Survey of Revelation

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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How y'all doing this evening? We are gathered for what would have been our last class but I have been I have been urged by a few to make this two parts and so tonight will still be the official last class of the semester but next Thursday I am going to do a special class on my particular understanding of Revelation which I will not have the time to seek to prove tonight because I'm going to be going over the various perspectives and generally I don't in these classes really try to put forward my own ideas or my own positions generally I just give a broad overview of the various positions but Revelation is one of those things as one of those books that certainly causes a lot of interest and folks want to know and honestly in my many years being here as the pastor I've never preached on the book of Revelation I've never really taught on it except one time I did a very very short series on the seven churches of Revelation but that was it and that was you know it was only a few months of looking at those passages so I've never the only time I've ever taught on Revelation is I was invited to a conference and the conference was four perspectives on Revelation so they had four pastors come for well not even four pastors it was basically four scholars come because it wasn't not all of us were pastors but it was four of us came and each gave a particular viewpoint on how to understand Revelation and I I gave my position and posted it and immediately started getting responses because a lot of people never heard of it had never heard of the position that I that I teach and so that's what we'll do next week I'll be alluding to some things tonight but next week we will have the the real lecture on that may not be an hour and a half I don't know I don't know what next week will look like it may be a little shorter because it's just my lecture on why I take the position that I take but it won't be an official class so if you do miss it it won't affect your grade at all it's not necessary but if you do want to come we'll start 630 next week and we'll have that as an additional class also I'm looking at having a seminar class sometime between now and the end of the year that will be a class on a Saturday it will probably be nine to three maybe nine to four depending on what we what subject matter we choose to go over that will be a certificate class you will be able to earn a certificate for that class it's based on it's something our seminar our seminary used to do seminary I attended we had a lot of people who came from out of town and they couldn't always come to the eight-week sessions so they would cram everything into one day and then you had like two months to do independent research to to finalize that class so it's not part of the eight core classes that we have to receive your diploma in this week you know it's a two-year program for one year for the next year and you receive your diploma it's not part of that but it basically is like an extra credit and and and the subject that we're looking at is the the textual variation in the history of the New Testament text that's that's that's the that's the subject I'm considering but if you have something else that you would like me to consider let me know and I will let you guys know what day that will be we'll probably start at 9 go to 11 have lunch together like go out to lunch and then come back and maybe do like 1230 to 3 something like that so it'll be a long day of study but it will be a fruitful day I'm sure and then we'll come back in January to start our next semester next semester is survey of biblical doctrines we've done the survey of the Old Testament we've done the survey of the New Testament so you will have a new book to purchase in the new the news semester and I am still trying to determine what book will be best thinking possibly concise theology by J.I.

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Packer or the shorter version of I think there's a shorter version of Grudem's systematic because Grudem's systematic theology is pretty pretty long but there's in there a shorter one I like so that may be the one we do I'm still trying to decide which one I want to use as the textbook so I'll let you know closer to time certainly have plenty of time before now and then to to get it you guys ready to dive in Revelation all right when you walked in tonight you were given three handouts ordinarily the handouts are secondary to my lecture you didn't get it they're right over there sorry ordinarily the handouts are secondary to my lecture tonight they are the lecture you will have the same notes that I have the first note the first page perspectives on Revelation and the Millennium that this is a handout that I actually created myself for this class the second page should be four views of the end times that is printed out of the Rose book of charts the one that you were you and I were just referring to John so if you have the Rose book of charts and and you want to use that you can actually open the book and see it better because this is a condensed smaller version of that and then the last page is taken out of the other book of charts that I mentioned that I was using no I'm sorry this is also from Rose as well so both of these are from the Rose book excuse me I was wrong so so there is your there is your your handouts for the evening so let's begin by simply addressing what type of literature we are looking at when we look at the book of Revelation everybody turn it if you have your Bible turn in your turn your Bible to Revelation chapter 1 notice what it says the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it for the time is near all right the word revelation is the Greek word apocalypsis it's where we get the word apocalypse and it simply means a revealing of something generally when we think of apocalypse what do we think zombie well you're not wrong but the end of the world you know if you watch an apocalyptic film there was a few years ago where there were a lot of apocalyptic films 2012 everybody thought because of the Mayan calendar the world was going to end in 2012 and what I realized recently was it was actually just off by eight years it's really 2020 all the crazy stuff that's going on this year but