As we finished the book of Revelation, we said:

 

That does not mean:

§     We have exhausted the book.

§     That we have finished studying the book.

§     That we have said all that can be said.

 

 

There are historical notes: 

 

§      How did we get where we are?

§      What was the teaching of the early church?

§      What have other leaders of the restoration movement believed about the book of Revelation?

 

 

Views of the Millennium by R. C. Clouse from Evangelical Dictionary of Theology.

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Permission to use this article expires on March 22, 2007

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Major Varieties of Millennialism. For pur­poses of analysis and explanation Christian atti­tudes toward the millennium can be classified as premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial.

These categories involve much more than the arrangement of events surrounding the return of Christ. The thousand years expected by the premillennialist is quite different from that anticipated by the postmillennialist. The premillennialist believes that the kingdom of Christ will be inaugurated in a cataclysmic way and that divine control will be exercised in a more supernatural manner than does the postmillennialist.

The premillennialist believes that the return of Christ will be preceded by signs including wars, fam­ines, earthquakes, the preaching of the gospel to all nations, a great apostasy, the appearance of Antichrist, and the great tribulation.

These events culminate in the second coming, which will re­sult in a period of peace and righteousness when Christ and his saints control the world. This rule is established suddenly through supernatural methods rather than gradually over a long period of time by means of the conversion of individu­als [as taught by the postmillennialists]. The Jews will figure prominently in the future age because the premillennialist believes that they will be converted in large numbers and will again have a prominent place in Gods work. .

Nature will have the curse removed from it, and even the desert will produce abundant crops. Christ will restrain evil during the age by the use of authoritarian power. Despite the idyllic condi­tions of this golden age there is a final rebellion of wicked people against Christ and his saints. This exposure of evil is crushed by God, the non-Christian dead are resurrected, the last judgment conducted, and the eternal states of heaven and hell established. Many premil-lennialists have taught that during the thousand years dead or martyred believers will be resurrected with glori­fied bodies to intermingle with the other inhabi­tants of the earth. .

 In contrast to premillennialism, the postmil­lennialists emphasize the present aspects of God's kingdom which will reach fruition in the future. They believe that the millennium will come through Christian preaching and teaching. Such activity will result in a more godly, peaceful, and prosperous world. The new age will not be es­sentially different from the present, and it will come about as more people are converted to Christ. Evil will not be totally eliminated during the millennium, but it will be reduced to a min­imum as the moral and spiritual influence of Christians is increased.

During the new age the church will assume greater importance, and many economic, social, and educational prob­lems can be solved. This period is not necessarily limited to a thousand years because the number can be used symbolically. The millennium closes with the second coming of Christ, the resurrec­tion of the dead, and the last judgment. .

The third position, amillennialism, states that the Bible does not predict a period of the rule of Christ on earth before the last judgment. Ac­cording to this outlook there will be a continuous development of good and evil in the world until the second coming of Christ, when the dead shall be raised and the judgment conducted.

Amillennialists believe that the kingdom of God is now present in the world as the victorious Christ rules his church through the Word and the Spirit. They feel that the future, glorious, and perfect kingdom refers to the new earth and life in heaven.

Thus Rev. 20 is a description of the souls of dead believers reigning with Christ in heaven. .

The Rise of Millennialism. Early millennial teaching was characterized by an apocalyptic emphasis. In this view the future kingdom of God would be established through a series of dramatic, unusual events. Such teaching has been kept alive throughout the Christian era by certain types of premillennialism. Apocalyptic interpretation is based upon the prophecies of Daniel and the amplification of some of the same themes in the book of Revelation.

These works point to the imminent and supernatural inter­vention of God in human affairs and the defeat of the seemingly irresistible progress of evil. Numerology, theme figures, and angelology play a major role in these presentations.

The apoca­lyptic world view was very influential among the Jews in the period that elapsed between the OT and the NT.

Consequently the audiences to which Jesus preached were influenced by it. The early Christians also embraced this outlook. .   [That is premillennialism]

 The book of Revelation, composed during a period of persecution in the first century, used the Jewish apocalyptic interpretation to explain the Christian era. Daniel's Son of man was pre­sented as Christ, numerological formulas were restated, and the dualistic world of good and evil was provided with a new set of characters.

Despite these changes the essential apocalyptic message remained as the book taught the living hope of the immediate direct intervention of God to reverse history and to overcome evil with good. Such an outlook brought great comfort to believers who suffered from persecution by the forces of Imperial Rome. Expressed in a form that has been called historic premillennialism, this hope seems to have been the prevailing escha­tology during the first three centuries of the Christian era,

and is found in the works of Papias, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Methodius, Commodianus, and Lactantius. .

Several forces worked to undermine the mil­lennialism of the early church. One of these was the association of the teaching with a radical group, the Montanists, who placed a great stress on a new third age of the Spirit which they be­lieved was coming among their number in Asia Minor.

Another influence which encouraged a change of eschatological views was the emphasis of Origen upon the manifestation of the king­dom within the soul of the believer rather than in the world. This resulted in a shift of attention away from the historical toward the spiritual or metaphysical. A final factor that led to a new millennial interpretation was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the Great and the adoption of Christianity as the favored Imperial religion.

