Why I No Longer Accept the Pre-millennial
Interpretation of the Second Coming of Christ
David H.
Linden, University Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM USA, April 2012
A Personal Perspective Around
2008 when I first wrote this article, now enlarged, I had no memory of ever
writing on this subject before. Except for recent Bible studies in the Book of
Revelation, I have said very little about the millennium. Most of this paper is
related to the Book of Revelation. I wrote it to show that interpreting
Revelation 20 depends on much that appears in previous chapters of the book.
Other Scriptures affect this issue as well, but it is not my intention now to
write a larger paper. My classes will receive from me, Lord willing, a paper
titled “A Studies in Revelation 20”. This is not that lesson. I have been
constrained by the Lord to preach more on the Second Coming of Christ. In my
opinion, the entire church needs to have before it constantly that the world we
know is coming to an end. The world as we know it will end in an act of divine
violence, justice, and judgment executed, but for His own it will be a joyful
reunion, vindication, and the pleasure of the new creation. Revelation is not
alone in holding our attention to both the kindness and fury of the sudden appearance
of the Lord to rescue and punish. Note how the Apostle Paul joins these
opposite features of the Second Coming together, and note that it is in one
event:
... Since indeed God considers it just to repay
with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are
afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his
mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer
the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and
from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints,
and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you
was believed (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, ESV).
Many
brothers teach that the coming of the Lord happens in stages, thus judgment on
the wicked, as in Matthew 25, in their view does not occur when
Christ comes for His own (what some refer to as a secret rapture). That Paul just said in 2 Thessalonians 1 that these
two elements would appear in one event frequently passes without serious
notice.
I have
wanted not to write this for reasons of affection and respect for many who have
taught me in the past. I graduated from a Bible Institute and a
The
matter is far broader than personal. During the twentieth century,
dispensational thinking gained such an influence that numerous missions, Bible
schools, and fledgling fellowships of churches included a premillennial
doctrinal statement as an important affirmation of truth. It went beyond that.
It even became a requirement for membership and for a working relationship. The
Lord has been merciful. There is now less tension over teaching on the “end
times” than in previous generations.
Sadly, for some lately it has become a mark of spirituality to avoid the
subject entirely. I suppose this is so because many feel that it is Christian
courtesy to avoid disagreement. It is never wise to avoid any subject Scripture
emphasizes. We are obligated to accept whatever Revelation 20 is telling us.
The Battle in Revelation 20:7-10 “When the thousand years are over,
Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations
in the four corners of the earth Gog and Magog – to gather them for [the]
battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across
the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he
loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived
them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false
prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
Does this
battle, which follows the 1000 years of Revelation 20:1-6 coincide with the coming
of the Lord in Revelation 19? It is very important
to settle whether the events in Revelation 20 occur after the events in
chapter 19. In other words, is the Gog/Magog battle in chapter 20 another reference
to the same battle in chapter 19? If all the events of chapter 20 come afterwards,
the pre-millennial view must be correct, but if chapter 20 actually refers to
the same battle, then the pre-millennial position becomes difficult to
maintain. I believe the text leads us to conclude that this battle is one event happening at the Second Coming. It
is pictured first in Revelation 19
with detail and perspective added in chapter 20.
The Battle is One Battle Revelation 20 is not detached from what precedes
it. The context is that the nations gather for the battle (20:8). It
does not speak of this battle without using the definite article “the”. This
leads us to think that this battle is the one identified in chapter 19. Then we
note that chapter 19 also speaks of the
battle referring to some previous context. This is so; it refers to the one anticipated
in chapter 16. These three texts all speak of one event.
“The Great Day of God” is One Day We
should not expect that “the great day of
God the Almighty” (16:14) is one of a number of events with other great
days to follow. How would Revelation indicate that there is a coming ultimate
day? “The battle on the great day” indicates
that the final conflict does not occur in stages. One cannot have the end
followed by another end.
