The reference to one thousand years in the Revelation 20 represents one of the most hotly debated passages in the whole bible. Traditionally we have three avenues of interpretation open to us: postmillennialism, amillennialism and premillennialism. By far the most optimistic view of these three is postmillennialism with its belief in the gradual conversion of the world leading to the return of Christ at the end of the Millennium. This is a hope all Christians share whatever their persuasion. Who does not desire that the world come to faith in Jesus Christ with such an effect as to change the whole course of history to a happier ending? Theologian Loraine Boettner says of this position, “This is the prospect that postmillennialism is able to offer. Who even among those holding other systems would not wish that it were true?”[1]
Premillennialism, however takes a different tack holding the world is too far gone for reform to be effective. Things must grow worse and worse before the Lord returns. God is absent from society and the church is apostate. The only hope open is the dramatic intervention of Christ to set things right. Political action, technological progress and the Social Gospel are doomed to inevitable failure. Why polish the brass on a sinking ship? Evangelism and reform are not identical. Salvation is entirely an individual affair; for example peace talks and disarmament between nations are superficial at best, at worst they are a ruse to bring in a World Ruler, who will use the abolishment of war as slogan to attain power. Peace will only be achieved when the Prince of Peace returns. With the logic of this position we might as well torpedo grain shipments to increase famine and hasten the onset of the Second Coming. Any measure of peace reflects the peace that is to come; “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4). This position on the face of it appears self-defeating since any attempt at success, even for their institutions, will be met with the stark reality of human depravity. We are all regressing. Hope, therefore, is only for the Millennial Age. The present is sucked dry of any relevance to the future kingdom. Premillennialism looks closely for the rise of Antichrist as a sign of the end and seven years of tribulation must precede salvation. The church will be raptured out of this world and the rest will be left to their devices.
Amillennialism maybe a compromise, but appears to be another variety of postmillennialism. It asserts the kingdom of God is now and yet to come on a refurbished earth. We work to see a limited establishment of it, but hope to see its fulfillment in the future after final judgment. It takes no great leap of logic to say we are already in the Millennium to saying we are bringing in the Millennium. Amillennialism spiritualizes the thousand years saying it represents the church’s victory over the present evil age. We need the optimism postmillennialism provides, or the tempered optimism at least of amillennialism, but also the criticism premillennialism offers of the world system. If premillennialism appears too negative then postmillennialism is naïve. Change happens in dialectic struggle between the two. Every time we vote we take a postmillennial stand, we hope for a better future, but every time we doubt a candidate’s promise we are acknowledging political realism and practicing premillennialism.
Historian Robert G. Clouse says prophetically that the prophetic categories in premillennialism, especially Christian Zionism, may well lead to self-fulfilling prophecy that will involve the United States in an intractable war in the Middle East; “the tendency to identify God’s cause with Zionism and the nation of Israel can lend support to policies which do not make for peace on earth. The United States could well be drawn into a war in the Middle East and many evangelicals might be responsible for the attitudes that can lead to that conflict.”[2]
In addition to pessimism premillennialists tend to be sectarian and counter culture in their approach. Clouse says again that, “Premillennialists often take an extremely separatist position with regard to culture. They tend to emphasize Bible schools and seminaries that train for ‘full time’ Christian service. A solid grounding in the liberal-arts and a thorough knowledge of the history of Christian thought are not popular among these groups as they would be among amillennialists and postmillennialists.”[3] To be fair the neodispensationalists or “progressive dispensationalism” as they are called are more open to interacting with different views in cultural, political issues, theology and social reform. But they still represent a minority in these circles.
Amillennialists adopt a view like postmillennialism that sees the return of Christ happing after the Millennium. They believe the thousand year reign of Christ is happening now between the first and second return of Christ. However, like premillennialists they emphasize the reality of the signs of the end times lacking in postmillennialism. They believe that good and evil will advanced together until the end before the return of Christ when these signs will intensify. I note these social consequences of theological belief because the positions we take on eschatological issues really do effect our belief on a practical level. In addition to exegesis we may criticize any particular view by the consequences it produces.
