The Millennium and the rapture are how many identify their eschatology. The Millennium is spelled out in Revelation 20:1-6. The typical categories of view on the Millennium are Pre-Millennial, believing that Christ will return before a literal millennial reign, post-millennial, that it will be after, and a-millennial, that there will be no literal thousand year period.
The Kingdom in the Millennium
If we look at the Millennium from a Kingdom perspective, we tend come to a different conclusion than some.
We are here looking at two aspects of the Kingdom. First, as we have already developed the nature of the Kingdom as being spiritual, this will have a strong bearing upon what we are looking at when we come to these verses. It’s nature, substance, and manifestation, as well as it’s beginning and ending, are all important, and must be considered.
Second, as we will develop, it is demonstrable that, quite likely, the Millennium is actually already behind us. This is shown through history, and we will see it in a moment. But, for now, let us focus on what the text actually says about the Millenium.
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, which 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 which had not worshiped 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 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.
Revelation 20:1-6
These six verses are the only direct references to this thousand year period. Many, many scriptures are attributed to this period, but whether or not they actually apply here is a matter of interpretational perspective.
So far, we have been building a case for a fulfillment of the book of Revelation that led us to the destruction of the Harlot Babylon, Rome, ending probably in 312-313 AD when Constantine was converted to Christianity and then made Christianity legal throughout the world. But, beyond that, we have been looking at the Kingdom that brought about this change.
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Colossians 1:13
Here, again, we are confronted with the clear Word from Scripture that the Kingdom is Spiritual. The Gospel of the Kingdom is the only Gospel there is (Acts 28:30-31). The Kingdom cannot be entered into except by those who are born again (John 3:5). Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:50). And, most importantly, the Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36, wherein it is not really saying the Kingdom will be of another order some other time).
It was the Kingdom by which Jesus cast out demons (Matthew 12:28), and if we do not have the Kingdom of God, we do not have life (Matthew 7:21-23).
Therefore, if the Kingdom is here (Mark 1:15), it is not relegated to a future time. If the Kingdom is here, we are not merely looking for it’s establishment in the future. If it is now, it is not only in the Millennium, but since it is everlasting (Psalm 145:13), it will continue through it, and beyond! And, most importantly, if it is a spiritual kingdom, which Matthew 6:10 says it must be, we must look at it from a spiritual perspective, recognizing it for what it is.
Revelation 20 states one thing, that certain saints of God will come to life and reign with Him. The only guarantee from this text is that the saints will reign, and that for 1,000 years. Now, since it says they will reign with Christ, we know that Christ will also be reigning in this 1,000 year period. From this, then, many have taken this, wrongly in our opinion, to be “the Kingdom of God”. But nothing of the account indicates this.
What is expressly not stated in this passage is the following: Whether the Kingdom existed before this time, whether Christ was reigning before this time, whether Christ continues to reign after the 1,000 years, or whether any of the saints of that period continue to reign after the 1,000 years. It also does not specify the type of reign, the location of the reign, or any other parameters of that time period. Only that certain saints will reign with Christ for 1,000 years, specifically. We are purposely breaking this down into its parts because it is necessary to see what has been built upon it, in order to see how to build the whole rightly.
The Nature of the Millennium
In our estimation, to claim that the Millennium is ever to be of any other order other than the Kingdom that Jesus brought is to do a great dis-service to the text. Consider the case of the miracles in Jesus’ day. As we gave the metaphor of a storm front before, one points to the lightning, thunder, and rain, and says, What a storm! No one points to the sky and says, Look at that high pressure center! That is, unless they are trained to see beyond the signs to what is behind them.
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Matthew 12:28
This is not a part of the Kingdom, a down-payment of the Kingdom, not an inauguration of the Kingdom, not a seed or invisible form of the Kingdom, or any such thing. This is the Kingdom, the only Kingdom there is, the only Kingdom God’s got, and the one we pray for in Matthew 6:10 to come to Earth.