The
kings are gathered by three evil spirits. The demonic spirits come from the
mouth of each of the evil three. Each deceiving spirit gathers the kings of
earth for the same battle on the same day, the battle on the great day of
God Almighty. In 19:19 this battle, is again
the topic. (The Greek noun may be translated as battle or war.) The kings
of the earth, their armies (19:19), and all men small and great (19:18)
have now been gathered. Only the beast and the false prophet are mentioned in
chapter 19. But in 16:13,14 a spirit from the dragon was also active in calling
kings to this battle. Revelation 20 will fill in the rest of the story with
Satan gathering nations for this battle. A number of translations do not report
the battle each time as the battle or the war, yet the definite article in Greek is
present in all three texts: 16:14; 19:19; 20:8. It would help if that were
reflected in translation.
Revelation
19 is widely accepted among evangelicals as the Second Coming of Christ in
power and great glory, though some pose a secret rapture earlier. All
interpretations take on an “either/or” decisiveness at this juncture. If the
battle of Revelation 20:7-10 is the battle of Revelation 19, then the single Second
Coming is the time of both. That means that the 1000 years of Revelation 20 precedes
the Second Coming of Christ. If that is so, the premillennial interpretation is
simply wrong.
The Devil in a Later Narrative Someone may ask, “If it is one
battle/one event, with the armies gathered by the demonic emissaries of all
three, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet – then why would Revelation
19 & 20 not speak of one battle in one passage?” To strengthen that
question into a full-blown objection, it could be stated this way:
First, at the Second Coming the
Lord threw the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire, but there is
no mention of judgment on the devil until after the 1000 years. At the end of
the millennium he is let loose, defeated, and cast into the lake of fire. Why
do you not accept the clear chronology of Revelation 19 & 20?
That
is a very reasonable challenge, affected by one view of how Revelation 19 &
20 should be read. My response to this challenge:
a) The Ancient Adversary
It is not odd that the devil should be the distinct focus of a later
narrative. Neither the beast nor the false prophet is the original adversary of
the Lord. They do not share with the devil the same history. Neither was thrown
out of heaven in chapter 12. Likewise, back in the Garden of Eden there was no
beast; there was no false prophet. It is fitting that Scripture’s record of
rebellion in God’s creation should open and close with the arch-enemy himself.
b) Scriptures Unique to Satan
Things said only of Satan in
the Gospels are related to Revelation 20, such as his fall (Luke 10:18) and his
binding (Matthew 12:28,29). By extrapolating in 20 on the narrative of chapter
19, Revelation links to matters unique to Satan. It provides closure to focus
on the Master Originator of all sin, showing his final futile fit of
Christ-hating passion. Just as Revelation 12 was a record of repeated
frustration for him, after his short fling he is brought to his final end. The
Lord has chosen to present that to us by focusing on the master deceiver and
his last deception. If Revelation had reported the demise of all three
together, its attention to the chief enemy would have been diluted. The Lord
chose not to do that. By finalizing the narrative of the minor players in
Revelation 19, attention is drawn to the remaining monster, the dragon himself,
in chapter 20.
c) Expected Structure
We have learned in Revelation to take structure seriously. The
arrangement of its material is deliberate. The beast is first mentioned in one
sentence (11:7). Sustained attention to the dragon, the beast and the false
prophet comes later. The devil is central to the narrative of chapter 12. Neither
the beast not the false prophet are mentioned there. Then in 13, attention is directed
to the beast and the false prophet. This order affects Revelation 19 & 20.
The order is reversed, so that the beast and false prophet are dealt with in
19, and the devil meets his fate in chapter 20. This is the very common ABBA
pattern of Jewish literature of that time. If the evil three can be introduced
in the way they were, with the dragon appearing separately, Revelation can
finish with them the way it introduced them. What interpreters should not
assume is that separate mentions of “the battle” in 19 & 20 means that there
is more than one final conflict. And further, they should not assume that any
report of the Second Coming ought to mention all three opponents together.
d) Transitional Expression
The way Revelation 20 begins should not be overlooked. V.1 says, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven
…” The premillennial view assumes that one moves from chapter 19 into 20 in
an uninterrupted narrative as if
those words were not there. In other words, they see an unbroken sequence of
events right through to the end of chapter 20. In the pre-millennial view the
defeat of the beast and false prophet will be followed by the string of events in 20. That is not supported by “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven,”
because such wording actually indicates a break in the narrative. In 10:1 we
have very similar wording of “I saw” plus an angel coming down. The wording of
10:1 does not continue the narrative of chapter 9.
