In this episode of Hope for Today, we delve into the fascinating interpretations surrounding the millennial reign as described in Revelation 20. The conversation explores differing views such as pre-tribulational and pre-millennial beliefs, highlighting the significance of interpreting the millennium as a literal thousand-year period. Inspirational insights are shared regarding the anticipated second coming of Jesus Christ, urging listeners to examine their faith and spiritual readiness. Listeners are treated to a detailed discussion on the three major views about the millennium: amillennialism, post-millennialism, and pre-millennialism. Each perspective is explored thoroughly, with observations on how they reflect in the broad
00:00:00 Tribulational Views and Pre-Millennialism
00:01:00 Hope for Today Introduction and Resources
If you’re talking about the tribulation of seven years of judgment and a holocaust of terror and plague and devastation like the world has never seen, you have people who do not believe in the tribulation. They are all tribulationals. You have also post-tribulationalists. There are also mid-tribulationalists who believe he comes at the middle of the tribulation. There are also those who believe in what we call partial view. That is, they think only spirit-filled Christians will go up in the rapture. And then the correct view, which is pre-tribulationalism. So pre-tribulational, pre-millennial is our position. And pre-millennialism is very, very important. It takes it as a literal thousand years.
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When you hear conversations like that, you realize how many people are trying to define the end of the age and how few actually open their Bibles to see what God has already set in place. Because once you step into Revelation 20, everything gets very clear very fast. An angel descends. The dragon is bound. The nations are still, and the kingdom of the Messiah unfolds exactly as God said it would. No debates, no guesswork, just the unbreakable future God has written. This is Hope for Today with David Hawking. And in just a moment, we’ll turn to Revelation 20, verses 1 through 10, for our study called The Millennial Reign. First, we want to tell you about some resources that are completely free. Our booklets for new believers, our media center with Bible teaching videos, and two foundational tools that we offer at no cost for new believers or those who don’t yet know Jesus. The first is David’s booklet, What is Christianity? And the second is our Bible study by mail. Again, those two are designed to help those who are new to the faith and those who are still searching for the truth. and all the study tools we’re talking about here, along with our daily radio broadcast, they depend on partners who believe in the clear teaching of God’s Word, partners who pray, who support, and partners who want to see people reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the body of Christ built up. So I want to ask you very sincerely, will you prayerfully consider joining with us in this ministry through your prayers or through a donation if the Lord leads you? Call us at 875-BIBLE in the U.S. to give or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. Bible is 24253. Or go to our website, davidhawking.org. And we’ll have our mailing addresses for you later in the program. Right now, though, here’s David with today’s study.
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The good news is Jesus is coming. And we’re ready for the millennium. The millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Revelation 20. Let’s take the first 10 verses. The millennium. Latin word for thousand years. Chapter 20, verse 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This, returning to the discussion, this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power. but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Let’s pray. Lord, we need your divine direction. We know these are serious days and soon and very soon our Lord’s going to return. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to ask ourselves whether we be in the faith. You said examine yourself whether you be in the faith. Some of us are just playing around at church and just trying to assimilate things but have not made any personal commitment to Jesus Christ. God, I pray that you would cause us to turn to the Lord before it’s too late. And Lord, for those of us who are struggling with sin and involved in messes that we just want to get out of, Lord, I pray that you will, by the power of your Spirit, move upon our hearts that we would be clean vessels before you, that we would be ready for the Savior when he comes. Thank you, Lord, for what you’re going to do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Now, in this text, as you observed, several times you read the words thousand years. There are no words such as as or like. There are no indications here of similes or metaphors. The thousand years, we believe, is a literal period of time. But in all fairness, among Christians, there are three views related to the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ. major viewpoints that are held by Christians who love the Lord, love the Bible. One is called amillennialism, meaning no millennium. Now this represents a tremendous amount of Christians. It is the theological viewpoint of the Roman Catholic Church, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, all the way from the Reformers of the Reformation. It is a very strong