Between summer and family plans, ministry, and a significant
writing project, I have had difficulty carving out time to post. However, I am
now back to looking at why I hold to the view of the end-times called
Amillennialism. In my previous posts I explained that this change in stance is
what led to my relinquishing my ordination with the Evangelical Free Church Of
America, I gave an overview of the main seventeen reasons why I now affirm this
position, and I also looked more in depth at the first two of those reasons.
This brings us to the third reason why I am an amillennialist:
The only mention of a 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ in the Bible is found in
Revelation 20:1-6. That text is best understood in the context of the book of
Revelation to refer to a reign of Christ in heaven with saints who have died—and
this during the age between his first and second comings (in other words, right
now). In other words, the best understanding of this passage is the one set
forth by amillennialists.
Here is what we read in Revelation 20:1-6:
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in
his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent,
who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 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.
4 Then 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. 5 The
rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first
resurrection. 6 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. (emphasis added)
I emphasized the phrases and clauses that lead people to
believe this speaks of a future thousand year reign of Jesus Christ and saints
on earth—thus a millennium. However, there are a number of reasons why I
believe this instead refers to the reign of Jesus Christ and saints in heaven
for a long period of time that spans the entire church—in other words, right
now. I will spend several posts dealing with this passage since it is the main
millennial passage. Presently I will look at some introductory and contextual reasons
for my understanding and then in future posts we will zero in on the six verses
themselves.
1. My first
reason merely removes an obstacle as it reminds us that the amillennial stance is
not new or strange, but has a long history in the Church. “The amillennial understanding of Revelation
20:1-6 as describing the reigning of the souls of deceased believers with
Christ in heaven has good standing in the church since the days of Augustine.”[1]
2.
Premillennialists commonly assert that the millennium is a reigning of Christ
on earth, as well as a reigning of believers with him on earth who have died
and been raised, as well as a reigning of believers with him on earth who have
not died. However his text says nothing of believers who have not died. The
late theologian and scholar, Anthony Hoekema, puts it this way:
The
millennium of the [premillennialists] is not the millennium described in
Revelation 20:4-6…. When…we read Revelation 20:4-6 in the way [premillennialists]
want us to read it, we find in the passage no reference whatever to people
still living at the time the millennium begins or to people with “unresurrected
bodies”…. We conclude that Revelation 20:4-6 does not describe the millennium
of the [premillennialists], even when it is understood as [they] want us to understand. The [premillennial] understanding of the
millennium, in other words, is not based on a literal interpretation of this
most important passage.[2]
Sam Storms agrees and
disputes those who say the premillennial understanding of Revelation 20 is
superior because it is literal. He cites Arthur Lewis, The Dark Side Of The Millennium: The Problem Of Evil In
Rev. 20:1-10 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 50: “The essential and concrete aspects of the
text may not be ‘spiritualized’ out of existence. The martyred and enthroned
saints are real, the angel who binds Satan is real, Satan himself is very real,
and the wicked nations in revolt against the King are real nations and part of
history. The question is not, therefore, which view is the more literal, but
which correctly understands the place and purpose of the thousand years.”[3]
(emphasis added)
Storms concludes: “The
point is simply that the [amillennial version of the] millennium for which I
will argue is just as real and literal as the millennium for which the
premillennialist contends.”[4]
3. As we will
see with greater clarity when we look in detail at the six verses, nothing is
said in this passage at all about a reign of Christ and saints on earth. This
is rather a reign in heaven.
4. If the
main purpose of the millennium has to do with Jews and the nation of Israel, as
some premillennialists assert, “is it not passing strange that Revelation
20:4-6 says not a word about the Jews, the nation of Israel, the land of
Palestine, or Jerusalem? This would not
be so serious if the idea of the restoration of Israel were only an incidental
aspect of the millennium. But, according
to dispensational [premillennial] teaching, the restoration of Israel is the central purpose
of the millennium! It is therefore all the more significant that nothing
of this alleged central purpose is mentioned in the only biblical passage which
deals directly with Christ’s millennial reign, Revelation 20:4-6.”[5]
5. Finally, we
must grasp something about the structure of the book of Revelation itself that
has bearing upon the meaning of Revelation 20:1-6. Revelation “consists of
seven sections which run parallel to each other, each of which depicts the
church and the world [in recurring cycles] from the time of Christ’s first
coming to the time of his second coming.”[6] “The seventh section, chapters 20-22,
narrates the doom of the dragon (who is Satan), thus completing the description
of the overthrow of the enemies of Christ. The final judgment and the final
punishment of the wicked are depicted at the end of chapter 20…vv. 11-12,
14-15. In addition, this section describes the final triumph of Christ and his
church, and the renewed universe, here called the new heaven and the new earth.
“Note that though these seven
sections are parallel to each other, they also reveal a certain amount of
[end-times] progress. The last section,
for example, takes us further into the future than the other sections. Although the final judgment has already been
briefly described in 6:12-17, it is not set forth in full detail until we come
to 20:11-15. Though the final joy of the redeemed in the life to come has been
hinted at in 7:15-17, it is not until we reach chapter 21 that we find a
detailed and elaborate description of the blessedness of life on the new earth
(21:1-22:5). Hence this method of interpretation is called progressive
parallelism.”[7]
The significance of this
structure of Revelation is that each of the cycles shows us a picture of what
is happening in the world now—each of the cycles also progressing further as
the book unfolds. So, we should not be surprised that Revelation 20:1-6 gives
us insight into what is happening now (just like with previous cycles in the
book) that goes beyond anything revealed earlier in the book. Nor should we be
surprised that the final cycle goes further and gives us a picture of the future
climactic new heaven and new earth—one not previously given in Revelation.
Now that we have gained some introductory and contextual
perspective on this text, we are ready in our next post to dive into the
passage itself, to discover what it says and that its meaning is in line with
the amillennial stance.
[3] Sam Storms, Kingdom Come: The Amillennial
Alternative (Fearn, Ross-shire,
Scotland: Mentor, Christian Focus, 2013), 428.
On
the clause, “And I saw” (20:1a [see also 19:11, 17, 19; 20:4, 11; 21:1]) which
some premillennialists argue suggests chronological treatment in chapters
19-20, Storms, Kingdom
Come, 430,
writes: “The phrase…appears countless times in Revelation and need only
indicate the sequence in which John received the visions. It does not
necessarily indicate any historical relation among the many visions
themselves.”
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