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What if you could experience peace on Earth for a thousand years? What would that look like? Today, we want to explore prophecies that envision a time when evil is no longer pervasive in our societies. Many intuitively sense that this life we live during our brief time on Earth is not all there is. We know instinctively that eternity is real and not just a pipe dream. How do we know such things? Because it is written innately into our inner being:

 

Eternity is Inscribed in the DNA of our Soul.

 

We are in the fifth study of Insights into Eternity, and I hope by now you have gained an understanding of the topic of eternity and are fully assured of your destiny secured for you at the cross of Christ. Anyone who examines the complexities of life and investigates the evidence of a Creator finds it completely illogical to believe any theory that believes that all life on Earth has come about by random chance. It’s like dismantling a Boeing Jumbo Jet, putting all its parts into a huge washing machine, turning it on, and thinking that after thousands of years, it will magically come out restored and ready to fly. There are questions that science cannot answer. Something in our hearts tells us there is more to life than what we experience in the here and now. King Solomon, known as one of the wisest men ever to live, said:

 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

 

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Solomon spoke of God's creative design, stating that our inner nature is divinely imprinted with impressions of eternity. The French Bible translates the original Hebrew to say that God has “set the thoughts of eternity in our hearts.” Prince Charles once discussed the inner emptiness of the human soul, stating, “For all the advantages of science, there remains deep in the soul a persistent and unconscious anxiety that something is missing.” At a charity event, Princess Diana shared about “an overwhelming sense of loss and isolation that undermines many people's efforts to survive and cope with the complexities of modern life. They know,” she remarked, “something is missing.” Deep within our hearts, until we come to Christ, we are aware of a void, an emptiness of soul. We try to fill it with drugs, alcohol, sex, possessions, power, money, and prestige, yet nothing truly satisfies us because we are born with that emptiness. As Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician, wrote, "Within each human being, there is a God-shaped void." C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, wrote:

 

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably worldly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

 

The fifth-century philosopher Augustine wrote, “Our hearts are unquieted until they find their rest in Thee.” This missing piece is God Himself. He is the Living Water, the Bread of Life, the only One who can satisfy us. The prophet Haggai writes, “I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty” (Haggai 2:7). The One desired by all nations, the Holy One of Israel, Jesus the Messiah, will come and stand upon the earth, and in our resurrection bodies, we shall see God. Job informed us:

 

²⁵"As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. ²⁶"Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; ²⁷Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another” (Job 19:25-27, emphasis added).

 

Christ’s second coming and presence on earth will usher in a glorious era of peace. In this study, we will explore what the Bible teaches about the thousand years of righteousness, joy, and peace during the reign of the King of Kings, Christ Jesus.

 

What evidence do you see of spiritual hunger today? Can you think of ways that this hunger is expressed in our culture?

 

The Thousand-Year Peace.

 

In our third study, What Will Your RESURRECTION Body Look Like?, we discussed the return of Christ and the resurrection of the saints. Those who are born again and walk with Christ will receive an imperishable and immortal body of power. This body will be like Christ's resurrection body, which is sown in dishonor but raised in glory (1 Corinthians 15:43). The people of God, the saints, will be given the authority to reign with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4; 1 Corinthians 6:2), and Satan will be bound and cast into the Abyss (Revelation 20:1-3).

 

¹And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. ⁴I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-6 Emphasis mine).

 

Theologians and scholars refer to the thousand-year reign of Christ as the Millennium, a term meaning a thousand. There are three beliefs regarding the Millennium. The first is Amillennialism. An Amillennialist believes that the thousand years mentioned five times in the passage above are not a literal figure but rather a symbolic one representing our current time, the church age. Secondly, there is Postmillennialism. Postmillennialists similarly believe that the 1,000-year period referenced in the passage is not a literal 1,000 years. They hold that the Church will usher in a golden age of Christian ethics, followed by the Second Coming of Jesus. Thirdly, there is Premillennialism, which this writer adheres to. A Premillennialist believes that Jesus' return will occur after a period of tribulation, during which He will raise the saints—those who have been born again of the Spirit—and that the saints will rule and reign with Him in a literal thousand-year reign on the earth.

 

The dragon, that ancient serpent who appeared in the Garden of Eden, also known as the devil and Satan, will be bound when the Lord comes. Verse three indicates that he will be thrown into the Abyss (the Greek term is Abussos, which means bottomless, unfathomed, enormous, unbounded, and immeasurable depth). There will be no more war until the 1,000 years are over, and then Satan must be released for a time (Revelation 20:3).

 

Imagine what our world will be like with Satan bound and unable to deceive anymore (v. 3). What implications would total freedom from Satanic influence have on Earth?