view. Amillennialism. It has many fine writers who are outstanding fundamentalists, Bible teachers, and they hold this view. The view simply is this. They do not believe it’s a literal period of time. They see it as a symbolic term for the preaching of the gospel during this present age, the control of Satan’s power during the course of church history between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. So they see the triumph of the gospel through this period as multitudes of people are coming to Christ and Satan’s power, they believe, is controlled by the statement that he is bound here for a thousand years, which they see as a symbolic term for however long it is between the first and second coming of Christ. A second view, which is getting more popular today than ever. It was popular before the First World War. And it’s becoming popular again. It’s called post-millennialism. Now they believe it’s a literal period of time immediately preceding the second coming of Jesus Christ. I hope you followed that. They don’t believe the second coming is before the millennium. They believe it’s after the millennium. What they believe will happen here is that Christ will come and will demonstrate the triumph of the gospel during the church age. It’s similar to amillennialism, except they believe the last thousand years of the church age, we now have about 1900, they believe the last thousand years would represent the triumph of the gospel. And they’ll give you facts and figures to show you that the first thousand years, it didn’t spread as rapidly, although there was tremendous growth. But they will show you that from the Reformation on, that’s when we really saw growth and the gospel spreading all over the world and et cetera. So what’s the third view? The third view is what we call premillennialism. It believes that it’s a literal thousand-year period of time that will come immediately after the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. It involves the rule and reign of Jesus Christ himself on the earth following the great tribulation. Now be careful here, people. Not everyone who is premillennial is pre-tribulational. You understand that? If you’re talking about the tribulation of seven years of judgment and a holocaust of terror and plague and devastation like the world has never seen, you have people who do not believe in the tribulation. They are all tribulationals. They see it as a type, an illustration. You have also post-tribulationalists who believe that he’s coming at the end of the tribulation, and he is, no matter what your view. And that he will set up his kingdom. So they are post-trib, pre-millennial. There are also mid-tribulationalists who believe he comes at the middle of the tribulation. There are also those who believe in what we call partial view. That is, they think only spirit-filled Christians will go up in the rapture. Carnal Christians will be left to go through the tribulation. And then the correct view, which is pre-tribulationalism. that the church-age believers will be in heaven while the tribulation is on earth. There is the rapture of the church in the air preceding the tribulation, where we’re caught up to meet the Lord and we are returning to heaven with Him. Then at the end of the tribulation, we come back to the earth. That’s the revelation of Jesus Christ. That’s the second coming of Jesus Christ that we had described in chapter 19. So pre-tribulational, pre-millennial is our position. And pre-millennialism is very, very important. It takes it as a literal thousand years. There’s no figurative language here, as I said. It says we will live and reign a thousand years. It says Satan will be bound a thousand years. I believe God. I think it’s going to happen exactly the way he says. Now, I’d like you to notice three things in these ten verses, and with lots of stuff underneath them, but anyway, three things. In verses 1 to 3, you have the binding of Satan during the thousand-year reign. The binding of Satan. Then in verses 4 to 6, you have the blessings which believers will experience, and especially tribulation believers who suffer for their faith. the blessings which believers will experience. Then in verses 7 to 10, you have one of the strangest passages in the Bible referring to the battle at the end of the thousand years. You say, well, I thought we were done with all of this in the tribulation period. No, there’s a battle at the end of the thousand years when Satan is loose for just a little season. That’s verses 7 to 10. Now let’s back up and talk about the binding of Satan. Have you ever heard Christians praying and saying, Lord, we just ask you to bind Satan. Now I appreciate that, but I want you to know that he’s not going to be bound until the millennium. I think I understand what we mean. We certainly want the Lord’s protection. The Bible does say the Lord is faithful, who will deliver us from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith. And he will protect us also from the wicked one, the evil one. And so it’s proper to pray for victory over the enemy. But just be careful as to what you’re concluding. We do not bind Satan from doing his dastardly deeds, but we can be protected from his fiery darts by putting on the shield of faith and taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So our spiritual armor is protecting us from Satan’s onslaughts, but you will be greatly defeated as a Christian if you think that somehow by your prayer or some act, you can somehow keep him from doing anything. Oh, no. Hey, he doesn’t bother a dead fish floating downstream. It’s the one trying to fight the current. The devil’s gonna throw all his guns against you if you decide, I’m gonna live for the Lord with all my heart. I’m gonna serve him. Hey, the devil’s gonna do everything he can to wipe you out. So we need to be a little bit careful. I think we need to be accurate. Where we get the idea of binding Satan is from this passage and one in the Gospels, where our Lord told us about binding the strong man. And sometimes we take a thing out of its context, or don’t understand what I was saying, and we get ourselves into something that maybe can hurt us. 