The Millennium of Revelation

In our study of the end times, we've come to the key passage for this idea of the millennium, whether post, pre, pre.

This is the one place in the Bible where the Bible speaks about a thousand year period of time.

You'll find a millennium nowhere else in the Bible. Now, we're 11 weeks into our study on the end times and only now have we gotten around to this passage.

That has been intentional. Remember, as we began our study of the end times, we said we need to study the clear before the difficult, the literal before the figurative, the general large picture before we dip in and just dig out any individual passage for our understanding on the end times.

And so, as we come to the book of Revelation now at last, we need to remember several things about the book as a whole, but that will also apply then to our interpretation of chapter 20.

And the first thing we need to remember is the kind of literature that we are reading when we crack our Bibles at the last book. The book of Revelation is written in a genre, a style, a literary style called apocalyptic literature.

Stuart Olliot says, Most apocalyptic literature was written to encourage faithful people in times of persecution. The main themes are always the same.

The growth of evil on the one hand, and God's care for his people on the other, and the assurance that evil will not finally prevail, that the only thing of eternal duration is the kingdom of God.

Now, that's the background to most apocalyptic literature. It's true of this book of Revelation. It was written to encourage the first century Christians who were just heading into Roman persecution.

Some of you know church history, know that the first three centuries of that millennia were centuries of persecution upon the church.

And John is writing to prepare them for these tough times that are coming from the Romans especially. But in doing so, he's encouraging all the saints of every age till the end of the age to persevere.

And when they're persecuted, and when evil seems to have the upper hand to remember, no, remember who wins in the end. Remember what Jesus Christ is going to do in destroying evil, and Christ's kingdom is the only thing enduring.

Now, the most notable feature of apocalyptic literature is the use of symbols, the use of figurative language.

Chapter 19, 15 and 21, we see a vision where a sharp sword is coming out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus, and with that sword, he slays his enemies.

Would anyone like to press a literal interpretation of that passage? Obviously not. We're not meant to think of that sword as being a literal metal sword.

These things require interpretation. They're not straightforward historical narratives. They're not literary prose, such as David taking the sword of Goliath out of his sheath and cutting off his head with it.

That's historical narrative. We're not meant to symbolize that sword and give a figurative meaning to it. We're rather to understand it in the flow of the story as it's given.

It was a real sword. But that's not the way apocalyptic literature is to be interpreted. But we come to this statement of a sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus, and we recognize it's a symbol.

But we're not free just to put on that symbol any kind of meaning we want. We're not free to say, well, it's symbolic, so let me think, what could that mean? Let me think of a good meaning for a sword.

We're rather meant to go to the scriptures, and to allow the scriptures to tell us what these symbols mean. Anybody have an idea of what the sword might mean from the scriptures?

The sword coming out of his mouth? His word. His word. And why would you say that? Is that just something in your own imagination? Or is there something in the Bible that would give you an indication that it might be that?

The word is like a two-edged sword. Okay. Hebrews 4. 4, 12, and 13.

That the word of God is living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword. Any other passages? Ephesians 6. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. All right? The sword of the Spirit.

There are psalms as well that, again, are more figurative, that call on Jesus to gird on his sword and to slay. These things are a point. The symbol of the sword, we can say from the other scriptures, are pointing us to think that what it's saying is that when Jesus Christ returns and slays the wicked, it will just be with a word of his mouth.

And isn't that what Luther says in his great hymn? One little word will slay him. A mighty fortress. He understands the figure. It's the word of God. So, these symbols are meant to be interpreted.

John himself tells us the meaning of many of the symbols. He tells us that the lampstands, for instance, represent the churches. He tells us that the eyes represent the Spirit.

Chapter 5 and verse 6. That incense represents the prayers of the saints. 5-8. That the serpent represents Satan. 12-9.

That the horns represent kings. 17-12. That waters represent people. 17-15. In each of these cases, John tells us what the symbols mean.

17-15. And it's very clear to us, then, that John himself, the author, the human author of this book, sees this book as highly figurative and not literal at all. It's not a literal book.

