The Timing of the Millennium

We cannot know the time of the second coming, except that it follows certain prophecies, nearly all of which have already been fulfilled. But the timing of the Millennium is absolutely precise. That we do know to the day and the hour. Anyone who times the Millennium otherwise has not taken the context into consideration. The Millennium is uniquely described in Revelation 20. It takes place immediately after the events of Revelation 19, which describes the second coming of Christ.

The events surrounding the Millennium are described in detail in Revelation 20.

The Beginning of the Millennium: The First Resurrection

(Rev 20:1)  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (Rev 20:2)  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, (Rev 20:3)  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

The Millennium  begins immediately after the second coming. Several things happen at the beginning of it. An angel comes down from heaven, that is, to the earth. The angel confines Satan to the ”bottomless pit”. The bottomless pit is on the earth, because that is where the angel has come. The word abyssos in Greek, which is used here, is the same which the LXX Greek translation of Genesis 1:2 uses for ”the deep”. That is, Satan remains on earth in the chaotic state to which it has been reduced, the same state in which it existed at the beginning of creation.

(Rev 20:4)  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Rev 20:5)  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Rev 20:6)  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The concept of a temporal millennium of peace and righteousness on the earth is based on a false understanding of this text. We have already seen that the Millennium begins at the second coming of Christ, and that at that time all people cease to exist on the earth. The righteous are caught up in the air ever to be with the Lord, and the wicked are destroyed by the brightness of his coming. The righteous live and reign with Christ in heaven during the Millennium, not on the desolate earth. The righteous dead have been raised up to heaven as well. The wicked dead do not live again until the end of the Millennium.

The End of the Millennium: The Second Resurrection

(Rev 20:7)  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,(Rev 20:8)  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

At the end of the thousand years or Millennium, Satan is loosed. His imprisonment prevented him from deceiving the nations simply because the nations were dead. At the second resurrection, the resurrection of the wicked for final sentencing and punishment, Satan is loosed, that is, he again has a field of employment in deceiving the newly resurrected wicked. He deceives them to gather against God's government in battle. 

(Rev 20:9)  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Rev 20:10)  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The punishment upon the wicked does not fall in judgement. It falls in self-defence, or rather the divine action to defend the righteous. The righteous do not need to defend themselves. Satan does not lead a unified force. His forces are always divided within, filled with hate and rage for one another. That is why the beast (the Papacy) and the false prophet (the Islamic establishment) are made up of warring factions within and animosity between the two. But these both join their founder and leader in the lake of fire, because they joined in the common sin of attacking the city of God.

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown correctly translate ”for ever and ever” as ”to the ages of the ages”. This expression, at least in the King James translation, seems to support the belief in the eternal torment of the wicked. But there are Scriptural reasons to consider that the existence of the wicked and wickedness will come to an end, and not continue eternally. The use of the terms in English as in Isaiah 34:9,10 show clearly that this Greek expression, which is also reflected in the LXX Greek of the Hebrew Scriptures, often refers to a limited time and not to eternity. While the end of Satan and sinners will be eternal, their conscious torment will be limited to the time of their existence. Even if that were the case, this text would be insufficient to give evidence to the belief in an immortal human soul. It is always best to interpret the Bible to be consistent.