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4 tells us that the God of this world is blinding the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine into them. In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 to 15, it says that Satan and his ministers, his servants, his demons, they can transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, even appearing as an angel of light. They can be very deceiving. In 1 Peter 5, 8, we’re told that we’re to cast all of our care upon the Lord, to really trust him, and to understand that the devil is going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And the Bible says, resist him steadfast in the faith. He’s going to come at you. And we need to put on the spiritual armor to resist him. Now, in this passage, in these opening three verses, we have, first of all, the revelation of Satan’s destiny in verse 1. I saw an angel come down from heaven. Now, who’s this angel? Some writers say it’s Jesus Christ. Some say it’s Michael the archangel. But I prefer, looking at the grammar and seeing no other indication, to believe it’s just one of God’s unnamed angels. I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Another reason why I like to just say one of God’s unnamed angels is because I like us to have proper perspective here. A lot of men want this to be Jesus Christ because they think he’s the only one that could really handle Satan. And because it says that he has the key to the bottomless pit, they go back to Revelation 118 and say, well, Jesus had the key to Hades and death. So maybe that’s what it means. But you know, God doesn’t need to have his son Jesus Christ do this. Any old angel will do. He has the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent who’s the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Now there are three basic things here that cause us to recognize Satan’s activity, especially during the tribulation. When it calls him the dragon, we are reminded of what Revelation says back in chapter 12. Will you turn back there, please? That’s our little clue when it calls him the dragon. We look in chapter 12 where we saw this, verse 3. It says, Now go to chapter 13 and look at verse 1 and 2. I stood on the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And look at the last phrase of verse 2. The dragon gave him his power and his seat or a throne and great authority. The simple point here is that according to the Bible, Satan controls the political system. We have already studied that. The seven heads and ten horns on the seventh one. And the devil’s behind it. That’s why the dragon was pictured that way. And why in chapter 13, when you see the Antichrist pictured that way, you see also that the dragon gives him his authority. The dragon gives him his power and his throne. And it’s a reminder to all of us that the one controlling the political systems of the world that are coming to this great climax is the devil himself. Now, behind the devil is God. God is sovereignly allowing it to happen to fulfill his purpose. We know that. Prophecy is being fulfilled. But it’s interesting to me how little we understand satanic involvement in politics. There is an enemy involved. Satan himself, who is controlling the political systems of the world. He’s called the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. And he is bringing all of this to what he thinks is going to be his kingdom overall. But sorry, Satan, Jesus Christ will be the king overall. And he is behind Satan, allowing him to do what he’s doing. And God’s funny joke on him is he’s fulfilling the purposes of God and in all of his hatred and anger against the Lord. But he is controlling political systems. A second thing that I would draw to your attention about recognizing Satan’s activity during the tribulation is that the Bible’s clear that he deceives the nations, the peoples of the world. He deceives them. we have that clue in chapter 20 when it says in verse 2, that old serpent. There’s nothing new about his tactics or his deception. He’s that old serpent. Verse 3 says that he should deceive the nations no more. Verse 8 says he shall go out to deceive the nations. So what he does is he controls the political systems of the world and he deceives the nations of the world. The third thing that he does, we learn back in Revelation 12, 9 and 10, and that is that he accuses believers. That comes in the words, the devil and Satan, in verse 2. He is the accuser. He is our adversary, and he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s Bible teacher and author David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. He’ll be back to close out today’s study, so don’t go away. Right now, though, David’s son Matt’s here, and together we’re going to share a powerful Bible study resource with you. I can’t wait to hear from folks that are going to get this, Matt. What’s it all about?