nobody everybody remember that the movie 2012 and it was based on the idea that the world was gonna end in 2012 and then you go back 12 years before that it was the y2k everybody thought something was going to happen when they when the year 2000 came there were all these people who were collecting food and setting up bunkers and preparing themselves for the y2k problem which never really amounted to anything back in 1984 there was a man who wrote a book entitled 80 I'm excuse me back in 1988 there was a book published 88 reasons why Jesus will return in 1988 that book is still available but it's certainly not as popular as it was before 1988 because Jesus did not return and so the concept of the apocalypse the concept of in times has certainly been a popular subject both in Christian circles and outside of Christian circles it seems as if people have a natural somewhat instinctive understanding that all of this is going to end one day somehow someway everything is eventually going to come to an end and what we find is that there are people in the church particularly who get so fascinated with the apocalypse so fascinated with the end times that they make everything in their theology based on their understanding of the end and their whole worldview becomes focused on the end and they begin to read the daily newspaper with Bible verses in mind and they start to say oh well Russia that's Gog and and Iran is May God or whatever you know I don't keep up with it enough to know what they're saying today but it's always some kind of reading the news in view of scripture and trying to find something that was that is to take place back in the 1940s the Jewish people returned to Israel that became a huge moment in the minds of many people because they believed that was the turning point of history where God was going to bring his people back and begin the end they thought that was it 47 was that the year they thought 1947 is the beginning of the ending and so there was the apocalypse but you go back a hundred years before that the mid 1800s and you have the rise of dispensational thinking and the rise of what what were known as the Adventist movements Adventist means the arrival and and you know we sell every year we celebrate Advent in church Christmas time you celebrate Advent it's about the first arrival of Christ but the Adventist movements were about the second coming the second arrival of Christ and so we have the Seventh-day Adventist and we have the Jehovah Witnesses which were actually an Adventist movement it was based on some some form of understanding of the apocalypse and I would say this I would say a lot of the bad theology that arises out of Seventh-day Adventist a lot of the bad theology that arrives arises out of Jehovah Witnesses is based on a faulty eschatology oh by the way let's let's do a little just very quickly just in case you are not familiar with this word the word eschatology is the word for the study of last things or more simply put the study of the end times the eschaton means the last things and from a biblical perspective one could argue that we have been in the eschaton since Jesus Christ ascended into heaven because since Jesus Christ ascended into heaven what have we been awaiting his return therefore we are in the eschaton and when people ask pastor are we in the end times yep and we have been for 2,000 years now that's not usually the answer they want they want to know if it's if it's going to happen in the next two weeks not in the next 200 years or the next 2,000 years they will they when people ask are we in the end times they they want to know if some you know like for instance a few weeks ago there was some peace deal that was signed between Israel and yeah and there was the idea that that that that Trump was being used by God to bring peace and that peace would usher in the in time so again reading the newspaper with one hand and the Bible with the other hand and trying to interpret the Bible through the lens and the thing is we are not the first generation to do that every generation fancies themself as the last every generation figures well not gonna get any better than this no that's not they're nothing they figure but this is the end right I'm at the last part and I think part of the reason for that thinking is we all we all have a personal eschatology because all of us have a last day coming when I teach eschatology the first thing I teach the first class in fact we'll be doing this on our Wednesday night whenever we get through this we're in ecclesiology now but the next the next lesson series is eschatology and the first class we do is the class on death because death is the eschatology that everybody has to look forward to and and whether or not Jesus returns in my lifetime doesn't change the fact that my life's gonna end am I in the end times yes 50 years from now I probably won't be here anymore a hundred years from now none of us will be so we're all in our in time and that's why I said I think that's part of the reason why it becomes so fascinating for people they know their end is a coming so they just figure we take it all with us yeah and maybe I'm being a little facetious there but the idea is well my ends coming it must be the end of all things we tend to look very myopically at the world and we tend to see the world through our lens so when we talk about the end time certainly Revelation comes to our mind because Revelation discusses the subject of the end but Revelation is not a book that is altogether easy to interpret that people who say Revelation is easy to interpret tend to take very simplistic views which are often easily proven false Revelation is apocalyptic literature it is written in the same vein as Ezekiel and the latter half of Daniel neither of which any sane person would said are easy reading I mean Jane genuinely read Ezekiel go home spend the evening doing your devotions and Ezekiel and it's not that easy the latter half of Daniel not that easy the first half of Daniel's narrative the second half is apocalyptic therefore it's not easy and so when we talk about Revelation we have to understand that we're diving into a book this book was not universally accepted by the church immediately in fact if you remember a few weeks ago when I talked about actually the beginning of this class we talked about Canon and and how the Canon was was