Revelation 20: The Millennium

Eschatology and the Millennium in Revelation 20

All right, so this morning we're going to be talking about eschatology, which is the study of last things, and in particular the millennium. So the millennium is a hotly debated topic amongst Christians, so hopefully this morning we'll just lend some clarity to that, not to the confusion, but to the passage and see where everything lies.

So if you want, you can open up your Bibles. I'm going to be reading out of Revelation chapter 20, versus actually it's one through eight, not one through six. Page number 666 in the Bibles, or 1000 depending on which version you have.

We haven't even started yet, and we started already. All right, 2329. All right, so we're going to be reading Revelation chapter 20, and basically as we read this passage, I want you to just key in on what the scriptures say about the millennium specifically, because that's what we're going to go off.

We're going to go off of what the scripture says, and then compare other scriptures to it to see if it confirms, if the position confirms or denies what Revelation 20 says. Okay, so Revelation 20 verses 1 through 3.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be released for a little while. So these are the first two mentions of that term, thousand years. We're 4 through 8. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those whom the authority to judge was committed.

Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

Over such, the second death has no power. But they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth.

So here we have the only mention of this term, a thousand years, and it's repeated six times. So in this verse, we're going to get to see what the millennium is, what it consists of, and when it actually happens.

Observations from Revelation 20

So we're just going to do some observations now. So what is the nature and the timing of the thousand years? The thousand years, what do we know about it based on what Revelation said? Well first, it's a thousand years.

The question we have to answer is, is it literal or is it figurative? And we're going to go through that. Next, we see that the kingdom is inaugurated and Satan is bound. That was clear in that verse.

Next, we're going to see that Satan can't deceive the nations until those thousand years are ended. Then he'll be released. So that's another fact that we learned. We also learned that the martyred saints are going to reign with Christ.

They will be priests. The saints of the first resurrection will reign with Christ, and the rest will come to life at the end of the thousand years. Okay, so these are specific things that we can say definitively about Revelation chapter 20.

These are characteristics of what that passage taught us. So what are the views? The first question is, when does it take place? So there's two questions about the millennium. When does it take place and what does it consist of?

And those are two separate questions. When does it take place? It all comes down to only two positions. The two positions are based on Jesus's return. When does Jesus come back? Before the millennium or after millennium?

So basically, the only two positions are post-millennium, Jesus comes back at the end of the millennium, or pre-millennialism, Jesus comes back before the millennium. So our millennial and the post-millennial view are both united in the sense that Jesus comes back at the end of that thousand year period.

Whether it be figurative or literal, Jesus comes back at the end. Pre-millennialists believe it's before pre-millennium, he comes back at the beginning. So as to the question of timing, when does the thousand years happen?

There's only two positions, pre-millennial or post-millennial. Now, as to the nature of what happens during the millennium, we have three positions. Okay, what happens? Three positions, we have pre-millennial, amillennial, and post-millennial.

And we're going to go through each of those views, summing them up, okay, for the sake of time, and then we're going to go through and see a timeline and see which view holds water, okay? So the pre-millennial position, and I take a lot of this stuff from Greg Vonson's book, The Bright Hope of Post-millennialism, and then I'm also going to draw from Jay Adams, who does a great job in explaining these things.

Premillennialism and the Future Millennium

So pre-millennialism believes that Christ returns prior to the millennium, and at his coming, this is the start of the kingdom of God. Jesus' return inaugurates the millennial kingdom after the church age.

So he comes before the millennium to start the millennium, and this is at the end of the church age, according to pre-millennialism. At this time, Satan is going to be bound for a literal 1 ,000 years.

Pre-millennialism holds to a literal understanding of that term. The millennium is going to be a period of earthly blessing that will bring righteousness, peace, and prosperity to the world for a literal 1 ,000 years.

The millennium is defined as the period between the first resurrection of the saints and the second resurrection of everyone else, the rest of the people. Revelation 20 says the rest, the just and the wicked for final judgment.

So pre-millennialism is defined by when man is resurrected, the first resurrection and the second resurrection. Both the first and the second resurrection are physical. These are physical resurrections from the dead, not spiritual.

There's a 1 ,000 year gap between the first resurrection, when Jesus returns, and the second resurrection at the final judgment of the alike. Okay? Any questions? Okay. A little bit more. The church age, which is the age of the church when Jesus came back, he established the church on earth.