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This month, Jim, we’re featuring our book, Life’s Greatest Questions. And let me just read a few quick lines from it. Yeah. Many have no time for God, choosing rather to ignore and neglect his role and importance in their lives. But what has all this secularism and individualism produced? Is there a greater degree of happiness? Has our nation been delivered from its psychological troubles? Do our marriages and family reveal the blessings of selfism? Are we closer to peace on earth? Are questions of poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, pornography, divorce, abortion, venereal disease diminishing or increasing? Is everything answered by money? Matt, I love how this quote continues.
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It’s time for intellectual honesty and courage. What are we looking for? What do we hope to discover by our obsession with pleasure and personal needs? Does God have anything to say about our experiences?
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Does he exist? Does he care? Is there anything he can do about our dilemmas? Can he make us happy? Life’s greatest questions are consistently dealt with in one book, the Bible. Its message is like fresh air in a polluted atmosphere.
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It speaks with authority and clarity about human life and its problems. And Matt, these questions address pressing issues in our culture today. Yeah, in many churches and even in our families. And it’s crucial we have the answers. Life’s Greatest Questions by David Hawking takes us into scripture for wisdom and answers. Life’s Greatest Questions, our featured offer is just $10. And your purchase will prepare, strengthen, and bless you, your family and friends, and it will help the ministry of hope for today. Oh, and I also want to mention that we have a number of resources just for our Revelation radio series. First, David’s study notes for the book of Revelation, his original outlines and study notes for each of the messages in the series. Those are available for $10. Or you can get the complete Revelation series, all 48 messages that we’ve taken several months to cover. The complete set on MP3 audio, that is $30. And if you’d like to watch David teach the series, we have it available, again, from start to finish on DVD for $50. Call 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. to purchase resources, or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. Bible, again, by the numbers 24253. And you’ll find these resources as well on our website, davidhawking.org. And as we’re coming to the end of the month here, just a couple of days left. Wow. This is us simply letting you know where things stand. You might be wondering how ministries like Hope for Today continue to reach people every day, how the teaching, the resources, and the outreach all keep moving forward. Well, the truth is, it only happens when friends like you who are blessed by the program decide to stand with us in prayer and as God directs through donations as well. So if you’ve been going through this study in Revelation as you listen, then you may have thought, well, I’m glad this ministry is here. Would you prayerfully consider helping us finish this month strong, whether through prayer or a special gift? Again, as the Lord might lead. Our address in the U.S. is Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO7OAKS, Abbotsford, B.C., V2SHP1. Our phone number again, 875-BIBLE in the U.S., 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, and our website, davidhawking.org. And here’s David.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, that was something, wasn’t it? I love to talk about Revelation, and here in chapter 20, wow! Thank the Lord that the devil is not going to be around for that new heaven and new earth and the wonderful heavenly city. All of that is in chapter 20, and we know that it tells us that the resurrection is going to be twofold. One, There’s the resurrection of believers, starting with our blessed Lord who rose from the dead, but also all the church-age Jew and Gentile who will be resurrected. And we also know that that’s called the first resurrection, those who are believers, because it says the second death doesn’t have any control over them. And the… Next resurrection, the second one, is not for a thousand years. It comes at the end of the millennial reign of our Lord. And we are told that the dead, who are unbelievers, they won’t be resurrected until the thousand years are finished. And then we will have, believe it or not, the great white throne judgment in which our Lord is the judge, and He is going to have all unbelievers come in front of Him and judge them out of the books that record the deeds of unbelievers and out of the book of life. If your name’s not written in that book, you won’t be in the new kingdom of our Lord. Well, thanks for listening. God bless you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you, David. And next time we’re back in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 10. So be sure to join us right here on Hope for Today.
