The Millennium refers to the period of 1,000 years, mentioned six times in Revelation 20, when Satan is bound and cast into the bottomless pit. During this period the saints live and reign with Christ for a thousand years, which however is interrupted by one more temporary set back when, at the end of the thousand years, Satan is loosed out of his prison for a little while. He then goes out to deceive the nations and gather them together to battle to wage war against Christ, only to be defeated and devoured by fire from God [V.4-9], who will then establish a new heaven and a new earth for all eternity. There are essentially three views regarding when Christ will return in relationship to the millennium ... Pre-millennialism: The prefix Pre denotes before. Pre-millennialists believe that the Millennium will be established by the visible advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will return after the Great Tribulation and will Himself establish His reign for a thousand-year period of peace and security. For the first two-hundred years of Christian history, the utopian millennium described by the Apostle John in The Apocalypse was understood as a literal period of a thousand years that would follow Christ's physical return to earth... ...And for good reason. Neither Christ nor His apostles taught, on fair principles of interpretation, that the Millennium must come before His advent Sadly, Premillennialism has been complicated to such an extent that preachers have to resort to extensive charts to make sure they are being followed. Some of the teachings have boiled down to a total of seven dispensations, eight covenants, two second comings, three or four resurrections, and at least four judgments. It is impossible to believe that this is Biblical. The Bible teaches that the second coming of Christ, The Rapture and the resurrection of the righteous all occur on the same day, with a separate and ater resurrection of non-believers. Worse, Premillennialists often deny that the kingdom of Christ now exists, but will be established at His second coming. Some even going to the extent of claiming that He intended to establish His kingdom when He came to earth but, thwarted by the Jews rejection, postponed the establishment of the Kingdom till His second coming. However a number of prophecies, both biblical and non-biblical, hint that The Seventh Millennium of history will have a special blessing of God upon it. Could this be the long-awaited Sabbath Millennium, the universal utopian dream of the human race? [See The Seventh Millennium] Post-millennialism: The prefix Post denotes after. ie. Christ will come after the millennium. Post-millenniumists believe that the Millennium is a period during which the kingdom of God is extended in the world through the preaching of the gospel and saving work of the Holy Spirit. The church progressively brings righteousness and peace to the world and that the world eventually will be Christianized. Following a brief time of tribulation, Christ will return to earth and establish a new heaven and a new earth for eternity. This view is closely tied in with the belief systems of the Latter Rain/ Joel’s Army/ Manifest Sons of God/ Kingdom Now/ Restoration/ Reconstruction movements, all largely based upon a post-millennial view of the End. They have, however, little (if any) Scriptural support. [See Dominion Theology] Neither Christ nor His apostles taught, on fair principles of interpretation, that the Millennium must come before His advent. Besides which things are getting worse not better. [See Post-millennialism] A-millennialism: The prefix, ‘A’ means ‘no’. This would suggest that those who hold this view do not believe in a millennium. However this is somewhat misleading as a-millennialism takes the stand that there will be no literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth, but the millennium is a symbolic term to describe a long period of time. A-millennialism teaches that Christ reigns now (for an unspecified period) and that after this present kingdom reign is over, He will return in judgment of the living and the dead and will establish a new heaven and a new earth for eternity. It holds that the millennium mentioned in Rev. 20 refers to the entire period between Christ's first and last coming, from Pentecost to just before Judgment. Those who hold this view do not speak of the millennium as a future happening. It is, to them, a present reality. Read the story of how these beliefs came about. [See A-millennialism] | 
Index to Section 9B... 