Just as when Jesus said the Kingdom was “at hand”, He was not declaring it’s inauguration but it’s proximity, so too, when Revelation 20:4 says that the saints will reign with Christ, the emphasis is on them reigning, not the beginning of the Kingdom or Christ’s reigning. The operative change in this passage is the position of the saints and their authoritative ruler-ship over and through the things of the Kingdom. Perhaps the metaphor might break down, because even in this, the essence will not change from faith, hope, love, and servan-thood, but the position of these saints will go from merely a servant, to being a public servant, a governmental servant, one who is no longer merely entrusted with unrighteous mammon, but with cities (Luke 19:17, 19)!
So, when we consider the resurrection in relation to the Millennium, of what nature are those who are raised to rule?
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44
Many commentators also pick up on the fact that, in the Millennium, those who are raised are raised with heavenly bodies. We already do know that those who have heavenly bodies can interact with the physical order and can eat and be touched and speak, because Jesus did this before His disciples.
But, many who have attempted to make Christ to be ruling on a physical throne in Jerusalem also then build that into the case here, and say that Christ must be ruling on a physical throne from Jerusalem and therefore so must these ones. As we have seen however, should Christ be living on the Earth, He would not be a priest, because He is not of the tribe of Levi. But, since He must be a king and a priest upon His throne, His throne as well is in the heavens. As Hebrews 10 says, He must remain there until His enemies are made His footstool.
So, you see, much of the case for the Millennium comes directly from the various aspects that we have studied, and come to different conclusions. If what we have presented thus far is accurate, then the reigning with Christ in the Millennium is a heavenly rule as well.
The requirement of an earthly rule presented by the pre-millennialist falls, then, solely on the backs of the expectations of the Millennium. Of these we will show our understanding of their true placement a little later in this chapter. But, what you have is a whole lot of expectation placed upon this verse based on a wrong pretense. The Kingdom has been, will be, and never will end. There are many promises yet to be fulfilled, such as the Lion laying down with the Lamb, those who die at a hundred being considered accursed, and many others. Additionally, there is even the hope expressed, not a promise but a hope, in Romans 8:22-23, that even the Creation itself might be liberated from its bondage to decay. Where and exactly how this is to be fulfilled, if it were, remains to be seen.
But, in all of this, the underlying assumption is that this thousand year period somehow represents Christ’s Kingdom.
In fact, in some circles, people talk about praying “Your Kingdom Come” as a reference to a future hope of a Messianic Kingdom. All of these thoughts, however, fail the basic fundamental point that the rest of the verse says “as it is in heaven”. Christ’s Kingdom will be represented through a thousand year time of reigning with certain saints, but the Kingdom existed well before that, and will not cease (Daniel 7:18).
And, in these misconceptions of the Kingdom, many having missed the very Kingdom they are actually born again into, many have misappropriated this rule as the time of the fulfillment of many yet-to-be-fulfilled Scriptural prophecies.
The Literal Millennium
So, where we see the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-6 is right in the Chronology of the text.
As it is recorded by Foxxe’s Book of Martyrs,
Maxentius was the last Roman persecutor of the Christians whom Constantine set free after three hundred years of oppression and death. Constantine so firmly established the rights of Christians to worship God that it would be a thousand years before they would again suffer for their faith.
The Tenth Persecution AD 303 – ABRIDGED – “Foxxe’s Book of Martyrs”, emphasis added
We want to be extra careful in laying this out, without making jumping to unnecessary conclusions on any side.
Revelation 20:1-2 says that an angel (singular) came down from heaven and had in his hand a great chain (singular). This angel then bound the dragon called satan for a thousand years. Revelation 20:3 then says the angel threw him (satan, also singular) into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him (singular), that he (singular) should not deceive the nations anymore. and, at the end of that period, he (singular) should be loosed for a little season. Finally, at the end of the thousand years, Revelation 20:7 says satan (singular) shall be loosed out of his (singular) prison.
Despite popular interpretation, the passage says nothing of other demons being bound, but only satan himself. No where does Scripture expressly indicate that anyone other than satan, the dragon himself, will be bound during this period.
What specifically the devil was prevented from doing was found in v3, “so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed”. This, then, is the scenario we are presented with.
Imagine a mafia crime circuit headed by a godfather, the dragon. The head of the organization, the murderer himself, is throne into prison. This organization, however, was not run by anything other than fear and coersion. You still have, then, many different crime leaders who can still operate, but they lack the mastermind, the ring leader. Further down, you have the individual demons, each with an intelligence and will of their own, each seeking something. But, when you remove the conductor, you destroy the coordination of the ensemble.
