First things first: 1,000 years is NOT the length of time for the reign of Christ. The Bible doesn’t say that anywhere.
It symbolized the length of time that the MARTYR’S would reign WITH Christ. (Christ’s reign is forever, according to scores of passages)
The quality of time was 1,000, found in a book jam-packed with symbolism. It was the perfect amount of time. It was the complete amount of time. Furthermore, as you’re about to see, it was an amount of time that was DIFFERENT for each martyr. Peter’s reign was a different length of time than Stephen’s, for example). Therefore, how perfect was 1,000 to capture the various lengths of time that each Martyr would reign WITH Christ?
Can we solve for the symbolism, and get the reality of the total quantity of actual time in question? That is, can we solve for the period from the beginning of the reign of the 1st martyr, to the end of the reign for all martyrs?
Yes. And we can do it by examining the ELEMENTS of the millennium – those that would be at the beginning, and those that would be at the end.
We know how it started:
- Jesus acquires the keys to hades
- Satan is bound (so gentiles get gospel)
- Gospel goes to the gentiles
- Martyr’d souls begin to reign with Christ
Now when was this? I propose that Jesus acquired the keys to Hades upon his resurrection. And it just so happens that Matthew tells us about many saints that broke free from the tombs with Jesus, just after His resurrection!
Matthew 27:
52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
This must have been the O.T. Prophets/Martyrs!
We are also told how the millennium ended: - with gentile nations being gathered for war against Jerusalem
- with the martyrs that Jerusalem killed being avenged
- Martyr’d souls participating in the judgment of the 12 tribes of Israel
- the rest of the dead in Christ (non-martyrs) coming to life
Now Daniel told us (chapters 9 and 12) that when the city and sanctuary would be destroyed by war, and power of the holy people would be shattered … that some would be raised to everlasting contempt and others to everlasting righteousness.
Daniel’s prophecy contains the same events as the end of the millennium in Revelation.
Jesus also confirmed that the resurrection of believers who died before His finished work (Jew and Gentile alike) would occur at the judgment of 1st-century Jerusalem:
Matthew 12:
41 The men of Nineveh will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South [Sheba] will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
This is the great white throne judgment of Revelation, which happened at the end of the millennium, in perfect agreement with Jesus and Daniel. Remember that Jesus prophesied that “all things written” in Daniel would be fulfilled at the destruction of Herod’s temple, when “heaven and earth” would pass away. Remember that not one jot or tittle would fade from the law until “heaven and earth” passes away. This was a Jewish term for the temple. The law is no longer in effect because the physical temple (heavens and earth) HAVE passed away.
And what do we see come into existence at the end of the millennium, at which the war that destroyed the temple and the city occurred? The NEW heavens and earth (the new temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit) and the NEW Jerusalem. These are SPIRITUAL. The dimensions are given in symbolic numbers: 12’s and 1,000’s, meaning organization entirety and completeness. This is the church, the body of believers, where the Holy Spirit dwells. The foundation is the apostles! The Lamb is its light! It’s fulfilled this prophecy:
Jeremiah 31:
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Have you seen it yet? The New Heavens and Earth of Revelation (with no sea – that is, no court of the gentiles, they are not separate any longer) are the same as the New Heavens and Earth of Isaiah. The old heavens and earth of the Olivet Discourse are the same as the Old Heavens and Earth of Peter and Hebrews – the ones that melt away and are changed like a garment, respectively. The tribulation in Revelation is the same as the tribulation in the Olivet Discourse. Deuteronomy 32, the Song of Moses, predicts the same war of which Jesus and Daniel spoke.
The Day of the Lord is within the same last days that are confirmed in Acts by Luke, as Peter quoted Joel. The last days = the millennium! The redemption was at the end of the millennium, which was at the end of the times of the gentiles, which was at the end of the 42-month trampling of Jerusalem! Forty-two months is 3.5 years, the 2nd half of the 70th “week of Daniel.” The abomination of desolation in Matthew is parallel to the surrounding of Jerusalem by armies in Luke.
The Day of Christ = the Day of Salvation = Day of Judgment. The 7 trumpets of Revelation were 7 trumpets of WAR, that resulted in believers entering the spiritually promised land … just like Joshua through 7 trumpets led physical bodies into a physically promised land at the destruction of the walls of a wicked city. When the great harlot Jerusalem went down, the millennium ended and the dead in Christ went to be with Christ!
So how long was the millennium? 40 years. What a perfect length of time. Take a moment and look up every occurrence of 40 years in the Bible, and tell me if they don’t provide a perfect foreshadowing of what this period meant!
What happens to us now? Per Hebrews, it is appointed man once to die, and after this, judgment. At the moment of death, if you‘ve accepted Christ’s payment for your sins, you are seen as innocent and your soul enters paradise with Jesus. If you have rejected Christ’s sacrifice for your sins … as Isaiah 65 tells us, you as a sinner die accursed. Jesus said, “Do not fear he who can kill the body, but rather fear He that kill BOTH the body AND soul in Gehenna,” which is hell, for all the souls that remained in Hades after the resurrection of the pre-Christ believers were tossed into the lake of fire, which is eternal separation from God and eternal torment.
Armageddon may be behind us, but the resulting destinies are now in full effect. You don’t pass go. You don’t collect $200. There’s no waiting period. It’s straight to your eternal destination. Choose wisely.