Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word

Menu
Contact Us

The Correct Order of Events In The Millennial Rule

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Hi C____,

It seems that you are truly seeking to simply know what the scriptures teach on this subject. You even see that the book of Revelation is not a book about eschatology as much as it is a book of which we must “keep the sayings.” But at the same time you tell me:

Now, to your credit you do have question marks after these statements. So I am going to proceed with the assumption that you truly are seeking the mind of God and not seeking to establish an ‘idol of your heart.’ The answer to your statement/ question is; no, Satan is not cast into the lake of fire at the beginning of the millennium, even though he is bound during that time. Nowhere is it stated otherwise. If indeed it were so stated ‘at the beginning of the thousand years, Satan is cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are…’ then we would be forced to agree with your premise. However we do have a statement to the contrary:

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. [ Not over resurrected spirits but over the descendants of the few who have survived the cataclysm surrounding Christ’s return to receive to Himself the manifested sons of God who will reign with Him as stated in this verse. Now here is the statement which defies your theory:]
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. [ As you said yourself, if he had been in the lake of fire during this time, he would be in no mood to be in rebellion. he was not in the lake of fire during the thousand year reign]
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone [ when the thousand years are expired] , where the beast and the false prophet are [ having just been resurrected at the white throne judgment, the resurrection of the unjust], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [ the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Verses ten, eleven and twelve exist concurrently. Now, here is the verse which has you troubled:

Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

I understand clearly that the placement of this verse being right after the chapter on the judgment of the great harlot, leads one to believe that the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire at the beginning of the millennium. But it does not say that. One is forced to read that into what it said. It simply states:

Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

The timing for this event is given in the next chapter:

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

When does this take place? “When the thousand years are expired.” And then is when:

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone [ when the thousand years are expired] , where the beast and the false prophet are [ having just been resurrected at the white throne judgment, the resurrection of the unjust], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [ the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

These three verses are all ” when the thousand years are expired,” not at the beginning of the millennium. Eschatology is not the focus of the book of Revelation. The focus, as pointed out in 1:3 and reiterated in 22:6-7, is to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” But when we are specifically told “when” any given event follows another then we must be willing to agree with God’s word. When is “all Israel saved?” the answer is, “when the fulness of the Gentiles comes in.” When will the fullness of the Gentile be come in?

Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

And Sodom is not resurrected until the white throne judgment, because Sodom is just as much the “beast” as is any descendant of Adam:

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. [ the beast]

I hope this is of some help. I am cutting and pasting another exchange for your consideration:

Hi B____,

Thank you for your question. I cannot imagine what you are speaking of. The millennium is a time when God’s elect will rule this entire earth outwardly. They will not be ruling inwardly in the way Christ is now ruling in His elect. The fact that Satan is placed in prison just to be released upon an unsuspecting mankind is for the purpose of bringing all flesh to an end. As long as “marred” (Jer 18:4 and Psa 51:5) human babies are being born, flesh and blood will continue to produce death. And yet we are told that death will be destroyed:

1Co 15:25 For he must reign [ during the millennium and during the great white throne judgment], till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Now, since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

… and since death is destroyed, it is clear that all flesh must be destroyed first. That is the purpose for putting Satan in prison and ruling the flesh outwardly for the period of the millennium. Satan’s release and mankind’s willingness to throw off the ‘rod of iron’ and follow the Adversary will be the “occasion God is seeking against” in this case, all flesh. “Fire will come down from heaven and destroy them.”

Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about [ God’s ruling elect], and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them [ all flesh].

It is “through death” that life is given to each of us. It is “through death” that life is give to all men, and it is “through death” that death is destroyed.

Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

I hope this helps you to see what the scriptures teach about the purpose for the coming millennium.

Mike

Hi B____,

Thanks for going to the trouble to quote me. At least now I can see where you are coming from. You have overlooked the fact that this entire lecture is about the lake of fire as it is revealed to us in the book of Genesis. I was speaking in the time context of the millennium as being in past tense as if we were standing ‘in time’ during the white throne judgment. In the story of Joseph and his brothers, Joseph typifies Jesus Christ being given the rulership over the entire world. Egypt in scripture typifies all flesh. Joseph’s brothers typify the entire religious world, especially Judaism and Christianity who both claim to possess a special relationship with God. In spiritual reality, both are in rebellion against the very God they claim to worship. The truth is that all men are in covenant relationship with God by virtue of the Noahian covenant which preceded the Abrahamic covenant by hundreds of years:

Gen 9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

So when the whole world is standing before God at the great white throne, then it certainly is true that “the millennium is already past.”

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [ the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them [ this will be the time when Sodom and Samaritan will be resurrected to be judged. It will be “more tolerable for Sodom” than for the cities of Judah where Christ preached]: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So when will physical Israel, “my kinsmen according to the flesh” as Paul described them, be resurrected and judged? Will it be at the beginning of the millennium as all of “historical orthodox Christianity” teaches? Will physical Israel be ruling the nations of this earth during the millennium? Will Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones, be fulfilled at the end of this age and before the beginning of the millennium? What saith the scriptures? Here is what the scripture tells us. It is not what ‘thus saith “historical orthodox Christianity:”‘

Eze 16:55 When thy [ Judah and Israel] sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then [ and not until “then”] thou [ Israel- the valley of dry bones] and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

Paul states it clearly:

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [ through the white throne judgment].
Rom 11:26 (a) And so [ then] all Israel shall be saved:

I hope this makes clear as to when it is true that “the millennium is already past”. The millennium is already past ” when the thousand years are expired” and the white throne judgment is in progress.

Mike

Other related posts