recognized and we said that there were certain books that were not universally accepted one was Hebrews because of the question of authorship but what was the other one revelation I mean when you got ten headed dragons and you know all of these things that are going on there it arises many questions vials of judgment and seals and trumpets it's quite difficult but thankfully it was accepted and it was rather recognized and part of the reason why is because the author who does it say is the author but it doesn't tell us which John verse 1 tells us these things were given to his servant John but it doesn't it doesn't tell us specifically which history does but not the text so we do have to rely a little bit on extra biblical history extrovert history tells us that it was almost certainly John the brother of James the disciple of Jesus the one the same one who wrote the gospel of John the same one who wrote the three epistles of John did y'all do your homework y'all do your reading this was argued in the reading right that the most likely based on the external evidence there is some internal evidence to suggest John did not write it for instance it does have a different certain different pattern than does his other writings and so that's some of the internal evidence that he didn't write it however as you read in your hopefully in your in your reading the it doesn't preclude him as the author and I think that part of the reason why it's written differently is it's a different genre of literature this is apocalyptic literature it's not going to be the same as a gospel or a epistle it's going to come much differently when we come to Revelation we need to understand that there are at least four perspectives for interpreting Revelation and we're going to go through those four perspectives if you have your handout this is the first sheet I'll just read it as I as I wrote it this subject deals with how we begin the process of interpreting the content of Revelation before we can understand what it means we have to use the proper hermeneutical lenses each of these perspectives looks at Revelation differently and thus the interpretations of the content varies greatly from one perspective to another when I say hermeneutical lenses when you how many of you took survey of the or what was it called what we call it how to how to interpret the Bible no no how don't how to interpret the Bible what was it called it was hermeneutics but we called it I forget the name of the course it's survey of Bible study methods or something I forget I forget but it was hermeneutics it was study for mix do you guys remember what what I what I mentioned about hermeneutical lenses you basically that means that the the context that you're looking from you know if you if if I put on a pair of red glasses all of everything in here that is red would turn white because my it would change the way that my eyes see what's in front of me right rose-tinted glasses tend to take things that are red and make them white and when we read Revelation we're going to be reading from one of four perspectives and here here are the perspectives and I'm explaining each one but I'll give you the overview very quickly the first is called preterism this says basically that most of the content of Revelation was fulfilled during the lifetime of the original audience prior to and during the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 preterism says that most or all of Revelation has already been fulfilled and it was fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 now you'll notice there's an asterisk next to the word preterism that takes you down to where I put a distinction should be made between full preterism and partial preterism full preterism sometimes called hyper preterism or consistent preterism argues that all of the prophecies regarding Jesus the Second Coming and resurrection of the dead were fulfilled in the first century full preterism I believe is heretical here's why full preterism essentially makes everything promised already fulfilled and therefore the consistent historic view of the church would be made void because the historic the consistent historic view of the church is that we still look forward to Christ's Second Coming and full preterism would say no he's already returned he returned in AD 70 and judgment everything's over okay so full preterism I do not accept I think that it is it violates that one of the earliest creeds of the church is the Apostles Creed and by the way when you talk about in time stuff if you notice the earliest creeds of the church they don't give us perspectives on the end time they just say Jesus is returning to judge the living and the dead that's the that's the consistent testimony so as long as someone believes that they are within the bounds of orthodoxy that Jesus will return he would judge the living and the dead and those who were saved will go to heaven those who don't will go to hell but that's the consistent testimony of Christian history if you look at full preterism it denies that therefore I would say it is heretical but partial preterism which I actually have dubbed orthodox preterism remember orthodox meaning straight theology or straight straight teaching orthodox preterism argues that many if not most of the prophecies of Revelation were fulfilled in the first century but we still have some yet to come that is very orthodox and that will be the position I will be defending next week just so you know my position is what I dub orthodox preterism not I hate to call it partial I so I just call it orthodox because it's the only view that would be consistent with the orthodox understanding of the end but there are three other views so preterism says everything or most of Revelation was fulfilled in 8070 real quick before we even go to the next thing what would be required for that to be true what major thing would be required for preterism to be true revelation would have to be written before 87 I believe it was absolutely this is where I disagree with your textbook a lot why would yeah well the textbooks wrong I told you to get that book so that I could prove it wrong let me explain this to you though on that this textbook when it comes to end times view is very different than what I teach but that's part of the reason why I had you get it because I am NOT simply trying to force feed you my