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This regular feature of Truth Matters deals with many of those hard-to-understand passages which are common to us all. I will be the writer/contributor for this offering with the sole purpose of being a help to the body of Christ, the church.
First of all, note that “millennium” is another of those words that has been imported into Scripture from extraneous sources. The word millennium appears nowhere in all of Scripture. The Bible never mentions such a period of time as a millennium, yet some speak as if this word appears on every other page of God's Holy Book.
In Revelation 20 we find mentioned six times a period of one thousand years. Technically, this is the same thing as a “millennium.” The word millennium comes from compounding two Latin words, milli (the number 1000), and annum (the word for year), or one thousand years. It is very important to note the distinction between the denotation of the word millennium (1000 years), and the connotation of the word millennium as used by many teachers.
Such a great deal of interpretation has been poured into the word “millennium” when used by Bible teachers, that it has a taken on a meaning all its own. I think it important that we establish that the Bible simply mentions a term of 1000 years.
Many things are extracted from the Old Testament and poured into the concept of an earthly millennial kingdom. Many Old Testament Scriptures are applied totally out of context in order to substantiate the reality of “the millennium.” Christians who follow the “literal method” of interpretation of the Scriptures, think of the kingdom as a materialistic, Jewish-type of kingdom with Jerusalem as the world capital and center for a restored temple worship in the age of the millennium.
Failing to see that the kingdom is spiritual, and a present reality, they must postpone its establishment until the future when Christ returns to earth to set up a literal earthly kingdom of 1000 years’ duration. When Christ returns, having all the saints with Him, He will come to the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem. Having been sealed up for centuries, this gate will be opened for Him to pass through into the city. He will then enter a building, sit on a literal throne, and be crowned king. His earthly, political kingdom, postponed at His first coming because of the unbelieving Jews, will then be set up. The saints will rule and reign with Him in Jerusalem, which will become the capital of the world. An elaborate temple will be built in which a Levitical priesthood will again offer animal sacrifices and carry out the rituals of the Mosaic system.
It is not my intent or purpose to insult any child of God who may sincerely believe this. However, not one New Testament writer ever spoke of Jerusalem becoming the world’s center for worship. Not one New Testament writer ever spoke of Jerusalem becoming the world capital in an age to come. That concept is based entirely on Old Testament Scriptures that have been wrested from their context.
Placing such Old Testament passages in the future creates all kinds of bizarre applications and interpretations. If the living nations of earth, along with the resurrected saints of the ages, were to come with Christ into Jerusalem and crown Him sitting upon David’s throne, how could there be room for them? Where would they stay? Not only this, but a literal interpretation of these Old Testament prophecies would even have people gathering to Jerusalem on horses, mules, in ox carts, and the like. Could such primitive means of transportation really fit a glorious age of the future?
Then consider this: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25, KJV). If there is no death or dying for 1000 years in the holy mountain of Jerusalem, think of the proliferation of animals, which must become herbivores, and humans, who must all become vegetarians.
Consider the contradictions of this theory: No one and no one animal is hurt or killed, yet they teach a re-institution of animal sacrifices in the glorious temple worship there. If there are sacrifices, there must be killing and dying! A reading of the Old Testament passages that speak of Jerusalem as the center of worship, will reveal several references to animal sacrifices. But, a reading of the New Testament makes clear that the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, upon Calvary was the perfect and final sacrifice for sin in God’s plan. If in the millennial age to come there is to be a return to the old rituals and sacrifices that were abolished by Christ, would this not be “religion in reverse?” Does God walk backwards?
Consider also that there will be no time for a literal 1000-year millennial reign on earth. Revelation is the only New Testament book that mentions 1000 years. There we find six references (Revelation 20:2–6) to a 1000-year period of time. We see a reference to the “first resurrection” in verse 5, and in verse 13 a reference to “another resurrection” where the sea gives up its dead and the graves deliver up their dead. This leads some people to conclude that we will go on from the time of Christ’s first advent until He comes again, and then there will be the “first resurrection,” in which believers are raised, and then there will be the 1000 years’ reign, and after that there will be a “second resurrection” of all unbelievers.
There are numerous problems with that interpretation. First, the Bible repeat-edly teaches that there is one resurrection and one judgment, and that both the saved and the lost are present at the one judgment. Now, if they are judged together, then they must be raised together. We also find that it is on the “Last Day” that the Christians will be raised, and it is on the “Last Day” when unbelievers will be judged. You just cannot have two “Last Days!” Over and over again we see passages where the saved and the unsaved, the righteous and the unrighteous are judged on the same day, the Last Day!
For example: 1.) The one who received the ten talents is present in the same judgment as the one who received only one talent. One is rewarded, while the other is stripped of that which he has and cast into outer darkness at the same judgment. 2.) Romans 2 talks about the saved and the lost and then about the saved again. 3.) Revelation 11 talks about the final judgment when God will give reward to his saints and will destroy the wicked.
So, Scripture consistently shows that the final judgment is a judgment where the saved and the lost are present together to receive eternal rewards or punishment.
Judgment in the Scriptures is always in the singular form, never the plural. I challenge anyone, anywhere to produce any single verse in the Bible where it ever says that any people are judged at different judgments at different times. I can produce many passages which clearly state that both the saved and the lost are judged at the same judgment, at “The Last Day,” and are present with each other and with Christ at the very same judgment. Do you see the problem? If the saved and the lost are resurrected and judged at the same time, obviously there is no time for a millennium kingdom.
Since Scripture is its own best interpreter, note what John recorded concerning these events. John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (KJV).
Now to pass from death unto life—is that not a resurrection? Indeed, in this case it is a “spiritual resurrection.” Those that hear the Word of God and believe are spiritually regenerated, spiritually resurrected. He that believes is passed from death unto life. Is it not apropos that if the “first death” was a spiritual death (see Genesis 3) that the “first resurrection” should be a spiritual resurrection? John continues in verse 25, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (KJV). Note carefully the words "now is" in your Bible. This is a spiritual resurrection and it takes place the very instant that a person accepts Jesus Christ into his heart as his personal Savior and Lord.
John continues with the words of Jesus in verse 28, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming [it is not here yet], in the which all that are the graves shall hear his voice” (KJV). In verse 29 Jesus clearly states who: “And [they] shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
All who are in these graves, “saved” and “unsaved”—good and bad—shall come forth to receive their eternal reward, eternal life or eternal death.
Where is the time for this millennium? There is no time. According to John's Gospel, there is a spiritual resurrection that began when Jesus preached this word to His disciples and all of those who heard Him then, and 2000 years later, all who hear His voice and are still passing from death to life. This is the first resurrection. Each one of you who is a true believer and has taken part in the “first resurrection,” the “second death” has no power over you.
This too, Jesus clearly teaches. Four times He said in John 6 that all the saved will be raised at “the last day” (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54).
Finally consider John 12:48: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (KJV).
The significance of these verses is that the unrighteous, the Christ rejecter, the unsaved will be raised on the same day on which the saved will be raised. Jesus Himself says here that the saved and unsaved are all raised and judged on the same day, the last day. How can 1000 years between the resurrection and the judgment harmonize with these words of Jesus? How can we harmonize two physical resurrections and two separate judgment days for the saved and the unsaved with the plain words of Jesus?
When our Lord Jesus Christ returns at the last day, He will not set up an earthly kingdom to rule for 1000 years; instead, time will end and eternity will begin. When Jesus comes again it will be not to set up a kingdom, but rather to gather up His people, the bride of Christ, the church, and to take them to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. There will not be enough time to get ready.
Revelation 22:11, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still” (KJV).
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