The Point of the Millenium
Revelation 20 brings us to the Millenium. Some people deny it, some people radically defend it, others spiritualize it. I always wondered one thing: What is the point of it?
Why doesn't Jesus simply come back, wipe out the wicked and establish the New Heavens and New Earth and be done with things? A-millenium people believe that's how it will happen. But there are valid arguments for it's reality. For instance, why does John describe the resurrection and who these people are so vividly in Revelation 20 if this is a spiritual idea? Surely these people do not "spiritually" resurrect but truly come to life again.
So assuming the Millenium is a prophesied reality, why does it happen? Why will the Lord have 1000 years where He reigns on this Earth only then to release Satan for a time to deceive the nations?
I think I have an answer: The Millenium proves that even perfect conditions do not change the human heart.
Look at what happens when Satan is released:
Revelation 20:7–8 (ESV) 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.
Even under the Lordship of Jesus for 1000 years there will be people deceived by Satan. Why? Because Satan is good at deceiving? Yes. But more so, the human heart is prone to deception. And most importantly, outside the saving grace of Jesus we are totally without hope. As the hymn writer said, "prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love."
We live under a false promise that something else will finally make humanity right. The 18th and 19th Centuries believed it was Reason and it produced the very bloody 20th Century of World Wars, genocide, Hitler, Mao and Stalin. In the 20th Century we thought it would be technology, and that produced the Atomic Bomb, chemical weapons of mass destruction, drone bombers and abortion. Now we can wipe out whole cities with the push of a button. In our thinking, we become fools.
Humanity is lost within not simply without. It takes more than technology, reason or whatever else we may conceive to change our hearts.
We need Christ IN US, not just near us. He told His disciples it was better if He went away so that the Spirit could come and dwell within them.
The Millenium reminds me of the great work brought about in my heart by the grace of Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ. He has miraculously saved me from a wandering hardening heart. And so it is only fitting to end this post with the last line of that refrain:
"Here's my heart Lord take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above."
Why doesn't Jesus simply come back, wipe out the wicked and establish the New Heavens and New Earth and be done with things? A-millenium people believe that's how it will happen. But there are valid arguments for it's reality. For instance, why does John describe the resurrection and who these people are so vividly in Revelation 20 if this is a spiritual idea? Surely these people do not "spiritually" resurrect but truly come to life again.
So assuming the Millenium is a prophesied reality, why does it happen? Why will the Lord have 1000 years where He reigns on this Earth only then to release Satan for a time to deceive the nations?
I think I have an answer: The Millenium proves that even perfect conditions do not change the human heart.
Look at what happens when Satan is released:
Revelation 20:7–8 (ESV) 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.
Even under the Lordship of Jesus for 1000 years there will be people deceived by Satan. Why? Because Satan is good at deceiving? Yes. But more so, the human heart is prone to deception. And most importantly, outside the saving grace of Jesus we are totally without hope. As the hymn writer said, "prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love."
We live under a false promise that something else will finally make humanity right. The 18th and 19th Centuries believed it was Reason and it produced the very bloody 20th Century of World Wars, genocide, Hitler, Mao and Stalin. In the 20th Century we thought it would be technology, and that produced the Atomic Bomb, chemical weapons of mass destruction, drone bombers and abortion. Now we can wipe out whole cities with the push of a button. In our thinking, we become fools.
Humanity is lost within not simply without. It takes more than technology, reason or whatever else we may conceive to change our hearts.
We need Christ IN US, not just near us. He told His disciples it was better if He went away so that the Spirit could come and dwell within them.
The Millenium reminds me of the great work brought about in my heart by the grace of Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ. He has miraculously saved me from a wandering hardening heart. And so it is only fitting to end this post with the last line of that refrain:
"Here's my heart Lord take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above."
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