The interpretation of Revelation 20: 1-6

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The book of revelation is considered as one of the most controversial books in the bible. Whether this statement is true depends on a person’s interpretation of the phrase ‘controversial’. Nevertheless, it is generally agreed that the contents of the book are as mystic as the events it foretells.

If there is a section of the bible, and in particular, Revelation, that has elicited a myriad of interpretations, then that section is Revelation 20: 1-6. Concisely, the gist of the section is on the millennium years that Christians are to reign with Christ while the devil is bound. It is interesting how a simple phrase, ‘thousand years’, has led to such varied and opposing views. One wonders what is so special with this catchy phrase.

One of the peculiar feature about the ‘thousand years’ phrase is that it occurs only eight times in the entire bible. Out of these occurrences, six are in Revelation 20: 2-7 while the rest are in 2 Peter 3:8. The debate, however, is not centered on the scarcity of the phrase but rather on what it refers to.

Does the millennium represent a factual period of time or a symbolic period of time? When does this period of time take place? What transpires during this period? Does it have any relation to the second coming of Jesus Christ? Such are the questions that have led theologians to take different perspectives on the subject (Brighton 1999, 533).

This paper presents the different views that exist for the interpretation of Revelation 20: 1-6. These include Historic Premillennialism, Dispensational Premillenniasm, Postmillennialism and Ammillenialism.Though this research ends up supporting one of the views as shall be seen later, it does not overlook the significance of the other interpretations.

The first interpretation of the ‘millennium’ phrase to be discussed here is by the Historic Premillennialsim. This view gets its title from the undeniable fact that there have been theologians through out history who have perceived the ‘millennium’ referred to in Rev. 20 as a factual, one-thousand year, when Christ will rule the earth beginning from His Second Coming.

The later will occur prior to the millennium. As such, the Historic premillenialism chronicles the end-of-time events in the following sequence. According to this interpretation, the first event that will characterize the end-of-time is the ‘binding of Satan’ as well as the ‘first resurrection of believers’. The two will occur at Christ’s visible, glorious descent from heaven to earth, well known as His Second Coming.

The second event that is supposed to take place according to this interpretation is the reign of Christ and His Church over the unbelievers who will still be on earth during the millennium. This reign will be characterized by peace and prosperity due to the limitation, though not entire elimination, of sin and evil.

The Historic premillenialism interpretation also holds that Satan will be released for a ‘little season’ in order to mislead people in a final attack against Christ and His Church, a battle that the latter will win while the former will be cast into the ‘lake of fire’. This view also posits that the second resurrection will take place, and it will involve all dead unbelievers.

Another event that will take place according to this view is the Great White Judgment. In this occasion, all people that ever lived will receive their final judgment. The unbelievers will be cast into the ‘lake of fire’ in order to face eternal penalty (Clouse 1977, 12).

On the other hand, believers will be given access to eternal kingdom to enjoy eternal tranquility, comfort, and glory. Lastly, the ‘new heavens and earth’ will be created. This is the glorious eternal kingdom where believers will live with the Lord in praise.

Many church leaders have held Historic premillenialism as the true interpretation of the ‘millennium’ for a long time. These premillennilists or chiliasts include Papias, Melito Sardis, Iranaeaus, Hippolytus, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian. The fact that such a high number of leaders have supported the view for a long time does not make it the dominant view of the early church.

In deed one of the premillennialists, Justin opposes agrees this as Steve Gregg notes in Revelation: Four views-A Parallel Commentary (1997, 29). It follows suit that one cannot be enticed to follow this interpretation simply because its supporters lived in the first centuries following the ascension of Jesus Christ. Instead, there is a need for careful analysis of their views and conclude whether they are supported by Scripture or not.

One of the main factors that led to the loss of popularity of the Historic Premillennialism interpretation is the ‘apocalyptic fever’, an event that occurred towards the end of the first century A.D. This was an influence of Jewish and Jewish-Christian pseudepigraphical literature that was going round at the time.

A good number of these writings were apocalyptic in nature pointing out to the onset of a Jewish millennial tradition. There is no doubt that the early church leaders’ interpretation of Revelation 20: 1-6 had overtones of this influence. This argument is supported by Brighton when he quotes the church historian Eusebius in the former’s exposition on how Papias adopted his premillennial view.

