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The Millennium Unpacked
A 5-part series on the Millennial reign of Christ by Geoff Barnard
Ed foreword:
THE MILLENNIUM is only mentioned in one chapter of one book of the Bible (Revelation ch. 20). Yet it is not only a vitally important subject if the believer is to correctly understand what lies ahead for the body of Christ, but one which attracts a number of different interpretations across what we call the church.
Each individual needs to come to their own view but the following series is predicated on the belief that the Millennium is a future period of 1000 years which will commence immediately after the return to earth of Jesus Christ.
One book entitled 'The Coming Saviour and the World's Crisis' contains a chapter dedicated to the subject.
What follows is the first in a series of five teachings on the Millennium: a period which – inter alia – is much described in Ezekiel chs. 40 - 48.
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The Millennium (Part 1)
Introduction
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Bible passages for Part 1:
Israel and the Gentiles (Eph. 3:4-6); One Flock, One Shepherd (John 10:16); One New Man (Eph. 2:15-16); One Olive Tree with Two Types of Branches (Rom. 11:17-18); One Root - Jesus (Rom. 11:16, Rev. 22:16, Rom. 15:12, Is. 11:10-12).
Click here to download notes for Part 1.
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The Millennium (Part 2)
Ezekiel's Temple
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Click here to download notes for Part 2.
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The Millennium (Part 3)
In His Presence
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Click here to download notes for Part 3.
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The Millennium (Part 4)
Provision and Practice
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Click here to download notes for Part 4.
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The Millennium (Part 5)
A World in Transition
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Footnotes:
1. The subsequent parts of this series will (d.v.) be presented on a weekly basis (11.00am on 9,16,23,20 May 2025). Links are available to registered members of the ChristiansTogether website via the Calendar and the Notice Board.
2. Non-members who wish to attend the live sessions should be in touch with the Editor.
3. Site members can log in to access the section below for responses/questions/etc. relating to this series.
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Geoff Barnard, 05/05/2025
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Graham Wood |
12/05/2025 08:32 |
I believe that the 'Millennium' topic remains, as it always was, a distraction from far more important NT truths.
It happens that the binding and subjugation of Satan and his evil powers are recurrent NT subjects constituting one of the most important aspects of Jesus' earthly work.
The binding of Satan for a 1000 years is mentioned only once in the Bible, yet the whole structure & theology of millennialism depends on one possible interpretation of this isolated passage. I would ask therefore which has the priority - Jesus' ministry of "binding" in Matt. 12:29 and the reference to Satan's fall in John 12.31 or the single reference in Rev.20?
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Liz Carr |
16/05/2025 10:31 |
Thank you, Geoff, for unpacking what I find is a very interesting subject. You are answering a number of questions I have had, especially regarding the role of Ezekiel's temple in the millenium. As I believe we are in the foothills of the millenium (See Hosea 6 vs 1-3 regarding Israel's restoration on the 3rd day), and Jesus's return to rule the nations with a rod of iron, there are still many questions to be answered, which I am sure you will be addressing in this series of talks.
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Graham Wood |
18/05/2025 10:34 |
Hi Liz. As other non millennialists have suggested, the key to the book of revelation is "hanging on the door"! That is, the Apostle John in his introduction to the book makes very clear at the outset that its content would be fulfilled within a very short time of his writing, and not in some future period called a millennium.
That is why uses words which are unambiguously clear, such as the events he will describe as being "shortly come to pass" (Rev:1:1) & (22:6,7). The term is also used in 2:16; 3:11; and 12:20.
Likewise he uses the word "near". Rev 1:3. 22:10. The term literally means in our parlance "at hand".
This agrees with the words of Jesus himself in Matt.23:34 "Assuredly I say unto you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place cf. Matt 23:26.
So also in the many other "at hand" references (1:4, 11; and 2:1,8,12, 18 and 3:1,7,14, and 22:16.
John was telling the seven historical churches in his era to expect the events of his prophecy at any moment.
Then this being clear, any future millennium cannot be in prospect, and it is significant that the concept does not appear anywhere in Scripture apart from Revelation 20.
Jesus is outside of time because he is the Alpha & Omega, the First and the Last.
So John did not write his Revelation as advance history of the 21st or any other centuries, and it is not a forecast of specific events. But rather he wrote to comfort Christians in his own time.
As commentator Adrio Konig points out: "Revelation 20 could have offered no consolation whatever to those original readers if the thousand years were meant either literally or symbolically.
How could it have helped the confused and persecuted congregations of ancient Asia Minor to learn that Satan would be bound at some remote, future time?"
