The Millennium, a Golden Age on Earth—Or in Heaven?

IN RECENT years an increasing interest in the question of the millennium has been evident in the publication of a large number of books on this topic, as well as in the holding of many prophetic conferences dealing with this issue. Man's frustrated search for peace in this world, along with recurring political crises, have led many evangelical Christians to hope and long more than ever before for the future golden age of peace. In discussing the divine solution for world turmoil, the president of Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. J. F. Walvoord, portrays the return of Jesus and His thousand-year reign on earth as fulfilling the prophetic descriptions found in Isaiah 2:1-4 and Psalm 72.

He adds, "It is only in a millennial situation like this with all the other added features of the kingdom that the world can have peace. . . . There will be perfect political government, a perfect economic situation, and a perfect dissemination of spiritual truth with all the facts of the Bible at their disposal." ¹ Statements like this could be multiplied without difficulty as interpreters of Scripture make copious use of passages from the major and minor prophets to describe the literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.

Among Biblical students there are at least three different attitudes toward the millennium. Amillennialists, some times despairing of the divergent interpretations advanced by their premillennial counterparts, see the Old Testament kingdom prophecies fulfilled in the spiritual controversy of good and evil between the time of Christ and His second advent.

Only a few advocates of postmillennialism are left today defending the opinion that eventually the gospel will convert all the world.² According to this view the millennium describes the period in which the church will over come all religions, philosophies, and systems not committed to the gospel. In the light of the present state of the world the personal advent of Christ would still be far off.

Apocalyptic eschatology is predominant in premillennialism, which maintains that Christ's personal second coming will precede the millennium. The most widespread representatives of premillennialism are dispensationalists, who are to be found in many conservative evangelical churches. Though Seventh-day Adventists maintain Christ's personal second advent will be cataclysmic and will precede the millennial period, they see no scriptural support for the dispensational bifurcation of Christ's advent into "rapture" and "appearing." Rather, the two terms parousia and epiphaneia, used to designate rapture and appearing respectively, refer to the same event, that is, the second coming of Christ.

G. E. Ladd apparently agrees, for he states, "The vocabulary used of our Lord's return lends no support for the idea of two comings of Christ or of two aspects of His coming. On the contrary, it substantiates the view that the return of Christ will be a single, indivisible, glorious event." ³ O. T. Allis adds, "The usage of the New Testament and especially of Paul not merely fails to prove the distinction . . . but rather by its very ambiguity indicates clearly and unmistakably that no such distinction exists." ⁴

One of Most Prominent Themes

The second coming of Christ is one of the most prominent themes in the New Testament. Disciples and apostles testified to it, angels spoke of it, and Jesus Himself reiterated it in His apocalyptic, parabolic, and general didactic dis courses.

Paul, in what is possibly the earliest New Testament document, comforted the believers saddened by the death of their loved ones, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven. . . . And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). ⁵ The apostle's words of hope were an elaboration of Jesus' last conversation with His disciples before the crucifixion, when our Lord spoke of His return to take His loved ones home in terms reminiscent of an oriental wedding. Jesus assured His hearers, " In my Father's house are many rooms.  . . And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am there you may be also'" (John 14:2, 3).

Leon Morris, commenting on verse 2, writes, "'My Father's house' clearly refers to heaven." ⁶ Hence, we may infer from the words of Jesus that He intends to take His people to heaven so that they would be with Him in the place prepared for them (cf. 1 Peter 1:4). He clearly did not say, "I am coming back to earth to be with you so that where you are I may be also."

The believers' ascent to heaven at the second coming of Christ is further corroborated in the passage that introduces our Lord's promise "to return to bring his disciples to the heavenly dwelling-places which he is about to prepare." ⁷ Looking upon His disciples, Jesus spoke of His soon departure: "'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, "Where I am going you cannot come'"" (John 13:33). The announcement of His departure to the Jews is recorded in John 7:33, 34. There we read, "'I shall be with you a little longer, and then I go to him who sent me; you will seek me and you will not find me; where I am you cannot come.'" In Johannine theology the two thoughts of death and exaltation are closely combined. Therefore, when Jesus said that He was "going away" He did not merely speak of His death but also of His exaltation to the side of the Father. The words "going away" were "intended to cover both the departure of Jesus in death and His ascent to the glory of the Father." ⁸

