This 24th post looks into the 20th chapter of Revelation. A recording of this study is available on Shofar Durbanville’s Youtube channel.
What is wrong with the world? And what will make everything right again? How you answer these questions defines your religion and your approach to and expectation of life itself. This is the focal point of Revelation 20. John describes the end of Satan, sin and death, ushering in 1000 years of peace. This 1000 years of peace, called the millennium (Latin for thousand), is the cause of much debate in Christian circles.
If you are new to Christianity, the millennium debate might seem strange. However, six times in this chapter, 1000 years are mentioned, which is central to the meaning of this chapter. Moreover, this reign of peace is central to the message of Revelation: the destruction of Satan’s earthly forces (Babylon, the Beast and the False Prophet) in the previous chapters and here the end of Satan, sin and death, signifying the culmination of Christ’s work of redemption – making the 1000 years of peace possible. From John’s perspective, the millennial reign of peace is central to God’s plan to redeem creation and, therefore, significant for you and me. It is what the church – and all mankind – longs for. How we make sense of this chapter will impact your view and expectations of life.
What is John’s vision of 1000 years of peace, then? When is it? John’s Millennium can be read in three primary ways.
Premillennialism expects Jesus to return and end the tribulation, reign in peace for 1000 years, and then make an end to Satan, sin and death. This is the most prominent view among Christians in the West today.
Postmillennialism expects the church, through the Gospel, to usher in God’s peaceful reign for 1000 years before Christ returns to judge the world.
Amillennialism reads the 1000 years as symbolic, having been initiated by Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. From this perspective, we are now in this thousand years of peace.
All three of these views are held by very learned people who have given much thought to these views. Sadly, some beautiful truths in Revelation remain unnoticed in all the dust kicked up by the debates about when the millennium will or has commenced (d). Let’s walk through the chapter and ask ourselves, “What did John see, and what could this have meant to him?”
The end of Satan (20:1-3, 7-10). An angel descends from heaven and binds Satan in the Abyss, sealing the pit. Satan is tied up not by God, not by Christ, not by a known archangel like Michael or Gabriel. Instead, Satan is bound by some ordinary angel who “came down from heaven.” This reassured John that Satan is not God’s equal and never a threat to God’s authority or purposes. Although Satan persecuted the church on earth and gave power to the empires of the Beast, the Sovereign Lord allowed Satan to roam loose in service of his redemptive plan. Once the Devil had served his purpose, God commissioned an angel to bind him up. At an appointed time, Satan will be released briefly again to serve God’s redemptive purpose in bringing judgment on the wicked nations. After that, he will be thrown into the lake of fire forever, joining his servants, the Beast and the False Prophet.
The thousand years (20:2-7). “One thousand years” is mentioned six times in these six verses – the only place in the Bible explicitly naming the thousand years of peace. How do we read it? For one, we know that we cannot read this as literal ten centuries in the apocalyptic genre. This genre calls for a symbolical interpretation, just as we read the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb of God to convey a particular truth about Christ. We also note this symbolism elsewhere in the Bible. When we read that God “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10), we don’t ask, “On which thousand hills do God’s cattle roam?” When reading “with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8), we don’t start calculating our age in God-years; instead, we understand that the Ever-living One is not bound by time as we are…
[Read the full commentary of Revelation in Faithful to the End]
Quick links to full THE END Revelation Series posts
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