The Millennial Kingdom Part Two

Revelation 20:1–10 ESV

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.

The disputed questions relative to Revelation 20:1-10 are whether the text is to be taken literally (millennialism) or figuratively (amillennialism) and, assuming a millennial interpretation, whether the second coming of the Lord is to precede (premillennialism) or follow (post-millennialism) the time of chiliastic victory.

Lets look at the idea in Second Temple writings.

1 Enoch 91:3-17 “Then he (Enoch) spoke to all of them, children of righteousness, and said, “Hear, all you children of Enoch, the talk of your father and listen to my voice in uprightness; 4 for I exhort you, (my) beloved, and say to you: Love uprightness, and it alone. Do not draw near uprightness with an ambivalent attitude, and neither associate with hypocrites. But walk in righteousness, my children, and it shall lead you in the good paths; and righteousness shall be your friend. 5 For I know that the state of violence will intensify upon the earth; a great plague shall be executed upon the earth; all (forms of) oppression will be carried out; and everything shall be uprooted; and every arrow shall fly fast. 6 Oppression shall recur once more and be carried out upon the earth; every (form of) oppression, injustice, and iniquity shall infect (the world) twofold. 7 When sin, oppression, blasphemy, and injustice increase, crime, iniquity, and uncleanliness shall be committed and increase (likewise). Then a great plague shall take place from heaven upon all these; the holy Lord shall emerge with wrath and plague in order that he may execute judgment upon the earth. 8 In those days, injustice shall be cut off from its (sources of succulent) fountain and from its roots—(likewise) oppression together with deceit; they shall be destroyed from underneath heaven. 9 All that which is (common) with the heathen shall be surrendered; the towers shall be inflamed with fire, and be removed from the whole earth. They shall be thrown into the judgment of fire, and perish in wrath and in the force of the eternal judgment. 10 Then the righteous one shall arise from his sleep, and the wise one shall arise; and he shall be given unto them (the people), 11 and through him the roots of oppression shall be cut off. Sinners shall be destroyed; by the sword they shall be cut off (together with) the blasphemers in every place; and those who design oppression and commit blasphemy shall perish by the knife.

12 “Then after that there shall occur the second eighth week—the week of righteousness. A sword shall be given to it in order that judgment shall be executed in righteousness on the oppressors, and sinners shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous. 13 At its completion, they shall acquire great things through their righteousness. A house shall be built for the Great King in glory for evermore.

14 “Then after that in the ninth week the righteous judgment shall be revealed to the whole world. All the deeds of the sinners shall depart from upon the whole earth, and be written off for eternal destruction; and all people shall direct their sight to the path of uprightness.

15 “Then, after this matter, on the tenth week in the seventh part, there shall be the eternal judgment; and it shall be executed by the angels of the eternal heaven—the great (judgment) which emanates from all of the angels. 16 The first heaven shall depart and pass away; a new heaven shall appear; and all the powers of heaven shall shine forever sevenfold.

17 “Then after that there shall be many weeks without number forever; it shall be (a time) of goodness and righteousness, and sin shall no more be heard of forever.

In Enoch’s 10 week timeline, we see the 8th week as the time period of righteousness before the judgement in the ninth week in verses 12-13. This could correlate to the Millennium Kingdom.

Let’s now look at the Millennium Kingdom in the Early Church Father’s period.

The first Early Church Father who spoke of the Millennial Kingdom is Papias, who had contact with those who had contact with Jesus, and was, by tradition, a disciple of John. This is recorded by Eusebius, the church historian, at the end of the third century.