The church age, according to pre-millennialism, is distinct from the millennium and prior to it. We're going to have a chart that goes through this so you can see it better. So according to them, Revelation 20 would be a future event.

It wouldn't be something that's happening now or happened. It's a future event. Currently, a pre-millennialist would believe that we are in the church age, but we are not in the millennium. It's future.

It's far off, or maybe not far off. It's future. The preaching of the gospel throughout the world will be of little avail. It's basically just a witness to the nations that Jesus was who he says he was.

That gospel presentation, although people will come to life from hearing it, is not going to have long-lasting effects on the earth. The world is going to grow worse and worse and eventually climax in what is known as the great tribulation, and there's a variety of pre-millennialism that calls itself dispensational pre-millennialism, and you'll see pre, mid, or post.

That's with regards to the tribulation. We're going to get into that in a little bit, but I don't want to digress too far. Jesus will rule, return, and rule the millennium, resulting in a final judgment at the end.

So, the two key points that we need to see for pre-millennialism is that the church age is not the millennium. The millennium is future, and the millennium breaks up the return of Christ and the final judgment, okay?

So, you have the church age, then Jesus comes back. That starts the millennium. The end of the millennium will be the resurrection of the just and the unjust alike, okay? At the first resurrection, at the first coming of Christ, there's going to be a resurrection of the saints who've been martyred.

They come to life and rule and reign with Christ for that thousand years. At the end of that thousand years, there's going to be a second resurrection where all previous believers that died during that millennium period and unbelievers that died from the beginning of time until that period will be resurrected, okay?

Now, there's a difference between historic and dispensational pre-millennialism. If you're a dispensational pre-millennialist, you believe that before the period of the great tribulation, the church is going to be raptured off the earth.

So, once Jesus comes back, this is called the great tribulation. The church is taken out of the way. You're not going to have to worry about going through the tribulation with everyone else. If you're historic pre-millennialist, you believe that the church will go through that great period of tribulation, and then Jesus will return and raise the saints, and there will be an earthly kingdom that he rules over until the final judgment of the wicked.

So, within pre-millennialism, you have pre-, mid-, and post-tribulation. So, the church will be taken out either before the tribulation, in the middle of the tribulation, or at the end of the tribulation.

It makes it a little bit more complicated. In summary, we have the church age, the tribulation before, during, or after the saints depending on your position. Jesus returns, raises the dead, then an earthly period of prosperity called the millennium, and then the final judgment.

Confused yet? All right, we're going to go through this easily. Watch. Let's see. Okay. So, Jesus comes back. That's him coming down. He sets up the church. This is the church age. Now, according to pre-millennialists, we're in the church age right now.

They're waiting for the second coming of Christ. However, during this time, we're going to see tribulation, and things are going to get worse and worse and worse throughout the world. We're not going to see an increase in righteousness.

We're going to see a decrease. We're going to see an increase in immorality and trouble for the church. But thankfully, Jesus comes back, and when he comes back, he begins the millennium, this thousand-year period.

Now, if you're dispensational, the church is lifted off. You're gone. You don't have to worry about this, okay? What is this period, this millennium, composed of? How can it be categorized or described?

First, that Satan is bound. Now, the binding of Satan is another issue for all people. Not everyone agrees on what that means. My understanding of Satan being bound means that he can no longer deceive the nations.

So, at the Tower of Babel, when all the nations were gathered together, all the people were gathered together and tried to make a name for themselves and build a tower that reached to God. God scattered them and made, dispersed them, and gave them all different languages, such that they became different nations.

Only one of those nations, God singled out. He created a nation called Israel, and he revealed himself to Israel and said, you will be a light to the other nations, okay? So, God had Adam and Eve. We had the fall, then the Tower of Babel.

God dispersed them. He restarted with Israel. He reconstituted a nation, and he says, this nation is going to be a light to the generation, to all the other nations. Come the church. Now, the church is composed of every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation.

So, now the gospel goes out, not just to Israel. Israel has received the promises, and the temple, and the worship, and all those things that Paul talks about in Romans 9. Now, that goes out to the rest of the nations, to all the Gentiles, so now that they all have revelation of God.

