Chapter 10 – THE MILLENNIUM

Duration: 1,000 years
Timing: After Armageddon, when Jesus sets foot on earth at the Mount of Olives
Key Scriptures:  Revelation 20:1-10, Ezekiel 40-48

When we think about it, the millennium will be a very interesting and unique time in earth’s history. We’ll have Jesus, the King of all kings, ruling the world with His holy saints. His angels will be here with Him as well. Also, the remnant of mortal man that survives the tribulation and God’s Wrath will be living here as well. They are the “nations” that are ruled and who go up to Him to see Him—and have the ability to procreate and raise families. It seems that Hollywood got it wrong when they came up with their “post-apocalyptic” earth. The apocalypse will be very horrific; but the time after it will be very nice for all – the best time on earth, actually.

Isaiah 2:² It shall come to pass in the latter days

    that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

    and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

³ and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

    and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go the law,

    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

⁴ He shall judge between the nations,

    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

    and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

    neither shall they learn war anymore. 

Zechariah 14:¹⁶ Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.

(See also Micah 4)

There seem to be four main reasons why the post-apocalyptic world will be so wonderful: 

1. Satan is imprisoned
2. Jesus rules justly with His saints
3. All people will enjoy a long, happy life (no infant mortality at all); and
4. Nations will no longer war against each other.

However, the mortals who live in the millennium will not be perfect, and toward the end of the thousand years they will be fooled into rebelling against the Lord. This happens when Satan is again released from his confinement. 

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

⁴ Then 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. ⁵ The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed 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.

⁷ And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, ¹⁰ and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Since the glorified saints will in no way rebel against God, and will not procreate (Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25; Lk 20:35), it is essential to understand that some remnant of mortal man will survive both the Great Tribulation and God’s Wrath. 

I believe that these mortal people will be those who neither worshipped the devil or the beast (antichrist), nor gave themselves to Christ, thereby entrusting themselves to Him for salvation. Neither will they have taken the Mark of the Beast, which is forced upon humanity during the Great Tribulation. They are truly unaffiliated with Christ at His arrival. By the way, a good number of them will be Jews whom He has rescued from the apocalypse (Revelation 12).

Will these people have an opportunity to receive salvation during the millennium? I don’t think they will become saints (by faith), but they will be saved from destruction (due to their works and good treatment of the saints). Will they be glorified after the Great Judgment? I wish, but I don’t think so. I think that the number of saints is fixed with the rapture. I just know that there must be mortal people on the earth during the millennium who will rebel at the end of it and who serve as Jewish priests. Then, in the New Earth there will be the same category of folks living in a perfectly Utopian world under the wonderful theocracy of Christ.

[ONLINE EDIT: I now believe quite firmly that the number of saints will be filled at one time, with both the resurrection and the rapture. I don’t see anyone receiving sainthood after that. These people in the Nations, both in the Millennium and the New Earth, are saved from destruction. I don’t see sainthood for them; only eternal, mortal life in a Utopian world. Good people in the Millennium probably get to move over to the New Earth when it’s made.]

I have found no hard and fast contradiction to this conclusion (that mortals survive the events prior to Christ’s return). The closest thing that I can find is the following:

In Isaiah 13:9, quoted earlier, it would seem that all “sinners” are killed by God’s Wrath. However, if Isaiah were merely choosing a word to contrast with “elect”, then it may be permitted to deny this as a contradiction to other verses that indicate some people surviving who are not God’s elect. What I mean is that this verse may allow some people to survive who did not take the mark of the beast nor worship the antichrist, and who did not accept Christ as Savior either. In other words, Isaiah may simply be attempting to identify the ones who go beyond flatly rejecting God and His Christ, and even worship Satan, while not addressing those who remain unaffiliated. If we do not allow this interpretation, then we have a solid contradiction, which the Bible does not allow. Above, I have shown why it is important to allow Isaiah to be referring to a very specific group of unbelievers rather than to all unbelievers. After all, on the face of it, since believers are also “sinners”, and some of them clearly didn’t die from God’s Wrath, there must be some provision for others to live as well who could be called “sinners”.  

If nothing else, we could simply take Isaiah’s prophecy literally, and have it apply strictly to Babylon (as it says). And in this way sidestep any contradiction, while still allowing other people in other parts of the world to survive God’s Wrath, even if not already pardoned through the cross of Christ. Or, we could dispute whether the word “all” should be applied to the verse at all (as is the case with the quoted version, ESV).

In the book of Ezekiel, we are presented with a temple that is unlike the other Jewish temples. Besides being larger, it will have the glory of God visibly seen and will allow for gentiles to visit the outer courtyard. This temple is believed to be present in the millennial kingdom (Isaiah 2:3; 56:6-7; 60:13; Ezekiel 40:1-47:1; Daniel 9:24; Joel 3:18; Haggai 2:7-9; Zechariah 6:12-15; 8:20-23) and the presence of God will be Jesus, Himself.