So, as R.C. Sproul points out - if the book of Revelation was written before AD70 (the complete destruction of the Temple by Imperial Roman armies, of Jerusalem itself and indeed the nation as a theocracy) then "sweeping revisions must be made in our understanding of this book's content and focus".
But, as already said, Jesus "bound" Satan in Matt.12:29 as the "stronger man armed" !
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Editor |
21/05/2025 19:25 |
As per the Foreward to this series: "Each individual needs to come to their own view but the following series is predicated on the belief that the Millennium is a future period of 1000 years which will commence immediately after the return to earth of Jesus Christ."
It is not the purpose of this series to debate the differing views rather it is offered to those who hold to the pre-millennial position.
For the differing views see - https://www.christianstogether.net/Publisher/file.aspx?id=343947
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Geoff Barnard |
22/05/2025 05:55 |
I am so happy that we are having this discussion. If you give a talk (even a series) on a little discussed subject, you have to expect that there will be very different responses to the material. I appreciate Graham’s comments and he represents a strongly held view that the book of Revelation was fulfilled within the generation that included the first disciples and the emerging church in the first century AD. This eschatological position is technically called Preterism. If you want to know more about this, I recommend the books of Kenneth Gentry. For example, in his book “Navigating the Book of Revelation”, he gives a general introduction to Preterism. It is very interesting to note that the first chapter is entitled “A.D.70 and Redemptive History”. Paradoxically, I do have some sympathy with this approach. For example, I am convinced that the temple described in Revelation chapter 11 was, indeed, Herod’s Temple and the 42 months of “trampling” was fulfilled in the first Jewish Roman war that included the destruction of the Temple in AD70. Another example would be the number 666 (or in some manuscripts 616). Without doubt, this refers to the Emperor Nero, first and foremost. I say this because I also believe in repeating prophetic motifs. Nero was an archetype of the Antichrist but there were many others, including Adolf Hitler. But rigid Preterism of the Gentry kind has a problem. Did Jesus return in AD70? We can argue these points but my main argument would be the 2nd Century AD, which tends to be ignored by both preterists and pre-millennialists. The Temple may have been destroyed in AD70 but the Messianic community remained in Jerusalem into the 2nd Century. The promotion of Bar Kochba as Messiah by Rabbi Akiva was perhaps the final wedge that separated Messianic Judaism from Pharisaic. The coming of the Emperor Hadrian and the final Roman Jewish War led to the total destruction of Jerusalem with the creation of Aelia Capitolina. Jewish people were forbidden entry to this Roman City except on Tisha B’Av. It is possible that Hadrian also built a Temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount, a classic example of the abomination of desolation. But, in closing this comment, it is interesting to me that Graham does not quote one Old Testament passage. What happened? The series on the Millennium is trying to understand nine chapters in the book of Ezekiel and to find consistency between the Old and the New.
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Graham Wood |
25/05/2025 10:30 |
Hi Geoff. As I mention above quoting Adrio Konig. Are you familiar with his book and its intriguing title: 'The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology'?
In reference to Konig's book I will never forget a fellow Christian 's strong recommendation to me of this work when together we were in a Christian bookstore in York UK some years ago. (Jon Zens) He said in effect: 'buy that, as you will not need anything else on this subject' I was astonished at the time and thought that was a hugely ambitious claim, but believe it was certainly vindicated as its suggestive title and contents place Christ as central to the last days, including his chapter on the millennium. The difference between Professor Konig's approach and that of countless others who have written articles and commentaries on what is called 'the last things' is radical, distinctive, and I believe biblically balanced and sound.
A reviewer commented on this work:
“Adrio Konig makes an impressive case for viewing the entire history of Jesus Christ as the content of eschatology, not simply his resurrection and return in glory. Konig has mastered the best of current biblical and theological scholarship in this field and shows where most of it falls short of a radical Christocentric eschatology. It is a seminal work which will challenge the church and theological world for some time to come.”
The major theme of the book is set out by the author in his Preface where he states, I believe rightly, 'It is remarkable and disconcerting that in many of the most popular expositions, Jesus plays practically no role at all. This is remarkable because, in the New Testament, Jesus is directly associated with the end, the end times, and God's purpose for creation.. . . . In mainline churches and academic theological traditions, most treatments of eschatology relegate it to an appendix, or last chapter on “the last things”, and there the person and message of Jesus Christ play only an incidental role'.
Konig's main theme, and it is a very simple but profound one, is that because Christ is the 'Alpha and Omega then the whole of his ministry, life , death and resurrection must be seen as eschatological. In effect what is called the "end times" finds its expression and consummation in him.
As a matter of interest, do you set an early or late date for the writing of Revelation?
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