In light of the above, Peter's question, "'Lord, where are you going?'" and Jesus' reply, "'Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward'" (chap. 13:36), become rather significant. Peter would follow afterward, not only in death but also in ascent to heaven when Jesus returned the second time to take His own to Himself and His Father's house. C. K. Barrett observes correctly, "Peter is not at present ready, in spite of his confident assertion, to give his life for Christ, though eventually he will do so (21:18ff.). Neither can he at present enter into the presence of God in heaven, yet this also will eventually be granted him (cf. 14:3)." 9 It becomes clear, then, that at the Second Advent believers will follow their Lord back to the heavenly places prepared for them. It is in heaven that believers assume the privileges of the "royal priesthood," reigning with Christ throughout the millennial age.

Wicked Destroyed at Second Coming

Jesus taught consistently that the day that "the Son of man is revealed" would finally seal the destinies of men. He compared the last days with those of Noah and Lot. Owing to their indifference and unpreparedness, calamity overtook the antediluvians and Sodomites suddenly and unexpectedly, utterly destroying them. Only the few who had completely identified themselves with God survived the judgments. The tragic conclusion reads: '"And the flood came and destroyed them all. . . . On the day when Lot went out from Sodom fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all'" (Luke 17:27-29). Then Jesus added the ominous words " 'So will it be on the day when the Son of man is revealed'" (Luke 17:30). N. Geldenhuys, commenting on God's judgments on Sodom, concludes, "Just so assuredly will the judgments of God visit impenitent mankind at the second coming." ¹⁰

The truth that impenitent mankind will be destroyed at the Second Coming is repeated in the Epistles (though in most cases the second and third comings are blended) and the Apocalypse. ¹¹ Revelation 19:11ff., which introduces the millennium, is "one of the most detailed and vivid presentations of the return of Christ to be found in the New Testament." ¹² In this apocalyptic account the Second Coming is depicted as a first-century battle between the army of the King of kings and the host of those who have resented God in face of the clearest display of divine love. The revelator passes quickly from the battle to the destruction of the evil agencies, called the "beast," "false prophet," and of their supporters, at the Second Coming. The "lake of fire" and the "sated birds" are first-century images signifying the utter discomfiture of the wicked.

The Sole Biblical Description

We would do well to remember that Revelation, chapter 20 (with the introduction commencing in Revelation 19:11), claims to be the sole Biblical description of the millennium. For this reason, any information on events during the millennial period must be derived primarily from this passage. With believers raised to the heavenly dwelling places prepared by the Lord, and the finally impenitent slain at the Second Coming, the millennial period begins with a depopulated earth. This makes the millennium, as a golden age on earth, in which Christ and His people rule over the impenitent, clearly impossible.

The apocalyptist now focuses on the prime mover behind all the evil forces. That antagonist is none other than the devil, also called "that serpent of old," for in Jewish thought the serpent of Genesis 3 had come to be connected with the "evil one." Satan is said to be bound and cast into a sealed pit in order "that he should deceive the nations no more." The binding, in fact, is caused by his inability to seduce anyone on the depopulated earth (Rev. 20:3-8). This curtailing of Satan's activity ends toward the close of the "thousand years," when the "rest of the dead," that is, the wicked slain at the beginning of the millennium, are resuscitated (chap. 19:17ff., 20:5, 7, 8). The devil resumes his activities of deception and rebellion as he gathers the raised nations and incites them for the final battle.

In the last great attack the forces of evil surround the "camp of the saints and the beloved city," whose descent from heaven is depicted in the following chapter. Here, as so often in apocalyptic literature, the revelator rushed ahead to his climax only to come back to give a more detailed description of the actual descent of the Holy City out of heaven (chap. 21:9ff.).

John moves on immediately to the complete annihilation of the hosts of evil, including Satan, by fire descending from heaven (chap. 20:9, 10). With the elimination of Satan and the wicked, who demonstrate their final impenitence by a renewed attack against the "camp of the saints," the stage is now set for a "new heaven and a new earth." The great crescendo of the book of Revelation comes in a series of excurses comprising chapters 21 and 22. In these final chapters the apocalyptist portrays the climax of his book and of all Scripture with glimpses of conditions on a renewed and cleansed earth. Neither sin nor death will ever again mar the perfect unity, serene harmony, and intimate fellowship that will exist between God and His redeemed.