Satan being bound means, according to me, okay, and several other people, that Satan can no longer stop the gospel from going out to these other nations, okay? They are going to have a part and a place in the plan of salvation with God, not just Israel, okay?

So, now, pre-millennials wouldn't agree with that. So, Satan being bound is a descriptor of the millennium for them. It's also a literal 1 ,000 years. It's not figurative. This is an actual time clock 1 ,000-year period that they're going to go through.

It's going to be a time of earthly prosperity and peace. There's going to be a physical resurrection of the saints who will rule and reign with Jesus at the beginning when he comes back. The dead in Christ are going to rise.

They're going to rule and reign with him for this 1 ,000 years. Now, if you're dispensational, this is going to be a time of great war, okay, against Israel, okay? He took the church out of the way. Now, he's going to deal with Israel for all the sins that they committed in the past and not being a light to the nations and crucifying the Messiah.

The millennium is going to end with the resurrection of the wicked, okay? So, you have the first resurrection of the saints, second resurrection of the wicked, and the people who became believers during the millennium.

Satan is going to be loosed. He's going to be able to deceive the nations once again. Then, it's going to be final judgment in the lake of fire, okay? Now, you got to realize there's a gap between the resurrection of the saints and the resurrection of the wicked.

That's what's going to characterize this view. Very important. Then, we're going to enter the final state for all eternity, and that's the end of the millennium for them. Any questions as to the timing or the nature of their millennium?

Okay, good.

Just a question. When you were saying that for Israel, war with Israel, were you saying that for the tribulation or were you saying that for the millennium?

The tribulation. Yeah, the tribulation, right? Good point. Okay, so, but a third of them are going to be destroyed and all that kind of stuff, okay? All right, so that's pre-millennialism. Now, let's take a look at amillennialism, and the prefix ah means no or no millennium, and it's unfortunate because it's not that amillennials don't believe in millennium.

They do believe in the millennium, okay? So, the term amillennium means no millennium, but they don't believe in no millennium. They believe in the millennium now, and that's what we're going to talk about.

Amillennialism and the Present Millennium

So, they believe, and amillennialists would believe, that the millennium is now. It's concurrent with the church age. So, remember that little green bar? That's the millennium. That's church age and the millennium at the same time.

We're in Revelation 20 right now, according to the amillennialists, okay? Christ returns to end the millennium, where the pre-millennialist believes Jesus comes at the beginning, okay, and starts the millennium.

Amillennialists say, no, we're in the millennium. When he comes back, that's the end. That'll terminate the millennium. Same as a post-millennialist. So, the post-millennialists and the amillennialists are identical when it comes to this particular understanding.

Yes?

Scripturally, is there a way to find, how do these views come about? Are they saying through.

Certain scriptures? Are you going to be going over them? We're going to be going over them. Yeah, yeah, no worries. Okay, okay. The millennium is a long period of time. It's not a literal thousand years, and again, we're going to go through these things just to see which views seem more plausible than others, what views, you know, how they differ, that kind of stuff.

So, they believe in a long period of time, not a literal 1 ,000 years, because the book of Revelation, according to an amillennialist and a post-millennialist, is symbolic, according to the book itself.

It says these things are signified, right? They're signified. It's apocalyptic literature. Okay, amillennialists believe that the general resurrection and judgment of all men happen at the end of the age, not one at the beginning, and then one at the end.

Everything happens at the end of the age when Jesus comes back. The millennium does not refer to a golden or semi-golden age on earth, and that would be something that a post-millennialist would hold to, that the church would grow, and we would see material and spiritual blessings here on the earth.

Amillennialists wouldn't hold to that, necessarily. The amillennialist believes that it's a time, that millennium is, in church age, is a time of blessing, either in the intermediate state, which is now before we go to heaven or before we die.

The Christians who do die, their spirits will have gone into the presence of God in heaven, so that's a spiritual blessing, or it's referring to the spiritual triumphs and blessings enjoyed on the earth within the church right now.

So, as we see people come to know the Lord, and we see people to walk in righteousness and holiness, there's spiritual blessings associated with that. That's what the amillennialist holds. Finally, the millennium is a period of blessing, either in heaven or as a spiritual reality within the church for believers.

A couple more things and then we can move on. The millennium is a period between the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus, okay? So, Jesus came already, according to the amillennialist.