Brighton notes that when the apocalyptic fever commenced to fade, so did the premillennial interpretation (Brighton 1999, 534-536). A number of church fathers were openly opposed to this view like Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Jerome, Alcuin, and Primasius among others (Gregg 1997, 29-31).

The second interpretation of the millennium is the dispensational premillennialism. Just like the historical premillennialism, dispensationalism, as the interpretation is also called, interprets the millennium literally. However, this agreement stops at that.

This is because dispensationalism is based on a completely system of theology like Millard J. Erickson notes in Contemporary options in eschatology (Erickson 1977, 109). As such, it is very important to note this view is theological. Though an in-depth analysis will be provided later in this paper, it is crucial to point out a few points in which this interpretation is based on.

One of the principles that dispensationalists stand for is the belief that the Scriptures are divided into different periods of time called dispensations. In each dispensation, God deals with humans in different ways and provides different tests for humankind. When humans fail, God brings in a new dispensation with a new test. Going by this principle, human beings are living in the dispensation of grace.

In this dispensation, God is testing the faith of humanity in Jesus. The seven and last dispensation will be the millennium. Scofielld popularized this interpretation in his book Rightly dividing the Word of God, incorporated in his Scofield Reference Bible (1909) (Scofield 1928, 24).

Apart from the above belief, dispensationalists believe in three major theological principles namely; the clear difference between Israel and the church (Ryrie 1995, 63), the factual interpretation of the bible (Ericson 1977, 109), and the prominence on God’s glory as His fundamental intention in the world (Ryrie, 40).

These are the pillars that make dispensationalism to take a completely different interpretation of the Scriptures. Nevertheless, this paper will confine itself to its subject matter, the interpretation of the millennium as recorded in Rev. 20: 1-6.

Dispensationalism chronicles the end-time events in the following sequence. Going by this view, the rapture will be the first stage of the Second Coming of Christ. This event will surreptitiously take away all Christians from the earth instantaneously. The dead believers will be resurrected while all those who are rapture receive their glorified bodies in the ‘twinkling of an eye’.

This stage is also the first phase of the ‘first judgment’, also called the ‘Believer’s Judgment’. This will see all believers rewarded according to their truthful service during their lifetime on earth. After the church has been raptured, the ‘prophetic clock’ will begin ticking again while God continues with His plan for the Jews.

Immediately after the rapture, the Seven Year Tribulation will begin. This is an event when the Antichrist appears and deceives many within ‘one week’ equated to a prophetic year (LaHaye 1998, 46). This period is the time God will unleash numerous judgments on the earth leading to great pain and suffering.

The Antichrist will bring an era of terror particularly in the last three and half years of the Great Tribulation. In order to counter the Antichrist, God will raise up 144,000 literal Jews to spread the good news of the Kingdom in the entire world. Those who pay attention to the message and fail to worship the Antichrist will be salvaged.

The third occurrence that dispensationalists believe constitute the end-time events is the Glorious appearing of Christ, His saints and angels. This will take place in the second stage of His Second Coming. The second judgment will follow in which Christ will judge those who live in on earth hence distinguishing the ‘sheep’ from the ‘goats’.

Those who are found praiseworthy will enter into the one-thousand years reign with Christ as their Ruler. On the other hand, those who will be unworthy will be slain and their souls thrown into the lake of fire. It is also worthy noting that the second stage of the first resurrection occurs at this time.

This entails the resurrection or transformation of all those who received the Gospel of the Kingdom during the Tribulation and were put to death.

Another event that dispensationalists believe will occur in the end time is the binding of Satan. Just like the premillennialists, the dispensationalists believe that Satan will be bound immediately prior to the millennium. They also view the millennium as a reign characterized by tranquility and prosperity.

According to Bass, though the two views concur in this proposition, the dispensationalists hold that it is Christ and Jews who rule the earth, and not Him and the Church as the premillennialists hold (1979, 43).

The Dispensationalism view also agrees with Premillennialism in other end-time events like the loosing of time, the second resurrection, and the Great White Throne judgment as well as the creation of the new heavens and earth. The preceding discussion on Dispensationalism if carefully examined reveals its underlying misconception that God is working out two different plans, one for the Jews and another for the Church.

