The New Millennium

Keypoints on this page
	What 'millennium' means and its significance in the Bible.
	How the millennium described in the Bible is part of the true Christian gospel and the coming kingdom of God.
	This future 'millennium' is due to begin soon and is an important part of God's plan for our future.

A few years ago, the word ‘Millennium’ was on the lips of millions of people. The year 1999 passed at midnight on December 31st to the year 2000, and the event was celebrated throughout the world. One period of a thousand years had now passed and the world stood on the threshold of a new period of a thousand years - a new millennium. There was universal optimism that the new millennium would bring a new start - but did it?

The word ‘millennium’ is not a Bible word and yet the substance of a millennium of blessing for the world is found throughout the Bible. The word is derived from two Latin words:

• Mille, meaning a thousand, and
• Annus, meaning a year.

Hence millennium is a period of one thousand years.

The Millennium in Scripture
The Bible does have something to say about a specific period of one thousand years. The book of Revelation says:

‘they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years’
[Revelation 20.4].

The context of this verse is that there is to be a time of resurrection and judgement. The apostle John saw a throne of judgement upon the earth and the resurrected saints standing before that throne, having been raised from the dead. The faithful are then given positions of honour as kings and priests, reigning on the earth with Christ for a thousand years. For them, death will have no power as they will have been made immortal.

This doctrine of the millennium, or the one thousand years rule of Christ and the saints on the earth, is therefore nothing new and its subject constitutes the Gospel (good news) of the kingdom of God on the earth. Jesus taught his disciples to pray:

‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth’
[Matthew 6.10].

The belief of early Christians
The doctrine of the millennium is not an invention of modern day Christian fanatics to fit in with the year 2,000. Jesus, and the first century believers, all upheld this doctrine. The historian Gibbon, in his treatise entitled ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, wrote: ‘The assurance of a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers, from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the Apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor of the son of Constantine. Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers…’

This evidence from outside the Bible shows that the doctrine of the millennial reign of Christ and the saints on the earth has virtually been lost sight of today. However, in the first century it was linked with the reward of the faithful – to be raised to eternal life and to reign with Jesus on earth for one thousand years. In Christ’s day, heaven going at death was not a Scriptural doctrine and Christ and the apostles certainly did not believe it.

The hope of true believers is eternal life to be enjoyed on the earth, after the resurrection and judgement. Christ taught: ‘Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth’ [Matthew 5.5]. This doctrine of the faithful being rewarded upon the earth was changed over the years by being mingled with ideas from pagan mythology, leading to today’s church doctrines, which are totally at variance with the Scriptures.

The Kingdom of God
The doctrine of the kingdom of God was the basis of the teaching of Jesus during his ministry. At the commencement of his ministry we read that:

‘Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel’
[Mark 1.14,15].

To the Jews of Jesus’ day, the kingdom of God would mean so much more than it does today. In today’s adulterated doctrines, the kingdom of God is regarded by many as the rule of God in the hearts of the believers. To the Jews, to Jesus, and to the first century Christians, it meant much more than this - it meant a literal kingdom upon the earth.

The kingdom of God existed in the past when God brought His chosen people Israel out of Egyptian bondage into the land of promise. God chose David and then Solomon, his son, to sit as king on the throne over God’s kingdom. However, on account of the wickedness of the Jews, that kingdom was overturned until a future date. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to king Zedekiah, the last king over God’s kingdom:

‘I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him’
[Ezekiel 21.27].

The words of the prophet were fulfilled and God’s kingdom came to an end. The Jews were scattered by the Babylonians, and later by the Romans, throughout the world until a future day when he who has the right to the kingdom, Jesus Christ, comes back to restore the kingdom. That will be the day when the promise made to Jesus’ mother Mary, by the angel Gabriel will be fulfilled:

‘The Lord God shall give unto him (Jesus) the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end’
[Luke 1.32,33].

This was no new promise but had been foretold by many of Israel’s prophets in the Old Testament, who spoke of the kingdom being restored and Israel brought back to favour with God. The Gospel of the kingdom of God, preached by Jesus, therefore encompassed this promise of God to restore His kingdom, with Jerusalem as the capital again, as it was in the reign of David.

Jesus lived at the time when the Romans ruled the Jewish nation, but Jesus’ preaching found favour with many of the Jews because it intimated that the present Roman world order would pass away and God’s kingdom, with Jesus as king, would take over the rulership of the world. Before his ascension into heaven, the disciples asked Jesus:

‘wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’
[Acts 1.6]

They knew that he was destined to be the king of the Jews and Jesus had to explain that his kingdom was not imminent, but that it would be set up on a future date according to the will of God [Acts 1.7].

Israel’s prophets had said:

‘out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem’
[Isaiah 2.3 compare with Micah 4.2]

and Jesus preached the same message. Just and righteous laws will be administered to the world from its capital city Jerusalem and the new world order will be governed by Jesus and his immortal saints. The effects of man’s misrule will be swept away and the nations will learn righteousness. Those who corrupt the earth will be destroyed, leaving the earth at peace, a time when none shall be afraid. There will be no international unrest because ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more’ [Isaiah 2.4].

