He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:2
The Millennium was seen to have been fulfilled after the reign of Constantine. While history may call these the “dark ages”, that “dark” is in reference to the “light of Rome”. Of course, understanding that God in Daniel 2 called Rome Babylon and in Daniel 7 called it a beast, if Rome is “light”, I want “darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).
In Foxxe’s Book of Martyr’s, the abridged version, we read the following text.
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 – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Now, let us examine what Revelation 20 actually says. It says the dragon (singular) would be bound with a chain (singular) and cast into the bottomless pit. Now, if you threw the head of a mafia crime circuit into prison, the various factions would still exist, but they would not be coordinated. What the headship provided by means of force, intimidation, power, and illegitimate authority would be removed, and while there would be some form of crime that continued, it could not sustain the level of organization and sophistry that was capable with the “mastermind” in its lead.
In the same way, Revelation talks about the murderer himself, the dragon being bound. And, indeed, we see approximately 1000 years of growth of the church through this time. It was not without error, abuse, and infringement, but even as people are finding out now, it was not the Christians who were prohibiting autopsies and teaching the world was flat, but rather the pagans.
Since around 1500AD, the world has been suffering from a “rennaissance” of sorts. The word “rennaissance” means “rebirth”. In this case, it was the rebirth of the serpent from the pit.
This time was marked, yes by an increase in “art” and “learning”, but at what cost? Even Eve saw that the apple was good for food, delightful to the eyes, and able to make one wise, remember. But, this time was the time of the rebellion of so much culture. In this time, we see that people began to divorce the idea of knowledge and learning from the Truth of God’s Word. “Science” was developed under the notion that you could know something apart from God. The various learnings and arts were developed, quite often, in direct opposition to faith and simplicity of heart, and of God’s kind of love.
Even the well thought of plays of Shakespeare are written in a bawdy style, that is, perverse. People are entertained by garbage, and they want more. Truly, the rennaissance, while it has many things that God will turn to good (Romans 8:28), is not all that history makes it up to be.
The Millennium lasted from approximately the fall of Rome, either marked at Constantine’s conversion or the “official” end in the fifth century, and lasted up until about the time of Martin Luther. After this time, it was said that the dragon would be released, and we see exactly what we would expect. Persecution arises within the compromised factions of the church, and murder begins again. Since this time, concepts such as evolution have been proceeding forward until they are nearly wholesale adopted by the populace, giving rise to Hitler and Stalin’s slaughter of the “genetically inferior” (especially the Jews). Other works, and devices are steadily increasing, all to take us away from the only things that matter: Faith, Hope, and Love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Anything that takes us away from our heart is designed to destroy, no matter how much we think we need it and rely on it.
This is the time that the rock grew into a great mountain (Daniel 2:44), that being the true Kingdom of God. And, while at the end, corruption did creep in more and more, and the bodies began to rely upon political and state power rather than the Gospel, so the dragon was released, and we see the slow, few century old progression of the nations towards global war, and, ultimately, the Gog Magog showdown towards the end of Revelation 20.
It is important to realize that many of the passages attributed to the Millennium are merely internationally so. Revelation 20 does not describe this period, so the many attributions to it are merely speculation.
However, even in Constantine’s day, coins were minted that showed him riding upon a horse, trampling down the dragon. Other sources indicate that people in the Middle Ages considered themselves to be living in the Millennium.
What is the case, for sure, is that for almost a thousand years, an empire named Babylon, in four successive stages described by Daniel 2, ruled the entire world. And, after the fall of Rome, as caused by the church through the conversion of Constantine, since the fall of Rome and the dispersal of all trace of those former kingdoms, there has been no “great beast” (Daniel 7) ruling over the nations, but, rather, God’s Kingdom, His Church, has become the only dominating force in the Earth.
And, it is no wonder, then, today, that we see so many hate and curse the church’s history. Why? Because this is the work of that dragon.
Every thing of God is masked by an earthly counterfeit (the statue of Daniel 2). Every concept that is just and true is corrupted by human understanding, and it is the human understanding that is primarily conveyed, especially in the media. However, it is the invisible, the spirit realm, that is more real than the visible, for the invisible created the visible.
So, the enemies work has been to corrupt everything good. To trade the substance (hypostatis, Hebrews 11:1) of the thing, for the image or the falsehood, or simply the shadow. In such way, every false religion on the planet has been formed.
But, the substance, the reality is found in Christ. The true thing, is the spiritual, but the carnal mind cannot understand these things. So, the people of God must be taught the things of the Spirit, must be taught the things of faith, and to not trust what their eye sees, but what faith is.
It is not enough to simply have the right doctrine of Christ. The moment one lays down the proper doctrine, even end times doctrine, it becomes a matter of learning. It becomes a matter of lesson plans, of instructions, and didactics. It becomes simply another chatecism to memorize, and hence a “dead work” (Hebrews 6:1). But, the question isn’t whether you have the doctrine right, but whether you have Him of whom the doctrines describe.
This man, Jesus Christ, is the Truth, and to simply know all the Biblical facts about Him, or any subject, including Eschatology, is to be completely void of understanding whatsoever.
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
1 Corinthians 8:2
And,
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
Ephesians 3:17-29
This, unfortunately, has been the cost of the “Rennaissance”. The futility of our thinking, and calling it knowledge. The emptiness of our life, and calling it art. The worthlessness of our own ways, and vanity of our accomplishments, and the destruction that every single “advancement” has brought upon us and our children, and on the Earth, and we call it science and understanding.
Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver. “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.
Psalm 50:22-23
There is no true knowledge apart from Christ, and that science which is divorced from Him, which is most of it, is as nothing. For, as God created the heavens and the Earth, He can divulge its secrets, but the greatest secret there is, the mystery of God Himself, is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7, Revelation 10:7).
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:2-3
In this way, we understand that the destruction of the temple signified the end of the Jewish Nation as it was, and that all the authority, power, and glory endued in it, as signified by the temple, was returned to Christ and His church. Christ is the Mystery of God, and His authority was fully realized at the destruction of the point of authority of the Jewish nation, namely the temple (from which they derived their authority, which was God).
The rest of the book of Revelation describes, then, the decline of the Roman empire, and it’s breaking through the conversion of Constantine, and, on into the Millennium.
While most of the book of Revelation is therefore fulfilled, the end of Chapters 20, and 21 and 22 remain unfulfilled. We look forward to the second coming events described in Matthew 24 and elsewhere, and mentioned in the close of Revelation 20, at which point the Earth and the universe will be destroyed, and the New Heavens and New Earth will be made known.