The one thousand year reign of Christ and the church on earth is a real theocratic kingdom where Christ sits on the Davidic throne judging the world in righteousness. The structure of the text naturally follows a linear succession in the transposition of the ages. First Christ comes back at the battle of Armageddon, silences His enemies then sets up the kingdom of God on earth followed by the Day of Judgment and recreation. But the symbol one thousand need not be taken in strict literal sense as if there were an expiration date on God’s reign on earth. One thousand represent ten multiplied by ten multiplied by ten or the cube of ten, a large but unspecified number. Bible scholar Stephan Hunter makes a pertinent comment on the meaning of the number one thousand in the bible; “The symbol of multi-completeness; a number that is great but indefinite . . . the thousand years of chapter twenty is a great period of time of unknown length, stretching out to untold generations.”[4] In scripture one thousand signifies the perpetual renewal of the Abrahamic covenant to future Israelites, “Remember his covenant forever . . . for a thousand generations” (1 Chronicles 16:15); “He is mindful of his covenant forever . . . for a thousand generations” (Psalm 105:8). God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10). Adam cannot answer God once in a thousand times (Job 9:3). God blesses the children of the obedient for a thousand generations (Exodus 20:6). Theologian George E. Ladd makes a similar observation. “Many millenarians will not insist that the earthly reign of Christ is to be exactly 1000 years duration. The 1000 years may well be a symbol for a long period of time, the exact extent of which is unknown.”[5] Scholar Milton Terry likewise recognizes the indefinite time length of the millennial epoch; “The foregoing vision (19:11-6) is a most sublime apocalypse of the conquering Messiah, who ‘must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet’ (1 Cor. 15:25). The struggle may consume a million years. The details and chronology of its age-long history no prophet has foretold.”[6] Thus the one thousand years symbolizes Christ’s earthly rule of a very long but definite duration not limited by a calendar that a stringent literalism suggests. Barclay is worth a lengthy quote,
More commonly it was held that the age of the world would correspond to the time taken for its creation. It was argued that the time of creation was 6,000 years. ‘A thousand in Thy sight are but as yesterday’ (Psalm 9:4). ‘One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’ (2 Peter 3:8). Each day of creation was said to be a thousand years. It was therefore held that the Messiah would come in the sixth thousand of the years; and the seventh thousand would be the equivalent of the Sabbath rest in the creation story and would be the reign of the Messiah. It is the calculation which gives the Messiah a reign of a 1,000 years on earth.[7]
Interestingly enough one thousand years is also the life cycle of a civilization according to Spengler’s Decline of the West, where he argued that Western or Modern Culture remains in the twilight of its years. This did not mean a slow tampering off, like a cool summer’s breeze, but more like a snowball gathering mass and momentum as in rolls downhill. The flame burns at its brightest right before flickering out. Western Civilization, according to the history guru, is currently in its supernova state where it shines farthest and brightest before it burns out. From small Vikings raids, through the Crusades and the Renaissance the West reached its greatest heights under nineteenth century colonialism, best represented by Great Britain, assuming the Latin identity as heir of the Rome Empire. The NATO States lead by the United States then assumed control of the seas after the war. Western exponential growth through colonialism, technology transfer and the United Nations may last several more centuries, which means technological growth would be extended throughout the twenty-first century; it will however, burnout eventually. Malthus proves right in the end. If that happens, it’s not clear yet what would emerge from the rubbish.
[1] Loraine Boettner, “Postmillennialism” in Robert G. Clouse, ed., The Meaning of the Millennium (Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 1977), 125.
[2] Robert G. Clouse, “Postscript” in Robert G. Clouse, ed., The Meaning of the Millennium (Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 1977), 211, 212.
[3] Ibid., 211.
[4] Stephan Alexander Hunter, A Bible School Manual Studies in the Book of Revelation (Scholar Select Reprint: n. p., n. d.), 250.
[5] George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), 147.
[6] Milton S. Terry, The Apocalypse of John: A Preterist Commentary on the Book of Revelation (Chesnee, SC: Victorious Hope Publishing House, 2021 [1898]), 233.
[7] Barclay, The Revelation of John, vol. 2, 241.