The One-Thousand-Year Reign Of Jesus Christ.

“Now there arose a new King over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” Exodus 1:8

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Sadly, future generations seem doomed to repeat the most hideous errors of earlier generations. They ignore the lessons learned by their forefathers and instead listen to their peers lacking wisdom or experience.

I did not start my walk of faith believing in the millennial kingdom of Christ. At best, I was postmillennial and looked forward to what singer Tommy James and the Shondell’s, “Crystal Blue Persuasion” considered a future awakening of love and brotherhood in this present age.

It wasn’t until my studies of a book written in the late 1800s titled “The Thousand Year Reign of Christ” that I was convinced that a millennial kingdom would really occur. [1]

The only clear teachings on the millennial kingdom is found in Revelation, Chapter 20; prior to that, there was precious little evidence in Scripture of its occurrence. There are short prophetic writings in the Old Testament that describe conditions living in the millennium[2], but nothing definitively describing a thousand-year period. The Kingdom of Christ is considered eternal and never-ending, as described in Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7:13–14.

Revelation, chapter 20, seems an outlier among the Scripture narratives and a short chapter consisting mostly of a synopsis description. This is not unusual in Scripture as some of the most loaded messages with tremendous implications are very short, such as Genesis 6:1–2. That I will leave for another discussion.

The thousand-year reign has a very purposeful reason to occur, as God has issued many promises of a better day for the nation of Israel that have not occurred.

While some in Christendom debate that the church has replaced Israel in receiving God’s blessing, this is a terrible error, as God’s words cannot be wrong or unfulfilled. This is a major aspect of God for which, if wrong, everything God said is suspect. Losing the ultimate blessings God gave to the patriarch Abraham about his future children would render the enter Biblical narrative moot.

For that very reason, Revelation 20 is a major addition to the end-time Biblical story that connects many prophetic oracles from Scripture together — another reason the book deserved to be added to the Biblical canon by early believers.

I suspect also the reason some did not agree to include the book in the canon is given it apocryphal colorful writing style. However, Revelation, chapter 20, is one aspect of the book that is quite definite and distinctive in regard to a future event.

The focus of this writing is not to extensively describe the kingdom as to share that the millennium also reflects a tragic ending. The story also shows how humankind easily forgets the past and are doomed to repeat it.I described in a recent Medium article, Published in The Dove who will live to enter the millennial kingdom. You can read it here: Those That Will Inherit The Earth. In that article I mentioned the meek will inherit the earth; that some will survive the great tribulation and the Wrath of God, and as mortals enter the kingdom. Also, that the church itself of this age will enter as resurrected/translated beings that will rule with Jesus.

The focus of this article is on those humans who enter the kingdom. While Satan and his legions will be confined to the bottomless pit, human nature will remain. While conditions will be ideal on Earth during that time, the central rule of authority will come from Jerusalem and its king, Jesus Christ.

Jesus will rule with an iron rod.[3] This indicates a firm rule with compliance as mandatory. Zechariah tells us that families will go up to Jerusalem to worship the Great King, but those who refuse to do so will not receive rain.[4]

What this tells us is that those with human natures still resist righteousness on occasion, even in the millennial kingdom!

WHY?! Because it is within the nature of mortals to sin -even without the temptations of Satan, we can become belligerent and stubborn. Much of this is because children are born during the millennium. Children who did not experience the hardships of the last age, did not face tribulation, or see the experience of those who disobeyed and experienced God’s wrath.

Sadly, these children and their children will ignore the wisdom and teachings of their elders and prefer the influence of their peers — much as teenagers and young adults do so today.

A time comes, as the people of the millennium multiply across the earth, that a people will arise with no memory of wrath and will disregard the commands of Jesus.

They will have no mind of events as described in Revelation, chapter 19, or before. This leads to the very unfortunate events as the releasing of Satan and his hordes out of the bottomless pit; the tempting of humankind returns that further escalates the spirit of rebellion.

Sadly, the experiences of the prior Armageddon will repeat itself. Armies will be raised that come to Jerusalem to once again assault the New Israel and the holy saints. This battle is titled God/Magog, which is very similar to the gathering of the antichrist against Jerusalem described in Revelation 19:19.[5]

This second gathering will result in the prediction of the Apostle Peter being fulfilled in 2 Peter 3:10–14 where the world is finally consumed by fire. Everything is burned up, and the remaining mortal humans are destroyed.

The events that follow include the second resurrection of the remaining dead that were not raised during the first resurrection preceding the millennial kingdom. We see the great white throne of God’s final judgement beginning.

Finally, we see Satan, his hordes, all sinners, and unrepentant souls cast into the lake of fire as Revelation, chapter 20, concludes. The final Kingdom of God, then, is revealed in Revelation, chapters 21 and 22.

In summation, while the saints of true believers look forward to the revealing of the millennial kingdom and their resurrection, the conditions of the thousand years are truly an intermediate state and not the final kingdom.

It fulfills the promises of God for Israel as a nation and allows the Biblical story of fallen humankind to play out. God provides multiple chances for humankind to repent and put an end to sinning, but they continue to do so until the very end.

Lastly, when I say the New Israel, I do not limit this to a glorification of only the Jews. Yes, repentant Jews and former Israelites of the twelve original tribes will be returned to Jerusalem and the Promised Land, but many Gentiles who chose Christ will be among them too. The New Israel is an inclusive nation of righteousness, as the Roman letter by Paul describes in chapters 9, 10, and 11.

What I’ve described in this writing can be difficult for some, especially the novice Christian. This is a deep discussion for the spiritually mature to understand, having the wisdom and seasoning to comprehend. As we are near the times of the end of this age, we should reflect on how easy it is for succeeding generations of humans to fall back into the evils of the past.

This is a very unfortunate situation and creates great anxiety, witnessing societal regressions towards barbarian practices of the past, regardless of technological advances. Humanity cannot escape its fallen nature, no matter how advanced we think we have become.

The church is called to endure the age until Jesus returns. This may include persecution, martyrdom, captivity, loss of property, and finally rapture, but the call to endure is our final command for this age.[6]

© Bob Russell

Sources & References:

[1] “The Thousand Year Reign of Christ,” by Nathaniel West, 1826–1906, The classic work on the Millennium, most current republishing date, September 2, 1993, by Kregel Classics

[2] Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 65:21–23; Micah 4:3; Joel 3:18; Ezekiel 34: 17–29; Amos 9:11–12; Micah 4:1–7; Zechariah 14:8–21; Daniel 7:13–14

[3] Revelation 2:27

[4] Zechariah 14: 16–19

[5] Revelation 16:13–14

[6] 1 Peter 3: 8–12; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 14:12; Revelation 13:9–10