Jesus' Millennial Reign Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Specifics of the Millennium
This is the third weekend of the month so we are answering a question from the Question Box.
The question was written as follows: “Could we do a detailed study of the specifics of the Millennial Kingdom, please?
Millennial - what does it mean? In common vernacular, it is used to refer to a group of individuals between the ages of 30 and 45, or the name of the heavily modified YT-1300 light freighter known as the Millennial Falcon. These are not the way we are using it. Millennial means “thousand,” so we are using it to define the 1,000-year reign of Christ on this earth from Jerusalem.
There are three views on the Millennial reign of Jesus:
The first is Amillennialism, which teaches that the thousand-year reign of Christ is not to be taken literally, but it represents Jesus' reign during the Church Age, which is the time we are in right now.
The second is Post-millennialism, which teaches that the thousand-year reign of Christ is not to be taken literally, but that the Millennium began with his first coming and continues through the preaching of the gospel, which will bring in a time when peace and righteousness will gradually prevail and sin will be subdued in the whole world, thus ushering in Christ's return.
The third is Pre-millennialism, which teaches a literal thousand-year reign of Christ that starts after his Second Coming to fulfill the promises given to Israel as an ethnic people.
The process of good Bible study is Observation, Interpretation, and Application. With observation, let's look at the Scriptures in their contexts. Remember when observing that we are looking at three contexts: the World of the Text, the World Behind the Text, and the World in Front of the Text.
We begin our observation in Revelation 20:1-7 since this is the passage where the term “Millennial Kingdom” comes from, yet there are many other OT passages that refer to the earthly reign of Jesus fulfilling his promises to Israel without the words “1000 years.” They are: Genesis 13:14-15; 15:18; 2Samuel 7:10-17; Isaiah 2:1-5; Isaiah 11). This idea of Jesus fulfilling these promises is also repeated in the NT, as well as in Acts 1:6-7.
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,
15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,
11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
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 forth 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.
5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
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.
10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
12 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.
15 And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.
16 And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
The plain observation of the World of the Text is that Jesus will fulfill his promises to Israel by establishing his rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years before he brings in the New Heaven and Earth of Revelation 21.
When looking at the World Behind the Text, we see the Second Temple writings support the literal physical reign of the Messiah on earth, with some saying it will be a thousand years. For reference, see 2 Enoch 32-33; 2 Baruch 29-30; 39-40; 2 Esdras 7:53-55; 10:25-27; 38-39 and Psalms of Solomon 17:26.
When looking at the world in front of the text, we see that four Early Church Fathers (Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian) understood it to be the literal physical reign of Jesus, with two opposed (Origen, Tyconius).
Papias is the first to teach this from 125-130 AD. He was a hearer of John the Apostle and a companion of Polycarp and the pastor of the church in Hierapolis (Irenaeus of Lyons. “Irenæus against Heresies.” The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Vol. 1. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885.)
Justin Martyr is the second to teach this from 100-165 AD. He wrote, “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, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Vol. 1. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885.)
It was Tyconius who influenced Augustine to move his millennial position to Amillennialism, which has been the predominant position of the Catholic and Reformed traditions.
Now that we have made observations of the context, we can interpret the Bible. It teaches that there is a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus on this earth to fulfill the promises made to Israel.
What are the applications of this interpretation? They are threefold.
First, we know that God is not done with Israel, and if He is not done with them, neither should we be.
Second, we are encouraged that God is a promise-keeping God. His promises are yes and amen.
Third, we have hope, knowing that he is coming to reign.
Come! Lord Jesus, come!
