Present Realities and Thousand Years
The fact of the matter is: there must a reconciliation between one’s understanding of the thousand years and present realities. What do I mean by that? There are two concepts in the Bible that relate to eschatology.
The first is that there are experiences that the Bible mentions take place during the millennium. Secondly, the Bible presents in one chapter in all of Scripture that the millennium is a thousand years.
Thirdly, those experiences that happen during the millennium also happen during the first century. The Bible uses present tense language to talk about the experiences of the millennium.
What is the Solution for this Dilemma?
The solution for the present experiences during the thousand years is simple. If the millennial experiences are also present experiences then the millennium is also a present experience.
This doesn’t automatically mean that the millennium is spiritual. However, it does heavily demand the present nature of the millennium. It also highly suggests that the chiliast’s understanding of the millennium is flawed. The chiliast believes the millennial experiences are earthly, centered in Palestine, and focused on an earthly reign of Jesus.
Therefore, if the experiences are in fact present then the above understandings are flawed.
So What are Examples of these Present Experiences?
I’ve mentioned several present experiences in Revelation 20 already here. The context of Revelation 20 shows experiences like being a kingdom of priests, safe from the second death, and reigning with Christ as present realities. Concepts that Revelation 20 says happen in the Millennium.
There is another, very important concept that relates to the Millennium that the Bible explicitly says is a present reality. Revelation 12:7 states that Michael rises up, war breaks out in heaven, and Satan and his demons are thrown out.
This is important, as Luke 10:17-20 teaches that this very thing happened during the ministry of the seventy-two. Notice specific key elements of the two accounts:
1). Revelation says that Satan is thrown out of Heaven and to the earth. Luke says that Satan fell from Heaven like lightning.
2). Revelation 12:10 indicates that the authority of Jesus came. Luke 10:19 teaches that Jesus gave authority to the seventy-two and Luke 10:17 proves the seventy-two used that authority successfully.
3). The seventy-two are sent out because of the kingdom of God is near (Luke 10:9, 11), Revelation 12 teaches that it has come.
If we expand our survey of the present realities to John 12:31 we see the same language.
4). John 12:31 indicates that the ruler of the world is cast out. And the casting of the ruler of the world happens in the lifting up of the Son of Man. Revelation 12 teaches that the blood of the lamb is the power by which God’s people defeat Satan.
The similarities are too striking to ignore. I’m well aware that there are differences in terminology in Revelation and in the Gospels. This doesn’t prove that the accounts refer to different concepts. In fact, the different terminologies strengthen what I’m saying.
The Benefit of Different Terms
The fact that accounts of present realities would use different terms is a strength to my position. It is also a strength to the differences as we have two different authors.
These authors share the same doctrine relating to the fall of Satan and yet are capable of using different terms to express the same event. And can provide additional information and different perspectives on what happened.
We would expect that John would have more information in both his Gospel and the Revelation. Simply because he was granted a far more full picture than Luke was. And this is exactly what we see in the above accounts.
Present Realities Prove a Present Millennium
The Millennium starts with the defeat and binding of Satan. Actually, that’s a huge point for Revelation 20. Therefore, when we see Satan taken down in highly similar terminology in the Gospels saying that it actually happened during the first century and that this event triggers the Millennium then we are forced to conclude that the Millennium has already started.
As this is the case, the only logical conclusions regarding the nature of the Millennium is that either it is over or that it is still going in a realized, spiritual sense. As the end of the Millennium results in the resurrection of the dead and the creation of the New Heavens and the New Earth, it’s safe to conclude that the Millennium is not over yet.
Therefore, Amillennialism holds the only consistent, Biblical representation of what the Bible teaches.