on the Mount of Olives where the mountain will be split in two and he will walk through the East Gate to setup his throne on at the Temple.

As we’ve studied the Book of Revelation, we saw how there is a chronological progression in the book. There are historical things that will happen in a precise order and Revelation should be interpreted that way, just as with all the Bible. There are times when John will outline a series of events and then he will go back and provide further detail of that event. For instance, we see how John is describing the last of the bowls in Chapter 16 and he gives an overview of what happens when the seventh bowl is poured out and then he goes back through Chapters 17-19 to provide specific events that will happen as a result of the bowl being poured out; namely the destruction of the false religion, then the destruction of Babylon the Great, and then the rejoicing of heaven, followed by the triumphant return of Christ in the Battle of Armageddon, as we just studied. It is not overly complicated, it is not some kind of mysterious code, it is a clear discernable picture and as the world continues moving in its current direction that picture is becoming even more clear.

There are those, who have attempted to write into Scripture a different interpretation, which has led to confusion and false teaching. Among those are various views on the Rapture and also the Millennium. I am going to cover these views before we get into the teaching on the Millennium, so you have a clear understanding. Just like the Rapture is clearly distinguished in Scripture and can be found in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the letters to the Church, so can also the Millennium be seen throughout the entirety of Scripture.

We find references to the Millennium in 2 Samuel, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew, the Parables, and more. So, a good understanding of the Millennium is to have a good understanding of the biblical description of the Kingdom of Heaven and we could spend several weeks on just that topic. We may do that after our study in Revelation.

Now, I hold fast to and most evangelical teachers understand the Millennium to take place after the Second Coming of Christ. And in the structure, pattern, and order of Scripture, that makes sense. We call this “premillennialism.” Meaning, when we interpret the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ in relationship to the Millennial Kingdom - pre (before the) millennium. That comes from a literal interpretation of Scripture, meaning we take the Bible at its face value. We interpret the Bible with a literal historical, grammatical, contextual, hermeneutic because to do otherwise leads to inserting, changing, or allegorizing Scripture falsely.

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There are also two other views you must understand: postmillennialism and amillennialism.

1. Postmillennialism

Postmillennialism is the next most popular interpretation of Revelation 20 and it is most common in America. It says that Jesus will come back after the Millennium. And the basis of this is that the Postmillennialist believes that the Church is here to establish the Kingdom through taking over of the world’s systems (education, government, social services, etc) and eventually the Church will establish the Kingdom of God and at some point it will be setup well enough for Christ to come and take his throne.

So postmillennialism interprets all what we’ve studied as more allegory. It will be the Church that triumphs over the world of men, demons, evil, etc, and the church through spiritual warfare will win the final battle. Through the Church’s victorious advances in the world, things will get better and better until a world wide utopia is realized. Pat Robertson said when he was running for president that him being elected will help establish the kingdom (MacArthur)

This is where most kingdom-now theology emerges, the emergent church, hyper-spiritual warfare, liberation theology, the prosperity gospel, etc. come out of postmillennialism (Bennett Cortez, Sermon Central). They will say we are in the Millennial Kingdom now; the 1000 years isn’t a literal number.