He Doesn’t Do This in the Millenium

1. Good post.

   It seems quite clear that Satan is currently deceiving the nations. At least, it’s clear that he’s not in a position in which he can no longer deceive the nations. I don’t see how amillennialism can get around this problem without some very creative hermeneutical maneuvering. In which case, why not just accept what Revelation 20 says?

2. What do a mill and post mill do with the nation of Israel in the end of times?

3. Dear Mr. Hamilton,
   Concerning your post, Satan doesn’t deceive the nations during the Millennium, and then he comes out from his prison he deceives the nations (Rev. 20:7,8, 10). We see “Satan, who deceives the whole world” in Rev. 12:9, after the angel opened the bottomless pit with the key in Rev. 9:1, and the king of the Abyss was named Abaddon (destruction), Apollyon (destroyer): Satan I surmize.

   I just finished watching the end times debate. It was very interesting and I appreciate your view.

   I have some thoughts that I would like to share, and if you have time maybe you could show me where I am in error.

   Why do people always insist that Jesus is going to reign upon the earth in the Millennium? Isn’t His kingdom going to be an eternal kingdom? Isn’t this heaven and earth going to pass away? In His Kingdom there will be no end of peace, but the millennial kingdom ends with war.

   Daniel 7 describes a throne, books being opened, the beast slain and his body given to the burning fire, and then the Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days (who is seated on the throne), and it is said that “his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan 7:14)… “ the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,”( Dan 7:2). “His throne shall endure as the days of heaven (Ps. 89:29)

   King David was given a promise concerning his Seed: “He shall build up a house for My name (the church is the temple of God, being built up by Christ), and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever” (2Sam. 7:13).

   Whereas this heaven and earth shall pass away. Jesus said, “till heaven and earth pass…” (Matt. 5:18), “heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). And Peter says “this present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men… the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up…we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2Pet. 3:10, 12-13)

   Isaiah says of His Kingdom, “There will be no end to the increase …of peace” (Is. 9:7), yet in the end of the Millennium kingdom there will be a war with Gog and Magog. Isaiah goes on to say, “To establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness, from then on and forevermore” (Is. 9:7). The Millennium ends in war, not righteousness evermore. In the same way Peter revealed it is in the new earth where righteousness dwells” (2Pet. 3:13)and it will dwell there forever.

   I do not think that Revelation 20 has to be in chronological order following Revelation 19. We are told that Satan will be thrown into the abyss until the thousand years are completed, and then he must be released for a short time (Rev. 20:1-3). Satan will be released from his prison, deceive the nations and gather the nations together for the war (20:7). In Rev. 9:1 we see an angel with a key to the bottomless pit (abyss?). We see that the beast also came up out of the abyss (Rev. 11:7). “Satan who deceives the whole world, was thrown down to earth… the devil has come knowing that “he hath but a short time” (Rev. 12:9, 12). At the end of Rev. 19:20 the beast is thrown alive into the lake of fire after he is assembled to make war against Christ, and at the end of the war in 20:9, the devil who deceived them was also thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone (20:10). And everyone who’s name was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). Remember Peter telling us that this earth is reserved for fire and the destruction of ungodly men? (I am contemplating that the earth, when its elements melt with a fervent heat, liquify into the “lake of fire” at the end — but that is just contemplation) I personally believe that most of the second half of the book of Revelations (Chapter 7-19) is describing what is taking place at the end of the Millennium, from different perspectives which is summarized in Rev. 20:7-11). I support that contention from the book of Ezekiel.

   I believe that Ezekiel 37 is a picture of the first resurrection from the dead which John speaks of in Rev. 20. The dead will be given new bodies like Christ’s resurrected body:

   Ezek 37:13-14
   “Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. 14 “And I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD.’ ”

   This fulfills God’s promise to the Fathers, to give them the land that He promised Abraham. It seems that this will be the “Sabbath Rest”, (a day with the Lord is as a thousand years), with the enemy in the abyss.

