Dispensational Proof 18
18. The Millennium (Revelation 20)
The three main positions on the kingdom are postmillennialism, amillennialism, and premillennialism. Postmillennialism believes Christ will return after the church evangelizes the world and prepares the earth for the coming Christ. They believe we are building the literal kingdom on earth right now. They thus confuse the true mission and calling of the church. The 1000 years of Revelation 20 is not a literal amount of years for the postmllennialist.
Amillennialism believes that we are in the kingdom right now and that the 1000 years spoken of in Revelation 20 is only figurative of a long period of time. This view is quite amazing since the numbers in Revelation are always literal and John uses the number 1000 six times with a time qualifier in the same context.
Dispensational premillennialism teaches that the church will be called home to be with the Lord before the 70th week of Daniel, before the seven-year tribulation period which is before the 1000-year millennium. The premillennial view understands the millennial reign of Christ to be a literal 1000 years. Christ will return bodily, execute judgment upon individuals and nations and then setup His kingdom (Matthew 24:15-31, 36-44; 25:31-46).
The premillennial view best fits the flow of the text of Revelation and holds to a literal understanding of the text including such things as literal numbers in Revelation which means 1000 years repeated six times in Revelation 20 is really 1000 years. The ruling and reigning of saints with Christ is literally going to be part of Jesus Christ’s millennial kingdom. The binding of Satan is real as well. He will be bound for the 1000 years. He will be in the bottomless pit and chained in such a way that he will not be able to deceive those on the earth. Another strong proof for the dispensational premillennialism is a plain normal reading of the text of Revelation.
If the events of Revelation 18-22 can be shown to be chronological then amillennialism falls on its face. There are a series of connective words that give the text a smooth-flowing chronological reading. The following connective terms and time factors are found in the following chapters of Revelation 18-21: 18:1 “after these things,” 18:4 “And I heard,” 19:1 “after these things,” 19:6 “and I heard,” 19:11 “now I say,” 19:17 “Then I saw,” 19:19 “And I saw,” 19:20 “Then,” 20:1 “Then I saw,” 20:4 “And I saw,” 20:7 “Now when,” 20:11 “Then I saw,” 20:12 “And I saw,” 20:14 “Then,” 21:1 “Now I saw,” 21:2 “Then I saw,” 21:3 “And I heard,” 21:5 “Then,” 21:9 “Then.” John is clearly telling what he is seeing in chronological order. John certainly knows how to communicate time factors and progressions in a logical order. He uses time indicators all through the book which the amillennial and postmillennial views must ignore to fit their system. It really makes no sense that John relates the order of things he saw if God was just jumping back and forth in history and using parallels over centuries of time.