e) Sequential vs. Not Sequential
Chapter 20 backs up to review Satan’s grip on the nations and the Lord’s
frustration of him. It steps back in time. We cannot assume that everything in
it is sequential, because throughout the book it repeatedly returns to the
Second Coming of Christ. For example, the Judgment Day is the Coming of the
Lord in chapter 19, but the Judgment Day is the chief topic of all of chapter
16. That same day was also before us in 6:12-17, which has “the great day of their wrath”. This is not a different day from
what 16:14 calls “the great day of God
the Almighty”. So by inserting an angel coming down in 20:1, the break in
the narrative allows for some background about Satan. Certainty that 20
continues a chronology begun in 19 is mistaken. That assumption needs
reconsideration. The view that the 1000 years follow the Second Coming needs more support.
Here
is the sequence of the devil’s activity drawn from Revelation 20. In this
chapter Revelation steps back to review the big picture. The background begins
with the devil’s declining opportunity to strike at the Kingdom of Christ. The flow
of chapter 20 is back to that great battle first reported in 16:13,14, then in 20:7-10
it reconnects with the judgment by Christ in chapter 19. The order is:
Revelation
20 moves through all four stages: 1.)
deceived nations initially (20:3); 2.)
a powerful limitation of his previous deception (20:1-3); 3.)
a release to deceive again (20:3); and 4.)
Satan’s ultimate defeat and punishment (20:7-10). Stage 1 is already past
history, and stage 2 is the current activity of the Lord in our day. Stages 3
& 4 will happen in a brief space of time.[1]
Revelation 20 is the last thing we read before the Bible gives us the eternal
state. Similar to the scope of chapter 12, it ranges from the fall to the final
judgment. It is valuable to have such a summary at this location in Revelation.
The Wrath of God Completed It would not be twisting the
Scripture to say of the terrible clash in Revelation 20 that the wrath of God
was completed in 20. Obviously the wrath of God cannot be completed before casting
the devil into the lake of fire accompanied by the finality of the Great White
Throne judgment. Before the angels poured out the seven bowls John said, “I saw in heaven
another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues –
last, because with them God's wrath is completed”
(Revelation 15:1, NIV).
Teachers,
who affirm the premillennial order of events, never (to my knowledge) view the
seven bowls as having reference to anything after Revelation 19. (How could
they?) This becomes another difficulty for them, because the seven bowls complete
the wrath of God, and those “bowls of wrath” (16:1) do not extend past the Second
Coming and (using their chronology for a moment) on through another 1000 years
to complete God’s wrath on Satan. If the devouring fire of Revelation 20:9 is 1000
years after the Lord’s Coming then that moment becomes the completion of the
wrath of God. We must allow other parts of Revelation to affect our
interpretation of chapter 20. The simple
solution is that the outpouring of the seven bowls is fulfilled in the Second
Coming in Revelation 19, therefore, it cannot have another completion 1000
years later. I think this is something in Revelation which has been overlooked
by many teachers. The wrath of God may appear many times, but it is not finalized
over and over.
Then,
lest we miss it, at the seventh and last bowl a voice from the throne says, “It
is done!” (16:17). These statements converge: 1) the seven bowls complete God’s wrath (15:1), and 2) at
the seventh bowl it is done. The pre-millennial position, however, requires a thousand
years between the “it is done” of
16:17 and the “it is done” of 21:6. But
if the judgment of the Second Coming ushers in the eternal state of chapters 21
& 22, with no interval between, then we do not have to separate one it is done from the other, and the
completion of wrath then does come with the seven bowls. We were told earlier
in Revelation that “there would be no
more delay,” but the time of the seventh trumpet would be the time when “the mystery of God would be fulfilled” (10:6,7).
Revelation makes the coming of the Lord to be the conclusion of our history.
God’s judgment will not be dragged out in a series of one final judgment after
another final judgment.
Recapitulation Is the Explanation
It is held by pre-millennial teachers that Revelation
19 is narrative followed in chapter 20 by things which happen only later in
time. I am saying that Revelation 20 comes back to the one battle/final
judgment reported in chapter 19. It is recapitulation, a going over the event
again from a different angle. Recapitulation is not foreign to Revelation; it
is, in fact, typical of it. The fall of Babylon is an example to track, one
with no significant controversy attached to it among evangelicals.
