The Kingdom Theology Interpretation of the Thousand Year Reign of Christ on Earth
My Facebook friend Scott Strickland posted a very good explanation of Revelation 20:6 which I like and wanted to share. First, let’s read what the verse says:
Scott calls his view “Kingdom Theology.” His comment on my Facebook post:
In order to understand the millennial reign, it is important to understand it as the 1st century Jews understood it. They knew that the time was at hand due to the fact that the prophecy of Daniel foretold it. Seventy weeks were determined to occur and once Messiah came, He would restore Israel and the 1000-year reign would begin. Pretty cut and dried.
So, what happened? Well, the seventy weeks were fulfilled, Messiah came, and Israel was restored, just like God promised. Pretty cut and dried. But sometimes we can’t see the forest for all of the trees, and it doesn’t help that the vines of dispensationalism have grown up and tangled the view. But if we grab on to one of those vines and give it a good yank, what falls out of the tree will help us in our understanding of when the millennium occurs, for the dispensationalist understand that it comes right after Daniel’s 70th week, just like the 1st century Jews believed. This is why they teach that there is a long pause between week 69 and week 70, they look in the rear-view mirror and see no millennium and conclude that God has called a time out in prophecy.
They see no millennium in the rear-view because they, like so many in the 1st century, “savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” This is why the disciples asked the risen Christ in Acts 1, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They understood that the time was at hand for the millennium reign to start. So why didn’t it start then and there? Maybe because it already had. All four Gospels record the triumphant entry of Christ as KING into Jerusalem in fulfilment of prophecy.
“Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” (Matthew 21:5).
“Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.” (Mark 11:10).
“Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.” (Luke 19:38).
“All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…” (Matthew 21:4).
Scripture refers to Jesus Christ as the KING, not as a Pretender to the throne. Even Pontius Pilate understood this fact when he wrote out the formal charge under which Christ was crucified: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. (Matthew 27:37). The religious leaders also understood that He was the King as we read in Matthew. “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:41-43).
The disciples did not yet understand this though in Acts 1, hence Christ tell them: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Or in other words, “That’s above your paygrade for now.” They as of yet had not “received power” but Christ told them they would “after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Then the long-awaited conquest of the Gentiles would begin, not by sword, but by Spirit. “…he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:10).
In John’s account of the triumphal entry, he writes: “These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.” (John 12:16). “The times and the seasons” that had been above their pay grade they now understood.
The millennial reign came just as foretold and we are further told in scripture that Christ will reign until the “end.” 1 Corinthians 15:24 – 26 “Then cometh the end, when he (Christ) shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
The restoration of Israel, the Church, the Israel of God, occurs during the millennial reign of Christ and is the symbolic 1000 years spoken of in Revelation, which was ushered in during His first coming and culminates at His second coming. The use of the number 1000 symbolizes completeness or all authority just as it does in Psalms 50:10: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” God owns the cattle on hill 1001 also, and Christ is still King even though it has been almost 2000 years since He ascended to heaven.
Then, on the LAST day of history Christ returns in Judgment on this world. Right before that day, Satan is loosed on the nations and has power to deceive them once more as we see going on all over the world today. When Christ returns, He calls His own up to Him and the Wrath of God falls on the world of the lost. After which, there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth will have passed away, having been melted with “fervent heat” as Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:10.
(End of Scott’s comments.)
This is similar to what another friend, Dr. John Gideon Hartnett says in his article, Does Isaiah 65:17-25 refer to an earthly Millennium rule of Christ on Earth? But he doesn’t cover Isaiah 2:4 which says,
To be honest with you, I’m still not sure which is the correct interpretation of Revelation 20:6 due to the fact I don’t see how Isaiah 2:4 has been fulfilled in the past. I would like to think Revelation 20:6 is talking about a literal 1000-year reign of Christ on Earth over the people who survived the wrath of God at the coming of Christ, but I can’t be dogmatic about that because it was first taught to me 40 years ago by a pastor who was under the influence of Darby and Scofield’s Dispensationalism. To his credit, he broke free of two of the main doctrines of Dispensationalism, the distinction between the Church and Israel, and the doctrine of a secret pre-tribulation rapture of the Church which is connected to the dispensational doctrine of the distinction between the Church and Israel. However, he still held to the doctrine of the 70th Week of Daniel being yet in the future. Nobody’s perfect, right? I’m sure not.
However, I am very dogmatic about the correction interpretation of Daniel 9:27 and the 70th Week of Daniel! This doctrine has far more impact on my life and service to God than the interpretation of Revelation 20:6 and whether it’s past or still in the future. But there’s no doubt in my mind about Revelation chapters 21 and 22. They have yet to be fulfilled because they can only be fulfilled after the second coming of Jesus Christ which has not happened yet.