Sentenced to 1,000 Years

Let’s start with a big word that you may have heard or seen. Eschatology.

The word is formed by combining the Greek words eschatos, meaning “last,” and logos, meaning “study of”. Therefore, eschatology is the study of the last or the end of time.

It’s a fascinating subject that either draws people in or scares people away. We have to find a healthy balance between obsession and avoidance.

As we’ve discussed before, there are many schools of thought when it comes to Revelation. There are countless interpretations and opinions on what Scriptures mean and if the things John wrote about were literal or allegorical.

One of the major issues of which people have strong opinions on is what is discussed in chapter 20 of Revelation.

Let’s talk about three different viewpoints before we read Revelation 20. Keep in mind that with Revelation, there’s a correct interpretation and everything else is false. We’re not going to know the truth until that time occurs so we may have different opinions among us and that’s okay.

The subject that’s primarily disputed is what’s known as The Millennium or the 1,000 year reign of Christ. You’ll notice that all three theories have the word millennial in them. The prefix of each is what distinguishes them from one another.

Just to show no favoritism, we’ll discuss these in alphabetical order. I’ll be curious to see which one you think is correct.

Amillenial. One who subscribes to this belief “sees the 1,000 years as spiritual and non-literal, as opposed to a physical understanding of history.” Simply put, “amillennialism sees the first coming of Christ as the inauguration of the kingdom, and His return as the consummation of the kingdom. John’s mention of 1,000 years thus points to all things that would happen in the church age.”[i] Obviously more than 1,000 years have taken place since Jesus was first born, so amillennialists don’t consider the 1,000 years as being literal. We are living in the Church Age now, so amillennialists believe we are living in the millennium now.

Pre-millennial. “Premillennialism is the view that Christ’s second coming will occur prior to His millennial kingdom, and that the millennial kingdom is a literal 1000-year reign of Christ on earth.”[ii] Many of those who follow this idea believe that Jesus will return to the Earth at the end of the Tribulation.

The last of the three major schools of thought on this is Post-millennial. “Postmillennialism is the belief that Christ returns after a period of time, but not necessarily a literal 1,000 years.” ”They believe that Revelation 20:4-6 should not be taken literally. They believe that “1,000 years” simply means “a long period of time.” Furthermore, the prefix “post-” in “postmillennialism” denotes the view that Christ will return after Christians (not Christ Himself) have established the kingdom on this earth.”[iii] Those who adhere to this belief say that the millennium is happening now and that Jesus is reigning through the church. They also believe that the events in Revelation (earthquakes, hail, scorching sun, etc.) have already taken place throughout history.

Before you make up your mind as to which theory you believe, let’s read some verses from Revelation 20.

The Thousand Years

“20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. ²And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, ³and 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.” (Revelation 20:1 ESV)

John sees an angel coming from Heaven and what is the angel holding? The key to the abyss or bottomless pit and a chain. Some believe this angel may be Michael based on the war is described in Revelation 12. This is when Michael and his army of angels fight Satan and his army of demons in Heaven. Satan (dragon) and his army are not strong enough and they are cast out of Heaven once and for all. Others, however, vehemently deny that this is Michael. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the angel takes captive Satan and restrains and contains him for 1,000 years.

Just a few thoughts on this. Again, Satan is and never has been and never will be God’s counterpart no matter what he thinks. Satan is a created being, created by God, and kept on a leash by God. Satan will be defeated by another created being, an angel.

Another thing that is a little bit humorous is verse 2. It doesn’t matter which translation you use, there are four identifying names given. Dragon. Serpent. Devil. Satan. It’s as if it was emphasized to John and he wanted to be sure that the readers of Revelation 20 made no mistake that this was referring to the serpent of Genesis and the dragon of Revelation that we have come to know as the devil and Satan.