What we see historically, then, is that with the muderer himself removed from the world stage, first of all, we see an evidence of his removal in the lack of religious persecution in in the church as a whole. But, what is more compelling than this is what is not seen in the world for the next 1,000 years.
Calling the Light Darkness and the Darkness Light
The time after the fall of Rome was called the “Middle Ages”, or the “Dark Ages” for some. But, considering the latter phrase, what does “dark” refer to? For those who have not thought this through theologically, the answer is a bit telling–the light of Rome! Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe” to those who call darkness light and light for darkness, but this is precisely what secular historians have done, not only in this area, but in many others concerning this topic. As we like to say, if Rome is light, I’ll take the darkness. A beastly light for sure!
Consider the history we have been developing. For nearly 1,000 years, from the foundation of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar until the fall of Rome, there was a one-world-government upon the face of the Earth. These were the outward dominance and glory of man (Daniel 2), but, behind the scenes, they were demonic beasts (Daniel 7). So, for somewhere close to 1,000 years, the enemy dominated the entire face of the Earth through this evil entity called “Babylon”.
Now, comes Constantine’s legalization of Christianity, and the decline of Rome over the next 200 years. This period is marked by no great civilization (remember, the goddess Roma symbolized civilization), and there were no great governments on the Earth for 1,000 years. Except, that is, that the church grew, and became the only ruling government in the world.
Now, consider this. Since we know that all four materials of the statue of Daniel 2 must be destroyed together, the only way one could possibly claim that they can still be destroyed together is to implicate the Roman Catholic Church as being Roman Babylon. We do not agree with this, but, it does appear to us that unless you implicate the Roman Catholic Church as the demonic statue of Daniel 2, that you have no other choice but to recognize the that the statue was broken.
What becomes apparent is this, that for 1,000 years after the end of Rome, there were no great beasts ruling upon the Earth. This was, in fact, God’s original intent for Israel, where they had no king.
And, as said, unless you implicate the Roman Catholic Church as one, it was only the church that had world-wide dominion.
So, it is secular history that calls the thousand years of the Kingdom of God ruling over the whole world the “Dark Ages”. Now, we haven’t explicitly called this the Millennium yet here in this chapter, but we do, because it is. For everything that the church is, and the Kingdom is, this is exactly what we have just said. It is the thousand year reign of Christ over the entire Earth, through resurrected saints as well as the church, immediately following on nearly 1,000 years of rule by the dragon through the four beasts.
There were of course nations in the Earth, but no beast reigned over them all.
Considering the placement of the Millennium in the book of Revelation, then, we do then consider the thousand years after Constantine as the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-6. Is this to say that it is the “Millennial Reign of Christ”? Not in the way most would have considered it, because most of that has been a conjecture based on an interpretation of this passage. The reign of Christ, then, began long before, and this 1,0o0 years fits with Daniel’s stone becoming a great mountain and filling the Earth.
The Rebirth of the Dragon
Interestingly, at the end of this thousand years of history is a period called the Renaissance, meaning “re-birth”. Modern history, again, has attributed this period to what they called the re-birth of modern civilization, through learning, arts, science, and culture. But, we have come to the opinion that, at its heart, what this period represents is the rebirth of the dragon from the pit.
Our reasons stem back to the tide of societal and cultural forces that have come forth. What began in this period was humanism, pride, and rebellion. From this time, men began to divorce “knowledge” from “science”, with the belief that truth could be found apart from God. Where the Bible was the basis for most science prior, men turned away from the Bible, with the set purpose to wrest science from Moses.
The scale of these things must be seen over the centuries, as they are plans long-laid. The adversary had worked hard to first destroy the foundation of the Biblical worldview, and then had to bring forth many concepts in order to take men’s minds away from God’s revealed Word.
For instance, Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species would not have been accepted at a prior time, nor would the previous works that he built his theories upon been available. But, in the 1800’s, he brought forth his warped version of the origin of life, which to this day there remains not a single piece of substantive proof, so that by our day, it is accepted as common knowledge, and those who would disagree are seen as fools. This kind of process takes time, the kind of time the dragon has had since his release.
