SNAPSHOT OF THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM

Revelation 20:7-15 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor Teacher
12 November, 2000
All Rights Reserved

One of Satan's great deceptions is to get people to stop yearning for something better. He has been quite successful in this strategy during the modern age. We see despair among many who live off the government rather than developing a meaningful life, despair in those who have given themselves over to prostitution, pornography, gambling, and substance abuse. We see despair in profound depressions which have soared in recent years, despair in the rise of eating disorders, and despair in the rising rate of suicides.

If Satan cannot get us into abject despair, then he will try to get us to make our home in our present earthly pleasures. I see this in the fact that in a recent national election, Bible-believing Christians turned out to vote in large numbers, but (at least in my area) not many to pray for the nation. Jesus said, "by their fruits you shall know them," and our fruits in the last election were almost indistinguishable from non-believers whose votes were overwhelmingly cast for their own earthly prosperity. Even though we are already living in the lap of luxury in America, our major concern seems to have been what each politician promised to give us. We were hardly perturbed that the abomination of abortion was not much of an issue in the election, while medical coverage and retirement benefits topped the list.

Satan pursues this successful strategy of numbing our yearnings precisely because God put them within us. It is God's plan, explicit in the prophetic Scriptures, to lead us to something better. The church is God's plan during this present age, but the millennial kingdom of Christ will dramatically advance God's purpose to better our sin-damaged planet. Because Christ will reign with righteousness, there will be no more war. Christ will satisfy the yearnings of mankind for true justice. The natural animosity of the animal kingdom will be dampened. The world will be delivered from the activity of Satan, who will be bound for the thousand years. Israel will be regathered, and Gentiles will experience unparalleled earthly blessing (cf. Isa. 2:2-4, 11:4-9; Psa. 72, etc). God has given us the Book of Revelation to intensify our yearning for something better.

1. SATAN RELEASED AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM
   
   But the wonder of the reign of Christ on earth will not be without flaws. Sin will still be present, though under the controlling blanket of Christ's rule. The children of those believers who enter the millennium in their regular bodies will still have to choose to be saved by Christ, and some will not. In addition, God will release Satan from the abyss for a time: "And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore" (Rev. 20:7-8).
   
   The reference to Gog and Magog in this passage does not refer to the great war found in Ezekiel 38-39. That war will take place a thousand years earlier. The term Gog and Magog here seems to be a proverbial name for rulers and nations raised up in disastrous rebellion against God. And how can there be a rebellion against God after a thousand years of perfect rule by Christ? Children born during the thousand years will make their own decisions about Christ, and apparently there will be enough to assemble a rebel army with soldiers as numerous as "the sand of the seashore."
   
   Sometimes we think that if we could only get people to see Christ as he really is that they would all believe in him. This passage proves that idea false, since there will be myriads of rebellious sinners by the end of the millennium in spite of benefiting from Christ's personal presence and rule. His perfections did not convince even the majority during the three years of his first coming, and the same obtuseness to Christ's perfections will be seen in the millennium. This is proof that human moral and spiritual decay is not caused by external circumstances. We sin because we are sinners, and we receive the deceptions of the Evil One because we are self-deceived. The human heart is desperately wicked and deceitful.
   
   This rebellion proves that no amount of improvement in our external environment can ever restrain sin. God counsels us to flee temptation, but even when we have done so we find that we have taken our own sinful tendencies with us. Any person locked in a darkened, empty room devoid of external temptation will still sin because it is smuggled within the human heart! Our only hope is the real message of the gospel of Christ, which brings to the believer new life in Christ and the inward transformation of heart. There is no greater miracle on earth than when Christ takes our stony, spiritually-stupefied hearts and replaces them with warm hearts which intensely desire the things of God. This is the true nature of Christian sanctification.
   
   Thus the trendy social theory of behaviorism is false, which theorizes that people are merely a collection of learned responses to their environment. In addition, all attempts to coerce religious faith or "Christian behavior" are false--mere wood, hay and stubble which will be burned away at the judgment seat of Christ. Secular theories such as Marxism or its cousin socialism are shown to be false, because any attempt to form a society based on cooperation for the good of the many will stumble over our rocky hearts. The only plan of God for human improvement is a dramatic inward transformation which we either receive in Christ or reject. What is the status of your inward transformation? Are you zealously pursuing it in the Holy Spirit, even to the renewing of your thought life? Have you settled for a sub-Christian practice of church observances? Paul urged the believers in Rome this way: "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Rom. 12:1). This total presentation of our very selves to God is the switch that engages the dynamic process of inward transformation.
   