It's meant to be interpreted. Now, other symbols are left unidentified. And here's where we run into trouble. And we could wish that John had identified every symbol for us.

It would have made it a lot easier. But that there are many other symbols is obvious from a reading of the book of Revelation, where a literal interpretation of the symbol would be highly unlikely and, in many cases, downright ridiculous.

He speaks of a creature full of eyes and with six wings. He speaks of a seven-eyed lamb. Of people talking to mountains.

Of people washing their robes in blood. Of locusts with human faces. Lion-headed horses. Fire-breathing prophets.

A woman clothed with the sun while standing on the moon. A woman sitting on seven hills. Seven-headed dragon that pulls stars down from heaven.

A serpent vomiting out a river. A seven-headed beast. Frogs coming out of the mouth of a dragon. A harlot drunk with the blood of saints.

And so on and so on and so on we could go. These are images, pictures, figures that are meant not to have a literal interpretation placed upon them, but a symbolic meaning attached.

Some symbols even confuse the Apostle John. If you get confused reading the Revelation of John, take heart. The author himself was often confused.

He didn't understand what he saw. As these visions came to him, he saw. And he didn't always understand what he was seeing. We see that in chapter 17 and verses 6 and 7.

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints. The blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. And when I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

Then the angel said to me, Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. He was astonished.

He didn't understand it. And the angel says, Don't be astonished. I'll explain it to you. In other words, the book needs to be explained. It needs to be interpreted. And even John, in many cases, needed that interpretation for him.

As did Daniel. In Daniel chapter 7 and verse 16, when he saw his apocalyptic visions, he said, I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this.

So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. And so I say, when we come to this book of Revelation, we're going to see things that are not meant to be literally interpreted, but must be interpreted, must have another meaning attached to the symbol.

That's the intent of the author, the Holy Spirit, and the human author, John. So I say, all of this should give us pause against giving a literalistic interpretation of the book or of chapter 20 that we're going to be coming to.

This is an important key to interpreting and rightly understanding the book of Revelation. We ought to expect to find symbols everywhere.

That's the kind of literature it is. Now, part of the symbols in the book are numbers. You find all kinds of numbers in the book of Revelation.

And these numbers as well are highly symbolic. Seven signifies completeness or fullness. The seven churches that you find letters written to in chapters 2 and 3 are meant to represent the whole church.

The church universal of Jesus Christ. There are not literally seven spirits of God, as Revelation tells us, but one Holy Spirit who is represented in his fullness and completeness by saying and referring to him as the seven spirits of God.

There are 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 12 times 10,000, 12,000.

Let me get my math right. But you see the symbolism between the 12 tribes and that number 144,000. Don't press a literal interpretation on that.

These numbers are symbolic. So that's an important point for us as we begin. Understand apocalyptic literature is full of symbols, numbers sharing in that symbolism.

But then secondly, another lesson for us is that there are many allusions to other passages of scripture in the book of Revelation and especially the Old Testament. He doesn't always quote the Old Testament.

He'll just grab a few words from the Old Testament. And we've got to be on our toes and realize, oh, he's referring to what Daniel said here or Isaiah said there. And if we would understand the meaning, then we need to be on our toes to realize he's going to be quoting and alluding to other scripture passages.

Now that tells us that we'll only understand the book of Revelation to the extent in which we understand the whole Bible. But the better you understand the whole Bible, the better you'll understand the message of Revelation.

But I would tell you that's the answer to every book of the Bible. The better you understand the whole Bible, the better you'll understand Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, any book in the Bible.

But it's especially true here in this symbolic book where we need help and we need pointers to help us understand what the figures mean.

We need to go to the scriptures to understand the symbol. Now, since this is the case that the Bible is full of figures and is alluding to other passages, you can see then the method behind our madness in this study.

Why is it that we've not come first in our study of the end times to the book of Revelation? Okay, let's start. This is the first week. We're doing a new study on eschatology. Let's study the book of Revelation. That's to study on the wrong end of the stick.

