Thousand Year Reign of Christ: what did Jesus teach?

Among Christians, there exist two prominent views concerning the thousand year reign of Christ:

1.       Premillennialism: holds that Christ will rule on this earth for a thousand years after the second coming.

2.    Amillennialism: holds that the thousand year reign of Christ is before the second coming of Jesus. Jesus is reigning in this Church age.

Where should we start studying about the millennium? Should we start studying from the Gospel and Epistles or should we start studying from Revelation or from Old Testament. Some starts with Revelation while others with Old Testament prophecies. In principle, there is no problem wherever we start studying from. That is because Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, speaks of only one message. There is no contradiction within the Bible.

But, when we think practically, it is better to start studying from the Gospels. It is for the following reasons:

1.       It is wise and systematic to found our teachings and doctrines from the clear, literal passages of the Scriptures. Everyone would agree that the book of Revelation contains a high degree of symbolic language.

2.       Jesus has interpreted the Old Testament in its true sense. That is what we see in gospels. That is what is followed in the epistles. We should learn the interpretation that Jesus and Apostles gave to the Old Testament prophecies and take it as a model for our studies.

Therefore, it is practically easy to start from the gospels and end with the book of Revelation. Then the whole subject of eschatology can be delivered from mind-boggling confusion and reduced to divine simplicity.

Now, let us study what was Jesus’ own system of eschatology. When our Lord was in this earth, what did he teach his disciples?  Let us look into some passages from the Gospels.

Verses: Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:29; Luke 20:34-36; Mark 10:29, 30; Luke 18:29, 30; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

Note: The word “time” and “age” in the above passages means same thing. It comes from the same Greek word “eion.”

From the above passages, we can form the following conclusions:

1.       This age and the age to come taken together exhaust all time, including the endless time of the eternal state.

Reason: Matthew 12:32 says that the sin against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. Mark 3:29 says that the sin against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. Therefore, there is no time period between this age and the age to come.

Verses: Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:29

Matthew 12:32: “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Mark 3:29: “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”

2.  This age and the age to come are qualitatively different from each other. They are also quantitatively different time periods. There is no overlap between them.

Reason: Luke 20:34-36 states that the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. He also affirmed that there is no marriage in the age to come. Only the sons of resurrection will enter the age to come. In this age there is death. But in that age there is no death. They cannot die anymore because they are son of the resurrection.

Mark 10:29, 20 added that in this age believers have persecutions along with blessings, while in the age to come, there is only eternal life. No persecutions exist there.  Since we receive eternal life in the age to come, the age to come should be as eternal as the life received in it.

Matthew 13:37-39 assert that good men and evil men coexist in this age while only the righteous will be present after the harvest.

Verses: Luke 20:34-36; Mark 10:29, 30; Luke 18:29, 30; Matthew 13:37-39

Luke 20:34-36: “And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,  but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,  for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being son of the resurrection.”

Mark 10:29, 30: “Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,  who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Matthew 13:30, 37-39: (Verse 30) Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. “ (Verses 37-39) “³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.”

This Age	The Age to Come
Marriage	No Marriage
Death and Dying	No Death and Dying
Natural Men	Resurrected Men
Righteous and Wicked Co-exist	Only the worthy (the Sons of God) attain
Mixed Wheat (“sons of the kingdom”) and Tares (“The sons of the evil one”)	Only the wheat (“sons of the kingdom”)

3.    This age and the age to come are divided by the judgment of the wicked and the resurrection of the righteous. These events (which occurs at the second coming of Jesus) end this age and inaugurates the age to come.

Reason: Luke 20:35 teaches that attaining to that age is equivalent to attaining to the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection is the door out of this age, and into the age to come. According to the uniform and repeated teaching of the New Testament, the resurrection of the saints will occur at the second coming of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:22, 23, 50-55; 1 Thess. 4:16). Mark 10:29, 30 states that believers will receive eternal life in the age to come. This also occurs at Christ’s second coming (Matt. 25:31, 46). Matthew 13:40-43 teaches that the wicked will be judged at the end of this age and at that time only believers will be resurrected and enter the age to come. Matthew asserts that the judgment of the wicked will take place before the glorification of the saints (if we take literally; 13:30 and 13:42, 43). Therefore this age will end at the second coming of Jesus.

Verses: Luke 20:34-36; Matthew 13:40-43

Luke 20:34-36: “And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,  but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,  for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being son of the resurrection.”

Matthew 13:30, 40-43: (Verse 30) Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. (Verses 40-43) “⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Conclusion:

What we saw from the many passages discussed above was the eschatological view of our Lord. Now let us see how can this understanding of Jesus’ eschatology will help us in deciding our view about the millennium.

First, there are two major viewpoints among Christians regarding the time and nature of millennium.

Premillennium: asserts that the millennial reign is after the second coming of Jesus.

Amillennium (or inaugurated millennium): asserts that the millennial reign of Christ is before the second coming. It has been inaugurated at the first coming of Jesus Christ.

The only thing we have to check is which system (out of the above two) is in harmony with the viewpoint of our Lord. The question before us now is very simple. To which of these two kinds of eschatology is the basic scheme of the two ages similar? The debate about the millennium will end there.

But first, let us understand the characteristics of the millennium (which premillennialists and amillennialists both agree):

1.       There are unbelievers living on this earth during the millennial reign of Christ. These unbelievers will wage war against the saints at the end of the millennium (Revelation 20:7-10). Also, there will be marriages in the millennium.

2.       The Final Judgment will occur after the millennium.

Where will premillennialism put the millennium within the framework of the two ages? In this age or in the age to come?

It cannot be put into this age. Why not? Because according to premillennialism the millennium occurs after Christ’s second coming, and we have seen that this age concludes with Christ’s second coming.

Neither can it be put into the age to come. Again, why not? Because no wicked men in an un-resurrected condition remain in that age. As we have seen there are only righteous men in a resurrected condition. Also, there is no marriage in the age to come.

Also, we have seen that there are no other age(s) besides this age and the age to come.

In short, the eschatological system of premillennialism has no place whatsoever in the eschatological system of our Lord Jesus Christ. Premillennial brethren have, I suspect, problems and confusion about eschatology because of the system they have inherited. Premillennialism is confusing simply because it is impossible to make consistent with the clearest and simplest biblical passages.

When Jesus Christ was on this earth 2000 years ago, he taught his disciples an eschatological system that was completely against premillennialism. His teachings contradicted the teachings of Premillennialism. Therefore as Christians, we are not indebted to follow premillennialism.

Let the teachings of our Lord help us to reject false teachings and to know sound teaching, embrace it and preach it. Amen

(The writings are not original to the author of this blog. It is taken from other sources and has been edited, sometimes paraphrased)

Reference: 

1. Waldron, Samuel E. The End Times Made Simple