Revelation 19:11-20:15 ~ The Millennium

The account of Satan's binding for a thousand years recorded in Revelation 20 has created several controversies regarding this millennium. Essentially, Christians believe 1 of 3 different views: pre-millennialism (Christ's second coming before this period of a thousand years), post-millennialism (second coming after the millennium), and amillennialism (the thousand years being a symbolic number and identical with the current church age).

To help us deal with such controversies, the millennium needs to be viewed in context. The two battles described in Revelation 19 and 20 are essentially two visions of the same event i.e. not two different battles but two perspectives of the one same battle. The visions in Revelation are not recorded in a chronological sequence of how the events will eventually play out in reality as we can see how this one same battle has been previously mentioned before in other chapters including Revelation 16 and 17. The thousand years where Satan is bound and saints reign and the time after when Satan is released to deceive the nations happen concurrently now (Christians are still victoriously spreading the gospel while opposition still remains) - it is an overlap of the ages, hence, lending a little more credibility to the amillennialistic view. The rest of Revelation 20 describes the final judgment, which echoes the vision in Daniel 7.

That said, are we sometimes too distracted by the question as to which millennialistic view is the correct one? Perhaps Pastor Joshua's "new" idea of pan-millennialism holds more water - whichever view one believes is of little consequence and what matters more is the bigger picture of judgment itself. The vision of Satan being bound for a thousand years is a symbol of the delay of the judgment to come. In previous talks, we have seen the cosmic battle brought on by the dragon beast, the false prophet and the prostitute. Jesus rides in on a war-horse and brings justice at last. He mops up the mess sinful humans have created: His enemies are destroyed by the fire they deserved while the martyrs are vindicated. Everyone will be held accountable.

But what is the criterion of this judgment? Nothing but the blood of Jesus that saves! His sacrifice on the cross is the basis of our salvation while our faith in Him is merely the instrument...

On that final day, will you be able to stand before God, confident that your name is victoriously written in the Book of Life as you believe in the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice alone?