He established his church on earth. When he comes back, that's the second coming. It's over at that point. So, their position holds that the millennium is measured by the first coming and the second coming, where the premillennialist measures it by the first resurrection and the second resurrection.

Got it? Okay. The millennium started at Christ's first coming and ends at his second coming. The millennial period will see a parallel development of both good and evil. However, the world will not be conquered by the gospel, nor subdued by Christ as king.

In other words, there will be blessings here on this earth, but Christ is not going to actually, in an earthly material sense, fulfill his plan here on earth. When he comes back, that's when that begins and happens.

The prophecies of prosperity that we find in the Old Testament must be taken in a figurative way, referring to inner victories or heavenly victories, not things that pertain to flesh and blood matters or public matters, okay?

So, again, it's a spiritual reality that happens here on earth, and there's going to be spiritual blessings. It's just not going to manifest itself in, like, let's say, governmental law, like the laws that we see in society.

It's not going to manifest itself that way, okay? So, this is what amillennialism looks like. So, Jesus comes back, begins the church age. Then what happens? Jesus leaves, right? He ascends into heaven, and what begins at that point in time?

He ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. This millennium is just a continuation of the church age, and it's a long period of time.

Jesus is seated on the throne. He's ruling and reigning. There will be tribulation. You know, there's going to be victories and defeats and back and forth, and the tribulation is going to last through the whole period of time, but Jesus is still on the throne ruling and reigning.

Be a time of tribulation here and there, okay? We'll experience, again, spiritual blessings but not material blessings. Then this age is going to be characterized by Satan being bound. He's not going to be able to deceive the nations.

It's a figurative thousand years, so it's not a literal calendar period of time. It's a long period of time. It's going to bring about spiritual prosperity and peace, and there's going to be a spiritual resurrection of the saints, us being born again, and here, for the amillennial position, when you're born again, you're seated in Christ with Christ in the heavenly realms.

So you would be ruling and reigning right now if you're born again, child of God. Then Jesus returns, and when Jesus returns, that's the end, and then we're going to see a general resurrection of both the saints and the wicked, okay?

Amillennialists would say this is what happens on the last day. The last day is when the just and the unjust are raised and judged before God. Satan is going to be loosed, okay? So at this point in time, he will be loosed so that he could deceive the nations, should he choose to, and probably will.

There's a final judgment, and then the lake of fire. This will usher in, I'm sorry, there's no gap between the resurrection of the saints and the wicked on the last day. This is the difference between amillennialism and premillennialism.

Remember, premillennialism is characterized by the timing is the resurrection, the first resurrection, and the second resurrection. Amillennialists determine the millennium by the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.

So on amillennialism, there's no gap between the resurrection of the saints and the wicked on the last day. It all happens on the last day for the amillennialists. Make sense? Okay, and then it ushers in the final state.

Once this happens and Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, the sheep are cast into the lake of fire, I'm sorry, the sheep are brought into heaven to go to cast into the lake of fire forever and ever.

We'll have to edit that one out, too.

You mentioned that Satan, when he's loose, he would have opportunity.

Yeah. During what period if that's the end? It's not clear as to how long that's going to be, but one view, postmillennialism, we're going to see in a minute, allows for an apostasy. Okay. So this, I'm not exactly sure how amillennialism deals with an apostasy at the end, but this is, in general terms, the way it looks.

Okay, good. Yes, Dave. The only thing I would clarify, I know.

What you're saying, but I would be more careful. The amillennialists still believes the gospel is being effective and God is conquering the hearts and minds and the wills of people of every tongue and tribe and nation with the power of the gospel.

They still hold to the gospel as going forth and being effectual and saving people of every nation. Definitely, absolutely. Yeah, they don't believe the gospel has any efficacy. I know you didn't mean that, but that's why I'm just clarifying the point.

They still hold to the view that the gospel goes to all the nations and Christ is conquering and making people a part of his kingdom, but it doesn't all come to.

Fulfillment until the second coming. Right, there's not going to be a predominance of church on the earth, correct? Okay. I think you've got to make a distinction.

Within amillennialism, you have pessimistic and optimistic amillennialists. They don't always have the same view. You have some amillennialists who think that not much is going to be accomplished by the church, and then on the other hand, you have optimistic amillennialists whose view is very similar to the post-millennial view, not exactly the same.