Eus., Hist. eccl. 3.39.5–13 [5] It is here worth noting that he twice counts the name of John, and reckons the first John with Peter and James and Matthew and the other Apostles, clearly meaning the evangelist, but by changing his statement places the second with the others outside the number of the Apostles, putting Aristion before him and clearly calling him a presbyter. [6] This confirms the truth of the story of those who have said that there were two of the same name in Asia, and that there are two tombs at Ephesus both still called John’s. This calls for attention: for it is probable that the second (unless anyone prefer the former) saw the revelation which passes under the name of John. [7] The Papias whom we are now treating confesses that he had received the words of the Apostles from their followers, but says that he had actually heard Aristion and the presbyter John. He often quotes them by name and gives their traditions in his writings. Let this suffice to good purpose. [8] But it is worth while to add to the words of Papias already given other sayings of his, in which he tells certain marvels and other details which apparently reached him by tradition. It has already been mentioned that Philip the Apostle lived at Hierapolis with his daughters, [9] but it must now be shown how Papias was with them and received a wonderful story from the daughters of Philip; for he relates the resurrection of a corpse in his time and in another place another miracle connected with Justus surnamed Barsabas, for he drank poison but by the Lord’s grace suffered no harm. Of this Justus the Acts relates that the sacred Apostles set him up and prayed over him together with Matthias after the ascension of the Lord for the choice of one to fill up their number in place of the traitor Judas, [10] “and they set forth two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was called Justus, and Matthias; and they prayed and said.” The same writer adduces other accounts, as though they came to him from unwritten tradition,* and some strange parables and teachings of the Saviour, [11] and some other more mythical accounts. [12] Among them he says that there will be a millennium after the resurrection of the dead, when the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this earth. I suppose that he got these notions by a perverse V 1, p 297 reading of the apostolic accounts, not realizing that they had spoken mystically and symbolically. [13] For he was a man of very little intelligence, as is clear from his books. But he is responsible for the fact that so many Christian writers after him held the same opinion, relying on his antiquity, for instance Irenaeus and whoever else appears to have held the same views.

(Kirsopp, Lake. “Preface.” The Ecclesiastical History and 2: English Translation, edited by T. E. Page et al., translated by Kirsopp Lake and J. E. L. Oulton, vol. 1, William Heinemann; G. P. Putnam’s Sons; Harvard University Press, 1926–1932.)

The second Early Church Father is Irenaeus, who is one of the foremost early Christian theologians. He defended the orthodoxy of Christian doctrine. Irenaeus received his early Christian training from Polycarp, Bishop of Smyr­na in western Asia Minor. Polycarp had been a disciple of the Apostle John. Irenaeus may have served under Poly­carp for several years before being sent to Gaul (France) as a missionary. Around 178 A.D. Irenaeus became Bishop of Lyons in Gaul. There he continued to serve effectively during the last quarter of the second century. He held to a Millennial reign of Christ.

In his book, “Irenaeus Against Heresies,” Book 5, chapter 32.1 and 33 he writes:

“Inasmuch, therefore, as the opinions of certain [orthodox persons] are derived from heretical discourses, they are both ignorant of God’s dispensations, and of the mystery of the resurrection of the just, and of the [earthly] kingdom which is the commencement of incorruption, by means of which kingdom those who shall be worthy are accustomed gradually to partake of the divine nature; and it is necessary to tell them respecting those things, that it behoves the righteous first to receive the promise of the inheritance which God promised to the fathers, and to reign in it, when they rise again to behold God in this creation which is renovated, and that the judgment should take place afterwards.”

“The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising from the dead; when also the creation, having been renovated and set free, shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, from the dew of heaven, and from the fertility of the earth: as the elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from him how the Lord used to teach in regard to these times, and say: The days will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give five and twenty metretes of wine. And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster,2 another shall cry out, “I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me.” In like manner [the Lord declared] that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear should have ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds of clear, pure, fine flour; and that all other fruit-bearing trees, and seeds and grass, would produce in similar proportions ; and that all animals feeding [only] on the productions of the earth, should [in those days] become peaceful and harmonious among each other, and be in perfect subjection to man.

