The Millennium: God’s Golden Age

I started a journey trying to learn more about the Millennium. As a Christian, it is not a subject I have heard covered in many sermons. My theory as to why that is the case is that it takes an in-depth Bible study to piece together the Millennial prophecies, and many just do not want to invest the time to do it, but the Millennium is a reality, and it is part of God’s Word. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said?

Acts 20:27 NKJV

“For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”

If I, as a preacher of the gospel, am to declare the whole counsel of God, and if the Millennium is in God’s Word, should I not preach about or discuss the Millennium? Should we as Christians have an understanding of God’s plans for Israel, earth, and the Messianic Kingdom?

I am not going to discuss all of the theories associated with the Millennium. I am just going to share what I believe God’s Word says about it. As for my background so that you will know from where I am coming, I believe that true church will be raptured before the Tribulation begins, and I believe that Jesus Christ will come to this earth again to conclude Armageddon and to establish his earthly kingdom at the conclusion of the Tribulation. It is at that point that the Millennium begins.

Admittedly, nowhere in the Bible is the word Millennium found, but it is described clearly in Scripture.

Revelation 20:1–6 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

In these six verses, a reference to a thousand year period of time is referenced five times. It is not a reference to eternity as eternity will not be constricted by time limitations. This is clearly referring to a thousand year period of time that happens after the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Tribulation ends and Satan is imprisoned in the bottomless pit.

By the way, Millennium is a Latin phrase that means, you guessed it, a thousand years.

At the Second Coming of Christ, every Christ rejecting person on planet earth will be destroyed.

Revelation 19:19–21 “And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

There will, however, be a remnant of Israel and a number of Gentiles saved out of the Great Tribulation who will enter this thousand year period of time. At the moment of Christ’s Second Coming, the world will be free from the lost sinners just as it was when Noah and his eight sons disembarked from the Ark.

It is my goal to examine some of the important details concerning the Millennium.

The Doctrine of the Millennium.

I like to ask questions when I preach or teach. It was a practice I developed as a public school teacher for 25 years, so here is the question.

Did you know that a larger body of Scripture is devoted to the Millennium than any other subject in the Bible?

It is the Millennium that fulfills all the prophetic passages and promises concerning Israel. It is a period of time in which all of God’s Covenants with Israel will be realized. The thousand years complete all of God’s covenants with Israel. The Kingdom to be established during the Millennium is necessary to complete those covenants.

What covenants?

The Abrahamic Covenant.

The Abrahamic Covenant is just one of four covenants made by God to Israel that as of yet have not been completely fulfilled, but during the Millennium, the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant will be fulfilled. If you are familiar with the Abrahamic Covenant, you know that God made certain promises to Abraham.

Those promises were:

Israel’s perpetuity

Israel’s possession of the land

Israel’s inheritance

None of those promises have been completely fulfilled, but they will be. Let’s look at some passages.

Isaiah 10:21–22 “The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, To the Mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, A remnant of them will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.”

Are all the world’s Jews gathered in Israel today? No, but they will be in the future.

Ezekiel 34:24 “And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Is God the God of Israel today? No, because Israel has largely rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people totally misunderstand the Tribulation. One of the two purposes, in my mind, of the Tribulation is to save a remnant of Israel. It is that remnant that will worship the Lord as God during the Millennium.

Genesis 15:18–21 “On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.””

Here is a map of the land promised to Abraham by God.

Has Israel ever possessed this land? No! For many reasons, Israel never possessed this land. Chief among those reasons were disobedience and idolatry, but they will possess that land. We know that the promises contained within the Abrahamic Covenant have not been completely fulfilled, but this is what you must understand about God.

When God says something is going to happen, it is not a prediction. When God says something is going to happen, He sees it as it has already happened.