Many modern Christians believe that Christ will return one day, perhaps in our lifetime, and initiate a thousand years of peace, and this thousand years of peace is referred to as the millennium. Still other Christians would tell us that Jesus won’t return until after the millennium, and the thousand year period is figurative and represents the present Christian Age. Once this age is over, Jesus will return! Finally, a much smaller group of Christians believe the thousand year period is a much shorter block of time and has already occurred in the first century AD. Which point of view is correct, and can we know?
According to Revelation 20:2 the dragon, also called the serpent, Satan and the Devil, is bound for a thousand years, and the thousand years is referred to five more times in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse. What would it look like if the dragon (Satan, the Devil) were bound and couldn’t deceive the nations? One might assume that spreading the Gospel throughout the world would suddenly become easy, because folks would simply believe everything they were told about Jesus by his representatives. Is that what the binding of Satan would look like? I don’t think that analogy is accurate.
After Jesus had been casting out evil spirits (Matthew 12:22-23), the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem accused him of being possessed by a demon (Matthew 12:24) and casting out demons through the power or authority of Beelzebub (Satan). Notice what Jesus said about binding Satan:
And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the demons casts he out demons. And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. (Mark 3:22-27 KJV)
In other words, before the Gospel could be believed, Satan must have been bound! If the Gospel was to be believed by anyone, then Satan must either have been bound (Revelation 20:2), or he had already been judged (Revelation 20:10) and would have been taken completely out of the picture. In the context of Mark 3:27, Satan had to have been bound during the ministry of Jesus, because many believed the Gospel that Jesus preached (John 12:19). Moreover, notice that the house Jesus referred to was the house or the nation of the Jews. Nevertheless, we know Jesus was shortly crucified after the Pharisees claimed everyone was submitting to him (John 12:19). Therefore, simply because Satan was bound all the while Jesus preached doesn’t mean folks couldn’t be intimidated or deceived. It simply meant the power enforcing deception no longer existed, so folks could be convinced of the truth.
Therefore, if Satan had really been bound by the time Christ began preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the millennium must have already begun, even before the crucifixion. So, how long was he bound, and when was he released in the first century AD, if at all? In a previous study, I tried to make a case for the millennial period lasting about 60 years (6 AD to 66 AD), but with the time of decision lasting 40 years (26 AD to 66 AD) or a reasonable facsimile.[1] Moreover, in another study I showed how the millennial period could be metaphorical and last for a much shorter block of time than a literal one thousand years.[2] Metaphorically, then, the millennial period could be only 60 years, with a 40-year evaluation period that points to the period beginning a year before Jesus’ baptism (perhaps with the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry) and lasting until the beginning of the Jews’ war with Rome in 66 AD.
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[1] See my study: The Millennium, a Period of Evaluation.
[2] See my study: What Is the Millennium?
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2 responses to “How Long Is the Millennium?”
Greeting Eddie; One youtuber I follow (Matt Whitman) has a video where he talks about deconstruction and reconstruction of our faith. That is what I am going through; deconstructing faith and throwing our the dross; then reconstructing it back again. It is interesting how this changes things. Your blogs are a big part of that journey. Yet even in preterism there are extreme views that are troubling; such as the Gospel being to Israel only (!). They spend alot of effort to state that Paul’s missionary journeys were to the Diaspora, and that the Gentile terminology refers to that Diaspora. That takes away our hope.
None the less, We need to know what we believe and why we believe it, and be prepared to defend it as well. …and what we understand must be able to stand up to scrutiny or toss it!
God Bless and thank you.
Hi Dave, thanks for your comment and for your kind thoughts about my blog, but please remember that I’m a lot like you. I, too, am working through these things.
I don’t put a lot of stock in what other folks say about the Gospel unless it squares with Scripture. If it looks like it squares with Scripture, I still think about what that means and how it affects what I believe today. I’m through with merely taking things for granted that other folks know what they’re doing. It’s my experience that most folks, even scholars, are just like you and me. They’re working through things and sometimes they get it wrong. What’s funny is an uneducated clod like me can see through it.
Look, I trust that the Lord knows what we are going through here, and we have the grace to figure it out. If it doesn’t get done by the time we’re done, here, we’ve got all eternity to get it right. Who knows, maybe all this labor will be like we didn’t need to do it. Maybe all the correct knowledge is given to us all at once when we meet the Lord. Maybe we’ll just get a jump on things with an increasingly active and better equipped brain. Whatever the future holds, I think it’s a lot of fun just finding things out on my own. I read what other say, but at the end of the day, it is I who decides for me what I believe, and that’s the best advice I can offer you. The Lord loves us and he’ll help us through this, especially if it is important to him. The heart is what counts, if we really want to know him, he’ll let us find things out–whether on our own or with the help of others. And, that’s fine with me.
Lord bless you, my friend, and stay healthy.