20:1-15   The Millennial Kingdom

1-10 Millennium and Satan bound

11-15 Great White Throne Judgment

INTRO: In the twentieth chapter we are dealing with the Millennium in relationship to Christ, Satan, man, the tribulation saints, the resurrections, the earth, and the Great White Throne. Chapter 20 is the division point for the three main schools of eschatology:

THREE VIEWS:

1. Amillennialism: literal coming of Christ but spiritualizes the 1000 year reign - no millennium. They accept the angel, heaven, pit, Satan, nations, and resurrections as literal.  The addition of the prefix a- simply negates the belief in the Millennium.  Amillennialism holds out no false optimism and has, for the most part, emphasized the coming of Christ. Its chief weakness is that it spiritualizes the thousand years, as it does all the Book of Revelation. It fits the Millennium into the present age.  Most amillennialists fit the Millennium into the present age, and all the events recorded in Revelation are somehow fitted into the facts of history like pieces are fitted into a crazy quilt.  Ps. 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8; Matt. 24:29-30.

2. Post-millennialism: literal return of Christ and 1000 years.  Man, through his own effort, will bring in the kingdom and then Christ=s coming.  Postmillennialism assumed that Christ would come at the conclusion of the one thousand years. Man would bring in the Kingdom by the preaching of the gospel. This was an optimistic view which prevailed at the turn of the century. At that time it looked like there might be a great worldwide turning to Christ and the world would be converted. This viewpoint has become obsolete as it could not weather the first half of the twentieth century, which produced two world wars, a global depression, the rise of communism, and the atom bomb

3. Pre-millennial: Rev. 20 interpreted literally. Fulfill promise to king David

a. God will rule for 1000 years in the person of Christ.  Ps. 2:6-9; Jere. 23:5-6

b. The seat of God=s rule will be Jerusalem.  Deut. 28:13

c. Peace among animals, and men, one language (curse of Babel removed)

d. Creation delivered from the curse C Rom. 8:19-20

Premillennialism, takes chapter 20 at face value, as it does all of the Book of Revelation, applying the literalist interpretation unless the context instructs otherwise.  In the premillennialist interpretation, the one thousand years are treated as one thousand years, and Christ comes at the beginning of the Millennium. Chapter 20 makes it clear that there can be no Millennium until Christ comes.

1. There can be no Millennium until Satan is removed from the earthly scene.

2. The curse of sin must be removed from the physical earth before a Millennium can be established.

3. Third place, the resurrection of the Old Testament saints must take place at the beginning of the thousand years. If they were raised before the Great Tribulation, they would have to stand around and wait for the Millennium. There is no need for them to do that, and the Lord is not going to raise them until the Tribulation is over. Only Christ will raise the dead (see John 5:21, 25, 28-29), so He must come for that purpose.

4. The Tribulation saints are included in the resurrection of the Old Testament saints, and they reign with Christ during the Millennium.

5. The Millennium is the final testing of man under ideal conditions. This is the answer to those who say there is nothing wrong in man which circumstances and conditions cannot change. Man is an incurable, an incorrigible sinner. Even at the end of the Millennium, he is still in rebellion against God. The rebellion in the human heart and the depraved nature of man are impossible for any man to comprehend. If you and I could see ourselves as God sees us, we could not stand ourselves. But we think we are pretty good and that we are very nice people.

6. The Millennium is God's answer to the prayer, "Thy kingdom come." That is the Kingdom which He is going to establish here on earth, and it is called the Millennium. This is the Kingdom which was promised to David (see 2 Sam. 7:12-17; 2 Sam. 23:5).

7. God took an oath relative to its establishment (see Ps. 89:34-37). This is the Kingdom predicted in the psalms and in the prophets (see Ps. 2; 4 Ps. 45; 110; Isa. 2:1-5; Isa. 11:1-9; 6 Isa. 60; Isa. 61:3-62; 6 Isa. 66; Jer. 23:3-8; Jer. 32:37-44; Ezek. 40 -- Ezek. 48; Dan. 2:44-45; Dan. 7:13-14; Dan. 12:2-3; Mic. 4:1-8; Zech. 12:10 -- Zech. 14:21). All of the prophets spoke of this Kingdom, the minor prophets as well as the major prophets -- not one of them missed it.

20:1-3 SATAN BOUND FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

His withdrawal makes way for the Millennium, for with him loose, there can be no Millennium. Therefore, we see that Satan's relationship to the Millennium is this: he must be removed from the earth's scene before it can take place. Men talk about bringing peace on this earth, and about producing prosperity. The world system will finally be headed up in the Antichrist, and he will not be able to accomplish peace and prosperity, although for a while it will look as if he may.  As long as Satan is in this world, you cannot have world peace.

"The bottomless pit@ is an Aabyss."  It is not the lake of fire, which we shall see in verse 10."  After that he must be loosed for a little time."  Why? Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer: "If you will tell me why God let him loose in the first place, I'll tell you why God let him loose in the second place."

This is the great problem of evil: Why has God permitted it? Wickedness and evil must be great and beyond the ability of man to deal with, so that we can experience the greatness of God=s grace and consequently give God glory for all that is done.  

20:4-6 The saints reign with Christ 1000 years

Many are going to die for Christ in the Great Tribulation period, but they will live again and reign with Christ one thousand years. The Tribulation saints are going to trade three and one-half years for one thousand years. The thrones are literal; the martyrs are literal; Jesus is literal; the Word of God is literal; the Beast is literal; the image is literal; the mark of the Beast is literal; their foreheads and their hands are literal; and the thousand years are literal. It is all literal. A thousand years means a thousand years. If God meant that it was eternal, He would have said so.

Show the chart of the Different Stages In The Resurrection.  The first resurrection began with the resurrection of Christ. Then it is followed by the resurrection (at the Rapture) of His church sometime more than nineteen hundred years later, but prior to the Tribulation. At the end of the Great Tribulation is the resurrection of both the Tribulation saints ("the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God; and whosoever worshiped not the wild beast") and the Old Testament saints (see Dan. 12:1-2).  Christ, the first fruits of resurrection, leads the way.  The Tribulation saints and the Old Testament saints will evidently reign on this earth with Christ. "They shall be priests of God."

20:7-9 Satan Loosed

As soon as Satan is released, a great company, who have been under the personal reign of Christ under ideal circumstances, goes over to Satan. From where did such a company come is a worthy question. The answer lies in the fact that not only do multitudes enter the Millennium, but multitudes also are born during the Millennium (see Isa. 11:6; Isa. 65:20). This will be the time of the earth's greatest population explosion. Disease will be eliminated, since the curse of sin will be removed from the physical earth. 

The human heart alone remains unchanged under these circumstances, and many will turn their backs on God and will go after Satan. This seems unbelievable, but what about today? Satan is doing pretty well in our day. This rebellion following the Millennium reveals how terrible the heart of man is. Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9).  When the opportunity is offered to them to rebel, they rebel. The nations of the earth again will come under the spell of Satan and will plot a rebellion.

20:10 The devil cast into the Lake of Fire - It is a relief to God's child to know that the enemy will at last be brought to permanent justice.

First of all, the Devil is not in hell today. He is the prince of the power of the air. He is the one who controls this world to a large extent. God has limited him in our day, but in the Great Tribulation period, he will have full rein for a while.

In the second place, the Devil is not the first to be cast into hell. The wild Beast and the False Prophet will precede him by one thousand years.

 Finally, hell is described as a lake of fire and brimstone. The Lord Jesus is the One who gave the most solemn description of hell. "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8:12).