Lesson 43: The Millennial Kingdom

Revelation 20:1-6
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Jesus is coming to earth to reign over it as King – God’s way of ruling a one-world government and one-world worship of Himself alone. There are many descriptions of this time, including Isaiah 11, Zechariah 8 and 14, and Daniel 7. We are often told this will be a utopia, a perfect world.

But the verses above tell us a different story. While everything will seem to be perfect, Satan is imprisoned and can no longer tempt us, the earth is returned to the same condition it had when it was first created (the Garden of Eden), animals will no longer be afraid of us or each other and there will be peace between them, people will live long lives of many hundreds of years, crops and herds will be more productive than we have ever seen them before – but it is not utopia!


In human history there have been basically seven (the Biblical number of completion) reasons given for how we as humankind can become like God (they all fail):
1. Innocence – Adam and Eve chose to disobey
2. Conscience – humankind chose to try Satan’s way of perfecting ourselves by blending DNA with demons
3. Government – humankind chose to become like God by consolidating all earth’s information and talent
4. Promise – even though God promised all His blessings to one man/one nation, they still chose to serve other gods
5. Law – though God gave the Law to His people, they could not follow it and chose to serve other gods instead
6. Grace – though Jesus died for humanity’s sins, and offered forgiveness to all, humankind chooses to seek godhood in our own efforts
7. Millennium – though Jesus comes to rule in a restored earth where problems have been removed, humankind will decide to shake off God’s rule so they can rule themselves

God has given Satan and humanity every opportunity to prove their own case for how they think they can become like God. Every attempt will be proven to be wrong. Only God can be God. Every other argument will be proven to be false and every mouth will be closed (Philippians 2:11). The problem for people is that if this confession is made after the death of the body, it cannot lead to salvation, only judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

*Are you still trying to get to Heaven on your own? Only trusting in Jesus can get you there.