The Millennial Reign of Christ

The Age to Come

The age to come refers to the time between the second advent of Christ and the New Heaven and New Earth, or The Millennium. The word millennium is made up of the Latin words mille, meaning “thousand”, and annus, meaning “year”. This will be an age that lasts one thousand years and will be the last age before the eternal perfect state when God will again be all-in-all as before the rebellion.

During this time, Satan is expelled from the Earth.

Revelation20:1-3

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

This passage is the continuation of the Scripture on the Battle of Armageddon of Revelation 19:11-21 and shows the confinement of the dragon in the Abyss. After this battle an angel will come down from Heaven having the key to the Abyss. This angel mentioned in the Scripture above will lay hold on Satan, overpower him by actual combat, bind him with a great chain, cast him into the Abyss where he will be for a thousand years and “set a seal upon him”, or literally, seal the Abyss over him to keep him there so that he cannot deceive the nations until the Millennium is over. Thus we see that Satan is a literal person, his doom is literal, he is to be bound with a literal chain, cast into a literal Abyss, and sealed with a literal seal for the period of the Millennium.

In Revelation 12 we see that the dragon and his angels will be cast out of Heaven to Earth in the middle of the week, where they will remain until the Battle of Armageddon when they will fight against Christ and His angels and saints.

The Millennial Kingdom Foretold

God’s covenants with Abraham and David guaranteed to Israel an everlasting earthly kingdom and that they would be the channel of blessings to all the families of the Earth. It seemed that these covenants and promises would fail when Israel was divided into two kingdoms about 1009 B.C. After this time, God raised up many prophets who continued emphasizing to Israel that God would still bring to pass His promises to them, but that He would have to enact different means to complete them. Sixteen of these prophets left writings concerning the coming King and kingdom.

Note the following passages from several of these prophets concerning the rebellion of Israel. They spoke of Israel going into captivity and being scattered among the nations where they would be “many days” without a king, a sacrifice, or a knowledge of the true God, and afterwards would be gathered back to their own land and be brought very low because of the oppression of the Gentiles. Then they would be delivered from the nations by the Messiah who would come from glory to set up the kingdom.

Isaiah 1:2-9, 25-28

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

Isaiah 2:2-5

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Jerimiah 33:23-26

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Have you not observed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two clans that he chose’? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.”

Ezekiel 36:33-38

“Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. “Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

See also: Isaiah 11:2-16; 27:12-13; Daniel 7:12-27; 8:16-27; 9:24-27; 11:36-12:13; Hosea 2:14-23; 3:4-5; Joel 2:28-3:21; Micah 4:1-13; 5:1-15; Zechariah 8:1-14:21; Malachi 3:1-4:6; Luke 1:30-35; 21:20-24; Acts 15:13-17; Romans 11:25-27; Revelation 1:5; 5:10; 11:15; 20:1-4.

The Millennial Timeline

Revelation 20:4-6

I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

This passage shows that the tribulation martyrs will also have a part tin the reign of Christ in the Millennium and forever. Let us examine the timeline of the Millennium age:

1. We have discussed that Satan must be bound before the Millennium (Revelation 20:1-10)

2. Satan will be bound during the entire time of the Millennium (Revelation 20:3)

3. After the binding of Satan, John saw “thrones” and their occupants (Revelation 20:4). The occupants will be the tribulation martyrs. They will reign as kings and priests with Christ as will all other redeemed heavenly people.

4. In Revelation 20:5, John shows that the tribulation martyrs have a part in the first resurrection, which is before the Millennium and includes all the different companies of redeemed saved and resurrected from Adam to the binding of Satan. This verse also implies that the tribulation saints will be the last redeemed company resurrected and translated. This first resurrection ends with the rapture of this company and of the two witnesses. All the other passages on the resurrections in Scripture, except a few on the rapture of the church, speak of the first and second resurrections as being one, and as occurring at the same time.

5. Next, a blessing is pronounced upon all who have part in the first resurrection, for Revelation 20:6 says, “Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

We will discuss what happens when Satan is loosed from his prison in the next class, entitled The Final Judgement.

The Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ

The reign of Christ on earth will have unique and distinctive characteristics from any other kingdom that has ever existed on earth. It is the ideal kingdom for the children of God who walk in the Spirit, where the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the universal King. Here are several of the characteristics of His reign:

1. There will be absolute peace.

Psalm 72:3-7

Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.