The Large Example of Recapitulation in the Judgment of
Babylon This is a
recurring theme appearing in a number of visions. In 14:8 an angel says,
“Fallen! Fallen is
Anyone can see how different the following images are,
and most realize (I hope) that that does not make them different events!” The
visions vary with Babylon destroyed by God on one hand and by the beast on the
other, yet the multiple images are of one thing – the fall of Babylon. Babylon
does not fall repeatedly.
·
·
·
But then
she is consumed by the beast;
·
Then
Babylon is destroyed by fire (18:8,9).
Recapitulation
is the key. The words which open
Revelation 20, “And
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven” are virtually identical to
Revelation 18:1 “After this I saw another
angel coming down from heaven.” In
Revelation 18, it takes another look at what is mentioned in 17, but the topic
which follows 18:1 is not something that happens later than the events of
chapter 17. Surely the death of the woman (Babylon) in 17:16 is not a different
event from the judgment on Babylon addressed throughout chapter 18. In fact,
18:8 says, “she will be burned up with
fire”. The premillennial argument is that Revelation 20 continues a narrative
sequence in which the 1000 years follow
the Second Coming reported in chapter 19. They do not see this as
recapitulation. If it is a sequence with events occurring later than the events
of 19 – if that is so, premillennialists should not build their case on the
opening words of chapter 20. If Revelation 18, using the same introductory
words, can bring up the same event as chapter 17, Revelation 20 can do the same
when it adds more detail to the battle found in chapter 19.
Babylon
will not be destroyed again and again. Revelation simply repeats the end of
Babylon through a variety of images. In the case of very important things, Revelation
recapitulates. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to consider that the battle is
the one battle in mind in Revelation 16, 19, & 20. Note too that the
different visions may even appear to be incompatible. The imagery does not need
to be consistent. For example, was it God’s wrath or the beast’s hostility that
destroyed Babylon? It was both. The final judgment can be with the sword or by
being crushed in a winepress (19:15). The metaphors are mixed. When we read of
fire coming down from heaven (20:9), this is one more image of that last
battle. This kind of variation is typical of Revelation. So we conclude that by
turning the page to Revelation 20, after we have read of the Second Coming in
chapter 19, we have not necessarily turned to a new event.
A Large Mistake Often Repeated We are all trying to come to grips with how
to understand all that Revelation is saying. It certainly is a unique way to
communicate truth. This is the challenge to us of apocalyptic. It was familiar
to those hearing Revelation when John’s large letter showed up in seven
churches. Familiar with apocalyptic, they could sit back and imagine what John
was reporting. Often it is “then I saw”, “then I saw”. That is an obvious
sequence. It is a sequence of seeing or receiving more and more by John. This
has often been taken to mean that what was seen is in sequence, but the
sequence of revealing visions is not identical to the sequence within the
things reported. Not every soul will understand my paragraph, but I can only
say that a little slippage of the mind at this point leads to a large
misunderstanding. A sequence of reports need not establish a sequence in the
things reported.
Maybe an
illustration will help. A history teacher in high school is teaching about the Second
world War in the Pacific and in Europe. Maybe she is an American, and so she begins
with Pearl Harbor. America’s most strenuous efforts were to defeat Germany,
therefore the teacher decided to lecture next on the invasion of N. Africa,
Sicily, and eventually into France on the way to the collapse of Germany.
Meanwhile there was a longer and different struggle with Japan culminating in
two atom bombs. It is not difficult to see that the order in which she teaches
events need not be identical with the order of the events themselves. A student
could go home and say “then she said”, “then she said” but that would relay merely
the order of her lectures, not the chronological order of the war. Many astute
and honest interpreters of the Bible stumble here. The assumption that
Revelation 20:1, with “Then I saw an angel…”, asserts later events is a mistaken
assumption. Premillennial scholars would never do this with words in18:1 which
are virtually the same. When premillennialists seek to show that what is
communicated in the words which follow 20:1 are later than chapter 19 for
different reasons, then we should consider those reasons. But their argument
from the opening of 20:1 confuses the order of seeing with the order of the
things seen. In that high school classroom, there was no confusion of the sequence
of Germany’s surrender in May 1945 with the Battle of Midway with Japan in 1942,
even if that was the order in which these events were taught.