   Then, at the beginning of Ez. 38, we encounter Gog and Magog, just as at the end of the Millennium. Ezekiel told us that God says that “in the last days I shall bring you against my land…” (Ez. 38:16). Parallel to this, we find in the book of Revelations, “out of the mouth of the beast and false prophet, three unclean spirits …which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for war of the great day of God, the Almighty” (Rev. 16 13-14). The very next verse states, “Behold, I am coming like a thief” (16:15). Peter tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away”. (Is this “day of the LORD” before the Millennium? No, the earth doesn’t pass away before the Millennium.) Now look at the description in Ez. 38:19- 22 and see how they parallel Revelation 16:18 -21.
   Ez. 38:19-22
   On that day there will be a great earthquake
   All men will shake at my presence
   The mountains will be thrown down,
   Hailstones, fire and brimstone
   I will send fire upon Magog (Ez. 39:6)

   “And as for you son of man, thus says the Lord God, Speak to every kind of bird… “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood, you shall eat the flesh of mighty men …” Ez. 39:17-18

   Rev. 16:18-21
   There was a great earthquake, unequaled before
   The mountains were not found,
   Huge hailstones
   And fire came down from heaven and devoured them (Rev. 20:9) (Gog and Magog on the plain)
   “An angel…cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid heaved, “come assemble for the great supper of God; in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of …mighty men” (Rev. 19:17-18)

   But what is really interesting, I went looking for any verification in the OT that Christ would be king on this earth in the Millennium. What I found surprised me. I found several prophets saying that David would be king, long after David had died. But of course David will also be raised in the first resurrection.

   After the description of the resurrection, Ezekiel writes:

   Ezek 37:24-25
   4 “And My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes, and observe them. 25 “And they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons, and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant shall be their prince forever.
   NASB

   David is first king in the Millennium, and then he is prince when Jesus Christ is King over the new heaven and the new earth, where He will reign forever, no end of peace or righteousness.

   Jer 30:8-9
   8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:
   9 But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
   Ezek 34:22-24
   23 “Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. 24 “And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.
   NASB

   Hos 3:4-5
   4 For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols. 5 Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.
   NASB

   That makes much more sense. The resurrected David reigning, while the enemy is in the pit. David’s kingdom shall end, and his throne will pass away, but his Seed will reign after him forever, in the new heaven and earth and His throne will endure forever!

   I believe that I can support 2 returns of Jesus Christ. The first time He comes back to raise the dead. At that time He is still seated at the right hand of power (Matt. 26:64). “Hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb…for the great day of their (Jesus and the Father) has come. His first coming will bring some pretty traumatic events, some of which are described at the end of Rev. 6, as He raises the dead in the first resurrection. There is a great earthquake, but not the greatest since man was on the earth (Rev. 6:12 vs. Rev. 16:18), and the mountains and the islands are moved out of their places. Note the one detail in Rev. 6:12, “the sun became black like sack cloth, and the moon became like blood”. So in one way, His first coming is pre-mil, to resurrect men for the Millennium. At the end of the Millennium I believe there is the great tribulation such as never occurred since there was a nation, described in Daniel 12:1 and Matt. 24:21, when the devil and the beast are let out of the pit. But they are not the cause of this great tribulation, rather all the things that come upon the earth that are described in the last half of Revelations. Prior to this second coming of Christ, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven…” (Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24). Christ will come with His angels, who will bring in the final harvest (Matt. 24:29, 30), and then pour out the final destruction on those who are left, and at the end, Christ’s appearance will melt the elements with a fervent heat.

   Dan 12:1-2
   And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.
   NASB

   Matt 24:21
   For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
   KJV Matt 24:29-31
   Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
   30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
   31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
   KJV

   “At the Last Trumpet, we shall all be changed…putting on incorruption and immortality…death is swallowed up in victory” (1Cor. 15:52). “Death is thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14).
   2 Thess 1:5-10
   6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.
   NASB

   Thanks for the opportunity to share.

   1. Melani,

      I take it that there will be a millennium that ends with a rebellion and then an eternal new heaven and new earth.

      JMH

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   1. Rev. 20:7 “And when the 1000 years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison”…

      to do what?

      “to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth…” (Rev. 20:9).

      Satan will not be deceiving the nations during the millennium, but he certainly will be after, when he is released from his prison… and isn’t that what he is doing in 13:14?

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