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Transcript 146B — The Millennial Reign
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. Where does the doctrine of the thousand-year millennium come from? People say that Christ is going to return and reign for a thousand years. Where is that found in the Bible?
HC: Where does the doctrine of a thousand year, a millennial reign of Christ come from? It comes only from one place in the whole Bible, and that's from the first eight verses of Revelation 20.
That particular doctrine is related by some to the first eight verses of Revelation 20. Nowhere else in the Bible does it speak of a thousand years, with Christ reigning. In II Peter 3 it does say that a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. But it has nothing, in that context, to do with Christ's reigning.
But in Revelation 20 it speaks of the fact that Satan will be bound for a thousand years. And then it also says that in this vision John saw the souls of those who had been beheaded. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. And it says that at the end of the thousand years Satan would be loosed. And he would deceive the nations again and martial the nations from the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, against the camp of the saints or the Beloved City. And then fire from Heaven would come down and destroy those nations. And then it goes on and talks about Judgment Day.
Incidentally, in this passage it says nothing at all about Christ reigning on earth. It says nothing at all here about Christ reigning in Jerusalem, in the land of Israel, along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The reference to reigning has to do with the souls of those who have been beheaded. That is, they are souls without bodies.
The Bible teaches that when someone dies, if he's a born again believer whether he's martyred or whether he just dies, in his soul he leaves his body and goes to be with Christ in Heaven. And therefore, if Revelation 20 is read very carefully, it's not talking about Christ reigning on this earth, in that context. But it's speaking about Him reigning in Heaven, that is, the souls of those who have been beheaded living and reigning with Christ.
Now actually, of course, the Bible teaches in Ephesians 1 and in Hebrews 1 that when Christ rose from the grave, He sat down at the right hand of God and is reigning over everything, not only in this age but in the age to come. He is King now. He's been King, by virtue of His redemptive work, ever since the resurrection in AD 33. And the Kingdom that He reigns over is a glorious Kingdom, the Kingdom of believers.