Christ, Kingdom, and Coming Judgment: Charting the Millennium

That brings us to the Kingdom issues that I want to help you wrestle with—namely, the question:

Does the second coming of Christ establish a Millennial Kingdom?

Before we answer this yes/no question, let me establish a Millennial context. (Why am I even bringing up a “Millennial Kingdom”?) Let’s look at Revelation 19 and 20; these chapters speak of Christ coming from heaven (chap. 19) and then Millennium (chap. 20).

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.⁶Referring to Jesus. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.

And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;⁷You’ll notice “a thousand years” referenced many times in this passage—that’s why it’s called the Millennial Kingdom. and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and 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 completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 19:11–20:15)

Christ is coming, and this coming either establishes the kingdom spoken of in Revelation 20, or it doesn’t.

Option 1: No Millennial Kindgom

If it doesn’t, then there’s a logical question to follow ….

When, then, is the Kingdom established?

Simply ignoring the Kingdom won’t work. The Kingdom is mentioned too many times in Scripture. If the second coming of Christ doesn’t establish the Millennial Kingdom, when is the Kingdom established? There are two options.

Postmillennialism

What used to be the most popular opinion regarding the Millennium is called postmillennialism. People who hold this view believe that the Kingdom will be established once there is worldwide acceptance of the gospel. This position refers to the idea that Christ will come back after (post-) the Millennium.  

This was the majority position heading into the 20th century. Most Christians believed a majority of the world would accept the gospel, and so they concluded (rightly) that if the majority accept the gospel, there would be peace on earth.

But in the early part of the 20th century, a little event happened called the Great War, better known today as World War I; then, not too many decades later, another great war occurred—which we now call World War II. People began to realize that perhaps the world was not getting better. Postmillennialism fell out of favor and it’s now the least popular view of the end times.

Amillennialism

The most popular view today is called amillennialism. It’s a view that believes the Kingdom was established in Christ’s First Advent.

The prefix “a-” means “no” or “not” (as in, “atheism,” the stance of not believing in God, opposite of the position of theism); it’s a negating term. Amillennium means no millennium. This may not be the best term for this position, but an amillennialist will accept the term when contrasted with the postmillennialist or a premillennialist.

Amillennialism doesn’t believe in a literal Kingdom on earth; it believes in a spiritual kingdom (ruling from heaven or ruling in hearts).

The most popular view today is called amillennialism. … It believes in a spiritual kingdom (ruling from heaven or ruling in hearts).

With this stance, the Kingdom of God doesn’t need to be established in the future because it was already established or inaugurated when Christ first came to earth—e.g., when He said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”⁸See Mark 1:15.

Within postmillennialism or amillennialism, there are various degrees and types of each stance. Some amillennialists will say that the Kingdom is being ruled from heaven, while some will say it’s being ruled from earth, in people’s hearts. But, regardless, it is a spiritual kingdom.

Both postmillennialism and amillennialism wind up converging in the same place. Here are some things you can conclude about both of these positions:

• The tribulation (whatever that means) is in the present. The tribulation is something that is occurring throughout this stage of history, and we the church will go through it.
• The church either replaces Israel, or the church is the new Israel—there’s not a distinction in terms of prophecy between the church and Israel.
• There’s a general resurrection of believers and unbelievers. One day, Christ will say, “It’s over—everyone’s getting judged.” And then we enter into the final state; there’s a general judgment of all people, and then the eternal state (you can trace this on your chart).

Option 2: Yes, a Millennial Kingdom

The position that says, yes, the second coming of Christ does establish a Millennial Kingdom is called premillennialism. It’s called this because it’s the belief that Christ comes before the Millennium starts. Another way to say this is that the Millennium will not start until Christ returns.

There are some branches of premillennialism. Here’s how to distinguish these branches on the chart: The chief question to ask is, “Are the rapture and second coming different (separate) events?”

What’s the rapture? The word means “gathering,” and in some sense all believers believe in a rapture—in a gathering of the church. But the question is whether there’s a separate gathering prior to the last judgment, or whether those two things (the second coming of Christ and the rapture) are one and the same.

For those who say “no, the rapture and second coming are not separate events,” we call their view historic premillennialism.⁹Some call it classic premillennialism or covenantal premillennialism.

Generally speaking, historic premillennialists believe in a post-tribulation rapture (that means the church gets to experience the full tribulation—a term we’ll look at more in a future sermon, but, in brief, it refers to a time like the earth has never seen before; it’s a time of judgment pestilence, pain, and war).

Within historic premillennialism, you’ll see essentially two major judgments: one judgment before the Kingdom to set up the Kingdom, and then a judgment after the Kingdom before entering into the eternal state.

For our last option, what if you answer “yes” to the question of whether the rapture and the second coming of Christ are separate events? The reason I and others might answer this way is because of what’s said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (seen as the chief rapture passage):¹⁰Remember, Paul’s writing to people, the Thessalonians, who are disturbed about end time events.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep,¹¹That is, who have died. so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.¹²The Thessalonians, remember, were concerned that those who died had missed the coming of Christ. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.¹³In other words, if the Lord returned today, we wouldn’t meet the Lord in the air while everyone who has died is left behind. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up¹⁴Referring to the rapture. together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

This passage supports the position called dispensational premillennialism. A dispensation is an age—you can think of it in terms of the way God dealt with humanity in that portion of history. He dealt with people in different ways at different times for different reasons.

He dealt with people differently when there was no nation of Israel than after the establishment of the nation of Israel. He dealt with Israel in a different way than He dealt with the Gentiles. He dealt with Israel in a different way once they had the Law. He dealt with the world in a different way once Christ came. He dealt with the world in a different way once Christ had been crucified and resurrected.

Here are some distinctions of dispensational premillennialism:¹⁵As I said before, these positions and distinctions are important, but that doesn’t mean we should go around with an imaginary badge saying, “I’m a dispensational premillennialist!” The point is that we don’t want to live in worry or in fear, and as believers, our chief identity is in being those who look forward to Christ’s second coming regardless of when it is and how it unfolds.

• The church is going to be raptured before the tribulation (this is a simplified explanation of the pre-tribulation view—there are also mid-tribulation, post-tribulation, and post-wrath views). In other words, those who believe in Christ will not experience this judgment upon the world.
• Within this version of premillennialism, there is a greater distinction between the church and Israel. There are some judgments that are going to be for Israel, and some that will be for the church.
• There will be specified judgments—not just one lump judgment for everyone.
• There will be what’s called the judgment seat of Christ, which will come after the rapture of believers; in this, believers will be judged according to their works, and they will be rewarded for the good things they did.
• Here’s what happens before the Kingdom: There’s a judgment of Gentiles and Jews (that’s the sheep and the goats judgment, which we’ll talk about in a future sermon). It’s really a judgment of the Gentiles and how they treated the Jews.
• After the Kingdom, there are going to be several judgments: the judgment of Satan, the judgment of angels, the judgment of the unsaved (which is called the Great White Throne judgment), and the judgment of heaven and earth (because there will be a new heaven and earth, as God will judge to be necessary).