Gog and Magog Another difficulty for the premillennial
position is that both Revelation 19 and 20 refer to the prophecy of Ezekiel
about Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38,39). Though Revelation 19 does not use the word
“Gog” (the leader) or “Magog” (the land), the correspondence of Revelation 19
with this Ezekiel passage is obvious. Revelation 20 will name Gog and Magog. Here
are texts to review. My comments will follow.
~~~~~~~~~
Ezekiel
38 "Son
of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and
say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O
Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal
(Ezekiel 38:2,3).
Ezekiel 39 You shall fall on the mountains
of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will
give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be
devoured (Ezekiel 39:4).
"As for you, son
of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, 'Assemble
and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains
of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and
drink the blood of the princes of the earth--of
rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan
(Ezekiel 39:17,18).
Revelation 19 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and
with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God,
to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both
free and slave, both small and great." And I saw the beast and the kings
of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting
on the horse and against his army (Revelation 19:17-19).
Revelation
20
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his
prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of
the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for [Greek, add “the”] battle; their number is like the
sand of the sea (Revelation 20:7,8).
~~~~~~~~~
Both
Revelation 19 and 20 view the battle they report as an event predicted in
Ezekiel 38,39. This should really make one sit up and wonder whether there is one fulfillment (my view) or two (the premillennial view). Within
these two chapters of Ezekiel we find the following: In the distant future
(38:8) a prince named Gog, plus an alliance of many Gentile powers from all
directions, will invade Israel to attack the people of God. These hordes will
face God’s blazing wrath, making all people on earth quake in fear. The divine
judgment is upon all nations and upon those far from Israel in distant
coastlands supposedly safe (39:6). To deepen the linkage with both Revelation
19 & 20, this universal judgment includes fire and brimstone. (Or fire and sulfur; see Ezekiel
38:22). The other notable feature in this judgment is that the fallen attackers
will be fed to the birds, which will gorge themselves on the fallen horde. A
call to the birds goes out from God to come to this feast. One gets the
impression that this battle will happen but once. The nations under Gog’s
leadership will not reappear after being eaten by vultures, burned in God’s
fire, and buried over a period of months with all the people of Israel locating
bodies and burning weapons. Revelation 19/20 are a fulfillment of this
prophecy.
This battle is unique. Here is a broad combination of
distant nations meeting their end. Like
Teachers
holding to one battle vs. two have debated whether the version in chapter 19
includes all unbelievers on the earth. If it does, and I hold that it does,
then Revelation 19:11-21 is the final battle. Therefore there would be no one
left on earth to participate in any subsequent assault against the people of
God, which we read about in Revelation 20:7-10. If Revelation 19 is the final
battle with no one remaining to rebel, then there is no one for Satan to
deceive. If chapter 20 predicts a different battle (the pre-mill position), it
faces this difficulty that no one is available to join Satan in his last
assault on the people of God (Revelation 20:7,8). At His coming the Lord will
strike down all sinners (19:15), so there will be none left to rebel. And that
means there can only be one final battle, the one predicted in Ezekiel,
reported twice in Revelation, but occurring once in history. We cannot miss
that the battle in chapter 20:7-9 comes after
the 1000 years in 20:1-6. If the last battle comes only at the Second Coming, then
the Second Coming must be after the 1000 years, not before. Naturally those
holding to pre-millennialism
see that their position would cave in if the judgment in chapter 19 is the
ultimate one, with no additional battle to come later. Their difficulty is
increased by the following:
1)
Both Revelation 19 & 20 refer to the prediction in Ezekiel 38,39.
2)
In Ezekiel 38,39 the divine judgment is not localized to the invading forces.
It includes those living in safety far from the battle scene (Ezekiel 39:6).
3)
For their position to hold up, the battle in Ezekiel 38, 39 would need to be
repeated. It must occur twice. That is a far-fetched idea. Surely the
individual named “Gog” can only die once. Nothing in Ezekiel lends support for
the idea of this predicted event being repeated or fulfilled twice.
