Millennium Superworld — Chapter 1: Looking Ahead
The Millennium—from the Bible?
Someone once said he could never believe in the Millennium because the Bible mentioned the thousand year reign of Jesus only once. Later he changed his mind. “How many times,” he asked, “does God have to say something before we will believe it?”
All references to the Millennium as the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth are found within one chapter in the book of Revelation (chapter 20). But there are no less than six in this one chapter. each reveals something specific about this special period of time.
The first mention of it (verse 2) says it is a time when sin and evil (represented by “the Devil, and Satan”) will be bound, or severely restricted (“shut up”) in the “bottomless pit.” From this one statement we can be certain that we are not living in the Millennium now because sin and evil are rampant. This same text indicates that the Millennium is a period of time on earth, for an angel is said to “come down from heaven” to “shut up” the “Devil, and Satan” (v. 1).
The second mention of the thousand years is in verse 3; at the end of this period “Satan” will be “loosed a little season.”
Verse 4 identifies those who rule during the Millennium, the government as it shall be and its duration: “they [the saints] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Verse 5 tells of a resurrection at the end of the thousand-year period.
Verse 6 mentions the saints again, describing them as “priests of God and of Christ,” who share the throne with Christ during the “thousand years,” and verse 7 repeats the statement about “Satan” being “loosed” at the close of the Millennium.
If all we could learn about the Millennium were from this one chapter, we would know that it is a period of time promised by God; that it will be on earth; that it will be a time during which the earth will be under one new government; that Christ and the saints will be the rulers; that evil will be “bound” during this time and “loosed” at the end of it; that there will be a resurrection at the end of the period (hence, there will be death during the Millennium), that the forces of evil will be “loosed” only temporarily at its close (“for a little season”), after which they will be destroyed forever (vs. 9-10). Is not all this ample evidence that such a period of time is within the plan of God?
One word from God should be sufficient to believe, but He has given more—much more. The Millennium is the subject of prophecy upon prophecy. There is not one text that tells of it but one hundred times one, and more. Sometimes its duration is told. Other passages describe living conditions at that time; still others discuss the physical and social changes that will take place.
These points will be discussed in later sections.