It's to start at the wrong end. We need help interpreting these figures. And much of the help comes by understanding the rest of the Bible. So we've started with the rest of the Bible.

That which is clear, literal, general statements of Scripture to hammer out the Bible's own end time scheme. And we found that it's a basically simple scheme.

Two periods of time, what are they? The present age. And the age to come. This age and the age to come. What characterizes this present age?

This evil age. This evil present age, Paul refers to. What represents the time to come? Righteousness. Okay? Holiness.

Eternal. And then there's a little dividing line between. And what is that? Coming of Christ. What else will happen? Judgment.

New heavens and new earth. One more thing. The resurrection. If you're going to get everybody to judgment, you've got to get them all out of the grave, don't you?

There will be a general resurrection and a general judgment. Now, that is what we found that the Bible teaches in the plain, literal, general passages. So, that's helpful to us then.

And now, as we come to this highly figurative, symbolic book, we don't want to forget what we've learned elsewhere in the Bible. Rather, what we've learned elsewhere in the Bible will help serve as a guide.

It will take us by the hand and help us now as we're making our way through strange territory, such as this book is. God does not contradict himself.

He doesn't speak with forked tongue. He doesn't say something in Matthew's gospel and then contradict it in the book of Revelation. He doesn't have one of his apostles say something and then turn around and undo it in the book of Revelations.

Jesus doesn't say something in the gospels that is contradicted by something in Revelation chapter 20.

No, God does not contradict himself. And since the Bible is the word of God, there are no contradictions in this book. Well, that's a help to me because that tells me what I've learned over here can't be contradicted by what I'm going to see here.

It's a tool of interpretation. Indeed, a fundamental principle of interpreting the Bible. It's the guiding principle that we interpret scriptures with the scriptures.

As the reformers said that the Bible is the best commentary on the Bible. Matthew Henry is a good commentary, but the Bible is a better commentary on the Bible.

Because what it says in one place will shed light on what it says in another place. And never will what it says in one place contradict what it says in another. It's called the analogy of faith.

Our confession of 1689 says that the infallible rule of interpreting scripture is the scripture itself. There's your best commentary. Get to know the Bible and let the clear scripture shed light on the obscure and difficult portions.

And very much to our point of our study then, that simply means that no interpretation of Revelation 20 that contradicts what we have seen in the clear portions of the word of God is a valid interpretation of Revelation 20.

Let me give an example in a whole different realm. Some cults will use the words of Jesus in John 10, 30 to deny the Trinity.

Where Jesus says, I and the Father are one. Ah, you see, there aren't two persons in the Godhead. There's just one. Jesus and the Father are one in the same person.

All right? You see how they're coming to that interpretation from the text? You may disagree with it, but you understand how they can come to that? I and the Father are one. So there's only one. There's not a multiple personality in the Godhead.

Now, if all we had was John 10, 30, we might all stumble and fall over that teaching. But we have more than John 10, 30.

Can you think of anything found in the book of John that would help shed light and at least set the parameters of what that can't mean? What do we know that Jesus' words can't mean from what we see elsewhere in the book of John?

Can you think of any statements in the gospel of John that would help us or anywhere for that instance? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, speaking of Christ.

And that the Word, Christ, was with God. Excellent. That's the very first book. The first verse in the book. And if we haven't forgot that by the time we get to chapter 10, then it will help us interpret the meaning of I and the Father are one.

Whatever it means, it cannot do away with at least the dual personality in the Godhead because one one of John says, Jesus speaking, I, or John speaking of Christ, that the Word was with God.

If you've got something with another thing, you've got more than one, don't you? You're here with your wife this morning. There's more than one personality. Jesus, the Word, was with God.

So do you see how that helps us when we come to Jesus' statement now, I and the Father are one? It rules out certain interpretations, namely that there is only one person in the Godhead.

That cannot be the meaning of it. And I simply show that Scripture helps us set certain limits on what that verse cannot mean. So as we come to Revelation 20, I'm not coming with a blank slate.