4. And these things are borne witness to in writing by Papias, the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book; for there were five books compiled by him. And he says in addition, “Now these things are credible to believers.”

(Irenaeus of Lyons. The Writings of Irenæus. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut, vol. 1 & 2, T. & T. Clark; Hamilton & Co.; John Robertson & Co., 1868–1869.)

The third Early Church Father is Barnabas. In chapter 15 of his epistle he writes:

“Moreover concerning the sabbath likewise it is written in the Ten Words, in which He spake to Moses face to face on Mount Sinai; And ye shall hallow the sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and with a pure heart. 2 And in another place He saith; If My sons observe the sabbath, then I will bestow My mercy upon them. 3 Of the sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. 4 Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring p 284 all things to an end; for the day with Him signifieth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end. 5 And He rested on the seventh day. This He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. 6 Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone utterly astray. 7 But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first. 8 Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your sabbaths I cannot away with. Ye see what is His meaning; it is not your present sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the sabbath which I have made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world. 9 Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens.”

(Joseph Barber Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891), 283–284.)

The fourth Early Church Father is Justin Martyr, who is a significant apologist of the second century. He very clearly declared his Millennial views in the “Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew,” in chapter 80.

“And Trypho to this replied, “I remarked to you sir, that you are very anxious to be safe in all respects, since you cling to the Scriptures. But tell me, do you really admit that this place, Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt; and do you expect your people to be gathered together, and made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them before your Christ came? or have you given way, and admitted this in order to have the appearance of worsting us in the controversies?”

Then I answered, “I am not so miserable a fellow, Trypho, as to say one thing and think another. I admitted to you formerly, that I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware;2 but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise. Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the arguments which have passed between us; in which I shall record myself as admitting the very same things which I admit to you. For I choose to follow not men or men’s doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him. For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth],4 and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genistæ, Meristæ, Galilæans, Hellenists,6 Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews (do not hear me impatiently when I tell you what I think), but are [only] called Jews and children of Abraham, worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far from Him. But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.”

(Justin Martyr. “Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew.” The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, edited by Alexander Roberts et al., vol. 1, Christian Literature Company, 1885.)

The fifth Early Church Father is Tertullian. He lived from approximately 160 to 220 A.D. He was thoroughly trained for politics, the practice of law and public debate. After he was con­verted around 195 A.D. he devoted his life to the defense of Christianity against paganism, Judaism and heresy. He op­posed infant baptism, promoted the Traducian theory of the origin of the human soul and developed the term “trinity” to describe the Godhead. In the latter years of his life he became associated with Montanism, a move­ment which some regarded to be a heret­ical sect.

(Moyer and Cairns, Biograph­ical Dictionary, p. 396.)

In a work which he wrote before his association with Montanism Tertullian stated the following: “But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years . . . .

(Tertullian, Against Marcion, Book III, chpt. 25 in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Buffalo: The Chris­tian Literature Pubiishing Com­pany,1885), III, 342.)

Then he wrote, “After its thousand years are over, . . . there will ensue the destruction of the world and the conflagration of all things at the judgments:….”

(Tertullian, Against Marcion, Book III, chpt. 25 in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Buffalo: The Chris­tian Literature Pubiishing Com­pany,1885), III, 343.)

The sixth Early Church Father is Lactantius, an Early Church Father of the third century. He lived from approximately 240 to 320 A.D. He was trained in rhetoric (the effective use of language in literature and oratory).

(Moyer and Cairns, Biographical Dictionary, p. 233)

By 290 A.D. he had been appointed by Emperor Dio­cletian to teach rhetoric at a school in Nicomedia. He became a Christian around 300 A.D., and suffered greatly under the persecution by Emperor Ga­lerius. After Emperor Constantine grant­ed freedom to the Church and declared himself a Christian, he appointed Lacantius to be the personal teacher of his son. Through his writings in defense of Christianity he became known as the Christian Cicero.

