CHAPTER 25
THE MILLENNIUM
The last Age of human history on the current earth will be the Millennium, a literal 1000 year Age when Jesus Christ will rule the earth. This will be Phase I of "the Kingdom," which is the eternal rule of Christ. Revelation 11:15 says of the Millennium "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever." And since the reign of Christ is "forever and ever" it will continue after the Millennium into Phase II as His rulership proceeds seamlessly into the Eternal State in a new universe after the current universe has been destroyed.
The Millennium will be a time of perfect environment under the perfect government of Jesus Christ who will rule from Jerusalem. Satan and his fallen angels will all be in prison during the Millennium, allowing it to be a peaceful Age free from satanic influences. There will be people living out their natural lives mixed in with believers in eternal resurrection bodies who had lived and died in previous Ages, and also elect angels who will be visible at that time. Needless to say, it will be a very unusual Age of time. Jesus Christ will remove the curse put on the earth after the fall of Adam and Eve, and will heal the earth after the destruction caused by the Tribulation judgments. Jesus called this healing of the earth a "renewal" as Matthew 19:28 says "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." There will be very few deaths, no war, no disease or other maladies, almost no crime, animals will all be tame, the earth will yield its bounty easily, weather will be continually pleasant everywhere on earth, and on and on. People must still work for a living, although that will be fairly easy. But people will be the same as always, since they will still be sinful. There will be sin and nasty people just as always, even without satanic influences. Salvation is still required through faith in Jesus Christ. Even though Christ is present on the earth, many people will still reject Him as Savior, even though they see Him as their King. People living out their natural lives will still be people just as in any other Age of time. The primary purpose of the Millennium is to demonstrate that people need to accept salvation and God's truth even in perfect environment just as under any other conditions. People will be just as unhappy in perfect environment as in any other Age. God is the only way to happiness through Jesus Christ, not environment or other conditions.
As with all Ages, a new covenant will be put in place when the Millennium begins under the direct rule of Jesus Christ on earth. When Christ returns He will implement the promised “New Covenant to Israel” and a new set of currently unrevealed principles, doctrines and requirements will be put in place to worship Christ the God-Man King. With Christ present on the earth there will be changes made to the current "New Testament" covenant, which is the one we are living under now during the Church Age. Some things will remain, while others will change. But salvation is always the same, which is only by believing in the Messiah Jesus Christ. The Millennial New Covenant was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time [Millennium],” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.”
When the Millennium begins, the current New Testament will be partially set aside, just as the Mosaic Law portion of the Old Testament has been set aside during the Church Age. Mankind must keep up with God and live under the rules outlined for the Age in which that person lives. We must not try to live under God's rules for a previous Age by living under their outdated and superseded covenant.
The Millennium will begin with a celebration banquet as a coronation event for the Lord:
Revelation 19:9 “Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
The wedding supper goes back to the ancient world where a multi-day feast followed a wedding. The Lord and His Bride (believers of previous Ages who are now in their resurrection bodies) are ready to begin His rulership of the earth and there is a huge celebration feast after the Second Advent and just prior to His Millennial rule commencing. All believers of all time who have died up to that point are now in resurrection body and are invited to the feast, except for some Tribulation believers who died for taking the mark of the Beast, since they are excluded from taking part in the Millennium. Also, those believers who survived the Tribulation and are still alive in mortal bodies are invited. Note that no unbelievers will be there since there will be none left on the earth at the start of the Millennium.
Concerning this future feast Jesus Christ said during the Last Supper just before He was arrested and crucified:
Luke 22:14 “When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Jesus was saying He would return to earth in a resurrection body and eat and drink at the marriage supper of the Lamb, the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover, and His coronation feast. Note that we will eat and drink in our resurrection bodies, since we will have a body just like Jesus Christ in resurrection. But it will be for pleasure, not for sustainment.
Lest we forget why human history started, Satan makes one final pitiful appearance at the end of the Millennium:
Revelation 20:7 “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 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. 10 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.”
