Identifying the Millennium, Part 2

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 19

Revelation 20:1-10

As promised, we’re returning to Revelation 20 and the millennium, which we started to discuss last week. Let’s review a bit. In his vision, John sees an angel coming down from heaven, holding the keys to the abyss and a great chain, who bound the dragon for a thousand years. The angel represents the Lord Jesus who came down from heaven and bound the strong man, that is, the devil, so that the devil wasn’t free to prevent people from being rescued from his kingdom, so that the devil wasn’t able to “deceive the nations” for a “thousand years.” That figurative number, the “millennium,” represents the whole time the devil is bound, namely, the whole time the Gospel goes out into the world, when the nations are being brought to faith in Christ, when he isn’t given free rein to trap them under his spell of deception, as he was prior to the coming of Christ, when the Gospel wasn’t being preached to all nations.

It also represents the time when the “souls of those who were beheaded for their testimony of Christ” are reigning with Christ and serving as priests of God in heaven, for a thousand years. That’s happening right now! The saints, the souls of believers who are in heaven, even if they were brutally killed here on earth, are not dead. They are alive and reigning with Christ even now! So the millennium started with Christ’s first coming and will last until shortly before He comes again. It’s not literally a thousand years. It’s basically the whole time of the New Testament era, 10x10x10.

But toward the end of it, or at the end of it, the devil must be “released for a little while,” John says, allowed again to deceive the nations, allowed to suppress the preaching of the Gospel to some extent, allowed to fill the world with false teachings and dupe people into believing them, no matter how crazy they sound. How many people in the world don’t believe in millions-of-years evolution these days, even though the notion of life and complexity and order coming from lifelessness and chaos and disorder is really nonsensical? How many people are coming to believe, in droves, that men marrying men or women marrying women is normal and good, or that men can be women and vice versa, even though it’s openly absurd? How many have come to believe that it’s perfectly acceptable and even morally good to end the life of a child in her mother’s womb? These are just a few examples. While Christianity grew and flourished in the world, these insane ideas were overturned and held at bay. But now, as Christianity and the preaching of the Gospel diminish in the world, the nations are again allowed to be deceived, as a divine punishment against them, because they didn’t love the truth, even when they had it clearly presented to them.

We looked at that much last week. Now let’s go on a little further. Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison—again, not like a jail cell so that he’s trapped and can’t move, but like a restraint so that his success at deceiving people is greatly reduced—will be released, and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

The nations which are in the four corners of the earth, that is, all nations everywhere. The devil goes out to deceive them, to turn them away from the Gospel of truth, to turn them against the holy Christian Church. And he gathers them together for battle against the Church of God, and their numbers are vast, “as the sand of the sea.” The vast majority of the earth will be “gathered” against God’s holy Church, not gathered literally, as in, all nations showing up on some battlefield in some country somewhere, but “gathered” in one mind, with one purpose, to rid the world of Christians.

That doesn’t mean everyone else gets along with one another, or that there are no other wars. For example, in the war currently being waged by Hamas against the nation of Israel, it seems clear that Hamas is out for blood and eager to do violence, while the nation of Israel is not out for blood but is justly defending itself from violence. But that doesn’t put Hamas on the devil’s side and Israel on God’s side. It isn’t “evil vs. good,” as far as God is concerned. Most Palestinians reject Jesus as the Christ. Most Israelis reject Jesus as the Christ. So it’s really a more violent form of evil vs. a less violent form of evil. Neither side is good. Neither side is “God’s people.” So this isn’t the war John is talking about in his vision.

John tosses out a reference here to “Gog and Magog.” That sends us back to Ezekiel 38 and 39. That whole chapter is a cryptic prophecy about the end of the world, and it’s important we understand it a little bit. Ezekiel, like John, uses prophetic, figurative language. He gives the name “Gog” to a wicked ruler from the land of “Magog,” far to the north—a ruler who has gathered many nations together with him to fight against the people of Israel in the land of Israel. This is relevant to what people are claiming still today. They’ll try to apply Ezekiel’s prophecy literally to the land of Israel, and to the modern Jews as the people of Israel. They’ll try to figure out which “nation from the north” is going to have a battle in the land of Israel against the modern Israelis. The problem is, Ezekiel’s prophecy is figurative. He describes Gog’s armies as riding in on horses, with their swords, and shields, and bucklers, and bows and arrows. Hardly a literal reference to how any wars are fought these days. What Ezekiel describes is very similar to what John describes in Revelation—the nations being gathered for a great battle against the people of God. But the people of God are not those who reject Jesus as the Christ. The people of God are Christians, regardless of their bloodline. And the “land of Israel” and the “mountains of Israel” and the “city of God” in Ezekiel’s prophecy is the Holy Christian Church. And the restoration of Israel to its land is the promise of the new heavens and the new earth for the people of God in Christ that God will establish after the Day of Judgment comes, the home of righteousness, as Peter calls it.

The names “Gog and Magog” may also have a figurative meaning, both in Ezekiel and in Revelation. There’s a Hebrew word related to “Gog” that means “roof” or “covering” or “covered.” “Magog” would be “uncovering” or “uncovered.” That would fit well with what John has described so far in Revelation. There are the “uncovered” or “open” enemies of the Christian Church—those who openly speak against Christ and His Gospel and `His people. There are also “covered” or “covert” enemies of the Christian Church—those who may even call themselves Christians but are false Christians, who promote a false Christ, an Antichrist. Both enemies, covered and uncovered, will gather against the true Church for battle.

But, just as we’ve seen repeatedly in Revelation, the actual battle never takes place.

They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And the message of Revelation shines through brightly and clearly: Christians will be targeted by the devil and by the unbelieving world throughout the New Testament period. The last times before Christ’s return will be especially difficult. The voice of the Gospel will be practically silenced. The vast majority of the world will be deceived. And the Church will appear to be vastly outnumbered by those who would destroy her. But God Himself will come to our aid. Jesus will return in glory. And the devil and his allies in the world will be punished and tormented forever and ever.

What does this mean for us? Notice, the Church isn’t called on to do battle against any of these enemies. The Church doesn’t take up arms or armor, except for the “full armor of God” that Paul speaks about in Ephesians 6: Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Do as St. Paul says. Take up that armor, whether we’re still in the millennium or in that last little while when the devil is released. And put your hope in God, and in the victory He has promised to the faithful—the victory depicted in Revelation 20. Amen.