position I want you to have to deal with this on your own this position that is in this textbook is the futurist position which we haven't gotten to yet but that is the position argued in your textbook I was a futurist for a very long time so I understand that position it is the position held by most Baptists because of the Schofield influence of the the or the refer the influence of the Schofield reference Bible which was very influential and I'll get to that when we get to dispensationalism but the point the point of the matter is I take the preterist position the book will say I'm wrong I will say the books wrong and seeing as I'm the living person here I'll get to make my point but I am giving you the thought I'm giving you the ability if you want to write a really great paper prove me wrong I always say you know if you want to write a really great paper take a position that I don't agree with and make me believe it all right but let's move on preterism we understand that all right historicism says that most of the content of Revelation is being fulfilled gradually throughout church history and it's still being fulfilled today this would be the position of the Reformers because the Reformers saw the Pope as the embodiment of the beast the Antichrist so they saw not that Revelation was being fulfilled in the first century but that it was being consistently and constantly fulfilled throughout history and I will say this I'm sympathetic to that position I can see how someone could arrive at that conclusion in fact I think preterism and historicism can have some overlap and next week I'll explain why I think that's the case but preterism says it was mostly fulfilled in 8070 historicism says it's being fulfilled in history still even to today idealism most of the content of Revelation is meant to be understood as symbolically or allegorically portraying the ongoing cosmic conflict of the spiritual realm idealism is allegorical interpretation now ordinarily I would say we should shy away from allegory as far as interpretation but when you look at apocalyptic literature it's impossible not to see some allegory not to see some picture language and so I do understand the idealist how people would get there however it becomes almost an irrelevant thing if this is just about the ongoing conflict of good and evil it's almost as if well yeah okay but what's it teaching us specifically and you almost don't get the specifics you just get this giant allegory that there are really no specific issues so I would say idealism is the least compelling to me even though I do believe there are allegories that have to be interpreted for instance Revelation 13 says a beast rises up out of the sea right and then it talks about the the false prophet who points people to worship the beast and those who don't receive the sign of the beast on their hands and their foreheads are are condemned right you remember Revelation 13 I mean certainly even the even the hardcore literalists don't believe that Godzilla is going to come crawling out of the the the ocean they believe that's referencing a man right I mean does anybody have you ever heard anyone interpret that as a literal monster no it's always a man right so everybody's sort of taking the approach and that's why when somebody says I'm an absolute literalist on Revelation I think you really not because here's what they'll say I'm an absolute literalist see right here where it talks about these giant locusts those are Apache helicopters I'm like well you just quit being a literalist as soon as you start talking about Apache helicopters for the locusts it's not literal anymore you are now interpreting it by way of the allegory so so so anybody who tells you they are an absolute literalist when it comes to Revelation just listen to him long enough and they will prove themselves not true so the three positions preterism historicism idealism and then finally and fourthly the one most people are acquainted with and the one that your book supports is futurism futurism says that most of the content of Revelation is yet to be fulfilled in your textbook I want to see here where was it in the textbook it mentions basically this it's oh yeah here it is a simple key to understanding the book of Revelation simple throw that word away it's not sorry a simple key to understanding the under the book of Revelation is to realize that it is divided into three main parts listen chapter one describes a vision in which John saw Christ robed as a judge standing in the midst of the seven churches chapters two and three have to do with the church age in which we now live the remaining 19 chapters have to do with future events following the close of the church age that is a major assumption that is an absolute assumption this is where I would absolutely disagree with your textbook because in one paragraph he just eliminated preterism he just eliminated idealism and he and historicist historicism he said this is the way you should interpret it chapter one is the is John and in Christ chapters two and three or that is the church age and then chapter four and after is what is still yet to come that's the assumption and that assumption I think is very dangerous because you're you're you're not even allowing for the idea that any of those things have been fulfilled already so so let's let's let's let's use our board for a moment if we may John you may have a little trouble I'll try to keep it one day I'll get this you know if any of you guys who are really good with a saw everyone to come in and lower this two inches I'll be happy we're supposed to do it I just can't I've never gotten around to it and so I always you know just throwing that out there so let's so let's talk kind of in pictures for a moment we know from a historical perspective Christ lived died in the first part of the what we would call now the first century and so I know this date is not accurate but we'll just put 33 ad for the cross simple enough we don't know exactly the the actual year but 33 ad makes it simple enough from there until 70 ad we have I'll just put a star here for the destruction of Jerusalem major event in history what's interesting is when I was a dispensationalist by the way I went to a dispensational school I was taught dispensationalism everybody I knew was a dispensationalist I didn't know anybody who didn't believe this