This material perspective renders this view unacceptable, at least according to the Lutheran perspective. This is because the dispensationalists do not view all Scripture and all of the history of salvation as a unison based on the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. As such, Brighton holds that it extends untrue hopes of other ways of salvation (Brighton 1999, 540).

If dispensationalism is disputable from a Lutheran perspective, what does the Lutheran Church hold as the true interpretation to the Second Advent of Christ? This questions paves way to the third view of the millennium as spelt out by postmillennialism. The Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (CTCR-LCMS) contradicts the preceding views on the millennium in a number of ways.

To begin with, it holds that the Second Advent of Christ will take place after the millennium. It is only after this event that rapture, the general resurrection, the general judgment and eternal states occur (1989, 6).

Postmillennialism also supports other end-time events such as the binding of Satan by Christ at His first Advent, Satan’s little season at the end of the millennium, Christ’s Second Advent, the bodily resurrection and final judgment as well as the creation of the new heavens and earth.

Though this view is not popular with theologians today, it was prominent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries though it began to diminish in the twentieth century, a phenomenon occasioned by the First World War. Henceforth, theologians commenced to have little hope on the future. As such, this view has stopped being a main eschatological view though some theologians still cling to it (Gregg 1997, 117-141).

It is evident from the above views that most almost all of them are based on either traditions or theological beliefs. None of them allows the scripture script by script. In the last of the four interpretations of Revelation 20: 1-6, this paper examines how amillennialism stands in a class of its own from the rest as it gives room for the scripture to interpret itself instead of assigning human meanings to passages.

Concisely, this view perceives the millemium as symbolic of the whole New Testament epoch. It posits that Christ ushered in the ‘last days’ at His incarnation, and during His ministry on earth. He, therefore, established His Kingdom, the church. He came to save the earth from sin, a mission He accomplished through His total conquest of sin, death, and devil.

This was achieved through His redemptive work, leading to His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Christ is now sits at the right hand of God and all dominion over heaven and earth is His. He rules now and His dominion is shared by all believers throughout the thousand years, which continue until He comes back in glory on the Last Day.

In conclusion, the brevity of this paper does not allow for an in-depth exegetical or verse-by-verse analysis of Revelation 20:1-6 as supported by the amillennial view. However, it is important to note that the cause of disagreement now shifts now to, chronologically, interpret the passage (Beale 199, 874-875). Concisely, the Revelation 19 and 20 do not follow after each other.

This is because they show the same events though through different images, just as the whole book of Revelation does. As such, when one comprehends the cyclic nature of Revelation, it is unproblematic to discern the relationships between the two chapters.

For instance, Rev. 19: 11-21 depicts a picture of the final attack of Satan on the Church, which is equivalent to the activities of Satan, s ‘little season’ shown in 20: 7-10. The same scenario is painted in Rev. 6 where the beast and the false prophet pull together their evil army at Armageddon (16:16).

There is no doubt whether this is the same end time battle shown in various ways throughout Revelation with each time ending with the victory of Christ and His Church at His Second Advent on the Last Day.

The view adopted by this paper for the interpretation of Revelation 20:1-6 is, therefore, the amillennial view as it attempts to let scripture interpret itself instead of relying on half-truths characteristic of the three other views also discussed here.

Bibliography

Bass, C. 1977. Backgrounds to Dispensationalism: Its historical genesis and ecclesiastical implication. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Beale, G.K. 1999.The book of Revelation, the New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids; Eerdmans.

Brighton, L. A. 1999. Revelation. Concordia Commentary; St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Clouse, R.G. 1977. (ed), The Meaning of the Millennium: Four views. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.

Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) of the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod (CMS). September 1989.The End times: A study on eschatology and millennialism.

Erickson, Milliard, J. 1977.Contemporary options in eschatology. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company.

Gregg, S. 1997. Revelation: Four views-a parallel commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

LaHaye, T. 1998.Understanding the Last days; Keys to unlocking the Bible prophecy. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers.

Ryrie, C.C. 1995. Dispensationalism, Chicago: Moody Press.

Scofield, C.I. 1928. Rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Philadelphia: Philadelphia School of the Bible.

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The interpretation of Revelation 20: 1-6

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