I'm not coming with an empty mind. I'm not coming with this idea of no presuppositions. I'm coming with ten weeks' worth of Scripture passages that form a framework in which I expect to see Revelation 20 fit.

Now, if that offends you, I'm sorry. But that is the way we're to interpret Scripture. We're not to just wipe the slate clean and come with an open mind, as it were, as if we know nothing that God has said.

To do so is to run the risk of splitting our soul on John 10, 30, that I and the Father are one and that I am the Trinity. No, we've got to remember everything that we've learned from the Word of God as we come to Revelation chapter 20.

Now, I must be careful. If something in Revelation chapter 20 comes through loud and clear and contradicts this scheme and system that I have developed for the last ten weeks, I need to go back and examine the foundations of that scheme.

Maybe I too quickly built that scheme. And I need to reject something from it to allow what I clearly see in Revelation 20 to have its own way.

So I do need to be careful. It would be wrong to force Revelation 20 into some framework that I have developed from other Scriptures.

I say it would be wrong to force it into that framework. But if a viable interpretation of Revelation 20 is available that fits in with the framework that we've seen in the rest of Scripture, I'll take that any day over an interpretation that doesn't fit with the rest of Scripture.

You understand? What we're saying then? So am I coming to Revelation 20 without any presuppositions? No. I think this form of literature would make it dangerous to come to Revelation 20 in that way.

We come with the clear, literal passages as flashlights to help us guide our way through this dark and mysterious book. Like an archaeologist who comes to a newly found dinosaur skeleton.

How's he? How's he to go on? How's he to go on? As if he's never seen one before? Is he just to pretend to be a novice? Or is he to use all the experience of all the other digs that he's ever done and come and apply it to this dig to help him identify what he's looking at?

Well, what have we learned in the past ten weeks? As we basically said, two ages with a dividing line. Now, one other thing then...

I believe it's just one other thing. I don't see my... Yes. One other thing then that we want to note about the book of Revelation before we dive in is its principle of recapitulation.

If that's too big of a word, just think of recapping because that's where we get the word recap. Recapitulation is simply mean recapping. Often in the book of Revelation, the same events are told more than one time.

John will take us to an event and tell us that event and then he'll push the rewind on the VCR and he'll go back and he'll play that same period of history out again and tell it to us again in a different light.

With additional information. And that means that the book of Revelation is not to be read as if it records consecutive events in history. The book of Revelation is not a chronological account of how history is going to unfold all the way to the end of Christ.

It's not that you start at Revelation chapter 4 and you read right straight through to Revelation 21 and everything is chronological.

Nothing at chapter 21 goes before chapter 10. No, no, it's all in order of time. I say that's a faulty way and will lead to faulty and confusing.

A faulty way to interpret the book and will lead to faulty interpretations of its pieces. Turn to Revelation 11. I just want to give one example of this.

This recapitulation, recapping found in the book of Revelation. Revelation 11 takes us to the very end, the final judgment at the end of the world.

And there we see the elders worshiping God and falling on their faces. We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty.

Verse 17. The one who is and who was because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. Verse 18. The nations were angry and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and your saints and those who reverenced your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.

So the time has come for the final judgment to reward the saints and to destroy the wicked. So Revelation 11, 18 takes us right up to the very end, the final judgment.

Now the next chapter, chapter 12, doesn't keep going from the return of Christ and judgment at the end of the age and just keep on going chronologically. Rather, what we have is the birth of Jesus.

Isn't that strange? The birth of Jesus. Verses 1 to 5 make it indisputable. Verse about this woman who gives birth to a son.

Verse 5. She gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. There's his ascension into heaven.

We're talking about the birth of Jesus. But chapter 11 just talked about the judgment that will happen at the end of the age when Jesus returns. Well, then we clearly have recapping being done.

It's clearly that the book is backtracking. Having brought us to the end, it now takes us back to Jesus coming again and brings us through again that period from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ.