I never once heard about anything about what happened in 8070 nobody ever mentioned it because the dispensational view is that God has two people Israel and the church and never the twain shall meet these two are two distinct people in fact your textbook says it does it not say that God has an earthly people and he has a heavenly people and the heavenly people is the church and the earthly people is again I take great issue with your textbook I'm glad you read it because I take major issue with that to say that we are God's heavenly people and the Jews are God's earthly people that is not how it works you you you read Ephesians to the latter part where it talks about breaking down that that dividing line between Jew and Gentile it just ain't it ain't true but but here's why people believe it John Nelson Darby created this system that's typically referred to now as dispensationalism dispensationalism was popularized in the notes of the Schofield reference Bible which was which was massively influential and these charts were in the Schofield reference Bible and the charts were based on the idea that the church is a parenthesis in God's plan God's plan was for the Jews they failed when the Messiah came so the backup and they don't say they don't use this language I have to be careful I want to be fair to my those who I disagree with but essentially the parenthesis in the plan of God was the church and one day that parenthesis will end it will end with a rapture and there thereby starting up again God's plan for the Jews which will usher in the seven-year tribulation which will then usher in a millennium on the earth and therefore the church is not the the focus of God's plan it's a parenthesis in his plan and his actual plan is for the Jewish people I don't agree with that at all I think that that one I think it does damage to how we understand what the church is how we understand the purpose of the church in the world and I just I don't agree so why would you mention 87 if you're dispensationalist because what I say what it what is 8070 I've said it several times in this class that was when it ended that was the end of the Old Covenant that was the I'll tell you some people don't like this language but Ken Gentry who is a tremendous author he said that was the divorce he said that's when the Old Covenant was made null and void and the Old Testament does talk about God divorcing Israel he said that's what happened now you wing argue language and what that means but that was when the Old Covenant ended now let me say this the Old Covenant ended here there was a grace period this was the grace period but it but forever no more sacrifices no more sacrifices it's done if they build another temple over there and start doing sacrifices again that does not mean that it started up again because the temple is gone all right let me John you got a lot of questions you like okay so now let's let's fast forward a bit historically I'm gonna jump all the way to the end we don't know when the end is but it's pretty far so at least to where we are let's say this is well it's kind of hard to just put the end let me say it this way in regard to revelation what happens next depending on whether you are dispensational or not what happens next would be what's called the where the church is taken out okay you've heard that okay huh heard it okay then would be a seven-year tribulation followed by the return of Christ and a thousand years sometimes referred to as the Millennium or the thousand-year reign of Christ so ultimately that's the in this if you if you just happen to turn over to your second page don't stay there because we need to come back to the first page but if you look at the second page it explains it a little bit more detail okay the this one sorry this one oh these four this would be the bottom the bottom left dispensational premillennialism okay and you notice the big the big thing that comes in this one the rapture that it preceded excuse me precedes the coming of Christ by seven years that the church is taken out now that's based on first Thessalonians 4 that's the text that's usually argued for that but it's also based on an assumption that word assumption is going to come up a lot here's the assumption after Revelation chapter 3 we do not see the word church again therefore the argument is chapter 4 begins the post church age so for the dispensationalist the church age began with the coming of Christ and ends with the rapture so again dispensationalism this is the church age remember we read in the book what is the the church age that's what Revelation 2 & 3 is about so you get the Church of Smyrna the Thyatira in Philadelphia and Pergamum and and Laodicea you've got all these churches those are representing the church age and so therefore the church age ends I don't believe any of this by the way I'm teaching you what I don't believe but they say that Revelation chapters 2 & 3 are about the church age it ends with chapter 4 which begins the seven-year tribulation so according to the futurist perspective the vast majority of Revelation chapter 4 to the end is all yet to be fulfilled so does that make sense the preterist it's all mostly been fulfilled in fact I would say we're in chapter 19 chapter 20 right we're looking for well actually no because it's cyclical it's that's another thing we need to understand Revelation I do not believe is meant to be interpreted this way I believe it's meant to be interpreted this way by the way if you're listening to this you have no idea what I just did so let me say that again because some people do listen to this as a lesson most people interpret love revelation as unfolding step-by-step but it doesn't unfold that way at least as far as I understand it I believe it unfolds in cycles so it takes you through and then starts over and cycles through again it starts over and cycles through again and starts over and cycles through again this is why there are three seven judgments it's the same thing over and over it's it's you have the seven seals and then you have the seven vials and or is the trumpets which come after it's the seals the trumpets and the in the in the bowls of the vials right so this is cyclical not this comes after this comes after this well they're overlapping this is why you get to this is why you get to later in the book and you see Jesus being born