STAND FIRM: End Time Views - The Millenial Kingdom
One of the movie scenes that has stuck in my head the longest is from an old Muppets movie. I’m showing some age on that one. In the movie, Kermit and Fozzy come to an intersection that has a giant physical, literal fork in the road. From that point on in life, when someone said there was a fork in the road, I looked for a physical giant fork. So far, I haven’t seen anything but a plastic fork littered in the ditch. I have come to many forks in the road while driving and in life. I have also come to them in interpreting and understanding the Bible. You surely have as well.
I began this series of articles with one about how end-time views aren’t a pizza buffet or at least we can’t choose our view like a slice of pizza on a buffet. Because we might be like my daughter who is only going to get dessert pizzas! We tend to select a view by what sounds the best, but rather we need Scripture to do the selecting for us.
When I say Scripture, we must realize that we can often take a passage and spin it to defend anything we want. Therefore, we need to let multiple witnesses in Scripture lead us to a view and let the context in Scripture be the determining factor. As I wrote in the last article, we should view it as football replay officiating. We should let the ruling on the field — meaning the straightforward reading of the text and how the original audience understood it — stand unless we have enough biblical evidence to overturn it. With that said, let’s look to the second theological fork in the road to finding a biblical end-time view.
Theological Fork in Road #2: The Millennial Kingdom
Within the futuristic view of Bible prophecy, there’s a pivotal event that determines how one views the end times. In our last article, we walked through the four main approaches to Bible prophecy. One of those was the futuristic view which views prophecy as being fulfilled in the future and The Book of Revelation is understood as future events.
Even among those who hold to this futuristic view, there is a debate over that one event — the Millennial Kingdom. The Millennial Kingdom comes from Rev. 20:1-10, which tells that following Jesus’ return and the defeat of the Antichrist, He will bind Satan for 1,000 years and He will rule on earth with the raptured and resurrected saints. The term millennium is from Latin and means 1,000 years. The debate has three views:
• Premillennialism views that there will be a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus just as in Revelation 20.
• Amillennialism views that there is not a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus and views Revelation 20 to be understood only symbolically or spiritually. Proponents may view most of Revelation as futuristic but view this event in Revelation 20 as symbolic.
• Postmillennialism views that Jesus returns after this 1,000-year period or an undetermined amount of time. Most who hold this view believe we are living in the Millennial Kingdom now and that the church is this kingdom. This view peaked in popularity in the early 1900s. The world wars cast serious doubt on the idea that we were living in that kingdom of unparalleled peace.
One can see that the hermeneutic ruling on the field is that Scripture plainly states that there will be this kingdom with Satan bound for 1,000 years. Therefore, any challenge to premillennialism must provide evidence that Revelation 20 isn’t meant to be understood literally.
The early church was also premillennial. The writings of the early church fathers address it often. They use the term “chiliasm,” which is using the Greek word for a thousand. I must admit “chiliasm” sounds so much cooler than millennialism. We will “chill” with Jesus for 1,000 years. The historical ruling on the field is also in favor of premillennialism.
The case would seem solid for premillennialism, and I believe that it should be. But in fairness, this 1,000-year time period — where Jesus has returned but it’s not the “all-things new” time yet — is novel to Revelation. It is one of the only end-time events that is revealed for the first time in Revelation. Most every event in Revelation has an Old Testament precedence. Because of that, it might be easy to suggest that there aren’t multiple witnesses of the Millennial Kingdom in the Bible.
Though the “1,000 years” is new and introduced in Revelation 20, this kingdom is essential to complete the narrative and fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. For it is through this reign of Jesus on earth with His saints that the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12 and 15 is fulfilled. It is through this reign of Jesus that the Davidic Covenant of II Samuel 7 is fulfilled. It is in this kingdom where the words of Isaiah ring through that the Messiah will have the government upon His shoulders and bring peace.
I’ve come to believe there isn’t an event with more Old Testament precedence than the Millennial Kingdom. I guess I’ve shown my cards — I’m premillennial. I’m going with the ruling on the field for I do not see any evidence to overturn a plain reading of Revelation 20 — “I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain… He seized… Satan, and bound him for a thousand years… I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus… They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Rev. 20:1-4 NIV).
Jake is the newest state missionary and would love to share about the work in Northwest Arkansas and encourage your church to stand firm. (standfirmministries.com)
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Jake McCandless
Jake McCandless authors a weekly column titled, Stand Firm and Live Epic, through which he seeks to encourage the modern church to not just survive, but thrive in current times. He also addresses many end-times topics.
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