And the book of Revelation takes us through that time period at least six different times, brings us to the end, and then goes back and recaps again. Well, if you don't see that recapping being done, then what you're going to have is a whole bunch of battles.

Big battles at the end of the age, as if they're different battles on the timeline. Rather than seeing them all as one, the final end of the age.

And so you have three series of seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bulls. These are not 21 consecutive events. They're rather taking us through this period of time three different times.

One time under the image of seals, these seven seals. And we learn something about what God is doing in this period of history. And we go back through and we go through it as seven trumpets and then as seven bulls, each time leading us up to the end of the world.

It's also called progressive parallelism as well as recapitulation. So that's important as we come to the book of Revelation. Now, here's the plan.

And we're probably only going to get to the first part of the plan. The plan is to examine the premillennial view of chapter 20 of Revelation. Very briefly stated, primarily according to Dwight Pentecost in his book, Things to Come, a dispensational premillennialist.

And then we're going to go to what I believe the Bible, what the Holy Spirit means in Revelation chapter 20. Obviously, I take odds with the millennial views.

So it would be an amillennial view of Revelation chapter 20. But this morning, then, I think we'll not get much further than the premillennial view of Revelation 20.

And I want you to put your thinking caps on in the light of what we have studied for the last 10 weeks. What we've learned that Jesus and the apostles say clearly in other places.

I want you to load that up in your computer first, okay? Get that up there. And now, as we go through the premillennial view, I want you to bring up any contradictions between what they say Revelation 20 teaches and what we have seen the clear, literal, general teaching of the Bible on this theme of end times.

Okay? That's the challenge this morning. I want to read the text first. We're basically dealing with verses 1 through 10 of Revelation 20.

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.

They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for the battle.

In number, they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And there follows the scene, the vision of the last judgment. So this is the vision. John saw this. This was given to him in vision where he sees these things happening.

Did you see these things happening? No. This is the premillennial interpretation of this passage. That after Christ returns, that he will.

And again, that would come from the end of chapter 19, where we have Christ, the Lord returning in glory. That after Christ returns, he will physically reign in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem over in Palestine. Over all the earth, he will reign with Jerusalem as his headquarters. And that for a thousand years. A literal thousand year period of time with Jesus literally reigning on the throne in Jerusalem.

Only believers will enter the millennium on earth with Christ. Only believers. The Jews and Gentiles who are still living when Christ comes.

And all the righteous from Adam on who have been raised from the dead. For when Christ comes, he's going to raise the dead. According to the premillennial dispensational scheme, it's at his rapture.

He raises the dead in Christ first. And then also the alive in Christ go up to be with him. But then when he comes back down seven years later, he's got those who have died in Christ coming to reign with him.

So only believers enter into the millennium. Jews and Gentiles enter into the millennium with Christ at the beginning of the thousand year reign.

But the righteous will still bear children during this age. And they will bear children with sinful natures. Just like the righteous bear children now with sinful natures.

So there will be unconverted people on the earth during this thousand years. But they will be basically held in check and held down by Christ's righteous rule.

So that you have the whole world worshiping him. Or at least bringing their sacrifices to Jerusalem at the appointed times. Also during this thousand years, Satan is bound in the abyss.

Which they take to mean is not having any authority or any not exercising any influence upon the earth. None whatsoever.

He's locked up. He can't touch the earth. And that's why it's such a golden period of righteousness. Worldwide peace and righteousness will abound during this thousand years.

But at the end of the thousand years, Satan will be let out of the abyss. And that for a short time in which he will go out and deceive the nations.

Gathering from these offspring of original believers. A huge army of unbelievers from the four corners of the earth to rebel against King Jesus.

They're numbered like the sand of the seashore. As the text tells us. And these unbelievers from all the nations will converge on Jerusalem over in Palestine.

And surround Jerusalem. And seek to destroy God's people. But fire from heaven will devour them. The devil will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur.

Where he's tormented day and night forever and ever. And then all unbelievers. Whoever lived will be raised from the dead and judged. According to the premillennial view.

