Both Herod and the wise men were thinking about the Messiah and the Millennium. This affords us an opportunity to consider what the Bible says about this King and His future kingdom. And I will confess that the outline that I will follow this evening comes from the book “Mysteries of the Kingdom” by Forrest Keener. I have taught and preached about the Millennium before, but I’ve decided to look at the subject tonight through the eyes and heart of another man – a good friend of mine.
Let’s start by turning to Revelation 19 and reading from verse 11 on to Revelation 20:7. Anyone who is familiar with the Bible, knows that these verses are shot through with symbolic language. The question is not, “Is there allegorical material in this passage?” The questions ought to be, “Is there anything besides symbolic language in this passage?” “Does this teach anything literally, and if so, what?” “What do the symbols represent?” I believe that among other things this scripture teaches a Millennial Kingdom.
A lot of good people tend to forget that God’s Kingdom began at or before creation and then to goes forward from there. God has a kingdom which exists today – the Lord is King today, despite all the rebels and rivals. It is also true that God’s kingdom will last throughout eternity – it will not end with the dropping of the ball in Time Square in the year 1000 after the return of Christ. But – there will be a literal kingdom, lasting one thousand years, during which time the Christ – whom these Magi were seeking – will rule over all the earth. Theologically, we call that kingdom “the Millennium.”
If you stop and think about it, the Magi were premillennialists. There was a king in Israel whose name was Herod, but these men didn’t acknowledge him as this king. Without the King there is no kingdom. These men were looking forward to it, and expecting it. In fact, most of the saints of God living in Israel at that time, were premillennialists. Take one of the questions of the disciples as typical of them all. After the Lord’s resurrection and just before His ascension into Heaven, the disciples asked, “Is it now Lord? “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Christ Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
It is sometimes objected that this thousand-year time element appears nowhere else in the Bible, except in Revelation 20. There are some who claim this is a very controversial area of Scripture, because it is so highly symbolic. Not only does the amillennialist deny the thousand year element of this kingdom, there are many post-millennialists and even some pre-millennialists who deny it as well. They say that “one thousand” is only an allegory, just as so many things in this scripture are allegorical. Ie. they say, Satan is a spirit; he cannot be confined with chains or in a bottomless pit – this is symbolic. Let’s grant this point; I’m not really sure that we should, but for the sake of argument let’s grant this. Is Satan himself symbolic? They might say so, but I deny it. He is literal. Whatever this binding means, it involved the limiting or perhaps the temporary putting away of Satan. Are the other angels in this scripture symbolic or literal? And what about Christ himself, and the dead who are raised?
There is a lot of material in Revelation which is as real and literal as the cross of Christ. But the amillennialist says that the reign of Christ is symbolical, that is not literal. Generally speaking both the premillennialist and the postmillennialist would disagree, and they are right. What is to keep us from saying that the thousand years is literal as well? Some people make their choice in one direction, but my choice of direction is to a literal ten centuries.
It is theologically correct to say that it will begin with a purged earth. What did the seventh angel of Revelation 11 mean when he said, “The kingdoms of this world are BECOME the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever”? I am of the opinion when the Lord starts this aspect of His kingdom, it will be through the violent overthrow of the kingdoms of Herod, Babylon and all the rest. The world will be politically, economically, militarily, and socially purged. Likely every saint of God from the days of Adam down to that moment will be coming and going upon the earth doing the Saviour’s bidding – ruling and reigning under him. But at the same time, there will be millions of people who have safely made it through the Tribulation, and who begin to live new lives under the King of Kings, but who have not been regenerated. The population of the world will be purged of the openly wicked, but the rest will not all be born again.
And during the Millennium, human depravity, as far as I can tell, will still remain. The basic sources of temptation will be confined, but human depravity will remain. How do I know this? There are several indicators, one of which will be that Christ will rule with a rod of iron. That would be unnecessary if all His subjects had new and glorified hearts, always thoroughly obedient to the King of kings. Another indicator will be that when the millennium is over Satan will go out to tempt the nations again. And he will succeed in that temptation. There will be one final revolt against the rule of Christ, just as Herod was trying to do in his day. I think that every unregenerated person at the end of the thousand years will join in the revolt against Christ.
This Millennial rule will not be in Heaven; it will be on earth. Even though the saints of God may be going back and forth between heaven and earth, there will be millions and perhaps billions of unsaved people on earth at the end of the Millennium.