So I think that clarification. Yeah, good clarification.

There are optimistic amillennialists and pessimistic amillennialists, and within that view, those are two acceptable categories of that particular view, okay? So for the most part, we're in agreement?

Okay, great. So let's now go through to post-millennialism, and this is very similar to amillennialism. Post, the prefix is post, it means after. So after the millennium, timing-wise, is when Jesus comes back.

So Jesus comes back at the end, and that will end the millennial period. Christ will return after the millennium. The millennium is the church age, Revelation 20 now, same as amillennialism. The millennium is a period of growth for the kingdom of God on earth, as would be spiritually for amillennialism.

I think post-millennialism sees that it's going to manifest itself also in earthly blessings, such that the laws of the governments are going to be affected by the church's witness to them. We used to have blue laws on the books where you weren't allowed to buy alcohol, you know, before 12 o 'clock on a Sunday.

Why? Because the church was active and was an influence on the government. There was a point in time where abortion was illegal. You weren't allowed to do that. Why? Because the church was living holy, righteous lives and affecting the government, okay?

The kingdom of God will grow gradually on earth, visibly, publicly, and externally. It's not just going to be spiritual blessings. It's going to equate and manifest into material blessings. The world will gradually be converted and those who have died and gone to heaven, those who have died will go to heaven.

Those who are martyrs and those who are saints will be vindicated, okay? Though they have gone to be with the Lord, their labors will not have been in vain. And I don't mean to say that amillennialist labors aren't in vain.

However, the post-millennialist sees that it's not just spiritual blessings. It's going to manifest itself in earthly blessings such that the kingdom of God is going to have influence over the nations.

For a post-millennialist, when Jesus says, go disciple the nations, that's what the church is supposed to do. Disciple the nations so that the nations look or come into the kingdom of God. They're still going to be separate, but the nations will be affected by the church such that their laws will start to reflect.

I have a question. So would you say that what distinguishes amillennialism from post-millennialism is that Amill teaches that Christ's reign is he's reigning in the hearts of the elect, whereas post-mill believes that he's reigning over the cosmos, not only over the hearts of the elect,.

But over the cosmos. I think an amillennialist would say that he's ruling and reigning over them, but it would be different for obviously a Christian because a Christian accepts that. The unbeliever doesn't, whereas I think the post-millennial position would say that the church has such an effect on the unbelievers that it would be a common grace in God actually restraining their hearts to a greater extent than he would in an amillennial understanding.

Is that fair, Dave? No. Okay. I think it kind of ties back to what Pastor Jensen's saying. Okay. That it could really depend on... Optimistic or pessimistic.

Got it. I think the distinction would be more over to what extent and what degree does the church impact the political, social, and economic world. They're very close. Because we do believe, well let me put it this way, an optimistic amillennialist would still hold to the church is impacting the nations and is impacting governments, but it'd be more of a question of what degree and to what extent.

Okay. And I think the distinction too would be as to what degree and to what extent, what steps does the church take in terms of trying to impact the governments.

Of the nations. These are kind of hair splitting distinctions. I think in most part though,.

Many amillennialists are still in agreement with post-millennials in terms of the furtherance of the gospel and people of every tongue and tribe and nation coming to know Christ and this having an impact on the world and being a blessing to the world.

It's still a blessing even to the unbeliever because the world is blessed by the presence of the church. They are receiving the benefits of God being at peace with man here on this earth through his son Jesus Christ.

They still get a residual blessing from that. It's true, but you see you start questioning different instances and situations. I hold to the view that most amillennialists, post-millennialists are pretty much on the same page about some of these things.

It's more a.

Question, I think, of extent or degree. Would you see from an amillennialist perspective that tribulation is going to get worse rather than better? I think too you can make a distinction.

Between a pessimistic and optimistic. I think most amillennialists hold to the view that the church has been going through a tribulation for the entire church age, the entire millennium, with different seasons of it being worse or being less.

We also see Christ conquering the nations.

Through that tribulation. I was just going to say, when you were going over amillennialism, you discussed a period of apostasy. Calling it a period of apostasy, I think in some senses presupposes the golden age that post-millennialism interprets.

I think amillennialists would see it as a period of persecution of the church. So there would be no difference between apostasy and persecution? So Satan would be loosed to gather unbelievers to persecute the church.

