The Saints Reign with Christ 1000 Years

   
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. [Revelation 20:4-6]

Why are those who take part in the first resurrection called blessed and holy? Over these the second death has no power; there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus for He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of God.

What does it matter if the millennium is now or some time yet to come? Wrong views of the kingdom have consequences. Truth matters because all truth is given for our sanctification. Herein is the Gospel of the Kingdom…

Revelation 12: 5-12: In connection with Christ’s birth, death, ascension and coronation, Satan is hurled down from heaven.

Revelation 11:2-6; 12:14: A long period of power and witness bearing for the Church, which is nourished ‘away from the face of the serpent’. The devil’s influence is curbed.

Revelation 11:7; 13 7: A very brief period of most severe persecution. This is Satan’s little season: the most terrible and also the final manifestation of the persecuting power of antichrist.

Revelation 11:17; 14:14: The one and only second coming of Christ in judgment.

Christ’s first coming is followed by a long period during which Satan is bound; followed by Satan’s little season; followed by Christ’s second coming in power and great glory in judgment. Now it is clear that the 1000 year period precedes the second coming.

Revelation 20 contains the doctrine that has become known as the millennium kingdom reign of Christ. The chapter begins with the binding of Satan for a period of 1000 years which is the duration of the millennium. So the millennium reign is coincident with the binding of Satan. For the comfort of the church, Revelation 20 gives us divine commentary on Christ’s doctrine of the kingdom revealed in the Gospels.  

Satan Bound 1000 Years

‘Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.’ [Revelation 20:1-3]

This binding has to do with the restraint of Satan so that ‘he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.’

Here is Christ’s doctrine…

“But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils” [Luke 11:20-22].

Christ says that a sign that the kingdom of God has come is that He has authority over Satan. In Mark 3:23 we are told that the binding of the strong man is a parable. We take the strong man to be Satan and the stronger man to be Christ. The spoils of the strong man are the redeemed men from every nation and generation.

Paul’s doctrine gives us more apostolic commentary regarding the coming again of Christ consistent with the binding and releasing of Satan in Revelation 20:1-3. This first statement is the death of preterism, and says that the Day of Christ will not come until the revealing of the evil one…

‘Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.’

Paul continues with his doctrine. The lawless one is now restrained, but the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The lawless one is revealed when the restraint is removed.

‘…And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Note that the work of the lawless one is deception.

‘The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved…’ [2 Thessalonians 2:1-12].