 

The Scriptures tell us that, with Satan bound in the Abyss, there will be no more deception on earth (v. 3). For believers in Christ with new resurrection bodies, there will be no temptation toward evil and sin and no fear of death. When Jesus returns, the saints will receive new incorruptible bodies and become immortal, as our sinful nature will also be removed. Because the people of God will operate freely, our creativity will be unleashed. We will witness our bodies, souls, and minds functioning at a higher level of faith and creativity, experiencing life as God intended. All of creation has been waiting for the time when those in Christ will don incorruptible bodies (1 Corinthians 15:54). At that time, the nature of the animal kingdom will change:

 

¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (Romans 8:19-22).

 

I wonder what Paul the Apostle was thinking when he wrote to the Church in Rome about creation (v. 19). I believe he was referring to the animal kingdom, which fears humankind and often flees from us. Since the Fall, the relationship between humanity and the animal kingdom has deteriorated. Today, we witness the devastating effects of modern agriculture and livestock farming methods that cause great suffering to creation. This treatment of the animal kingdom is not what God intended, and the animals suffer the consequences of the Fall alongside humanity. The deep longing and groaning of the entire animal kingdom are for their fear of man to be removed when Jesus returns, and the Millennium begins. Isaiah the prophet also has something to say about that time:

 

The Branch with the Spirit of the LORD

 

¹A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. ²The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - ³and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; ⁴but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked (Isaiah 11:1-4).

 

Isaiah speaks of the One who will bring about this time of change. It will not be the Church that overcomes all the power of evil, but rather the shoot from the stump of Jesse (the father of King David). Understand me; all of us, as believers in Christ, are meant to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. However, Jesus is the One who, through His substitutionary death, has won the battle for all believers. The Lord said, “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). From one of David's descendants has come forth a King who will judge the Earth. This King, the Lord Jesus, will not judge by what He sees or hears, for He alone is omniscient and knows all things. He will judge complex situations as He rules and reigns in righteousness. He has come to earth, suffered the worst of humanity and injustice, and has overcome all. He is the One who possesses the power to speak and create with His words. With the breath of His lips, He will slay the wicked (v. 4), and all evil will be uprooted from the Earth. “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil” (Matthew 13:41). With Jesus sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem, notice the changes that come to God’s creation:

 

⁵Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. ⁶The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. ⁷The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. ⁹They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. ¹⁰In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious (Isaiah 11:5-10).

 

In the Isaiah 11 passage mentioned above, verse 9 states, “The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Share your thoughts on what this verse means. What implications does it have for the animal world?

 

Notice the changes that occur when Christ is on the throne. Animals that are natural opposites will feed side by side (vs. 6-7). The wolf and the sheep will lie down together at night, coexisting peacefully. The lion, one of the most predatory animals on Earth, will eat straw like an ox does (v. 7), and little children will walk beside them and lead them (v. 6). When this prophecy was given 600 years before Christ, fierce animals were plentiful in Israel, with Samson wrestling a lion (Judges 14:6) and King David doing the same (1 Samuel 17:34-35). There will also be children reaching into the dens of adders and playing with venomous snakes (v. 8). Isaiah states that because the knowledge of God will cover the earth, the goyim, or Gentile nations, will place their trust in Him, and His rest will be glorious (v. 10). It will be the Sabbath, a 1000-year rest. God will finally answer the prayer for peace on earth and goodwill toward men. His presence and reign will bring this about. All of God’s creation will ultimately live in harmony.

 

A New Earth and New Heavens

 

In a later passage, the prophet Isaiah (65:17-25) discusses a time when significant changes will occur on Earth:

 

¹⁷“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. ¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. ¹⁹I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. ²⁰“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed (Isaiah 65:17-20).

 

The prophecy by Isaiah (above) and Revelation 21:1 state that there will be a new earth and new heavens as well. What do these words mean? At first glance, we might interpret Isaiah as suggesting that we will all be moved to a different place in the universe, but that is not the actual meaning. Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven, explains that the expression “Heaven and Earth” is a biblical term for the entire universe. He writes:

 

When Revelation 21:1 speaks of “a new heaven and a new earth,” it indicates a transformation of the entire universe. The Greek word kainos, translated as "new," indicates that the earth God creates won't merely be new as opposed to old, but new in quality and superior in character. According to Walter Bauer's lexicon, kainos means new "in the sense that what is old has become obsolete and should be replaced by what is new. In such a case the new is, as a rule, superior to the old. It means, therefore, "not the emergence of a cosmos totally other than the present one, but the creation of a universe which, though it has been gloriously renewed, stands in continuity with the present one." Paul used the same word, kainos, when he speaks of a believer becoming "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The New Earth will be the same as the old earth, just as a new Christian is still the same person he was before. Different? Yes, but also the same.[1]

 

The earth will undergo significant change and will hardly be remembered (v. 17). This will mark a time of complete renewal and restoration. The new heavens may symbolize the destruction of the enemy’s stronghold in the invisible realm, where he has waged his campaign against humanity. Until that time, Satan is referred to as the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). In the Book of Acts, Luke records that Jesus “must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). The earth will be restored to its original beauty and fertility. During the Millennium, those who are alive will enjoy the rewards of their labor; what they plant, they will reap. What they build will belong to them, providing a place to live. There will be no more crying or tears (v. 19).