But, we said the period is marked by rebellion, because that is what it is. As said, people wanted to separate truth from God’s Word and today we accept it as normal. Beyond that, most of all, men wanted to throw off God’s commands, and live as they chose. So much has been the trend in this that many of the things we have come to believe about the church of that time were simply not true.
This quote from an online encyclopedia actually shows this exact thing:
The caricature of the period is also reflected in some more specific notions. One misconception, first propagated in the 19th century and still very common, is that all people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. This is untrue, as lecturers in the medieval universities commonly argued that evidence showed the Earth was a sphere. Lindberg and Ronald Numbers, another scholar of the period, state that there “was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth’s] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference”.Other misconceptions such as “the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages”, “the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science”, or “the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of natural philosophy”, are all cited by Numbers as examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, although they are not supported by current historical research.
Wikipedia, entry “Middle Ages”, accessed 6/20/2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages, emphasis added
Even modern historians point out that most of the claims that the church was the main proponent in teaching falsehood about science is actually untrue. What is the source of this dis-information? The rebellion and rage of a pagan undercurrent that no longer desired to be subjected to the authority of God.
Rejecting righteousness, they rebelled, and, in every generation, have found someone willing to propagate the lie. Until today, the lie has become so prevalent, that, even like Evolution, you could prove it empty and devoid of all scientific merit, but, because people prefer the lie rather than face the concept of a creator, they continue in their willful ignorance, their departure from truth and reason, they put on the veil.
So, the world, and even much of the church, believes a lie. They believe a lie because there is an unseen evil in operation, knowing its time is short. They believe a lie, because the deception is thick. They believe a lie, because their neighbor does, and it sounds reasonable.
The Coming Glory
So we find that, if all we have studied is correct, this is where we are.
Revelation 20:7-10 indicate the time when satan will be released from the pit, and will go out to deceive the nations to bring them together to war. For a variety of reasons, this is where we see things.
Yet, if you are aware of the arguments, this is where one could hear a cacophony of complaints against this viewpoint. What of the Millennium? What of the Kingdom? What of the promises? What of the prophesies? What of the scores of Scriptures relating it? In this, we also agree against the viewpoints that disregard these things.
What we see is a war in Revelation 20:9 involving Gog and Magog. This corresponds to the prophesies given in Ezekiel 38-39 of the same. After the dragon is thus defeated in this war, he is finally and completely banished into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:10. This is what we see on our prophetic horizon.
What that leaves us then is an interesting interlude between Revelation 20:10-11. Consider the implications.
If our understanding of the Olivet Discourse is correct in unhitching the Second Coming from the Tribulation, then Revelation 20:11-15 is the Second Coming of Christ. The Great White Throne is the Throne of His Glory, just as the last enemy, death, is defeated and throne into the fire, according to 1 Corinthians 15. But, since the Second Coming need no longer follow on the heels of the Tribulation (being now 2,000 years removed from it), then there is no need to assume the Second Coming follows directly on the heels of the Gog Magog War. This time period, between Revelation 20:10-11, then, is completely unknown.
We prefer to call this view “Extra-Millennial”. With Pre-, Post-, and A- millennialism, the focus of all the “Kingdom” Promises, and there are many, are all directed at the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-6. However, as we see it, instead, they are all directed here, at what we like to call the “extra” millennium, or the “second” millennium of Revelation 20. It is not that the time period literally is 1,000 years, but because so many have attached the unfulfilled prophecies to the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-6, the name seems appropriate.
What seems to be appear here, then, is that all the promises of what the Kingdom would be like would no longer fall in the first Millennium, but would fall here, between the Gog Magog war and the Second Coming. This “extra” millennium is at least 7-years long, as described in Ezekiel, but could be another 1,000 years, or more! Since the Second Coming is not connected temporally to the Tribulation, and the day and hour of Christ’s return is fully unknown, the length of time between these two verses could be very short or very long.
It is interesting, however, to note, though. It would seem, rather, that those who had attributed the prophecies they attributed to the first Millennium were wrong, but they weren’t too wrong. They were only off by, say, five verses!
