In my youth I was a wind
tossed wave – blown about by all sorts of doctrines insisted upon me by people
I thought of as “super Christians” - for more than twenty years. Finally God
placed on my heart a burden to know the truth and to seek it out. I wanted to
know all sorts of things –Is Calvinism correct? How old is the universe? What
was the extent of the flood? Will there be a rapture? Should we be speaking
tongues today? Etc… People gave me confident assertive answers for opposing
views and I began to see that I needed to study hermeneutics and scripture and
pray for guidance. I say all this because I did not come from a background in
doctrine, which I had to overcome (I was not raised in a Christian family), but
rather found myself arriving at doctrine through study and prayer. One issue
that has become clear to me is that the scripture teaches premillennialism (that
the church will be raptured out of the world and sometime later a terrible time
of seven years of tribulation will occur followed by a glorious earthly reign
of Christ for 1000 years and after that the eternal state of the new Heaven and
Earth). I did not come to this view lightly! I know many fine Christians – many
of them elders in my own church – who hold to an amillenial viewpoint (that the
1000 years in Revelation 20 is figurative for the church age we are now living
in and that the next event will be the second coming of the Lord Jesus and then
Heaven in eternity). If anyone with an
amillenial viewpoint wants to change my mind they will have to very clearly and
patiently and scripturally answer the following questions:
1) Revelation 20 mentions
the millennium - 1000 years - six times! When the Holy Spirit says 1000 years
six times does He not mean 1000 years? Wherein scripture does 1ever mean two?
Surely we must be careful not to allegorise what need not be allegorical?
2) Is Satan bound in the
bottomless pit right now? And if he is how come he can also walk about like a
roaring lion (1 Peter5:8) and be the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)? The
cross defeated Satan but where does it ever say that he does not fight the
church? Surely history proves otherwise. If Satan has been 'bound’ and falling
into the pit for the past two thousand years then being bound and falling into
the pit are pretty meaningless images aren't they? As a wag once said: “If
Satan was bound at the Cross, then he was bound with a very long chain, because
he is always gnawing on my leg!” In a sense Satan has always been bound to
God’s will but has been free to move between heaven and earth. But in
Revelation we find Satan finally cast out of heaven onto earth (Rev 12).
Revelation 20:3 says Satan will be so bound that he will no longer “deceive the
nations”. How can anyone argue that the nations are not deceived today? As John
16:11 states Satan is still the “ruler of this world”. Right? (see also 1 John
5:19 and explain it)
3) The Scripture says
during the Millennium: “the earth will be flooded with the knowledge of the
glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14).
But instead we see the rise of Islam, the great creeping apostasy in the
evangelical church and the swell of atheism. Does this current world really
strike you as Christ soaked (like water covers the sea)? Scripture says that
during the Millennium the nations will all be in subjection to the Lord and
glorify His name (Psalm 22:27-31). But are they now (Russia isn’t, Canada
isn’t, Sweden isn’t, the middle east isn’t)? Is Christ ruling from Jerusalem
right now? Was he ruling from Jerusalem during the Muslim occupation in
history, literally or even figuratively?
4) Isaiah says that when
the Lord reigns, the world will be characterized by peace, righteousness, and
justice (Isaiah 9:7). Is this what we see today of anytime in the last 2000
years? Even within the church itself? Really? Is there international peace,
justice, righteousness and loving kindness as clearly described in Hosea
2:18-20?
5) Has the change to the
world described Isaiah 35:1-2 ever happened (see also 11:6-9, 29:18, 65:20-22)?
If not, is it not likely that a world is yet to come where this will literally
be the case? Can we take God's promises at face value or must we spiritualise
and allegorise them to try to hammer a perfect 1000 year satanless future
kingdom into the satan filled 2000 year past age? Are God’s promises so watery?
6) Where are the two
resurrections? Acts 24:15 says there will be two resurrections, one of the just
and another of the unjust and Revelation 20:5-6 shows that these two
resurrections will be separated by a thousand years. The amillennial view has
only one resurrection. Does a single resurrection of just and unjust at the end
of the church age match up with this scripture? Look very carefully at the
chronology of Revelation 20:4-6!
7) Are the Jews abandoned
by God – never to fulfil their role, never to receive the many specific
promises God made to them – promises quite distinct and separate from those he
makes to all the nations of the World?
Can we trust the promises of the amillenial God which are so specific but
turn into replacement theology? In Romans 3:1-4 Paul asks, “Has the
unfaithfulness of the Jews nullified God’s faithfulness to them?” What does
Paul say? His answer is, “May it never be!” Replacement theology is an
abomination! Again in Romans 11:1 Paul asks, “Has God rejected His people?”
Again he cries: “May it never be! God has not rejected His people whom He
foreknew” (Romans 11:2). Next read Romans 9:27; 11:25-32 and ask yourself if this
indicates that a remnant of Jews will play a role in the end times (the 144000
of Revelation for a start – mentions even the specific tribes they will come
from)?
8) It is no surprise that
Israelites are still with us today because, though God has allowed them to
stumble until the fullness of the gentiles come in, after the rapture of the church the Jews will look on him they
have pierced (Zechariah 12: 10) and then when one of them goes up to Jerusalem
gentiles will want to go with them to learn of the Lord (Zechariah 8:23). Their
time will come! Is the role of Israel only to produce the messiah? Or does God
tell them they will be his ambassadors to the world (a role they only partially
fulfilled until today)?
9) Does Isaiah 49:16
suggest God would replace the Jews? Abandon them? Transfer his promise to
others? Really? Does Jeremiah 31:35-37 supports this view?
10) Romans 11:29 was
written after the cross and yet in straightforward terms Paul says that the
“gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” And in Romans 9:1-5 he speaks of
promises to the Jews that God will fulfil. Are God’s promises ironclad? How
could he keep these in the amillenial view?
11) When will Ezekiel’s
temple be built if not in the millennium? See the very detailed description and
promises about that temple in the latter half of Ezekiel. This included
memorial sacrifices in great detail. None of this has ever yet happened. Was God
wasting His time giving these specifics to Ezekiel?
12) When will there be a
time of extreme longevity (Isaiah 65:20cf) if not in the millennium? Death will
still happen during the reign but these scriptures suggest preflood life
expectancies, right? This has not been ever been true of the last 2000 years?
When someone dies at age 100 in this, the church age now, receive pity because
we considered them to be a child in years?
13) When will Zechariah
14:4, 9 occur if not at the start of the 1000 literal year reign? Has the
geological upheaval described actually happened yet?
14) Where does Daniel
7:13-14, 27 say the kingdom will be? Does this not show that it will be literal
and earthly?
15) Who do the saints
rule over (Rev 20:4 and 6)? Who are we to be priests to? How does the Lord put
us in charge of one or two or more cities (Matthew 25:23) – if saints are all
that there are in Heaven? But in the millennium there will still be
unregenerate people who will be ruled from Jerusalem through a Christ world
government administered by the perfected saints. Nothing else makes sense does
it? Who else would we govern over? Each other? Angels?
16) Related to this last
question – prove that all people everywhere will be dead at the end of
Revelation 19. Does the scripture teach that all will die?
17) If the prophecies of
Christ's first coming were all fulfilled literally why spiritualise or
allegorise the prophecies concerning his second coming? Why say 1000 years is
actually more than 2000 years? Why say satan's binding is at the cross when
there are so many warnings to the church about him and his minions? etc...
18) Therefore is it not
true that amillennialism fails in that it uses inconsistent hermeneutics? That
it interprets unfulfilled prophecy differently from fulfilled prophecy?
If I am wrong please correct
me.
Iron sharpens iron