At least the dispensational view. The judgment at the end of Revelation 20. Is only for unbelievers. Not believers. And then the Lord will make according to them his new heaven and new earth.

In which the righteous will live. All right. That's the basic scheme. And again I take those things. There's obviously differences from one premillennialist to another.

But that from a well-known book. Things to Come by Dwight Pentecost. Now the challenge. What did we learn from other passages? Clear passages. Clear passages that would be at odds with that interpretation of Revelation 20.

Did you jot anything down? Just give me one thing. Second Peter. The day of the Lord. Will come by the thief. And the evidence will disappear.

And the elements will be destroyed. Second Peter chapter 3. The Bible talks about Christ's coming. And the day of the Lord. Coming as a thief in the night. In which this present world.

And the present heavens. Will be destroyed. And the new heavens and the new earth. Will be made. When? At Christ's coming. Not a thousand years. After Christ's coming.

Not after a thousand year. Reign on this earth. In which there's still evil and unrighteous men living. And then he'll create the new heavens and new earth. But we found in second Peter. That it's at the coming of Christ.

All right. That's. That's one point. What else? Doris? Resurrection. People aren't married. Okay. So if they're going to put it in the age to come.

It doesn't fit. Does it? Because in the age to come. There is no marriage. And there is no bearing of children. So it doesn't fit in the age to come. And yet.

Their millennium doesn't fit in this present age either. Does it? Why not? You're saying it can't refer to this age. Because Christ hasn't come. You're saying. Christ hasn't come yet.

And the dividing line between this age. And the age to come. Is Christ coming. And they have Christ coming. And then starting this. Thousand year reign. In fact. The only reason there's going to be a thousand years of peace.

Is because the king has come. So. You're right. Christ has to come back. Before. This takes place. According to the premillennial scheme. But yet.

So it doesn't fit in the. Present age. Neither does it fit in the age to come. We're running out of places to put it. Aren't we? Maybe the whole scheme is wrong.

Maybe the whole idea. Is. Not the mind of Christ. What else did we learn? That would give problems to this interpretation?

Okay. Didn't we see that? Again. We don't have time to go back. And lay those groundwork. But. We saw it from Jesus. We saw it from the apostles. That when Christ comes.

He's coming to judge. The world in righteousness. The final judgment. From which. He ascribes to men. Their. Their lasting places. The righteous will go away. Into everlasting.

Bliss. And the wicked will go away. Into everlasting torment. So you have the division. Of the judgment. When Christ comes. The righteous and the unrighteous. Are never again.

Found together. But. They are found together. During this thousand year reign. After Christ comes. According to the. Premillennial scheme. All right. Good. So the judgment.

The universal judgment. Is another issue. Anything else we saw. Marcus. I don't know. This is actually. What you said. Which is. Out of our relationship. Point. The idea. The aim.

The point. That was. Having. The life. All of the dragon. Is very. In the midst of justice. Three. Where Christ. Crushes. The circuits. Head of the best. Christ. The cross. Then. Coming after.

All this other stuff. Would. Obviously show. That. It's not a continuation. It's going back. And coming. All right. Very good. We're going to come to that. What this. Binding of Satan is.

And Marcus is identifying that. As. As what. Jesus did on the cross. That's. That's. Something that we. Haven't seen. As a class. Yet. In the sense. That we haven't dug up. All those scriptures.

That's what you have. On your. Your worksheet. That we'll be getting to. Next week. Lord willing. But that's right. It's. It's. It's pointing to something. That.

That has happened. In the past. Not something. That will happen. In the future. And. We just need to. Identify that. From the text itself. But now. We're trying to say. Have we learned something.

From. The clear portions. Of the. Gospels. And the epistles. We've identified. The new heavens. New earth. The universal judgment. There's at least. Two more things.

That I could come up with. No. Actually. We got the third one. No mingling. Of the righteous. And unrighteous. After Christ's return. There's one more.

