The End Times and the Millennium
How are the End Times and the Millennium related? Is the Millennium a biblical doctrine? What does the Bible say about the Millennium? Who is in the Millennium? These are just some of the questions this topic generates in churches. This term comes from Revelation 20:1-7, where the term thousand years is repeated six times in seven verses, the Latin terms is Mille for thousand and Annum for years is where Millennium originates.
There are different views of Millennium:
Postmillennialism is an interpretation of Revelation chapter 20 which sees Christ’s second coming as occurring after the “millennium,” a golden age or era of Christian prosperity and dominance.
Amillennialism is the doctrine of no-millennium, for them the Millennium is spiritual and non-literal. The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, including Armenian, Greek and Russian churches hold to this doctrine. Protestant denominations such as the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist and many Messianic Jews also reject a literal millennium.
Premillennial or dispensational is the belief the Millennium is a future and literal event, following the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. After the Second Coming Jesus establishes a one-thousand-year kingdom with Jerusalem as the capital city of the earth. This is a literal teaching from both the Old and New Testaments.
Why would there be a millennium? In the Millennium, the promises of God given to the nation of Israel will be fulfilled. Israel as a nation rejected Jesus at his first coming, they will accept Jesus prior to the Second Coming. Zechariah proclaims all the nations will come against Jerusalem in the last days, Israel only hope will be Jesus Christ. Over 500-years before the birth of Jesus, the book of Zechariah says they (Israel) will look up “Me” the one they “Pierced”.
Zechariah 12:9-10 KJV
(9) And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
(10) And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
In the Millennium, Jerusalem is the capital of the earth, with the Messiah as king of the Earth, this clearly taught in the Old Testament. In front of the United Nations is a sculpture quote from Isaiah, Chapter 2, verse 1-4 which is a picture of the Kingdom of God. This verse tells us, in the last days men will not learn the art of war anymore, but all the nations of will come to Jerusalem, where they will be taught by the God of Jacob. This is in essence the Millennium, the details are spelled out in other scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments.
Isaiah 2:1-5 KJV
(1) The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
(2) And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
In the Millennium, the animal world also changes, it changes back to the way it was before the fall. Animals are restored to a position submission under human authority. Isaiah chapter 11:6-9 shows the wolf, leopard, lion and bear at peace with the lamb, goat, fatling and calf, the predator and prey will be at peace with one another. Children will play near the snakes and snake holes. The lion will eat straw like an ox in those days according to Isaiah, this is not the case today.
Isaiah 11:6-9 KJV
(6) The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
(7) And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.