 

Medieval and Reformation Millennialism.

In the new age, brought in by the acceptance of Christianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire, it was Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who articulated the amillennial view which dominated Western Christian thought during the Middle Ages. The millennium, according to his interpre­tation, referred to the church in which Christ reigned with his saints. The statements in the book of Revelation were interpreted allegorically by Augustine. No victory was imminent in the struggle with evil in the world. On the really important level, the spiritual, the battle had already been won and God had triumphed through the cross. Satan was reduced to lordship over the City of^- the World, which coexisted with the City of God. Eventually even the small domain left to the devil would be taken from him by a trium­phant God. Augustine's allegorical interpretation became the official doctrine of the [Roman Catholic] church during the medieval period.    

The following are excerpts taken from an article by James A Harding. [Harding University]

James A. Harding, "The Kingdom of Christ     Vs. The Kingdom of Satan,"
The Way 5.26 (October 15, 1903), pp. 929-31.

          When God made this earth he gave it into the hands of man while he was yet in his pristine purity. Man turned it over to Satan. God swept Satan's servants from the face of the earth, and again gave it to righteous men, who before a great while turned it over to Satan again; who now is, and for a long time has been, "the prince of this world." (See John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.) (John 16:11 NKJV)  "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 

 

Christ came to this earth, and as the son of man took command of the discouraged and dispersed sons of righteousness, that he might deliver the earth from Satan, and destroy his hosts. The war is raging now, the war of righteousness against wickedness, of Christ against Satan,

of the kingdom of heaven, under the leadership of Jesus, against the kingdoms of this world, under the leadership of Satan. When Christ has fully prepared all things for the collecting of his people out of the kingdoms of the earth, he will come again "with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God." [1 Thes 4:16]  Then all the dead in Christ shall arise from their graves, immortals; then "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," [1 Cor 15:52] the living Christians shall be changed, shall become immortals; and then all the righteous shall be caught up into the clouds by the angels to meet the Lord, to be with him forever more.  (1 Th 4:17 NKJV)  “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

When the saints are caught up to meet him, Christ comes on with them to the earth. Then all the kings of the earth gather their armies together, with the beast and the false prophet, to make war against Christ and his army.

The beast and the false prophet are captured and cast into the lake of fire, the first to be consigned to that awful place; (Rev 19:20 NKJV)  “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.”

 then by the sword which proceeds out of his mouth Christ slays all the rest, all the wicked that are on the earth, and all the birds are filled with their flesh. Satan is then caught, chained and cast into the abyss, which is shut and sealed. In this place he is confined for one thousand years. During this time, this thousand years, Christ and his saints reign; but the rest of the dead live not again till the thousand years have expired. (Rev 20:5 NKJV)  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

 This, the resurrection of the righteous, is the first resurrection;

over these who come up at this resurrection "the second death hath power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years."  (Rev 20:6 NKJV)  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.”

      Paul says: "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9). The beginning of Christ's reign was announced on earth on the first Pentecost after his resurrection and it will end with the judgment day, at the close of the which the wicked shall be cast into the lake of fire, "the Gehenna of fire." "Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. . . .

And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:24-28).

      From all this it is evident that the last thousand years of Christ's reign will be a period of perfect rest from sin. During this period, Satan will be in the abyss, chained, closed up and sealed over; the beast and the false prophet will be in the hell of fire; all the rest of the wicked will be dead; and the saints will have received their spiritual bodies, having been delivered "out of the body of this death." These facts point clearly to this period of a thousand years as the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God. It is for all the people of God. The Sabbath of the old covenant, a physical rest, was a type of this spiritual rest.

A characteristic distinction between the covenants is that physical, material things under the old are typical of spiritual under the new.

The rich, splendid garments of the high priest were typical of the righteousness of Christ; and the clean, white linen garments of the common priests; in which they ministered in the holy place, were typical of the cleanness, the whiteness that is imputed to those who enter Christ, that forever clothes those who abide in him. Just so the bodily rest that the devout Jew and all his family and live stock enjoyed was typical of the Sabbath rest which awaits the people of God, this glorious thousand years with [931] which time ends, during which all the saints of all the ages will reign with Christ in perfect freedom from the guilt and all the evil effects of sin, in perfect freedom from the temptations of sin.

That this millennial reign will be on the earth is clearly indicated by the facts that at the beginning of it Christ and his saints are on the earth and so they are at the end of it. Compare Revelation 19:11-21 with Revelation 20:1-10. Read also 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 and 35-38; 1 Thes 4:13-18; 2 Thes 1:7-9; Matthew 24:29-31.)

     . . . Let us devote all our energies, powers and possessions to the kingdom of Christ which during that last thousand years will fill the whole earth. Then shall the earth be "full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9); then shall the will of God be done, "as in heaven, so on earth" (Matthew 6:10); "then shall the meek [the gentle] inherit the earth." (See Matthew 5:5.

In this lesson, we have looked at historical notes: 

 

§      How did we get where we are?

§      What was the teaching of the early church?

§      What have other leaders of the restoration movement believed about the book of Revelation? [At least James A. Harding]

 

Where from here? 

I can do a summary something like brother Harding.

We can begin with an entirely different study.

 

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