20 Questions for Your View on the Millennium

-



By Mitch Chase

Revelation 20:1–6 contain the Bible’s teaching on a period of “a thousand years,” and these verses comprise one of the most disputed passages in the whole Bible. 

You may have thought through the four main millennial views (dispensational premillennialism, historic premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism) and have reached a conventional conclusion. 

Or maybe you’re undecided.

No matter what view you hold (firmly or loosely), here are 20 questions that would be good to think through:

  1. What is the relationship of Revelation 20:1-6 to Revelation 19?
  2. Should the “thousand years” in Revelation 20:1–6 be interpreted literally or symbolically?
  3. Is there a relationship between Revelation 12 and Revelation 20:1-6?
  4. Can the “first resurrection” in Revelation 20:5 and 20:6 refer to anything other than a bodily resurrection?
  5. Though the terminology of a millennial reign occurs only in Revelation 20, is the millennial reign taught conceptually in any previous New Testament or Old Testament passage(s)
  6. In Revelation 20:4, are the “thrones” in heaven or earth?
  7. How might Daniel 7:9-14 help us understand Revelation 20:4?
  8. If the pattern of biblical passages depicts a general resurrection of the dead, to what degree should that pattern influence our reading of Revelation 20:1–6
  9. Since theologians in the early centuries of the church wrote about the millennium, what role should they play in our own interpretive conclusions?
  10. Does the binding of Satan in Revelation 20:1-3 have any relationship to Jesus’s binding of the strong man in the Gospel accounts and his defeat of Satan on the cross?
  11. How does Christ’s promise that “the gates of hell will not prevail” against his church (Matt 16:18) factor into your millennial position?
  12. What role does persecution play in your millennial view?
  13. How does your view incorporate Jesus’s parables about the mustard seed that grows and the leaven that spreads (Matt 13:31–34)?
  14. In Revelation 20:5 and 20:6, does the ordinal “first” (in the phrase “first resurrection”) imply a “second” resurrection, and if so, are those resurrections the same or different in kind?
  15. What are the valid challenges and weaknesses of your millennial view?
  16. How important do you think a position on the millennium is to other biblical doctrines?
  17. Do you believe Christ reigns now, and if so, does that reality have any bearing on Revelation 20:1-6?
  18. Is your understanding of other millennial views based on what the advocates of those views have said or based only on what critics of those views have said?
  19. What does it mean to “reign with Christ” in Revelation 20:4 and 20:6?
  20. Reflecting on Revelation 20:3, what did Satan’s deception of the nations involve?


Popular posts from this blog

Speaking in tongues for today - Charles Stanley

-
Image
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. … But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. … And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. … Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way - 1 Corinthians 12:4, 7, 28, 30—31 The Lord Jesus Christ had come and gone. The church—newly birthed—was in a transition time. The new covenant was seen as a threat to the Jewish leaders; therefore, there was persecution for those who had chosen to follow Christ. The new religion, in its infant stages, had no Bible, few leaders, and absolutely no support from the government. Astounding that it survived, isn’t it?  How in the world did it survive with so little going for it? Power. Not just a force, but mighty, visible power. This new church
Read more

What is the glory (kabod) of God?

-
Image
2 CORINTHIANS 4:17 "This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Scripture places a high value on God 's glory, and it is not hard to figure out why. Since the inherent glory of the Lord is something that He will not share with others (Isa. 42:8), we know that His glory is something that He prizes highly; indeed, He prizes it more highly than anything else. We should, therefore, set the glory of God as the goal and overarching emphasis of our lives. Whatever we lose for the sake of making the Lord's glory known will be worth it when we see the dazzling light and beauty of; the divine glory (28:5; Rev. 21:23). Glory has to do with light and beauty, but those aspects do not sum up what the Bible means when it speaks of the glory of God. Interestingly, the Hebrew word kabod , which is translated into English as "glory," has the root meaning of "weight" or "heaviness."
Read more

The Holy Spirit causes us to cry out: Abba, Father

-
Image
Pentecostés. Óleo sobre lienzo, 275 × 127 cm. Madrid, Museo del Prado. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) To bring out the same truth in another way, Paul says God sent Jesus (as a Man) to live under the Law in order “to redeem those under law, that we [Jews and Gentiles ] might receive the full rights [adoption] of sons” ( Galatians 4:5).  By “full rights” or “adoption” he means entering into the privileges and responsibilities of sonship. He uses it also of the sonship of Israel (Romans 9:4). Galatians 4:1, 2 indicate that the son and heir of a wealthy family in Paul’s day would be treated as a slave until he became of age.  Then he would receive the adoption, that is, all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that belonged to an adult member of that family. Adoption was also used in the modern sense, so that Gentiles who were not sons of Abraham became true heirs, true sons of God , by faith.  Jesus died, not just to save us from the fires of hell, but to make it p
Read more