The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Mighty Angels of Revelation 20 Continued

MP3: The Mighty Angels of Revelation 20
Hosts: Nathan Jones & Vic Batista

The Thousand Year Kingdom

Vic Batista: When we claim that Jesus’ earthly kingdom will last a thousand years, we’re interpreting Revelation 20 literally. The word for “thousand” in Latin is “millennium” and that’s where we get the title of Jesus’ kingdom — the Millennial Kingdom.

Nathan Jones: Right. Some people ask, “How do we know that Jesus Christ is going to rule the earth for a thousand years?” Sure, throughout the Bible it talks about the Messiah’s kingdom. There are all sorts of references to the Kingdom of God, and that has gotten people confused between the spiritual kingdom which is through the Church and an actual literal, physical kingdom where Jesus rules and reigns from Jerusalem for a set amount of time. It isn’t until we get to Revelation 20 do we find out that kingdom time period covers a thousand years.

Revelation 20 just doesn’t say a thousand years once, no, it says a thousand years six times. I am pretty sure that when God says the time period will last a thousand years that He is not talking about a spiritualized thousand years, or that we are living in the Millennial Kingdom now, but we are talking about a future time period when Jesus will rule and reign physically on this earth for a thousand years.

#Jesus will rule and reign physically on this earth for a thousand years. #Revelation Click To Tweet

During those thousand years, Satan will be bound by a chain and fall endlessly in the Bottomless Pit, and so will not be able to tempt mankind. Nobody will be able to say, “Satan made me do it!” We won’t have demonic hordes afflicting us, for they were cast away to Hades to await trial. There are no demons running around the planet during the Millennial Kingdom. Man is left to live in a new utopia with our Savior and King — Jesus Christ.

Vic Batista: Just the thought of that is so incredible, sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, “Vic, this will be the reality!”

Nathan Jones: A utopian world is anything but what we have today. There are all sorts of verses in the Bible that talk about how during the Millennial Kingdom the animals will be at peace with humanity. Children can play in a pit of vipers and not worry about being bit. The lions aren’t eating people, for they instead eat straw. The lamb is lying down next to the wolf and is not worried about being devoured.

Lifespans during that time period will last as long as the trees. If anyone dies at 100 they will be considered accursed.

Jesus rules and reigns from Jerusalem and will have His Millennial Temple. It will be a beautiful place where a river flows out of Jerusalem and down into both the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The whole world will start as believers in Jesus Christ and they will all annually travel into Jerusalem to celebrate our King.

The curse will be partially lifted so we don’t have to worry about a lot of the sickness and suffering that we have today. It will be a complete utopia. The physical reign of Christ is going to be a fantastic time!

Vic Batista: Absolutely! This is why we want to discredit this thinking that people have that when they die they are just going to go up to Heaven and float around on a cloud, and that is going to be the end of it.

Nathan Jones: No, true, those who became saved and survived to the end of the Tribulation will go as Matthew 25 teaches through the Sheep-Goat Judgment. Jesus will separate those who survived the Tribulation as sheep from the goats. The goats are those who have rejected Jesus and took the Antichrist’s mark, and they will be sent to Hades to await final punishment. The “sheep” will live on into the Millennial Kingdom and they will have children and they will get to live throughout the thousand years.

Those who were raptured before the Tribulation will also be there in their gloried bodies and we will help Jesus rule and reign over His Millennial Kingdom. The Bible promises in many places, including later in Revelation 20, that we will rule and reign with Jesus Christ. We will rule and reign with Him as teachers, executives, mayors, governors and so forth. But, we will not have to be lawmakers, because Jesus Himself will be the only lawmaker. There will be no more crazy laws coming out of the Supreme Court which deny God’s moral law. It will be just Christ’s moral law ruling over the world.

Vic Batista: Revelation 20 is just the tip of the prophetic iceberg when talking about a whole new age of unimaginable beauty. What amazing things we’ll be able to do in our glorified bodies! We will probably be able to explore the universe some day, I’d imagine.

We are just so limited right now in our current earthly bodies. That’s why sometimes people can feel frustrated with life because we are dwelling in a limited body. It has many deficiencies. But, the time is coming very soon when this earthly body is going to be transformed and the corruptible is going to put on incorruptible, as the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 described.

Nathan Jones: Our glorified bodies can be compared to the difference from being a baby in the womb to being outside of the womb and fully grown. What a difference between the experience of a baby in the womb to a full-grown adult. All a fetus sees is darkness. They don’t see people and they don’t feel much of anything externally of the womb except for the mother’s heartbeat and breathing. They don’t know what’s outside of the womb and they can’t do anything but float there. But, as adults, mankind can see, talk, move about, explore, and we can learn. Those are things that we can do as adults. So, the difference between a fetus and an adult can be the comparison between our earthly adult bodies and our glorified bodies.

When we are raptured up to Heaven we will be given our new glorified bodies. Those resurrected bodies will be able to do things our current bodies can’t possibly do. They will be incorruptible, meaning they won’t perish. They will be glorified in that they will be powerful, no longer being weak, but strong.

Supernaturally gifted, since our glorified bodies are built in the image of the Son of Man — Jesus Christ — and Jesus ascended into Heaven, maybe we too will get to fly. Jesus all of a sudden appeared in rooms. He rather scared His apostles to death doing that! Maybe we too will be able to pop into rooms through the walls. Regardless if we will have those supernatural abilities, we certainly have an incredible life ahead of us in our new glorified bodies.

Another benefit of bodies that are pure is that they are no longer sinful anymore. We won’t desire to sin. We can finally stand before God Himself and not get vaporized by His glory.

Vic Batista: The Millennium is a wonder for our imagination. This is a place where we can just let our imaginations go because it is going to be filled with so many fantastic and amazing things.

Nathan Jones: And this is just for a thousand years, for we haven’t even gotten into the Eternal State yet. That will be an even more incredible era!

Satan Banished

Vic Batista: I really love Revelation 20:3 because I find it so encouraging that the Jailer Angel will cast Satan into the Bottomless Pit. Verse 3a reads: “And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.”

The Pit will be shut up and sealed so that Satan should deceive the nations no more. What a contrast to what is happening right now with the great deception that hangs over our world.

Nathan Jones: The deception truly is horrible right now! Psalm 1 and 2 say that the whole world is at war against Jesus Christ. They are in rebellion against their Creator. That is because Satan is leading the charge. He is a rallying point that people gather around, whether they realize it or not. Satan leads the rebellion against God.

What’s great about Revelation 20 is how here we see how powerless Satan really is. Compared to Jesus Christ, Satan is a lightweight. When Jesus is ready He sends the Jailer Angel down from Heaven. He binds Satan in a chain and then throws him into a pit for thousand years. It is a bottomless pit, we’re told, so he’s falling for a thousand years. He can’t do anything but scream and fall.

Compared to #JesusChrist, #Satan is a lightweight. #Revelation Click To Tweet

Revelation 20 reveals how even though Satan is very powerful compared to us mere mortals, how weak he is when compared to Jesus Christ. That fact should give us hope, because in the end we are on the winning side. Christians reside on the truly powerful side, the side whose future it is to win, because our leader is none other than God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Vic Batista: Absolutely! When you read through the Bible to fully understand biblical prophecy, you’ll be amazed how very exciting it is to get the whole story of God’s plan. In Revelation 20 to the end of the book, we finally get to see how everything comes together.

In the sixty-fourth segment of our series “The Mighty Angels of Revelation,” we will rejoice that the Saints will finally reign!

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

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