Due to the nature of this topic, we have devoted the entire next chapter solely to the distinction of “What of Israel”? In it we will in depth detail the specifics of the Kingdom of God, and see how and why this is actually the greatest confirmation of this view of the End Times there is.
The Study of Eschatology is the study of the Kingdom
As already stated, the Kingdom of the millennium must be of the same nature as the one that cast out devils. No supposed interpretation of Old Testament promises can ever change the fact that, whatever the Kingdom is, Jesus by virtue of who he is claims “this is that” by his declaration at the beginning of His ministry. Further, He never indicated in His earthly ministry that the Kingdom would ever be anything other than what it was then. Not only is the Kingdom not one way now, only to become something else later, to do so would actually be to make it of a lesser quality, even as Hebrews 8:6 says that Jesus’ spiritual priesthood is better than an earthly one.
The Kingdom, then, is spiritual. The flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit that gives life.
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. The scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
Mark 12:28-34
“Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God” is probably one of the better compliments that could be given to someone yet without. His heart was prepared, softened, and ready for the seed. We can only assume that such a man heard, believed, and brought forth much fruit, but we are not told.
But, the lessons remains for us. Who is the man closest to the Kingdom? The man loving God and others, hence fulfilling the Law. This picture, again, depicts the nature of the Kingdom. When does salvation in the Gospel of the Kingdom come to a man? When he believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth. In the same way that the prince of Persia had influence in the Earth coming from a demonic source, man was created to have dominion. And, the operation of that realm of authority and power come on the basis of the authority of the individual. As a man believes in his heart, so is he, and as he confesses with his mouth, declaration is made either unto life or damnation. Every man is given with individual authority and responsibility, and as a man responds in the power of faith or of self, so is his eternal destiny determined.
What does the Kingdom look like? We must recognize that these are the secrets hidden from the foundation of the world. In such, whenever national Israel experienced a miraculous deliverance, had a judge that brought a great salvation to the nation, it was God’s Kingdom that was in operation.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus taught His disciples that it was to the Poor in Spirit and the persecuted for righteousness sake that the Kingdom belongs. So, every miraculous deliverance from God of yesterday, today, or forever is an entrance of the Kingdom. These are the secrets, the keys of the Kingdom, laid out from the foundation of the world, in accordance with the heart of Jesus. You do not get the Kingdom without them, and you do not see the miraculous power of the cross apart from the anointed Word of God, coming forth in the midst of these situations, except as we live, and abide, and have our being more and more in Christ.
This is the “mystery” of the Kingdom. Not some strange hidden form, but the mysteries of God’s heart towards the broken and persecuted, and His preference of the simple, child-like faith. This is the mystery, that these things have always been the motivation of God’s response towards His people. The only difference today is simply that we are all anointed like Elisha to hear, speak, and obey.
The Millennium in History
Now, again, not all demons were enslaved, only the “ring-leader”. We still see nations, but no nation has ever been able to rule the whole Earth as did the four empires of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. Instead, after almost four kingdoms of demonic domination, for 1,000 years, only the church was a ruling “kingdom” over the world, infiltrating every nation with it’s influence and government. Good or bad or otherwise, no matter what the impression of the church that did these things, or their obvious errors, this is what happened, as the church became a great mountain and filled the whole Earth.
It was not perfect. It incorporated politics and the flesh of men, and eventually succumbed to politics and the plans of man. And, as it was written, the dragon had to be released. Whether one caused the other, and which one which, at this point, is still merely speculation. But, regardless, the dragon has been released. By judging the time frame of this release, it would then appear that the “renaissance”, with its bawdy, lustful, and filthy literature, it’s sensuality of art and what western civilizations calls “culture”, as stated before, is probably best understood as the “rebirth” of the serpent previously bound. For those who would think this is too extreme of a statement, let us not forget the admonition of the “apostle of love”,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
What is clear is that from this period, the rebellion started, and men began separating their search for “truth” from God, and hence, modern “science” as we understand it. In a very slow progression (to men, that is), like a step-by-step plan traceable over the generations, you can watch the construction of the evil of evolution, and it’s false premises. Today, it is so widely accepted, that questioning it’s veracity is almost guaranteed ridicule by the scientific community, despite the plain fact that no one actually has even the beginning of any evidential or even circumstantial proof of it either happening or the plausibility of its proposed mechanisms operating in history.