To get everybody. To a universal judgment. You've got to have a what? You've got to have a resurrection. And according to the. Pre-millennialist. You don't have the resurrection.

Happening all at once. You have. The believers. Being resurrected. Some of them. At least. At the return of Christ. What they would call. The rapture.

Seven years before. The return of Christ. But then. At the end. Of the thousand years. You've got. The resurrection. Of the wicked. To be brought.

Into judgment. And that's what they would see. The end of chapter 20. Of Revelation. Saying. So again. They've got a thousand years. Between the resurrection. Of the righteous. And a thousand. And then a thousand years later.

The wicked. Are finally. Resurrected. And judged. So. These are things. That. We have. Seen elsewhere. In scripture. That. Bump into problems.

With this interpretation. I don't want to pretend. That Revelation 20. Is an easy passage. Someone said. That if you turn. To five commentaries. On the book of Revelation.

You'll find. Six. Interpretations. It has been. A highly contested book. It is not. An easy book. And I want to admit. Up front.

It has its difficulties. And that's where I find. The rest of scripture. So helpful. I don't trust myself. To come to this. Symbolic. Figurative.

Book. Just with my own imagination. And. And to put meanings. On. Numbers. And. And things. And bindings. And chains. And. I could come up with some.

Things that maybe came from. A movie I saw once. And you could come. From dreams you've had. And. There's no guiding line. So. We do need.

The rest of scripture. And it's because. Of what I find. In the rest of scripture. That I can't accept. The premillennial. Interpretation. Of revelation 20. So.

I think the issue is this. Do I set aside. The many things. That I've seen. Clearly taught. Elsewhere. In the word of God. To embrace. This. Interpretation. Of this one.

Passage. Of highly. Figurative. Language. Or. Is there another way. To faithfully. Understand. And interpret. Revelation 20. That does fit. With the rest.

Of what scripture. Teaches. On the end times. What Jesus. And his apostles. Have said. Now I think there is. And that's what we're going to. Come to.

Next. Next week. We're going to look then. At. An amillennial view. Of revelation 20. But. Pre-millennialists. Even. Out of their own mouths.

Will admit. That this. Passage. Is the one pillar. Holding up their whole scheme. Of. Of the millennium. This is the pillar. You knock this pillar down.

And. There is no. More room. To. Hold to. This. Thousand year. Literal reign. On the earth. They've got all their eggs.

In one basket. And the basket. Is revelation. Chapter 20. Their interpretation. Of it. And I say. That should send some. Red flags. Up to us. That. They would build.

A whole. Scheme. Of the end times. A large section. At least. Of the end times. A thousand years. Of this. End times. Upon one passage.

That. Is not. Taught. Anywhere else. In the word of God. Explicitly taught. And that's what they'll say. That they're doing. But not only should that.

Give us red flags. But. The fact that. What they say it means. Contradicts. What we've seen elsewhere. Should put up other red flags. And it would.

Cause me to say. Could it be. They've missed. The interpretation. Of revelation 20. So that's what we're up against. How do you respond.

To the statement. That we're in the millennium. Right now. That Satan. Is already bound. Christ. Is already reigning. To the extent.

That that sounds. Strange. To your ears. Is. I would say. You and I. Have been. I have been. Controlled. By. A pre. Millennial. Interpretation. Of revelation 20. Because that's exactly.

What. The scriptures. Teach elsewhere. And what I believe. The scriptures. Are teaching us here. In revelation 20. It's only this. Pre-millennial. And often dispensational.

Interpretation. That many of us. Have grown up with. That would make that. Sound strange. Satan bound. Satan. Uh. Not. Able to deceive the nations.

As he once did. We'll see what these things. Mean next week. And again. If it's forcing. Uh. The scriptures. To fit a mold. Then. Abandon it. Abandon it.

Go back to. To. Whatever. Uh. Passages. That we have studied. In the past. And re-examine. The foundations. But I think. We'll find. From God's word. That this is.

The. Right interpretation. Of this chapter. Well let's pray. And ask the Lord's help. For understanding. This word.