We are told that Satan will be thrown into the abyss or the bottomless pit. This is not the same thing as hell. “Satan is not cast into hell immediately, because God still has one more task for him to perform. Rather, Satan is confined in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years. First, Satan was cast out of heaven (Rev. 12:9), and now he is cast out of earth!”[iv]

Verse 3 tells us that he is bound and locked away so that he cannot deceive the nations during the 1,000 years. And then he must be released for a short period of time. That seems like it doesn’t fit, doesn’ t it? If Satan is bound up and locked away, that should be permanent, right? But later we’ll see why he is allowed a final appearance.

Revelation 20:4 ESV “⁴Then 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. ⁵The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed 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. ⁷And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison”

In seven verses, the term “one thousand years” has been mentioned six times. Do you take that to mean literally a thousand years or, as some suggest, just a long period of time? Those who don’t take this literally base it on verses such as Psalm 90:4 NIV “A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.”

And 2 Peter 3:8 ESV “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Others that believer that 1,000 years means 1,000 years say that we should interpret it literally “unless there is clear reason or evidence to do otherwise.”[v] Lehman Strauss said in reference to the verses in Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3, “True, a thousand years is as a ‘watch’ and as ‘one day,’ but only in God’s sight, only with Him. But it is not so with us, and the Bible was written for us to whom a thousand years means a thousand years.”[vi] So, what do you think? Is the 1,000 years literal or allegorical?

There are three groups of people that John sees in these verses.

The first group is described as people sitting on thrones who have been authorized to judge. Some think this represents just the Church. Others think it’s the 24 elders or the apostles. Most Biblical scholars tend to lean towards the idea that it’s all saints – Old Testament Saints, Church Age saints, and Tribulation Saints.

The second group is those who were martyred for their faith during the Tribulation years.

The third group is found in verse 5 and they are identified as those who are dead and don’t come back to life until after the 1,000 years.

Daniel, as we’ve discussed, is a companion book to Revelation. There are many prophetic correlations between the two books. Daniel 12:2 CEV “Many of those who lie dead in the ground will rise from death. Some of them will be given eternal life, and others will receive nothing but eternal shame and disgrace.” From this, we know that everyone will be raised from the dead, but the eternity won’t be the same for everyone.

At the end of verse 5, there is a statement that reads “this is the first resurrection”.

Let’s talk about that for a moment. 2 Corinthians 5:8 KJV tell us “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” For believers, this verse assures us that our souls will be in the presence of God just after we take our last breath here on Earth. “Later, we will be given new bodies—bodies that will never age or be subject to death, because they will be like Christ’s resurrection body. As the Bible says, “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).”[vii] That’s resurrection.

There will be two resurrections. Those in the first resurrection will be “blessed and holy”. This is going to include all those believers who have died. Piecing together several scriptures, the first resurrection seems to take place in stages. Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:20 GNT “But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.” When the Rapture occurs, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 NRSV tells us who goes first. “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Those who have been saved and died will be resurrected and will be called up first. They’ll be followed by those who are saved and still living.

The next stage of the first resurrection will be those martyred during the Tribulation. This resurrection will likely take place at the end of the 7-year period. That accounts for all resurrections except the Old Testament saints. The Bible doesn’t seem to be perfectly clear on their resurrection, but it seems that the Old Testament saints will also be resurrected at the end of the Tribulation.

Obviously, if there is a first resurrection, then there must be a second resurrection. We’ll get to that in just a few verses.

Revelation 20:7 ERV “⁷When the 1000 years are ended, Satan will be made free from his prison. ⁸He will go out to trick the nations in all the earth, the nations known as Gog and Magog. Satan will gather the people for battle. There will be more people than anyone can count, like sand on the seashore.

⁹I saw Satan’s army march across the earth and gather around the camp of God’s people and the city that God loves. But fire came down from heaven and destroyed Satan’s army. ¹⁰And he (the one who tricked these people) was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur with the beast and the false prophet. There they would be tortured day and night forever and ever.”

You may notice that not a whole lot is said in these verses about what takes place during the 1,000 years. The reason for that seems to be that the rest of the Bible is full of descriptions. I’ll share a few of them.

