blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
Rev 20:2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
Rev 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
Rev 20:3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
Rev 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
The words "thousand years" are found six times in these six verses. The obvious, initial reading of these words would make one think that the passage is describing something that occurs during a literal 1000 year time period. Interpretting it as a 1000 literal years makes sense. I'd read somewhere (can't remember where) that up until the turn of the first millennium, it was pretty commonly thought that the 1000 years was referring to a literal 1000 years. When the 1st millennium came and went, the literal interpretation of the 1000 years had to be re-evaluated.
Historically, there have been different flavors of a literal 1000 years interpretation - the postmillenial view that Christ will come after the 1000 year "golden age", the premillennial/dispensational view that Christ will come before the 1000 years literal reign. There is of course the amillennial camp that sees the 1000 years figuratively representing the church age, which has thus far lasted over 2000 years.
How do you interpret the 1000 years? Literally? Figuratively? Past? Present? Future? Not sure?
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