(The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, et. al., translated by Mary Fran­cis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 49, xxi-xiii.)

Jerome designated Lactantius the most learned man of his time.

(Moyer and Cairnes, Biograph­ical Dictionary, p. 233.)

Eusebius and Augustine honored him.

(The Fathers Of The Church, 49, xvii.The Fathers Of The Church, 49, xvii.)

Lactantius wrote, And as God labored six days in building such great works, so His religion and the truth must labor during these six thousand years, while malice prevails and domi­nates. And again, since He rested on the seventh day from His completed labors and blessed that day, so it is necessary that, at the end of the six thousandth year, all evil be abolished from the earth, and that justice reign for a thousand years, and that there be tranquility and rest from the labors which the world is now enduring for so long.

“Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 49, 510.”

Lactantius understood that the end of this present age will be characterized by a time of unprecedented tribulation:

As the end of this age is drawing near, therefore, it is necessary that the state of human affairs be changed and fall to a worse one, evil growing stronger, so that these present times of ours, in which iniquity and malice have advanced to a very high peak, can be judged, however, happy and almost golden in comparison with that irremedi­able evil. He followed this statement with an amaz­ing description of the future tribulation period.

(Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 15, 49, 512.)

Although he lived while Rome was the great world power, Lactantius was con­vinced from the prophetic Scriptures that Rome would be destroyed and that then the rule of the world would shift from the west to the east: “This will be the cause of the destruction and confu­sion, that the Roman name, by which the world is now ruled — the mind shudders to say it, but I will say it, because it is going to be — will be taken from the earth, and power will be returned to Asia, and again the Orient will dominate and the West will serve.”

(Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 513.)

Lactantius believed that at His sec­ond coming Christ will war against and judge Antichrist and his godless forces.

Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 19, 49, 521.

Then “the dead will rise again,… so that they may reign with God for a thousand years after being again restored to life.”

Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 22, 49, 527.

He said of Jesus,’ ‘When He shall have destroyed injustice and made the great judgment and restored to life those who were just from the beginning, He will stay among men for a thousand years and will rule them with just dominion.”

Lactantius described conditions of the future Kingdom:

Then, those who will be living in bodies will not die, but will gener­ate an infinite multitude during those same thousand years, …. Those who will be raised from the dead will be in charge of the living as judges.

At this same time, also, the prince of demons who is the contriver of all evils will be bound in chains, and he will be in custody for the thousand years of the heavenly power whereby justice will reign on earth, lest any evil be exerted against the people of God . . . the holy city will be set up in the center of the earth in which the Founder Himself may abide with the just who are its rulers.

(Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 24, 49, 530.)

Lactantius claimed that the earth will be transformed; the sun will be more effec­tive; fertility will be great; crops will be abundant, and animals will be tame. In light of these changes he said;

Men will enjoy, therefore, the most tranquil and most abundant life, and they will reign together with God. Kings of the nations will come from the ends of the earth with gifts and presents to adore and honor the great King, whose name will be famous and venerable to all peoples which will be under heaven and to the kings who will rule on the earth.

(Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 531.)

Lactantius asserted that at the end of the thousand years Satan will be set loose to lead a final revolt God will crush the revolt and judge Satan forever. The unjust will be resurrected to everlasting sufferings. Heaven and earth will change drastically.

(Lactantius, The Divine Insti­tutes. Book VII, chpt. 14 in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Roy Joseph Deferrari, efc. al., translated by Mary Francis McDonald (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Of America Press, 1964), 26, 49, 535-6.)

From this we can conclude that there is a majority view of second century Early Church Fathers of a literal thousand year reign of Christ. In the third and fourth century however this view became a minority view in the church and a-millennialism became prominent.

What is the take away form this?

First there has been disagreement on this from early on, so let not divide over it.

Second this view was not invented by Darby and Schofield only popularized by them in our time.

Third Christ is coming back and it will be great however it happens, so hold on to that future hope and be ready.