There would be a great period of persecution for the church just before the second coming.

My question is actually for Dave. Dave, when you mentioned about the governmental aspect, is that where theonomy would lie in? The view of theonomy?

Oh, that great monster was clearly a theonomist, but I would call him a hyper-theonomist.

But that's what you're talking about, though, when you're saying governmental, right?

Yeah. Like I said, to what extent, to what degree, and how do we impact our governance?

Right, right. That's right. Okay.

Because you would find some people who would take a very aggressive approach. Yes. They would say, we should be establishing Christian governments. Right.

Running Christian nations. Right. Okay. I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

No, yeah. But is that necessarily what the scriptures are expecting us to do, or it's going to happen?

I guess I keep an open mind for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, the only reason I asked that is because that's what I might...

But I think that's what we're talking about. Yeah, to what extent, to what degree? Yeah, exactly. From the view, there will always be Christ's kingdom, and the civil kingdom, or the kingdoms of this world.

And I believe Christ made that distinction. So my kingdom is not of this world. But we do see there is a distinction between the government of the church, and the government is still the church government, like I said.

And I agree, and this is where I think you're coming from. There is a spiritual impact on the world. And it does change the governance of the world. And we've seen that throughout church history. When we look at the Reformation, it didn't just turn the whole church upside down.

It didn't change the whole political conduct of the world around. And it did change governments. And many governments did start to govern more in terms of biblical principles and truth, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

So the church does have this impact on the governments of this world. The question is, is it in that political, legislative? Well, that's the way I see it. Yeah, yeah. All right, let's... That's what I think, yeah.

I think we should, all I know is we should make every effort to impact the world in the gospel. Okay.

Sorry, I'll give it back to you. All right, one more, and then we're going to move on.

Yeah, actually, just real quickly to tie in kind of what I was saying to what Dave was saying, you asked about the period of tribulation. I think, and that comes to degrees of optimism versus pessimism, right?

Like, someone who's a little bit more on the pessimistic side would probably say that that period of persecution has already begun and is getting worse and worse and worse. Right. And someone on the more optimistic side would say that that's a much more brief period of persecution at the end, right before the second coming.

There's degrees there of severity to that. We're going to hit that a little bit later on the Post Mill View.

So we'll get past that. I don't want to go on too much, but I mean, the Post Mill View views that exactly the same way that the church has been founded in tribulation, and there will be tribulation throughout the millennial age.

All right. I mean, Christ himself said it in his work that you will have tribulation. The King of God is being taken by violent men and is being taken by violence, not physical violence. So, again, the views are close.

Very. And I think Dave said it best, that it's more a question of extent than differences in the nature of the kingdom.

Excellent. Okay, let's continue with the Post Mill View. It's a period of prosperity for the gospel with ups and downs, periods of persecution, immorality, and lawlessness. Nevertheless, the overall pattern will be that of growth and success for the kingdom, like the mustard seed.

It's going to grow and become the largest of all the plants, such that even the birds of the air are going to make their nests in that particular parable. So Christ's return will synchronize with the general resurrection and the general judgment of all men at the very end of the millennium, or the church age.

Same thing. So Post Millennialism is going to look like this. Jesus comes. This is his first advent. He starts the church, and this is the church age. And then what happens? Jesus leaves. He ascends into heaven, just like Amillennialism.

He rules and reigns, seated on the throne, until he makes his enemies a foothold for his feet. And there will be tribulation. The millennium is going to be a long period of time, very similar to the Amill position.

The only difference is, from a Post Millennial view, you can see the church grows. Not that the church doesn't grow in a spiritual sense. It's going to grow on earth, and it's going to manifest itself in a different way than Amillennialism.

This period is going to be characterized by Satan being bound. He's not going to be able to deceive the nations anymore. And I just want to make a point to this, because so many people, when they hear Amillennial or a Post Millennial view, they say, well, look at what's going on in the world today.

How could Satan possibly be bound when we see all the stuff that's happening? Satan being bound doesn't mean that he's not active. He's still active here on this earth. The scriptures specifically say there's something specifically that he's bound from, deceiving the nations.

The gospel is going to go to all the nations. All the elect are going to be saved. People from every tribe, every tongue, every people, and every nation are going to come to know Jesus. It's not just for Israel.