"THE MILLENNIUM!"
= Jesus is Lord!

Considering the amount of theological
ink which has been used up over the
years to describe 'The Millennium'
of chapter 20 of the Book of
Revelation one would think that the
church would have reached some sort
of consensus about its significance.
My co-leader was preparing this study
when she phoned me to say it had her
stumped and could I help; I said to
her "I would absolutely love to lead
a study on Revelation 20!"

So before we leave our review of the
last book of the Bible, I'd like to
end with some comments on this
important topic culled from my
study prep.

The issue isn't as esoteric as it
sounds because upon this interpret-
ation turns ones understanding of
'The Kingdom of God' which Jesus
came to inaugurate: this in turn
colours what we understand to be
the future of God's people and even
determines who qualifies as "God's
people". Some camps even use one's
interpretation of the Millennium
as a test of one's orthodoxy. This
is sad because what I am about to
say will cause some of my brothers
and sisters in Christ to fall out
with me, though assuredly I have
not fallen out with them.

It seems clear to me that (as
with "The 144,000" we discussed
last month) "The Millennium"
(that is 1,000 years) is a
metaphor for The Kingdom of God
as a present reality. Now some
good hearted people will object
by replying "how can you claim
we are in The Millennium now,
the world is in such a state that
it is an insult to say that God
rules! And besides which doesn't
20 v3 state that Satan is bound
during the Millennium - how can
that be a present reality?"

The crucial thing to say in reply
is that the passage specifies
exactly in what way Satan is bound,
it does not say he cannot continue
to do evil - it does say that there
is one supreme evil he cannot do;
he cannot "deceive the nations any
longer". The Good News of Jesus
Christ is out and Satan can do
nothing to contain it!

Those who come to faith in Jesus
are described as enjoying "the first
resurrection" (that is why being
"Born Again" is such a powerful
metaphor); note that those who
merely have the second (physical)
resurrection only do not share in
the blessing of the "First
Resurrection... over such the second
death has no power" v6. Someone once
summarised this by saying, 'He who
is born twice dies once, he who is
born once dies twice!"

Isn't this exactly the same theology
Paul describes in Ephesians 2 v1-10?
For sure it is couched in different
language, in a different genre, by
a different human author - but the
divine authorship shines through both
because it is the one and the same
message! There is a wonderful
consistency about it.

Jesus is Lord!




ps Incidentally why do some
people take 'the Mark of the Beast'
to be literal, when they would
never dream of interpreting 'the
Mark of The Lamb' this way - the
lack of consistency in some so-called
"literal" readings of these Revelation
metaphors should give some pause for
thought.