Satan never gives up trying. One final act of the long-running Angelic Conflict is allowed for Satan after the Millennium has been completed. This revolt is technically not part of the Millennium since Satan cannot be on the earth during the Millennium. Note the verse says “When the thousand years are over”, showing the Millennium has ended before Satan is released from the Abyss and allowed to stage this final revolt. Satan is released for his sentence to the Lake of Fire to be carried out, but he attempts one more revolution, stirring up human unbelievers to revolt against perfect environment under the perfect Ruler Jesus Christ. Note that it says Satan is released, not the rest of the fallen angels, meaning the others remain in the Abyss during this last revolt. This final revolt is allowed by God to demonstrate that even perfect environment does not make people happy and solve their problems since they are still sinful, and this is especially true of unbelievers who will be plentiful at that time. Many of those born during the Millennium will reject Jesus Christ as Savior, so Satan finds large numbers of human unbelievers on earth when he is released from the Abyss after 1000 years of imprisonment. These human unbelievers succumb to Satan's last desperate deception and join his final revolution, forming an army called Gog and Magog, which refers to this army marching out of the north when they attack Israel and Jerusalem where Jesus Christ reigns. Satan does what he always does, stirring up anti-Semitism among the gentile unbelievers on the earth, so that they march on Jerusalem to try to destroy it and the Jews. Since there are no weapons during the Millennium, Satan induces the unbelievers to produce some, but those in Israel will have none. The armies of Satan, numbering probably in the millions, then march toward Jerusalem ready to destroy it.
As the satanic armies of Gog and Magog are approaching Jerusalem, Jesus Christ declares the revolt over, and instantly consumes all the unbeliever armies with fire from Heaven.
Ezekiel 38:22 “I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.”
Then the Lord seizes Satan in preparation for carrying out the judgment sentence determined before man was created. Once this final point has been demonstrated in the angelic conflict, that ancient battle is over, and Satan is declared to be the eternal loser. Satan and all fallen angels are finally thrown into the Lake of Fire forever, a fate Satan desperately fought to avoid for many thousands of years resulting in enormous misery for mankind over its entire history from Adam until this final revolt at the end of the Millennium.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this day:
1 Corinthians 15:24 “Then the end will come, when he [Jesus Christ] hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power [Satan and fallen angels]. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet [Satan and demons defeated and in the Lake of Fire].
God allowed Satan to battle with Him for many thousands of years to give Satan the opportunity to try to prove his assertion that God was unfair to sentence him to the Lake of Fire. The final report card on Satan's attempt will show that God was proven perfectly fair, just and loving, while Satan was proven to be an evil loser. And Satan dared to presume he could be “like the Most High God.” Instead he will end up like the lowliest unbeliever sharing the same eternal punishment with no special status in a place of horrific pain and deep darkness, forever. In eternity, all in the Lake of Fire are in the same type of lowly eternal body, with Satan and fallen angels no more significant than any human unbeliever.
After the final revolt of Satan is crushed, human history on earth is complete, and all remaining Millennial unbelievers are removed from the earth. Then human history is complete, the current earth and universe will be destroyed, and all unbelievers will appear before Jesus Christ to receive their final judgment. This “second resurrection” of all unbelievers of all time occurs as a single event after the Millennium is completed, and is called the Great White Throne Judgment. The Great White Throne Judgment will occur as all unbelievers of all time will be brought out of Hell (Torments) along with the two Beasts from the Lake of Fire, and assembled in Heaven for judgment and all human unbelievers will be judged by the Lord Himself. The earth and universe are now empty of mankind and angels, and since they are no longer needed they are destroyed, and Hades along with them. This is a literal and complete destruction whereby the very elements of the entire universe including all atoms are unzipped in a single flash and cease to exist forever.
2 Peter 3:10: “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”
The entire universe will be destroyed. The earth, every star, every planet, every atom will vanish in an instant. History is now complete. Satan has lost his appeal trial. Every created being will now be in their eternal status based on their decisions throughout history.