“Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4)
We love to sing hymns and songs about heaven, and to marvel in our hearts as to what eternity will be like when the New Jerusalem fully descends to earth.[1] We can only wonder, since we lack the ability to fully understand what is ahead. The Apostle Paul hints at this mystery when he alludes to the book of Isaiah when writing, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”[2] We know that in the eternal state all people will have an everlasting resurrected body, that there will be no more unbelievers living, and that death will cease. As John writes, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”[3]
By contrast, the Bible paints a detailed picture of the immediate future following the return of the Lord Jesus. In Revelation Chapter 20, the period of 1,000 years is mentioned six times. This repetition indicates that we are talking about a literal period of time. We find a wealth of detail about the nature of the Millennium in the Old Testament. Understanding the doctrine of the Millennium brings into sharp focus many passages of the Hebrew prophets, which may initially puzzle some of us. Isaiah wrote that all the nations will flow up to Jerusalem, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways.” Weapons of war will become redundant; they will yet be refashioned into farming implements...[4].
[1] Revelation 21:2
[2] 1 Corinthians 2:9; Isaiah 64:4
[3] Revelation 21:3-4
[4] Isaiah 2:2-4; Jeremiah 3:17
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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation. www.lockman.org