you're like wait a minute what why is Jesus born halfway through Revelation because it's it started over the it's telling the narrative story in repetitive cycles therefore when you read it you don't read it like this you read it like that is this making sense am I am I have I have I totally lost everybody okay okay all right so so that's that's part and parcel of how a lot of people misunderstand the futurist says everything's coming and it's good it's got to be read this to this to this to this to this that's why they get you know the seven seals followed by the seven bow trumpets followed by the symbols these are all things that are going to happen in the seven-year tribulation and they get that from the counting up the number of months that are mentioned all right so the futurist perspective says that everything is yet to be fulfilled but the futurist perspective this is only one example of it there are there are various views of futurism and but ultimately the the main distinction is that rapture because if you if you do turn to your second page I'll show you this turn your second page notice that the two on the left are pre millennial the one on the top says there's a second coming of Christ which begins the millennium right and the bottom one says there's a rapture a second coming of Christ and then the millennium which leads to the final judgment okay so after you determine where you stand on what perspective you're going to take are you going to take the preterist perspective are you going to take the historicist perspective once you decide that once you have studied and spent time determining where you are and you may come out as a futurist you may say pastor I don't think preterism holds water I'm gonna be futurist whatever okay this is one of those areas I do think we can disagree and it'd be all right but where you come out on that the next big question is going to be the the millennium because Revelation chapter 20 turn there Revelation chapter 20 becomes the next logical question okay how do you stand on Revelation next question how do you stand on the thousand years Revelation chapter 20 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 sees 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 okay so therein is the beginning of the millennium but it goes on it says then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who to whom the authority to judge was committed also I saw the souls of those who've 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 for 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 Gog and Magog to gather them for battle their number is like the sand of the sea and they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the Saints and the beloved city but fire came down from heaven and consumed them and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beasts and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever all right let's break down a little bit of this in the Millennium according to this passage Satan will be bound in the Millennium there will be a form of resurrection that's mentioned in verse 5 and in the Millennium there will be a time toward the end where Satan is released and is able to make war again and those whom he has deceived he will be thrown into fire and those he will be thrown in the lake of fire and it says later on that those who have followed him will also join him there that says that later in verses 11 to 14 so this is typically referred to as the Millennium there are four positions on the Millennium these are this is your second sheet but don't I want you to be on the first sheet because I want you to look at what I wrote I say three perspectives they're actually four and I'll explain why why there's an extra one this subject deals with how we understand the thousand-year reign of Christ mentioned in Revelation 21 to 10 naturally the perspective one takes on Revelation will have an impact on the one the way one interprets this passage however there is not a necessary parallel between all the perspectives on Revelation and the perspective on the Millennium for instance you could be you could be a I think you could be a preterist and still be a premillennial but most aren't but I know you could be a preterist and definitely be a postmillennialist and and most preterists like me are all millennial so let's let's talk about what that means pre means before so a premillennialist is a person who believes that the Millennium is still yet to come so everything in Revelation 20 that we just read verses 1 to 10 is what's going to happen in the future it's still yet to come and they usually see it as a literal thousand years that when Jesus returned so come back to our chart when Jesus returns here now forget the rapture stuff just remember when Jesus returns here that begins the thousand year reign and at the end of the thousand year reign Satan is going to be loosed and there's going to be one last great final battle okay what is assumed by that Christ's return will not usher in the eternal state think of what I just said if what I just said is true Christ will return and he will reign on this earth as it is for a thousand years and then the eternal state will begin so that's one of the issues I take with premillennialism it assumes that Christ's coming again is not the culmination of all things but that his coming again begins a thousand year period that must happen before the culmination of all things this was let me tell you what really turned me away from being a premillennialist again this is what I was when I was in school that was what I was taught if you were anything else you were a heretic but I remember asking the question does this mean that there are going to be unsaved people on the earth during the Millennium the answer is yes has to be because there's going to be armies that join in the final battle so they're going to be so Christ is going to come back and rule from Jerusalem a world that is not truly subject to him I take great issue with that that my Savior is going to come back he's going to place his foot on the Mount of Olives he's going to walk and sit on the throne of David for a thousand years and the world will not be subject to him I have great issue with that but that is the major assumption of premillennialism the other major assumption is the reason for the millennium if you've ever heard dr.