What happens to this world and its population during the thousand-year time period mentioned in Revelation? Will it be an era of peace or a period of desolation?

As Banfield, a distinguished missionary to Nigeria, sat with his native teacher, translating the twentieth chapter of Revelation, he reached the verse that speaks of Satan being bound for a thousand years. The native, who had been listening spellbound, suddenly made a rush for the door and ran up and down the yard in a state of ecstatic joy. When the translator followed to find the cause of his joy, the pundit said, "Good news too much, master; no devil for a thousand years!"

The binding of Satan has unfortunately led millions to conclude that the "millennium" (which is not a Biblical term at all; it does not occur in the Word of God) will be a thousand-year period of peace, prosperity, salvation, and safety, during which all the wicked will be converted and Jesus Christ will reign in person on the earth. The theory behind it is that God will probably, yea, undoubtedly, some day give men another chance at salvation—and the millennium is as good a time as any. You and I, however, need to know for sure. Our hope of eternal life is at stake. We are the losers when ministers fail to make this all-important doctrine clear, or even fail to mention it at all.

Just what is the millennium? Because there will be "no devil for a thousand years," will we have another chance to be saved? Where will we be during this period of time? When will the millennium begin? Let's look at the Bible teaching as given on this subject; the rest of the article will be an analysis and exposition of these words:

"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 worshipped 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. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, God and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them" (Revelation 20:1-9).

Here we have the whole teaching of God's Word on the millennium; in no other place in the Bible is this thousand-year period referred to in such detail.

Because this scripture declares that Satan will be bound so that he will be unable to deceive the nations, men have thoughtlessly jumped to the conclusion that the millennium will be a most happy and glorious time of peace among the peoples of the world, when nations will be converted by the preaching of the gospel.

This theory has been proclaimed for so long that it has come to be widely believed. It has, however, no foundation at all in the teaching of the Bible. There is nothing in the Word of God which states that before the end of the world the nations of the world will be converted to the gospel and will cease to fight one another. In fact the Bible teaches just the opposite. The world is not getting better and better; it is growing worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13).

The Bible reveals that both the righteous and the wicked will "grow together until the harvest," which Jesus explained as "the end of the world." And at the end of the world, instead of all the wicked being converted, they will be cast into a furnace of fire, where there will be "wailing and gnashing of teeth." All this Jesus made plain in His parable of the wheat and the tares (see Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43).

Let us now turn to the specific events that will take place during the millennium. At the coming of Christ the wicked will be blotted from the face of the earth—consumed with the spirit of Jesus' mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His glory. Christ will take His people to the City of God in heaven, and the earth will be emptied of its inhabitants.

The earth will then appear like a death-fraught wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by an earthquake, uprooted trees, and ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself—all will be scattered over its surface, and vast caverns will mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations (Jeremiah 4:23-27).

For a thousand years Satan will wonder over the desolate earth beholding the results of his rebellion against the law of God. During this time his sufferings will be intense. Previously, his life had been one of unceasing activity; but during the millennium he will be deprived of his power and left to contemplate the part that he has acted since first he rebelled against the government of Heaven. He will look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, for he must suffer for his evil work.

A time of judgment. During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection, the judgment of the wicked will take place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows the second coming of Christ: "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts" 1 Corinthians 4:5).

At this time the righteous will reign as kings and priests unto God. John says, "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years: (Revelation 20:4, 6). It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, "the saints shall judge the world" (1 Corinthians 6:2, 3). In union with Christ they will judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the sentence that the wicked must suffer will be meted out, according to their works.

When the thousand years are over, Jesus and the saints will return to the earth. The wicked dead will be resurrected to receive their doom. They will come forth, a mighty host, numberless as the sands of the sea, in a supreme attempt to overthrow God's kingdom and take the Holy City. Each individual will be punished "according to his deeds." Satan, too, will be destroyed in the fire of destruction while the righteous abide safely in the Holy City. The fire that consumes the wicked will purify the earth, which then will be the inheritance of the righteous forever.

This is what the Bible has to say about the millennium.

The doctrine of the world's conversion and the spiritual reign of Christ—meaning a temporal millennium before the end of the world—was not held by the apostolic church. Even though the error was introduced by Tichonious, a writer of the fourth century, and popularized later by Aurelius Augustine, bishop of Hippo, it was generally not accepted by Christians until about the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Like every other error, its results have been evil. It teaches men to look far in the future for the coming of the Lord, and it prevents them from giving heed to the signs heralding His approach. It induces a feeling of confidence and security that is not well-founded and leads many to neglect the preparation necessary in order to meet their Lord.

Christ tells us that as it was in Noah's day so will it be when the Son of man comes again. How was it in Noah's day? "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). The inhabitants of the antediluvian world turned from Jehovah, refusing to do His holy will. They followed their own unholy imagination and perverted ideas. Because of their wickedness, God destroyed them, and today the world is following the same way. It presents no flattering signs of millennial glory.

There was a poor boy in London who loved toys, but he could not have them. He used to go down the street and gaze through the shop windows at the wonderful displays of things that he wanted and longed for. But he never got them, for there was always a glass window between.

One day he was run over in the street by a truck and was taken to the hospital. As he lay there on his cot, they propped him up and brought him toy soldiers to play with. He looked at them, then slowly reached out and touched them. He touched them again and again, and every time he would say, "No glass between." He didn't have to look through a glass window that held back his hands. Now he could actually hold the precious toys! The Scripture says, "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" 1 Corinthians13:12).

Why not make application today for a place in that kingdom which shall never end, the land of eternity; a home in the City of God where we shall see Jesus face-to-face?

What the millennium IS!                                 What the millennium IS NOT!

1. A time of judging the wicked.                     1. Another chance at salvation.

2. An age of darkness and death on earth.      2. A golden age of prosperity among the nations.

3. A time when the earth will be emptied       3. A time when the world will be converted.
    of its inhabitants.

4. A period when the righteous will be in        4. An age of progress and recovery.
    heaven.

5. A period when Satan will have no one        5. A time when nations will disarm and
    to tempt.                                                           learn war no more.