4)
The earlier use of everyone, slave and
free in Revelation 6:15 is clearly a reference to the final judgment upon
all the wicked in the entire earth. Likewise, such language appearing again in
19:13 refers to all humanity. When chapter 6 speaks this way of the final
judgment, it prepares us to expect the same meaning in chapter 19.
Who Remains Available to
Rebel? The
pre-millennial position needs for some unsaved people to be present in the
millennial kingdom, so there would be someone there for Satan to stir up in the
final rebellion. It is very difficult to find human rebels if they were all
judged at the Second Coming.
In my
opinion, creating a plausible scenario which allows for the existence of sinners
in a post Second Coming millennium is quite a problem. If all of Revelation 20
comes after the Second Coming, it is essential to have some explanation for how
rebels are still present on earth after the Second Coming. One cannot have a
rebellion without rebels. Pre-mills admit that this evil cannot come from
unbelieving humans alive when the Lord comes in judgment (Revelation 19). That
group will be slain and sent to hell. Of course, the rebellion cannot arise among
believers, for all have been glorified at the appearance of Christ. We sin no
more. As the premillennial viewpoint goes, only believers enter the 1000 year
reign, so the wicked can only be, and must be from among those born to them.
John MacArthur says, “… Satan will find
fertile soil in which to sow his seeds of rebellion. Many unsaved descendants
of those who entered the millennial kingdom in their physical bodies (all of
whom will be redeemed) will love their sin and reject Christ.” [2] He says on the next page that
Satan’s method of deception will dupe the unregenerate of the world into
revolting against the Lord Jesus Christ.
I
object among other reasons that this doctrine renders the righteous rule of
Christ ineffective. (MacArthur would never say such a thing!) Ruling the nations with a rod of iron (19:15)
does not make room for a worldwide rebellion to get going. Further, it allows
for marriage and child-bearing to continue when the Lord taught us that in the
coming resurrection this would cease. I look upon our brother’s argument as a
desperate conjecture to shore up a position with insurmountable problems within
it. All our pre-mill brothers know that the Lord said, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). I hope they will not say
that Jesus only said they will not marry, and that He did not say they would no
longer have children! I fear they might say that this hypothesis only applies to
those who have not experienced a physical resurrection. At the Second Coming
when the kingdom of our Lord and of his
Christ appears, this surely does not allow for the continued existence of
sin within the kingdom of Christ after “the
kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” (11:15).
At the Second Coming “the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah
11:19). This hypothesis is riddled with deficiency. The more practical, less bizarre,
less strained would be to give up this odd hypothesis. Nothing in Scripture
even hints at it. Giving it up would be very difficult, for they would need to
let go of pre-millennialism. [3]
A Summary: In Revelation
19, Christ comes riding a white horse, trampling the winepress of God’s wrath.
The feast for the birds comes when the Rider on the horse (Christ) makes the
war against the kings of the earth. He captures the beast and false prophet and
dispatches them to the lake of fire and brimstone. In Revelation 20, the aggressor
nations under Satan come from the four corners of the earth in fulfillment of
the Gog/Magog prophesy (Ezekiel 38,39). They and Satan meet their fate from God
in the lake of fire and brimstone. Thus Revelation 20:7-10 presents the Second
Coming of Christ – there is only one – as occurring after the 1000 years, not before.
The premillennial position is in deep trouble in Revelation 20, though
that chapter is perhaps its chief text.
