The Millenium will be a period very different from what we have known on this earth
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
What is the Millennium? When does it take place?
What do you know about the Millennium? Perhaps this will help: it’s a poorly understood 1,000-year period that is supposed to follow the end of the Tribulation. I don’t know if my experience parallels yours, but for years, I have focused most of my time studying the prophecies relating to the Tribulation and pretty much ignored the Millennium. In some ways, you might have called me an “amillennialist” – someone who does not think the Millennium takes place or at least is not very important. Yet, Christianity.com describes amillennialism quite differently: “Amillennialism understands the Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus and his apostles to be synonymous with the millennial kingdom of Revelation 20:4-6. The kingdom of God is a present-day reality with Christ ruling from heaven. And it is a kingdom populated by all those who have given their lives to the lordship of Jesus.” ((https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-amillennialism.html)) In short, an amillennialist believes that the Millennium is now. I don’t buy that definition. Allow me to show you why.
Is the Millennium Necessary?
In my view, it seemed that God did a great job bringing the world to a mighty crescendo at the end of the Tribulation with the defeat of Satan followed by a big victory party to celebrate in heaven. If this were Hollywood, the story would end here. But it isn’t. God has a 1,000-year extension to an already long story. Why couldn’t we all just move on to the New Heaven and live happily ever after? As with everything God, there’s a purpose to His plans. Let’s take a closer look at His plan.
According to KnowingJesus.com (https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Millennium), there are 32 verses in the Bible that, in one way or another, reference the Millennium. I don’t have the space in this blog to explore all of them, but here’s a brief recap of the basics:
- The Millennium immediately follows the end of the Tribulation period.
- Satan will be bound in chains and thrown into an abyss during this period (Rev 20:1-3)
- Those who were killed during the Tribulation because they preached Christ vs. submitting to the antichrist will rule with Christ during this period (Rev 20: 4-6). According to my book, these include the 144,000 Jews plus anyone else who is martyred for their faith in Jesus.
- Then, according to John MacArthur, he lists who will be there as: “So you’ve got resurrected Old Testament saints, you’ve got resurrected saints who followed Jesus during His lifetime, you’ve got resurrected New Testament saints, and now you’ve got resurrected Tribulation saints, and it’s all the resurrected saints who reign.” ((https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/66-74/the-coming-earthly-kingdom-of-the-lord-jesus-christ-part-2))
- During the millennium, Jesus will reign as king and high priest over all those resurrected saints.
- The prophet Micah says that, during this time, the people will say (Micah 4:2 NKJV):
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
- Then, in Ezekiel 40, the prophet describes a Temple that is much bigger and very different from any previous Temple. What is its purpose? Many believe that it is a temple designed explicitly for the millennium since no earthly version has ever been built.
- After 1,000 years, Satan will be released from his prison for one last confrontation with “the camp of the saints and the beloved city,” and fire will come down from heaven and consume Satan, and he will then be thrown into the lake of fire.
- Finally, the Millennium precedes the Great White Throne Judgment.
A New Perspective on its Purpose
The research I did on my book has given me a different view of this period, and I think my findings will help you understand its significance. Let’s review some of the key details in history that are relevant to the Millennium:
- First, we have the Jewish people, whom God made His “Chosen People.” Their role was to “be perfect, as God is perfect” and, by doing so, be a “light unto the world,” demonstrating how God wanted us to act so we could come into His presence. This period in history is often called “The Time of the Jews.”
- As we all know, the Jews failed in this calling – not through any fault of their own – but because humanity just did not have the ability to achieve the goal of “being perfect.”
- As a result, God sent His Son, Jesus, to fulfill the calling of the Law and become that unblemished and perfect sacrifice whose death would forever erase the sins of anyone who recognized and accepted Jesus. To Christians, Jesus is the long-prophesied Messiah, and this period was called His “First Coming.”
- Unfortunately, thousands of years of history and tradition could not be erased from the minds of the Jews, and many were thus blinded from seeing Jesus as their Messiah.
- The rejection of Christianity by the Jews opened the door for the Gentiles to accept Jesus and claim Him as their own. This period is often referred to as “The Time of the Gentiles.” If the story were to end there, the only Jew that could be saved would be one who somehow overcame their blindness and found and accepted Jesus. A faithful Jew, doing his best to follow the God of his ancestors, would have no place in heaven.
- Yet, during the Tribulation, God calls 144,000 Jews to become His mighty warriors and preach the Gospel in the second half – when the world is literally being destroyed, and the antichrist is determined to exterminate every one of the 144,000.
- At the end of the Tribulation, these mighty warriors celebrate their victory with Jesus by singing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb
As I lay out in my book, when the Tribulation ends, the sacrifice of the 144,000 can be seen as a “scapegoat” sacrifice, where the 144,000 sacrifice their lives for all their people who rejected Jesus due to their blindness. But this sacrifice needs to be accepted by our High Priest, Jesus (which I believe He will do at the Great White Throne Judgment). That is the reason I believe Jesus delays our final judgement so all Jews who rejected Jesus during their lives can be saved by the sacrifice of the 144,000.
So, what’s missing here? God still needs to resolve the differences His Chosen People have with their Gentile cousins. Remember, one of the 32 verses that KnowingJesus.com says relates to the Millennium is in Micah 4: 2, where it says, “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways, And that we may walk in His paths.” Who do you think the “He” is in this verse? According to Revelation 20:4, “They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” The “they” in that verse clearly refers to “the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus.” My belief is that the Millennium is all about Jesus teaching the Jews and the Gentiles “about His ways” so we may all walk in unity “in His paths.” The Millennium is all about the reconciliation and unification of God’s family!
And where will all this teaching take place? Ezekiel 40 describes a Temple that is unlike any of the Temples previously built by the Jews. First, this Temple is much larger than the previous Temples (See below).
Second, notice that there is no “Holy of Holies.” In this Temple, Jesus will not be separated from His people because they have all been accepted by Him as a result of His shed blood and their acknowledgment of Him as Lord.
Conclusion
During the Millennium, Jesus will help both the Jews and the Gentiles deal with questions they were unable to resolve after Jesus rose and went to heaven:
- Why a Gentile does not need to be circumcised?
- Why a Gentile does not need to be concerned with what they eat?
- What role the Temple was to play in worshipping God?
- What is the meaning and purpose of Baptism to a Jew or a Gentile?
Imagine being able to come and sit at Jesus’ feet for 1,000 years and just listen to Him teach you about all the wonderful ways of God! This realization has brought me a new understanding and excitement about this period.
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