Think Wink.

The conclusion I draw from this study is that the millennial kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. It began at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and it continues to be built as we speak through the calling of God’s elect. Now, here’s where the debate takes another turn, at least for me as an antichiliast (chiliast comes from the Greek for 1000), or someone who does not believe in a literal millennium. To what extent will this kingdom reach? Will it be a kingdom relatively equal to that of Satan’s kingdom, growing concurrently with each other. Or is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ overtaking the kingdom of Satan? This is where I want to turn the discussion in this series.

First, I want to turn to Matthew 28:18-20 to start. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Notice in v. 18 what Jesus is saying. All authority has been given to him. That word for authority is exousia which means right to rule and reign, to make all decisions, to have principle say in matters and to make the final decisions.

Jesus is setting himself as the supreme in all of the universe. There is no place that does not escape his authority over it. He rules over heaven. He reigns over the earth. Nothing occurs without his approval of it. He is in full charge of this age. And with that authority Jesus gives the command to go and to “make disciples.” We are to make disciples of Christ through his authority. By his sovereign power, he has given us a mission, he has commissioned us to one end: evangelism, converting the world to Christ. Under that authority, we are to witness to the world the message of Christ. With the supreme authority that Christ claims in this text, will we not succeed?

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” To the end of this age Jesus is with us in making the nations his disciples. That authority is guaranteed to be with us in that endeavor for all of this age. Jesus has personally pledged his power in this endeavor. Therefore I ask again, will we not succeed? With his power we will. There is no power on this planet and this universe that can thwart him. He is the king and he cannot be defeated. Therefore, the Great Commission will succeed. The nations will be made to be his disciples, observing his commands. Jesus has pledged that through us this will occur.

Turn back to an earlier text in Matthew’s gospel, Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Now let me first disappoint the Roman Catholic Church here. The name Peter is masculine. But when Christ says, “and on this rock I will build my church,” he is speaking of the same Greek word, only in the feminine. So the “rock” and Peter are not the same Greek words. Thus it is not upon Peter that the church will be built, but on something else. Thus this text isn’t proclaiming Peter as the first pope, though I am not making any kind of statement supporting Peter as the first pope or against it.

So what “rock” is Jesus speaking of? What else but what was stated earlier by Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). On this rock of truth, on Christ’s relationship to God and therefore on the truth of who he is, is what he is building his church upon. Indeed, historic Christianity has affirmed Christ as the second person in the triune God-head. So upon the truth that Christ is God revealed in the flesh, tasting death for his people is the kingdom built.

Now notice in Matthew 16:18 that Jesus speaks of a gate opposing the church. What is a gate? It is a defensive structure to keep opposing armies out of the city but at the same time to allow allies of the city to enter and exit. A gate is an immovable object, one that cannot advance upon an enemy. One must advance upon the gate to do battle with it. Therefore the idea of the conflict in this verse is one of the church advancing upon the gates of hell, not the gates of hell advancing upon it. Therefore, on the truth of Jesus supreme authority as God, we advance upon the kingdom of Satan and attack it. Jesus promises on his divine authority that we shall not be defeated. In fact, we will succeed in our advances against the gate and Satan’s kingdom.

Paul writes in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” In this verse we have two conflicting kingdoms. There is the government/domain of darkness and the kingdom of light. God is rescuing us from the darkness and placing us in the light. It seems that Paul is arguing that we were in the darkness and moved into the light. As the kingdom of the light grows, the domain of darkness shrinks. Therefore, we must conclude that this is not a concurrent kingdom, but an opposing kingdom. The amillennialist view does not hold up to key New Covenant texts. The strongman is bound, we have been given a mandate under the guarantee of supreme authority of King Jesus to advance on Satan’s kingdom and to pillage it.

However, the postmillennial view has its own problems. Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” The Greek word there for few is oligoi, which literally means few small or little. It is a small quantity. This is a problem for postmillennialists who hold that the whole world will live under the rule of the gospel in a golden age of righteousness. Compared to all history, past and present, “few” will find the gate.

John does see a great multitude in Revelation 7 that seems to indicate that in heaven, a great multitude will be there from every tribe, tongue and nation. The number he uses is first 144,000 and then a great multitude. John cannot number the people in heaven so he uses a number to designate them in his text. But I believe that what John sees is the people in heaven in a great multitude.

Also note Revelation 20:7-10, “7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Notice here that when Satan is loosed from his pit, his deception ensnares a number that “is like the sand on the sea…and surrounded the camp of the saints.” This points that when the millennial period is over, many will be deceived by Satan’s lies. So while the whole earth is ruled by the gospel and sin is curtailed (but not eliminated), Satan will be able to wrest those who are not the elect from the gospel rule and rebel and attack God’s elect. But God will destroy them in a blazing rage of fire. So while the whole world is ruled by the gospel, there is a great multitude in the millennial kingdom, it is still few who find that gate and path to eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Zechariah 9:10 gives this prophecy, “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he [the coming King] shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” To the ends of the earth shall the kingdom be established. God’s people will fill the earth. This cannot mean that there are only a small amount of people that God will call.

Many scholars have identified Isaiah 2 as a prophecy of the idealized, Messianic age. Isaiah 2:2-3 says, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

It seems clear that Isaiah was looking forward to a time still future. It is a time that only Messiah could bring. However, this is not a limited time period. So it should not be immediately identified with a thousand-year kingdom called the millennium. Isaiah saw that all of the nations and many peoples will come to worship God, not just a few. The term “nations” is a term that refers to Gentiles, but can also include Israel. The bulk of the planet is Gentiles! “People” carries with it the idea of kinsmen and thus refers not just to Jews or Gentiles, but to both. Therefore it seems that the whole world is in view here by Isaiah. God is God over all the earth over all of the people. Just how can we believe that God won’t save countless numbers of souls and bring about a time on this place when the world will worship Christ and believe the gospel?

Another text that presents a problem for the postmillennial view is that of 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” The Greek word here is tis which means “a certain one, someone.” It refers to an indeterminate amount in a small portion. Paul couldn’t say how many but he would say not all. To this objection I would say the following. First, how large is “some”? Is that total a small total or is it a large total? Secondly, and more importantly, if Paul only won some to Christ, and every other Christian won “some” to Christ, eventually most would be won. While Paul isn’t going to win the whole world, there is in mind trickle-down theory in play. Eventually by those saved winning some, many will be reached.

Therefore I conclude that the millennium the Bible speaks of is a postmillennial kingdom. It is Christ reigning over the earth through the gospel. It is the world submitting to Christ through his gospel so that for a period of time, the world is obedient to Christ in a golden age. As I have honestly shown, there is some problem texts for this school. But all schools of the millennium have their problems. It is based upon the preceding exegesis that I base my conclusions. I have trusted that God has guided them to a correct understanding of the Scriptures.

Related posts:

My Millennial Views Pt. 1

The Lord Is Moving

Augustine