Other Pertinent Scriptures which Relate to Revelation
20
1.) The Binding
of Satan Satan is
bound throughout this present time (Matthew 12:25-29). He is unable to stop the
advance of the gospel in any nation and culture. Nothing can stop the massive
growth of the church, as we see in the two parables in Matthew 13:31-33. Satan
is exceedingly frustrated. With precise reference to the time of His crucifixion,
the Lord Jesus said, “Now is the
judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out”
(John 12:31,32). Therefore it is a major blunder to say that the defeated foe
is “alive and well on planet earth”. The truth is that the devil has been
disarmed (Colossians 2:15). His head was crushed at the cross when Satan
bruised the heel of Christ (Genesis 3:15). The Lamb has already triumphed. Though
He was slain, He is alive forevermore, and He has ransomed a people for God
from every nation (Revelation 5:5-10). The full liberating effect of this
ransom cannot be prevented by the devil. The Lord Jesus loses to Satan not even
one of those the Father has given Him to save and keep (John 6:38-40). Satan’s
loss of former captives (2 Timothy 2:26) in his crumbling empire eventually
adds up to a multitude no man can number (Revelation 7:9). It is a great pity
that this doctrine of the victory of Christ, and the utter weakness of Satan to
prevent it, does not receive the attention it deserves, and which we need to
give. Satan is unable to deceive the nations the way he once did. This truth is
well-established outside the Book of Revelation. Revelation 20 does not say
that the devil cannot do anything. It does present his severe limitation as
being shut up, sealed in a prison so that he might not deceive the nations any
longer. His weakness is such that he pictured as being locked up in a pit. Satan
cannot do now what he would dearly love to do; he cannot rally the nations in a
killing orgy against the people of God. In that sense he is completely
frustrated. The unleashing of Satan does happen in 20:7-10, described in 12:12,
“Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the
devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is
short!” That should help us understand the Great Tribulation. Meanwhile, Revelation
2 & 3 draws attention to his current activity: his deceit in Thyatira
(2:24), his presence in Pergamum connected to the death of Antipas (2:13), and his
harassment in 3:9. Chapter 12 is a record of one frustration after another for
Satan. At the end of this age, he has a brief moment of apparent victory
through his surrogates, the two beasts in chapter 13. In preparation for his
last blow against our Lord, we have in 16:13,14 his successful effort to
assemble the nations for the battle. He can do this because he has been “released for a little while” (20:3). He
will have his moment, but it will be his ultimate defeat.
2.) The Last Rebellion There is another awkwardness for the
premillennial view in Revelation 20. The pre-millennial teaching is that Christ
and His resurrected saints will reign on earth from Jerusalem for one thousand
years in a reign of peace, which upon Satan’s release ends with another battle.
I reply that the time of Christ’s great appearing is the moment of destroying
the destroyers of the earth (11:18). Surely Satan is one of the destroyers. Here
is a description of that moment:
Then the seventh angel blew his
trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign
forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones
before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks
to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great
power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time
for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and
saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying
the destroyers of the earth"
(Revelation 11:15-18 ESV).
This time
is the time for God’s wrath to come; it is the time for the dead to be judged,
the time for his own to be rewarded, and the time for the destroyers to be
destroyed. If we could see that everything happens when Christ returns, we
would not be tangled up in abstruse chronologies that we cannot derive from the
Bible without much assistance from brothers who design confusing chronologies
which are not really there. This damages simple Bible reading.
This text
of Revelation 11 above is one pre-mills place before the 1000 years. Their
teaching also makes Christ’s permission of the nations incited by Satan to turn
against Him in chapter 20, to happen after His Second Coming. This is a difficult
idea to defend. 19:15 says that He will rule the nations with a rod of iron. With
opposition against God wiped out in Revelation 19, where does Satan find any
new opponents to rally against Christ? Yet the rebels are so numerous they are
like the sand of the sea (20:8). In the years that I held the pre-millennial
view, that anomaly puzzled me as rather contradictory. Here is what the
pre-mill position includes: Under the rule of Christ, actively subduing sin
(19:15), the nations of the world will respond to Satan’s deception. Those at
the time of His coming who are not saved have already been trampled in the
winepress of God’s wrath (14:18-20; 19:15). Then in spite of the Lord’s
righteous rule on earth, pre-mills say that the nations of the world will gather
to attack the city of God. Among a variety of other reasons, it is very
difficult to reconcile that with Christ putting down the nations with a rod of
iron. It is not a good idea to teach a doctrine of another rebellion of wicked
people who are able to conspire and work together to attack, because the
putting down of sin by Christ has been ineffective. Surely our brothers do not
mean such a thing. This awkwardness is easily resolved by recognizing that Revelation
19/20 reports the same battle, and the destruction of the wicked happens once and
completely at the Second Coming. There will be no later rebellion. There will be no sinners left on earth to rebel. All
the wicked will be in the lake of fire.
That puts
the 1000 years before the Lord’s return, and so it is a description (a very
encouraging one) of the reigning role of those in this age who have already died
in Christ, as they await their physical resurrection at the Second Coming. They
are already blessed (20:6). The dead in Christ receive life in the Lord’s
presence immediately upon their death. Thus we have the words of 14:13,
“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on …their deeds follow them.”