The nations will go up to Jerusalem from year to year and they will be pleased to learn the righteous laws of God. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

‘he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths’
[Isaiah 2.3].

This is the Gospel, or good news, of the coming kingdom of God preached by Jesus and his apostles and this is still the hope of Christ’s true followers living in the 21st century.

The beginning of the Millennium
The Scriptures show that ‘the millennium’ will be brought in by the following events (not necessarily in the following order):

• The Jews back in their land, after centuries of dispersion [Ezekiel 37].
• A time of unprecedented trouble for the world with no way out [Luke 21.26,27].
• A time of gross wickedness and immorality [Luke 17.26-29].
• An attack on Israel by the Arab nations [Psalm 83].
• The return of Christ [Luke 21.27].
• The resurrection and judgement of the saints [I Thessalonians 4.13-18].
• An attack on Israel by a huge northern confederacy [Ezekiel 38].
• Destruction of the Papal religious system [Revelation 14.6-10; Revelation 17 and 18].
• God’s throne set up in Jerusalem [Psalm 2].
• All nations being called to submit to God’s righteous laws [Isaiah 2].

Conditions during the Millennium
Those living during the Millennium will be privileged indeed. They will have Christ and his immortal saints as their rulers. Gradually, the earth will be transformed from the present world of unrest and insecurity to a time of peace and security, with righteous laws going forth from Jerusalem.

Men and women will be taught God’s ways and will walk in his law. [Isaiah 2.3] Gradually, lawlessness and sin will be put down. Life will become tranquil and life expectancy increased [Isaiah 65.20]. Conditions in the world will be once again ‘very good’, as they were when God created our first parents.

God’s chosen people, Israel, will become the head of the nations and will be recognised as God’s people [Zechariah 8.23]. The promises made to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David will be fulfilled. The earth will be blessed with abundance of food and provisions and God will add His blessing to the earth and the earth will produce abundantly for all [Psalm 72].

The end of the Millennium
To God, a thousand years are as one day [2 Peter 3.8] and in His time scale, one thousand years is as nothing. During this millennial period, great changes will occur in the earth. The rule by Christ and his immortal saints will change the living conditions for all the mortal population. Sin, disease, and death will have been subdued and the earth will be transformed. Then follows the time for God’s final plan to be put into effect. A further judgement is to occur, this time of the mortal population who have lived during the Millennium, and there will be a second resurrection. Those found worthy at that time will be given eternal life [Revelation 20].

There will also be a rebellion of certain nations against Christ at that time and this rebellion will be totally crushed and all opposition eradicated [Revelation 20.7-9]. With the earth now totally populated by immortal creatures, God will be ‘all in all’ [1 Corinthians 15.26].

What is your hope for the future?
What did the end of the last millennium and the start of a new one in the year 2000 do for you? Did it bring happiness, peace, and contentment? The chances are that it did not. The world yearned for something new as we started the new millennium but, unfortunately, because of the continuance of man’s misguided rule, it did not find that promise fulfilled.

As we look around us, we find that the problems of the 20th Century are still with us. Following the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the threat to world stability has not diminished. There is international unrest, increasing terrorism, and still no permanent solution to the Middle East problem. The problems of drugs misuse, crime, illness, and death have not gone away and the prospect is a bleak one, with viruses, natural, or man-made, threatening our very existence.

However, there is a solution to all these problems. The prospect of the true millennium spoken of in the Scriptures is the only worthwhile hope for the future. Heaven-going and immortal souls are doctrines belonging to pagan superstition and they are a vain hope with no prospect of fulfilment. The teaching of Jesus and the apostles, the true scriptural hope, arose from specific revelation of God to the fathers of Israel and to the prophets of old.

The Gospel (good news) was preached beforehand to Abraham [Galatians 3.8] and to the fathers of Israel and, therefore, the Gospel concerns the setting up of God’s kingdom for a thousand years upon the earth. This has been God’s revealed purpose for at least 3,500 years. Is it your hope also? By baptism, we become the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and we become children of Abraham by faith and heirs of the promises made to Abraham [Galatians 3.27-29].

The last book of the Bible reminds us of the certainty of God’s coming kingdom:

‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ’
[Revelation 11.15]

and God has given assurance of this by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. [Acts 17.31]

The year 2000 may have brought hope for you, may have brought the realisation of all of your dreams. But, for most people, it was sadly just another short year in our life, which has come and gone. We must prepare for the start of the real millennium and be ready for the return of Christ, as wise virgins awaiting the coming of the bridegroom. [Matthew 25. 1-13]

The Sun of righteousness (Jesus) will surely arise with healing in his wings [Malachi 4.2] and this will bring the start of a time of blessedness and peace and an end to the problems of this current order of strife amongst nations. It can bring the prospect of unlimited joy for those who are found faithful. Jesus will say to them:

'…Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’
[Matthew 25.34]