This is but merely one of the more deadly lies being woven into our culture and minds that has been built in the last few hundred years to undermine truth of God’s Word. The enemy realizes that these measures take time, and these systems of belief and disbelief take time to build and unbuild. A generation does not throw away its foundation overnight, without a great stimulus, and, in the same way, a nation built upon righteousness is not immediately moved into sin. Rather, in every generation, the enemy has sought to find a man willing to sell out for lust, power, pride, or some other temporary reward. Exchanging the offer of eternity for the temporary and mundane, men have formed societies, and entered into agreement with the deceiver, to whom he, the enemy, has endued a temporary and faulty power.
And, every 50 to 100 years, each generation, we see another step towards the establishment of beliefs such as evolution, in the contrast to truth of the God’s Word and of Christ. Evolution is the enemies watermark, because with it, Stalin murdered his hundreds of thousands, and Hitler’s Nazi’s viewed men as apes and saw no problem with the slaughter of those animals. In fact, if it hadn’t been the power of the Gospel, the world would be German. During the war, God had raised up a man named Rees Howells, a simple intercessor, who covenanted with a group of others at his school, and prayed a simple prayer, “God, bend Hitler”. That was the one time that Hitler, a demonized man, chose not to listen to his voices, and heeded the voice of men, rather than his devils. Had Hitler followed his voices at that time, the very outcome of the whole war very likely would have been different. Men prayed, God moved, and history was changed.
Thy Kingdom Come
When I think of the Kingdom, there is only one thing I think of, prayer. When I think of governmental intercession, I do not mean praying for the government. That is “prayer for government”. Governmental intercession is prayer that is from the government of heaven, praying for whatever need arises. Whether it is a sore toe, or whether it is the shaking of continents, as the Father leads, it is prayer from a real government, prayed into the Earth, that changes the world. At the Second Coming, there will not be a need for the government to operate as such, for all the enemies will be defeated and overthrown, and all that offends will be removed.
There is a vanity that says we will always have what we want when we are “in the Kingdom”. That didn’t work for Jesus, and it didn’t work for any of His apostles. Those who want to be first for God, will be last. John the Apostles managed to not die, but it wasn’t for their lack of his enemies trying. In this life, there will be persecutions. And, those who are persecuted for righteousness sake are Most Happy, because God is going to show up, which means His Kingdom (Matthew 5:10).
To take a “Kingdom Now” message that eliminates all suffering may appeal to a Western audience where persecution is rare, but it is not a complete message, as the world-wide church testifies. Rather, Jesus said that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will have persecution.
But, a man like Rees Howells managed to touch something of heaven that most people do not. He found an entrance into the Kingdom, where the God of heaven listened to his cries, and moved at the sound of His voice.
And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 11:42
Jesus knew that His every prayer was heard. He didn’t show off His power, or mis-use it, but submitted all to the Father. But, in this very verse, He shows His humility, that the Father always hears Him.
An Example from Revival
Daniel Nash prayed for Charles Finney, and, when Father Nash said the breakthrough had come, after two weeks of covenanted fasting and prayer, Finney came, and without fail, the Spirit of God fell. When Daniel Nash died after several years of their partnership, it was only a matter of months before Finney left the itinerant ministry, because the power was gone.
These men knew what touching the government and Kingdom of heaven was about. These men, when they prayed, saw the Kingdom of Heaven come touch the Earth. When they prayed, God’s Kingdom came, and His Will was done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. God’s Kingdom and will are established firmly in the heavens. What happens when a man prays is he begins to bring the will of God from there to the Earth. When the power of God touches a person, and heals them, it is because the Kingdom of the Heavens, in which there was no sickness or brokenness, has come upon the Earth, even as it is in heaven.
It is a fine thing to know that in the heavenly dimension that things are perfect, peaceful, and in control. But, upon the Earth, we pray, and we pray to see that His Kingdom would be upon the Earth, even as it is there.
Rees Howells and Daniel Nash both found the Kingdom of Heaven, and changed the world through their prayer and fasting. They entered into a “governmental intercession”, praying from the government of heaven, and bringing that authority to the Earth. Surely, if there were no Kingdom, there would have been nothing for them to have connected with. There would have been no power with which they could have moved heavenly powers. There would have been no ability by which they could have affected the Earth.