“All nature will be set free from the bondage of sin. (Rom. 8:19-22)”

“Because of the earth’s perfect conditions, people will live long lives (Isa. 65:17-25, especially v. 20.) They will marry and have children.”[viii]

“Israel will be the superpower of the world, the leading nation in all the earth, and the center of Israel will be the mountain of the LORD’s house — the temple mount, which will be the “capital” of the government of the Messiah. All nations shall flow to the “capital” of Jesus’ government (Isaiah 2:1-3, Ezekiel 17:22-24).

“Tthe citizens of earth will acknowledge and submit to the Lordship of Jesus. It will be a time of perfectly administrated enforced righteousness on this earth (Isaiah 2:1-5).”

“There will be no more war. There will still be conflicts between nations and individuals, but they will be justly and decisively resolved by the Messiah and those who reign with Him (Isaiah 2:1-5). It isn’t the reign of the Messiah itself that will change the heart of man. Citizens of earth will still need to trust in Jesus and in His work on their behalf for their personal salvation during the millennium. But war and armed conflict will not be tolerated.

“The way animals relate to each other and to humans will be transformed. A little child will be safe and able to lead a wolf or a leopard or a young lion or a bear. Even the danger of predators like cobras and vipers will be gone. In Genesis 9:2-3, the LORD gave Noah, and all mankind after him, the permission to eat meat. At the same time, the LORD put the dread of man in animals so they would not be effortless prey for humans. Now, in the reign of the Messiah, that is reversed. For this reason, many think that in the reign of the Messiah (the Millennium) humans will return to being vegetarians, as it seems they were before Genesis 9:2-3 (Isaiah 11:6-9).

“During the Millennium, saints in their resurrected state will be given responsibility in the Millennial Earth according to their faithful service (Luke 19:11-27, Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 2:26-28; 3:12,22, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3).

Take a look back at the three major viewpoints of the Millennium. Scripture is pretty clear that Satan will be bound and imprisoned during those years. Amillennialists and Postmillennialists believe we are in the millennium now. That would mean that Satan is presently bound and not free. Does that change your viewpoint at all?

These verses in Revelation 20 tell us that once the Millennium or 1,000 years are up, Satan will be let out of prison. If you’re like me, you can’t help but question why that has to happen. This explanation is from Lehman Strauss who subscribes to the premillennial idea. “The one-thousand-years reign of Christ will begin with all redeemed people. No unsaved people will enter the millennium (Isaiah 60:21; Joel 2:28). But during the millennium children will born of saved people, and then after having been born and reared in a perfect moral and spiritual society, they will be easily deceived by the devil, choosing to follow him while they turn their backs on Christ. Evil nature, whether confined in a prison or subject to righteous rule, does not change.”[ix]

“The purpose of the 1,000-year reign is to fulfill various promises God made to the world. Some of these promises, called covenants, were given specifically to Israel. Others were given to Jesus, the nations of the world, and creation. Jesus’ 1,000-year-reign will be a time of promises kept.”[x]

God will use these years and will allow Satan one final swoop across the Earth to clean it up from all unrighteousness and sinfulness because there will be those who outwardly obey Christ, but inwardly have a rebelliousness against Him. But Satan’s last visit to Earth is short-lived because what does verse 10 tell us happens? He is thrown into the lake of fire and who is there to greet him? The Antichrist and the False Prophet. They weren’t incinerated when they were sent there and they never will be. Neither will Satan. This is their final destination.

Revelation 20:11 NIV “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

This is the second resurrection. “The unsaved will be raised and will stand before God’s judgment. Do not confuse this judgment at the White Throne with the judgment seat of Christ, where believers will have their works judged and rewarded. At this judgment there will only be unbelievers and there will be no rewards.”vii

“All Christians do not agree on every detail of what will occur in the final events of this world’s history. Some of these events and their order of occurrence have simply not been made clear in the Bible. What is important is that all Christians hold in common that Christ will ultimately return bodily, visibly, and gloriously to reign and rule with His resurrected and transformed saints forever and ever. The details of this great event will be made known in God’s own time.”[xi]

Oh what a day of rejoicing that will be!