This appears to be a time when God presents Himself to mortal men as One Who is to be feared and respected by all. He will rule the nations with an iron scepter (Revelation 2:27); that means that nobody gets away with anything bad. It is very different from the Father-child relationship presented by our Savior now. Indeed, if we accept the Lord now (before His return) as our God and Savior, we will not be subject to the ritualistic and ceremonious processes of worship and supplication, or the legal processes of hearing, judgment and penalty payment that are shown by Ezekiel (40-48). Ours will be a much more intimate and personal relationship. We will not need His heavy hand, since we will already be unified as one with Him. In fact, we will rule the nations with Him (Revelation 20:4).

Interestingly, this authority we share will not involve the temple rites, as Ezekiel tells us who the priests are who perform the sacrifices. They are mortal men of the lineage of Zadok, a Levite. We know that they are mortals because of Ezekiel 44:22, which says of them, “They shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.” This verse tells us quite clearly that the men are mortals. And we know that glorified saints will not marry at all (Matthew 22:30 et al).

However, in Ezekiel we read about a “prince” who participates in the rituals. This intrigued me at first. I wondered who the prince might be. Well, my question was answered in Ezekiel 37:24-25:

Ezekiel 37:²⁴ “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.”

Also, God has made provision for mortal gentiles to live among the mortal Jews during the millennium (Ezekiel 47:22-23). So, not only are Jews saved through the tribulation and God’s Wrath, but also gentiles. 

Not only will Jews and gentiles live together in peace during this time, but animals will also live together in peace with each other and with mankind.

Isaiah 11:⁶ The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

    and a little child shall lead them.

⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;

    their young shall lie down together;

    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

⁹ They shall not hurt or destroy

    in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

    as the waters cover the sea. 

As discussed above, this does not mean that there will be no death in the millennium, but that there will be peace on earth. 

Isaiah 2:⁴ He shall judge between the nations,

    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

    and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

    neither shall they learn war anymore. 

Death will obviously continue for the mortals. After all, they are still mortals. However, people will be able to live long, happy lives during this time. 

Isaiah 65:²⁰ No more shall there be in it

    an infant who lives but a few days,

    or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

    and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 

And what will be the lifestyle of these mortals? Well, we will not know for certain until the time comes, but we do have various clues to ponder, such as the remainder of the above passage:

Isaiah 65:²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them;

    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²² They shall not build and another inhabit;

    they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

    and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³ They shall not labor in vain

    or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

    and their descendants with them.

²⁴ Before they call I will answer;

    while they are yet speaking I will hear.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

    and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy

    in all my holy mountain,”

says the Lord. 

It sounds like a quiet life on the farm. But if farming isn’t your thing, don’t worry – there are cities as well.

Will there be automobiles, trains, ships and airplanes? What about telephones and computers? Is everything low tech? 

There are many things we just won’t know until we see how it will be. But since the nations (or maybe delegates) will go up to Jerusalem each year, I would expect some sort of modern transportation. Of course, this is just a guess. It could be that the nations will have to send out several teams of delegates, staggered in their trips, so that they don’t miss a single year. In other words, if it takes a year (or more) to get to Jerusalem from where you are, you’d better send a second or third team of representatives a year behind the first team. But I’m hoping for some kind of planet friendly transportation that is fast, safe and easy. (As for the holy saints who rule with Christ, we may either not need to go anywhere or perhaps we will simply teleport—move by way of spiritual power and thought. Maybe they can take the delegates with them in that manner?)

There will be no more objections presented throughout the remainder of this study, as this and the remaining topics are not largely disputed between pre- and posttribbers. The same goes for Mid-tribbers and Prewrathers. And I do not wish to go into Postmillennialism and Amillennialism, since these views do not honor the word of God by taking it for what it says (they heavily spiritualize the text to the point that it means something completely different than a plain meaning interpretation would allow).

Questions to Ponder

1. How do we know that there will be mortals and glorified saints in the millennium?
2. Why are there sacrifices in the millennial temple, wasn’t Jesus the final sacrifice?
3. What is the relationship between saints and mortals during the millennium?

Answers

1. Because saints will never rebel against the Lord, but be with Him always; Isaiah and Ezekiel describe mortals living during the Lord’s reign.
2. The sacrifices are for the mortals to pay a penalty for their sins. This is not the eternal propitiation that is the cross; it is a temporary atonement that is more like paying a fine for a speeding ticket. The mortals will still be judged in the Great Judgment.
3. The saints will rule over the mortals. However, Jesus is the ultimate Judge and King. Most likely, the saints will simply enforce His will. But note that this view is not clearly laid out in scripture. I think of them as “first responders”, and maybe “magistrates”.

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Preface/Introduction
Ch 1: Ezekiel’s War
Ch 2: The Tribulation
Ch 3: 3rd Temple Built
Ch 4: The Great Tribulation
Ch 5: The Wrath of God
Ch 6: The Return of Christ
Ch 7: The Resurrection of the Dead in Christ
Ch 8: The Rapture
Ch 9: Armageddon
Ch 10: The Millennium
Ch 11: The Judgment
Ch 12: The New Creation
Ch 13: Conclusion
Ch 14: Summary
Glossary