But, because we have a heavenly Kingdom, any believer can change the world, and anyone with faith can see even the dead raised.
Who rules the world?
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Colossians 1:16
Though the enemies’ power is overcome through the blood of the Lamb, it is the invisible, spiritual dimension in which the rulership over the men of the Earth has been lorded over them. Whether it is through Masonic or Illuminati type organizations, or through demonized leaders of nations, or evil on the more local level, the enemy finds people willing to partner with him to bring about the wickedness upon the Earth, but it is the unseen, infernal powers of the prince of the air that silently, and occultly blind, enslave, and corrupt the children of men.
While, for a thousand years, there was no one world government over the children of men, the first three beasts did remain though stripped of their dominion. Yet, now, we see such an ambition of evil, and accepted virtue of rebellion become more engrained in the culture. And, through the Media, a more rapid deployment and universal scope of ideas and ideologies, by whomever has the largest voice.
Yet, Eusebius wrote, concerning the time of Constantine,
And besides this, he caused to be painted on a lofty tablet, and set up in the front of the portico of his palace, so as to be visible to all, a representation of the salutary sign placed above his head, and below it that hateful and savage adversary of mankind, who by means of the tyranny of the ungodly had wasted the Church of God, falling headlong, under the form of a dragon, to the abyss of destruction. For the sacred oracles in the books of God’s prophets have described him as a dragon and a crooked serpent;and for this reason the emperor thus publicly displayed a painted resemblance of the dragon beneath his own and his children’s feet, stricken through with a dart, and cast headlong into the depths of the sea.
In this manner he intended to represent the secret adversary of the human race, and to indicate that he was consigned to the gulf of perdition by virtue of the salutary trophy placed above his head. This allegory, then, was thus conveyed by means of the colors of a picture: and I am filled with wonder at the intellectual greatness of the emperor, who as if by divine inspiration thus expressed what the prophets had foretold concerning this monster, saying that “God would bring his great and strong and terrible sword against the dragon, the flying serpent; and would destroy the dragon that was in the sea.”This it was of which the emperor gave a true and faithful representation in the picture above described.
Chapter III.–Of his Picture surmounted by a Cross and having beneath it a Dragon, emphasis added.
As it was recorded, even Constantine made reference to the dragon being cast into the abyss. Could it be that today, after the statue has been shattered for near 2,000 years, that a dragon has been at work, scheming again, and working over the centuries, to convert and corrupt men to no longer recognize their hearts, their spirits, and their barren condition? That the enemy would work so hard to ingrain such rebellion even into the history that men would even blame the church of his deceptions?
Conclusion
What was the Millennium? It was a time of a thousand years when “the murderer” was in prison. His under-generals were still causing destruction, and the church wasn’t perfect, but the Kingdom reigned. Christ was already reigning, and the saints reigned with Him. And, now, we are in a short period of time, where all eyes are on Jerusalem.
Time will tell, shortly, if this interpretation is correct. The best thing to do is always to study, showing ourselves approved. The best thing to do is to know the text, so that if we am wrong, or someone else is wrong, you at least know the Word itself. I know personally, if I start to see the seals fulfilled, one, two, three, I’m jumping ship and getting on board with the Apostolic Pre-Millennialists! That is to say, if we know the Word, and have a humble and sincere heart, we will shortly know if this was wrong or right and understand. But, If we am right, and others were wrong, perhaps they will join with us. But, regardless, it is those who know the actual written Word, the whole Word, and not simply the interpretations of men in the popular explanation of End Times that are those who are diligently preparing.
Proverbs 13:10 says that only by pride comes contention. Argumentativeness and debates are not the subject of prophecy. Leave that to the carnal. Rather, we attempt to obtain spiritual revelation and understanding, and, even though we see “something”, we then often attempt to interpret what we are seeing through the pattern of our expectancy.
In the same way, it is my understanding that many well-meaning, prophetically gifted people are seeing rightly many things that are on the way, yet, in the expectation of [re-]fulfilling the chronology of Revelation, they rightly make many sparkling discoveries, yet, out of their necessity, they then attempt to fit them back into a text which may or may not originally have been intended to indicate them.