Revelation 20 adds insight to their
blessedness. These souls who had been beheaded (20:4)live, are seated on
thrones, and rule with Christ as soon as they die! The persecuted Christians
who were the first to read Revelation would find that this answers their
anguish of heart concerning Brother Antipas.
3.) Thrones on earth Nothing
in chapter 20 puts these thrones on earth.
Elsewhere in Revelation, thrones are uniformly located in heaven. (It is
that way in Daniel 7 as well.) Further, nothing is said of reigning on earth in Revelation 20:1-10. Those
who reign with Christ are said to be the souls of those who were beheaded.
This pictures them as saints awaiting their resurrected bodies, and this places
the time of the 1000 years in advance of their resurrection at the Second
Coming. Thus the first resurrection of chapter 20 is not a physical
resurrection. The plight and plea of those who have already died is a great concern
in Revelation 6. The plea of those beheaded (stated to address the anxiety of those
on earth) is not ignored. As Revelation progresses, God exercises His vengeance
on those who murdered His people. This is coupled in chapter 7 with the
immediate comforts from the Lord for those who have died. Now in Revelation 20
word of their wonderful welfare is expanded. They are not sitting on their
hands doing nothing. They are sitting on thrones in the presence of Christ
reigning with Him. A vast number have died in Christ already. We are cheered by
such a picture of how the dead now live.
4.) The Last Enemy Note
further that the last enemy to be
defeated is death (1 Corinthians 15:26). Death is clearly defeated at the
Second Coming. It seems to me that those who hold the premillennial view must
say that after the defeat of the last enemy, death, there will be another
defeat of another enemy 1000 years later. This drags out judgment on all sin. Sometimes
pre-millennialism, by making the 1000 years still future, has to live with one
end followed by another one.
Many other
texts are urged by brothers as fitting into these 1000 years. The
pre-millennial position always views that as a future time. So they teach that prophecies
of a glorious future find fulfillment only in the Lord’s coming, and we agree,
but then they do not have in mind the eternal state but rather a future 1000
year interval. These prophecies cannot connect well with Revelation 20, because
the scene in that chapter is not earth but heaven, not later but now. This obviously
does not suit a future earthly reign. Then too, in Revelation 20 the persons
pictured are simply souls. It sure appears that they are not in their
resurrected bodies yet. There is no mention of Jerusalem; in fact no New
Testament text ever speaks of a reign of Christ in Jerusalem. Many so called
“millennial” texts have no obvious correspondence with the thrones in
Revelation 20 and the souls of beheaded persons seated on them. The weaknesses of
pre-millennialism are numerable. In my opinion, they are overwhelming. The
all-out war between Satan and God over the lives of humans precedes the Second
Coming but in great finality ends with it.
I end my
little paper by urging upon you that the endurance and faithfulness Revelation
calls for is what matters most (13:10), certainly more than having the
chronology worked out. I do believe we are more Biblical to view the appearance
of Christ as the one great event to end all rebellion, with none coming 1000
years later, and to begin for His beloved people the joy of living in His
presence. To all who love His appearing but disagree with me, please do not
worry; your allegiance to Christ is what matters most.
David H.
Linden
If
anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My
love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen (1 Corinthians 16:22-24).
[1]
Stage 3 is presented in 2
Thessalonians as God sending strong delusion as the inescapable penalty of
rejecting the gospel. “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with
the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and
wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They
perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason
God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so
that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted
in wickedness” (2Thessalonians 2:9-12, NIV). Those who
agree with Satan will have him and join him in “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew
25:41).
[2] John
MacArthur, Revelation 12-22, The
MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, ©2000), 240.
[3] It is for me an unpleasant role to be in to disagree with Dr. MacArthur. I have a multitude of reasons to respect him. I choose to interact with his writings for many reasons. One is that he dodges no difficulty. He is forthright in stating his positions. He has the integrity to give up an argument popular among dispensationalists when he is not convinced of its legitimacy. In the future when I spell out differences with dispensationalists in eschatology, John MacArthur will be the chief advocate I prefer to interact with. May our Lord bless him and his far-reaching ministry.