Postmillennialists essentially hold that this kingdom will come when enough sinners have been saved. They make the preaching of the gospel and the civilization of humanity the catalysts for the kingdom. Similarly, Brother Keener is convinced that there are a lot of premillennialists who believe that even though the Lord is going to come back before the millennium, that the earth is going to be somewhat prepared for Him by the preaching of the Gospel. Some believe that only after the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached in all the world – that the world will be evangelized – only then will Christ return. In other words, the citizens of the Millennial Kingdom will all be saints of God, or at least have that opportunity. As I’ve just said, I don’t believe that will be true. After the saints of God have either been translated or resurrected and then glorified, will we ever die? Glorified saints will never die, either physically or spiritually. What then is the meaning of Isaiah 65:20 – “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed”? That verse is clearly in a context of the Millennium.
The premillennialists essentially hold that the Millennium is a monarchy in which Christ reigns over the world with the redeemed at His side. I believe that we are to be made kings and priests unto our God, and we shall reign with Him upon the earth a thousand years. Is that too simplistic? It is just exactly the way the Bible describes it, and so I believe it that way. Is there a deeper or more spiritual meaning? Were the Magi looking for something more spiritual than that?
Scripture says, “In righteousness he doth judge and make war.” Do you want to make that symbolic? If so, please tell me what is it going to teach? “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself.” “And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.” We know Who this is. There can be no question! You can make it as symbolic as you want, and what you have is still Jesus Christ. Is He coming back to the earth according to this teaching, or is He not? I say, He is! “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Christ is coming back to this earth with His saints, the armies of heaven robed in white. Then he will purge the earth by militant, supernatural action. This is not talking about gospel evangelism – but spiritual military might. “…in righteousness he doth judge and make war!” “Which sword proceedeth out of His mouth, which is the Word of God.” You say, “That is strange. That just has to be symbolic, because He just could not destroy them by the Word of His mouth!’ But He created them by the word of his mouth. Why not destroy in the same way? As far as I am concerned, that is exactly what we have.
Notice, verses 17 through 21 – “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Do you want to make that symbolic?) And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” You can spiritualize whatever portion of that you want, but the meaning is clear. It teaches us that this world system will be purged out by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it teaches us that He will strip Satan of his deceiving power. Someone can argue until he is blue in the face about how much of this is symbolic and how much is not, and so far as I am concerned, all you are doing is just giving a really ridiculous excuse for not believing this portion of the Bible.
“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 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,…”
This Millennial Kingdom starts out by the Lord Jesus Christ returning to this earth with His saints. He will defeat the religious political system of our present day along with the economical state of it, and then stripping Satan of his power. Then He will raise the tribulation saints to join those who were resurrected and translated 7 years before. I believe that what we have here in Revelation 20:4 is the conclusion of the resurrection which takes place at the Translation of the saints. This is the finishing of the first resurrection. These are those saints who were slaughtered during the tribulation period because they would not receive the mark of the beast in their foreheads or in their hands, and would not worship the image of the beast. Following that, both we, and they, shall reign with Christ for that thousand years.
I do not mind being called simplistic, or at least simple, where the Bible gives us revelation. And if you say, “Preacher, do you not think that is a little bit old-fashioned? Don’t you think that is a little bit unsophisticated? Don’t you think that is a little bit overly literal? Don’t you think you may sound a little bit unscholarly?” No, I do not think so!
Where the Bible speaks, I think that we can speak.
When you look at Revelation 20:3, you find words and phrases there such as “till” and “after that.” And when you look at verse 5, you see words like “not again until,” and in verse 7 when you see words like “and when.” I say that if those words do not give us a chronology, I don’t understand plain English.
I do not know all that there is to know about this, just as the wise men didn’t know it all in their day. Through the years, I have become increasingly resistant towards those who seem to think that they know all about it. I have a lot of questions, and whenever the skeptics have asked me all of the dumb questions that they can ask me, I think I can ask them some even dumber ones for which I have no answers. There is a great deal about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God that I still do not know, but I know that what God has explained in this Book, He has put there for us to believe. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again, because He hasn’t yet established the kingdom that the Magi were looking for. Whatever you may know or may not know about the Kingdom, the Bible teaches that He is coming, and He is coming with indignation toward those who do not look for Him.
We must be looking for him. Can you say with the Apostle John, “Even so, Lord Jesus come quickly?” Was John just deceived and carried away by all of these visions? I do not think so. And I don’t think that those Magi were confused or stupid. I think, whatever else we do not know, the Lord has taught us to believe that He is coming back and we should be looking for Him.