Countless people have been spoken to out of fulfilled prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and are right in interpreting them in the context of the voice of those Scriptures. Yet, historically, and contextually, those prophecies are fulfilled once, and, what God has done, while He does have a pattern, He is not duty-bound to fulfill again.
We see these prophesies as largely fulfilled. But God has people at various levels of understanding and prophetic insight, and, if the only way that He can speak a necessary truth to the people of our time is through the text of an already fulfilled prophecy, what is that to us? Or, if the bent of a person’s understanding is to choose to categorize the true revelation they are receiving from God as being related to these [to us] fulfilled texts, why should we attempt to convince them that their revelation is true but their integration of it into the pattern of Revelation is wrong? Wrong is still wrong, but, to be honest, sometimes, the only way some will listen to any revelation the things that are coming is if they can fit it into something as bold and as mysterious as the Revelation. Again, what is that to us? The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. Our only heart cry in all of this is, When He comes, shall He find faith in the Earth?
It is both, then, whether the revelation itself is correct, as well as how it fits into the scripture in which they say it was intended. Whether or not my chronology is correct or not does not change the fact that the vast array of God’s people who have seen the great and dread catastrophes which are coming upon the Earth shortly. They are more than probably seeing portions of the judgment that God is bringing upon this planet. If the only grid they understand, or are willing to use, is the seals, trumpets, and bowls of Revelation, God is more than willing to speak through what we know, though we do not know the full context of everything He is speaking.
But, either way, judgment is coming, and judgments will come upon the ungodly.
And those who seek after Him, and all those who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.
Summary
- The Millennium is a 1,000 year period described in Revelation 20:1-6.
- The Kingdom is Spiritual, and was here in Jesus’ day.
- While the passage mentions the “reigning” with Christ, the Kingdom did not start nor end with this time period…
- Since the Millennium is all about the resurrection, and the resurrection is not to a physical body, it would stand to reason that the reigning is not upon the physical Earth, but in heaven.
- Most of the teaching on the Millennium is the basis of the ascribing of many prophecies to this period.
- We maintain that this is not the correct period to assign these prophecies to.
- The Millennium is seen in the 1,000 years after Constantine
- Foxxe’s Book of Martyrs shows a 1,000 year period with no religious martyrs.
- What is more, there were no “great beasts” ruling over the Earth for this time. No “one-world government”.
- The ring-leader, not all his cohorts, were thrown into the abyss. There is no indication that all demons were bound with him.
- The “dark ages” were called dark in reference to the “light of Rome”.
- Much of what we think of as Western Civilization is actually the Babylon of Daniel 2 & 7.
- After nearly 1,000 years of Babylon’s rule, Christ’s rule extended for 1,000 years.
- At the Renaissance, people rejected God, and divorced knowledge from the Bible.
- The rebellion against God and the erosion of His foundation can still be seen today in the lies perpetuated against His church of this time period.
- We believe that satan has already been “there and back again”, in reference to the pit.
- We prefer to use the term “Extra-Millennial”, referring to the time between Revelation 20:10-11.
- The fulfillment of all the verses typically ascribed to Revelation 20:1-6 would fit better into the space between Revelation 20:10-11.
- One man was told he was “not far from the Kingdom of God”. The Kingdom of God, then, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
- The essence of the Kingdom is prayer. We must seek God continually.
- “Kingdom Now” may have some insights, but any time it is divorced from the reality of suffering it is not the Gospel of Jesus.
- Finney was used powerfully in the Second Great Awakening, but he rode on the backs of the prayers of Daniel Nash.
- Daniel Nash understood the Kingdom, because, when he prayed, God’s Kingdom came.
- Eusebius wrote of Constantine even stating that they had cast the dragon into the abyss.
- Whether we get anything else right, let us learn to walk in humility and love.
- The thing that matters most is not our end times doctrine, but whether we have sincerity and truth.
- Let us be sure that whatever we do, and however we teach these things, that they impart true faith into the believer, not mere head knowledge.
- And, let us remember, people will continue to use revelation no matter what, just as we use all the prophecies of the Old Testament, even fulfilled ones. God’s Word is Eternal, even if it’s specific fulfillment is complete.