What Is the MILLENNIUM?

The so-called “millennium” is about the “thousand years” mentioned only in Revelation 20. Premillennialists think that there will be a literal thousand-year period in which Christ has returned in his original earthly body (“a five-foot-five Jewish man”) to rule the world from a literal throne in a literal rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. Because of Christ’s iron-rod rule, the millennium will be a time of utopia on earth.

Among numerous errors of this view is that it makes the same mistake that the first-century Jews made―an expectation of a political kingdom of Messiah. But Jesus told us that his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). His kingdom is spiritual.

The text of Revelation 20 never says that Christ would return to earth to rule in a political kingdom. It only says that the saints would reign with Him a thousand years. And the premillennial view over-literalizes apocalyptic language. Like much of Revelation, it was not meant to be understood literally.

A better view is that the millennial period was a metaphoric period of time between the cross and final dissolution of the Old Covenant order. The purpose of the millennium was to give the Jews time to accept Christ before God’s judgment on them in AD 70 (Matthew 21:33-45; 22:1-14; 23:29-39; Luke 21:5-33; John 5:22).

Numbers in the Bible are often symbolic, especially in apocalyptic texts. The number seven in the Bible is symbolic for completeness. Even numbers (as opposed to odd numbers) have their own symbolism. The number ten in the Bible is symbolic for manyness. The thousand years is a symbolic term for many years. However, the Greek word translated “thousand” in Revelation is chilioi (Strong’s 5507). According to the online Blue Letter Bible, the primary meaning of chilioi is “plural of uncertain affinity.” So, there is room for interpretation depending on the context. If a literal 1,000 years was in view, John would have used the word chilias (Strong’s 5505).

As put by Steve Gregg, “The number ‘a thousand’ is frequently used in Scripture without the intention of conveying statistical information. It is given as the number of generations to which God keeps His covenants (Deuteronomy 7:9), the number of hills upon which God owns the cattle (Psalm 50:10), the number of enemy troops that one Israelite shall chase (Joshua 23:10), the number of those who shall fall ‘at your side’ as opposed to the ten thousand who will fall at ‘your right hand’ (Psalm 91:7), etc. Furthermore, the expression ‘a thousand years’ is never used elsewhere in Scripture for an actual number of years, but only to suggest the idea of a very long time (cf. Psalm 90:4; Ecclesiastes 6:6; 2 Peter 3:8).”

The usage of a thousand years is not necessarily a long period of time, as it can also be understood symbolically in context to mean “completeness” or “fullness” (Psalm 50:10-12). According to Anthony A. Hoekema, “The number ‘thousand’ which is used here must not be interpreted in a literal [straight forward] sense. Since the number ten signifies completeness, and since a thousand is ten to the third power, we may think of the expression ‘a thousand years’ as standing for a complete period. . . . of indeterminate length. . . . We may conclude that this thousand-year period extends from Christ’s first coming to just before his Second Coming.”

I am persuaded that the millennium was a figurative period of time between the cross and Parousia. It was about 40 years culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, when Jesus “came” in judgment against Old Covenant Israel. This is a remarkable parallel to the 40-year period of the Exodus, before the Hebrews entered the LITERAL promised land after leaving Egypt. In the first century, there was a 40-year period of trials and tribulation until entering the SPIRITUAL promise land — the New Heavens and New Earth — when Old Covenant Judaism came to a final end in AD 70. So, the millennium was a second exodus.

There is more evidence that the millennium came to a close in AD 70:

1. The wedding of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7; 21:9) was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 per Matthew 22:1-14.

2. The Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15) was fulfilled at the end of the thousand years (Revelation 20:1-6) at the defeat of Babylon―who is clearly identified as Jerusalem (Revelation 11:8)―thus at Jerusalem’s fall in AD 70.

3. The New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21:1-8; Isaiah 65-66) came after the millennium. The New Heaven and New Earth is the New Covenant order, which came to its fullest expression when the Old Covenant order was ushered out in AD 70 (Hebrews 8:13). See articles about this elsewhere in the Revelation section of this website.

4. Revelation is about things that “must shortly take place” (Revelation 1:1; 22:6) for the “time was near” (Revelation 1:3; 22:10).

5. According to research done by Edward E. Stevens, some Jewish rabbis thought that what corresponds to the Christian millennium would be 40 years in duration. (Available from Mr. Stevens at preterist1@preterist.org.)

6. Of the two dozen mentions of the Second Coming in the New Testament, all but one (Acts 1:9-11) either specifically or by implication would be while some living in the first century were still alive. Example: “Some standing here will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:27-28; etc.).

We do not wait for a millennial kingdom of Christ. Christ’s kingdom was delivered to believers in the first century (Colossians 1:13). There is no need for Jesus to physically be on earth to reign. Jesus is reigning now, his reign has no end, and does not begin or end with a literal future millennium (2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 17:11-12; Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:26; Daniel 2:44; 4:3, 34, 7:14, 18, 27; Luke 1:31-33; Ephesians 1:21; 2:7; 3:21; Colossians 1:13-20; Hebrews 1:1-12; 5:6; 6:20; 7:16-28; Revelation 1:5; 11:15). The New Covenant is eternal (Hebrews 13:20) and does not begin or end with a literal future millennium. The gospel is eternal (Revelation 5:13; 14:6) and does not begin or end with a literal future millennium.

To dig deeper into the millennium, see my article Making Sense of Revelation 20.