Many of God’s promises will be fulfilled during the Millennium.
This is especially true for many of those Old Testament promises spoken of by the prophets. In fact, I did not know until last week when I began studying this subject, perhaps more so earnestly than I ever have, that the Old Testament has more to say than the New Testament on the subject of the Millennium. I learned this from my own research. I learned this from Dr. David Jermiah. I learned this from Dr. Herbert Carter. And I learned this from J. Dwight Pentecost who said, “A larger body of prophetic Scripture (aka Old Testament) is devoted to the subject of the millennium…than any other subject.” So more than any other subject, the Old Testament deals with the Millennium. Which means, according to Dr. David Jeremiah, “many of the promises God made to Israel have yet to be literally fulfilled, but they will be – during the Millennium.”
When Jesus returns and the Millennium begins, one of the first things that we see happen is Satan is thrown into the “bottomless pit” or your translation may say ‘Abyss’.
John writes in Revelation 20:1-3, “Then I saw an angel coming down from the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.”
I want you to note that the Abyss is not the lake of fire; the two are very different. The lake of fire is the real place and final destination for all who continue in their wickedness and refuse to believe in Jesus for salvation, which we call hell. Whereas the bottomless pit or Abyss is a holding place for demons, and that’s where Satan will be placed for 1,000 years.
I also want you to notice who holds the key to the Abyss – an angel. This tells us who has authority over the bottomless pit – Jesus. In saying that, I don’t want you to think that Jesus is this angel, he’s not. Angels are messengers of God and servants of Jesus. But what this tells us is that Jesus has dominion over demons who are contained in the Abyss, and even over Satan, who will be thrown into the Abyss when the time comes.
Also notice why Satan will be placed there. Satan will be placed in the Abyss not for punishment, that’s what the lake of fire will be for, but John tells us it’s so that he will no longer deceive the nations. That’s what Satan has been in our world ever since he was cast of Heaven. He is deceiving the nations against Jesus, attempting to persuade people from Jesus. But when Jesus comes to set up his earthly kingdom, Satan will no longer be able to do that.
And notice that his time in the Abyss is temporary. We’ll talk more about this next week, but towards the end of the Millennium Satan will be released again, but only for a short time, and at that time he will be cast into the lake of fire. Many people think Satan is in hell now, when he isn’t. He’s actually free to roam the earth. It will not be until the Millennium has begun that he is bound from the earth and not until after the Millennium is over that Satan is actually cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. So it would be wise to stop saying the devil is in hell; that’s bad theology, and frankly not true.
The first resurrection occurs during the Millennium, which we call the resurrection of the just.
In Revelation 20:4-6 John writes, “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. 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 ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”
When Jesus rose from the dead, he paved the way for everyone else to be resurrected, for which there are two, and we all will experience one of them. In other words, everyone will be resurrected, but not everyone will share the same destination. Both resurrections have very different destinations. For now we are going to look at the first resurrection. We’ll talk more about the second resurrection next week.
What John is talking about here is the first resurrection, and as I understand it, actually takes place in three stages. First, you have the resurrection of Jesus. Then, you have the rapture, where those who have believed in Jesus, dead and alive, prior to the Tribulation, will be called up into heaven as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; this includes Old Testament saints (Abraham, Moses, David) and New Testament saints (like Peter, Paul, you and I). And lastly, you have the resurrection of the just which takes place at the beginning of the Millennium, which we see here in Revelation 20.
We see this first resurrection spoken of many times by different people. For example, the prophet Daniel, in Daniel 12:2, describes the first resurrection as the resurrection of “everlasting life”. Jesus describes this resurrection as the “resurrection of the just” in Luke 14:2. Jesus also called this “the resurrection of life” in John 5:29. We see here in Revelation 20:6 that this resurrection includes those who are “blessed and holy” whom “the second death (the lake of fire) has no power”.
So what is this resurrection of the just here in Revelation 20? It is the resurrection of everyone who has died believing in Jesus by faith during the Tribulation. Those who have died during the Tribulation for their faith in Jesus will be resurrected from death to life to reign with Christ for a thousand years. Those who were raptured will be there too; remember, those who were raptured prior to the Tribulation return at Jesus’ Second Coming.
When these believers who died during the Tribulation are resurrected their natural body is changed into a spiritual body. Paul spoke about this 1 Corinthians 15. Paul wrote, “So is it when the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:42-44).
Now, for those who are raptured. When they are raptured up to Heaven, they receive their glorified bodies right then, because, as Paul says, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). So, when they are raptured “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…” (1 Cor. 15:51) they receive their new glorified bodies. In other words, prior to the Tribulation, when our loved ones die, when we die, for those who die believing in Jesus, our soul goes to be with Jesus in Heaven, but our bodies are placed in a casket until the time comes for the rapture. I’m not sure if you know this or not, but the Bible describes death as a time of temporary sleep. For example, in 1 Thess. 4:14 we read “God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus”. The Greek word for “sleep” is koimao; it means to sleep in death. Death is a temporary phase of sleeping. And when that time comes, those who are alive and those who have died believing in Jesus prior to the Tribulation, will be awakened from their slumber, to receive their glorified bodies.
So again, at the risk of being repititive, and in summary, when our loved one dies, when we die, they and we are actually going into a temporary phase of sleeping, and when the time comes for the rapture, which comes prior to the Tribulation, for those who have died believing in Christ prior to the Tribulation and those who are alive at the time of the rapture, our bodies, which are perishable, dishonorable, weak, and natural will be resurrected and glorified, being made imperishable, being raised in glory, being raised in power, and being raised spiritually will ascend into heaven. And those who have died believing in Jesus after the Rapture, during the Tribulation period prior to Jesus’ Second Coming, will be awakened and their bodies which will be perishable, dishonorable, weak, and natural will be resurrected and glorified, being made imperishable, being raised in glory, being raised in power, and being raised spiritually at the resurrection of the just, at the beginning of the Millennium.