 

When Jesus comes at the rapture and resurrection of the saints, not all of earth’s population, as far as this writer sees it, will be killed. After the rapture and resurrection of the saints and the wrath of God are poured out, the angels will weed out all evil from Christ’s kingdom. “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil” (Matthew 13:41). There will still be unredeemed individuals on Earth during the Millennium and until the Great White Throne judgment at the end of the thousand years. At that time, death and Hades will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

 

The Wolf and the Lamb Will Feed Together

 

²¹They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²²No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. ²³They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. ²⁴Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. ²⁵The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord (Isaiah 65:21-25).

 

The Millennium will be a time of restoration before the final judgment. It will be a blessed period during which people will often live for many hundreds of years, as described in the book of Genesis. Adam lived for 930 years (Genesis 5:5), Seth lived for 912 years (Genesis 5:8), and Methuselah lived for 969 years (Genesis 5:27). A man who dies at a hundred will be seen as a child (v. 20). The saints, those who are born again by the Spirit of God, will never die. They are imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:52).

 

Let me clarify the difference between heaven and the Millennium. While the Millennium will be the time when we experience God's kingdom on earth, even more is yet to come! At the end of the Millennium, the New Jerusalem will descend from God, and there will be no more death:

 

¹Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4).

 

The theme of Scripture revolves around a picture of redemption. When Jesus died for sin, He did not merely cancel the penalty of sin; He paid it in full. Since Divine justice was satisfied, Christ has every right to restore things to their intended purpose and glory. When Jesus reigns, He will set things in their rightful place, and we will witness the complete deliverance of the earth and fully understand the mysteries of life.

 

Many nations will come to Jerusalem, the capital city of Earth, to seek the Lord and worship Him. There will no longer be different religions. All people will finally realize that one of Satan's deceptive strategies has been to use religion to divide and conquer individuals. Everyone will understand that there is only one God, and His knowledge will be universal. Jerusalem, the city itself, will be transformed, for the Lord Himself will be there:

 

²In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. ³Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ⁴He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:2-4).

 

Imagine living on Earth with the Lord Jesus Christ reigning on His throne in Jerusalem. There will be no need for tanks, guns, or weapons of war; it will be a time of great economic prosperity because people will no longer train for battle (Isaiah 2:4). Christ Jesus will establish His government on Earth, made up of the saints. Every nation will coexist peacefully, with King Jesus sitting on His throne. Those governing countries, territories, states, cities, and towns are the Body of Christ, the saints who have been deemed worthy due to their faithfulness in resisting evil and caring for God’s people. Paul the apostle writes of that time saying that the Body of Christ will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). I take his reference to be of evil angels who have worked with Satan in seeking to oppose God’s kingdom.

 

Jerusalem will be raised higher than the surrounding mountains (v. 2). Currently, one can look down on Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives on the east side. Jerusalem may be elevated due to some geological event. The King, the Lord Jesus Christ, will teach us His ways and resolve any remaining disputes between nations. The Scriptures indicate that the New Jerusalem will not descend to earth from above until the 1,000 years are complete (Revelation 21:1-2). Until that time, the throne of King Jesus is in Jerusalem, where many peoples will come to praise and worship Him (Isaiah 2:2-3). Isaiah the prophet says, “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:17). Can you imagine sitting at the feet of Jesus and enjoying His presence? “He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths” (Isaiah 2:3).

 

Finally, the Israel-Palestinian issue will be resolved. There will be peace among the sons of Isaac; the brothers named Jacob and Esau, Jew and Arab:

 

²³In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. ²⁴In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. ²⁵The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance” (Isaiah 19:23-25).

 

We will finally see peace in every troubled part of our world. Greed, selfishness, and hostility will give way to peace, as the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the waters cover the seas (Habakkuk 2:14).

 

Prayer: Father, we thank You for Your plan of redemption. We pray that we can recognize our true riches in life here and now. We desire the mercy, compassion, and peace that You want us to experience in this life and share with others. Together, we pray, “May your kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

Keith Thomas
www.groupbiblestudy.com
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