   In the same manner as the rebels in the battle of Armageddon, the army here figuratively called Gog and Magog will seek to wage war against Jerusalem, the place from which Christ rules the earth during the millennium: "And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them" (Rev. 20:9). God will never permit this rebellion, so the outcome is the same as the rebellion of a thousand years earlier. Once again I would observe that God's supremacy over all earthly and heavenly powers is not achieved through success in battle. God's glorious absolute reign exists always, and he uses time and space to display it for all the universe to see. This should give great comfort to believers as they undergo different levels of suffering and persecution from human governments.
   
   No greater display of divine supremacy could be imagined than God's summary judgment of the most powerful and glorious spirit-being besides himself: "And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rom. 20:10). There is no struggle. So when God tells us to cause the Devil to flee by resisting him, he is not commanding us to engage in a battle of doubtful outcome. God protects his own, and believers have received delegated spiritual authority over all fallen angels. Let us rejoice in our freedom, and never let the Father of Lies rob us of our inheritance in Christ!
   
   The torment of the entire unholy trinity--the Great Red Dragon (Satan), the Antichrist, and the False Prophet is unending. As John Walvoord pointed out in his commentary, there are no stronger terms for the Greek language to express the idea of everlasting punishment than what is written here. And note that two of the members of this foul trio are humans. We assume that this is the time of the final judgment of the fallen angels as well, though it is not mentioned in the text. Let us not be beguiled by the many modern people who object to the clear teaching of eternal punishment. Only a dramatically faulty hermeneutic or a pair of exegetical scissors could remove the obvious meaning of the words: "tormented day and night forever and ever."
   
   
2. FINAL JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE
   
   The so-called "second resurrection" to judgment or "second death" (: 5-6) is about to take place: "And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne..." (Rev. 20:11-12a). God appears on his throne in a heavenly location of his choosing after causing the material heavens and earth to disappear. Where do they go? The immediate context just four verses later speaks of the complete recreation of heaven and earth. It seems likely that this disappearance is the first part of God's administration of this titanic transformation. Perhaps the best explanation of the need for a new heaven and earth is that these material servants of God have been so sullied by sin that a recreation is necessary to make them suitable for the fulfillment of God's promise to dwell with his people forever in utter holiness.
   
   To this hovering throne God calls the spiritually dead unbelievers of all time to receive their fate. The throne of God is the great leveler in the universe. Before its majestic grandeur, supreme authority, and unspeakable holiness the difference between earthly rulers is inconsequential. All human powers are here nullified forever, and final judgment on all who have rejected God is issued: "...And books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Rev. 12b-15).
   
   Divine record books containing the lifetime evidence of each person's faith or unbelief shall be opened. It is instructive to note that the deeds of our lives will be presented as justification of God's final word on every one of us. It ought to be sobering to think that everything we do is on record in heaven, and make us consider the eternal consequences of our actions. These record books will forever answer the questions we have about Christians who have a dissonant testimony and lifestyle. God will reveal who the truly saved are and who the hypocrites are. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about God's use of behavioral evidence: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
   
   Paul also wrote about God's judgment upon useless or sinful deeds done by genuine believers in the same letter: "Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Both redeemed and damned will have to face God's review of their comprehensive life histories. There can be no faking with God!
   
   The lake of fire is God's final instrument of judgment on sin. In verse 14 we learn that two of God's preliminary instruments of judgment on sin are thrown there, namely, death and Hades. It is my conjecture that these instruments are not annihilated, but their characteristics of intermediate temporary judgement are added to the agenda of final eternal judgment. The characteristics of death become ultimate and eternal for the damned, as do the temporary torments of Hades until their transfer to the lake of everlasting fiery torment.
   
   The precious book of life is mentioned here in passing. The names of the lost will obviously be absent from that book. But what of those who trust Christ during the millennial kingdom? The specifics of their final judgment and welcome into eternal bliss with God is not given here or anywhere in the Bible. Nevertheless, they appear obliquely by the reference to the book of life because their names are written there. We leave the details of their translation into glory in the hands of the God who is always wise and just.
   
   
3. CONCLUSION
   
   If you are hearing or reading this message, the day of salvation has not yet expired, and God's final judgment on your life has not yet come. If you have not yet trusted Christ for your eternal salvation, today is the day. Now is the time to confess your sins to God, abandon them, and receive Christ's forgiveness. And if we who believe know that God will infallibly fulfill his purposes as described here, how ought we to live? We ought to put away temporary things which will only pass away in order to place our focus on eternal things--namely, the word of God, the eternal souls of people, and the person of our glorious God.
   
   If there was ever a time when the church needed to be challenged to have done with pleasurable distractions, it is now! As the darkness of moral and spiritual decline steals across our land, only those of sturdy spiritual timber will continue to stand in Christ. I am not optimistic about the outcome for the rank and file of common Christians who soak themselves in earthly pleasures and spend their time, money, and energies upon entertainments and sub-Christian activities. In which category will you be? Study the Book of Revelation and decide for yourself.