One Thousand Years

The Bible foretells that, at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation, Christ will return and will set up an everlasting kingdom on earth. Believers from every age of human history will reign with Christ on the earth, enjoying total freedom from sin, suffering and death. Best of all, the entire world at that time will acknowledge Jesus Christ as King of Kings. In light of that tremendously upbeat picture of what lies ahead for God’s people, I find it perplexing that the lion’s share of attention given to the study of eschatology by Christian preachers and writers today centers upon the dark and dreadful aspects of earth’s future. Granted, much of this attention is intended to shock unbelievers out of numbness to the Gospel, but let’s not get lost in the dark.

Playing into this uneven treatment of prophetic events is the public’s current obsession with doomsday, which reflects the cynicism and growing despair of our times. Television networks feature programs exploring every conceivable scenario of global catastrophe. The Sci-Fi Channel’s 2006 documentary, Countdown to Doomsday, hosted by Matt Lauer, considered ten earth-threatening situations including a supervolcano, an asteroid impact, a global pandemic, nuclear annihilation, mass rebellion by robots, and others. One observer commented, “In contemporary culture, utopia has all but disappeared from our imaginative map while dystopias proliferate.” In stark contrast to all this pessimism and preoccupation with global catastrophe, the Bible shines a beacon of hope into mankind’s despair by forecasting a magnificent future for God’s redeemed people. This goal of this book is to shed some much-needed light on that neglected area of eschatology. I want you to become acquainted with the bright side of biblical prophecy!

Several years ago on a Sunday morning at our church, I preached a sermon on the thousand-year reign of Christ. After spending hours the previous week digging into what the Bible reveals about that glorious time following Christ’s Second Coming, I approached the pulpit mentally saturated with Scriptural truth about it. Just before I stood to preach we sang the song by Don Moen, Let Your Glory Fall, that envisions Christ seated on His throne in Jerusalem during the Millennium, surrounded by adoring saints:

Every tongue and tribe, Gathered ‘round Your throne. With one voice we cry, Holy Lord.

Every tongue and tribe, Every tongue and tribe, Every tongue and tribe.

Glory to the Lamb, Lamb upon the throne. All the saints proclaim, Jesus reigns, Jesus reigns, Jesus reigns. Glory to the Lamb, Glory to the Lamb, Glory to the Lamb.

As I led in prayer after the song I became so overcome by the thought of Christ being worshipped by all peoples of the earth that I had to choke back tears. At that moment the Millennium became one of my favorite subjects in Scripture, and it remains so today. In the years since, my fascination with the future time when “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9) has intensified and deepened.

Try for a moment to imagine Jesus being present bodily upon earth, ruling over a kingdom that encompasses the entire planet. In that kingdom, no rational person will deny Christ is God, or reject His authority. All rebellion will meet with quick retribution, and absolute justice will prevail throughout the world. Righteousness will triumph over evil, and God’s glory will extend from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. All human beings who will have ever lived throughout history and who will have been reconciled to God by faith will live on the earth from that point forward, fully conformed to the image of Christ, and reigning with Jesus forever in His earthly kingdom.

When I began searching the Bible for references to the Millennium I found far more of them than I expected. I discovered

at least 29 books in both testaments and at least 127 chapters of Scripture make mention of it—and thirteen chapters focus upon it exclusively! I also began to realize Christian music through the centuries has proclaimed the Millennium in countless hymns and songs. It became obvious to me Christendom is filled with allusions to the Millennium.

Having become so captivated, I met with disappointment when I found most books on the Millennium are either scholarly works written for seminarians, or focus solely upon defending a particular view of the Millennium. To my knowledge, relatively few writers have undertaken to expound the rich body of truth contained in Scripture that reveals what will occur in the Millennium and what everyday life in it will be like. This book is offered as an attempt, long overdue, to bring these fascinating details into the light of day.

If you are a believer in Christ, I offer you this book with the hope it will profoundly encourage you. I want to lead you on a tour of the magnificent earthly kingdom Christ will inaugurate upon His return, and in which you will live and forever. We will look as deeply as Scripture permits into that future time when Jesus rules as King of Kings from His throne in Jerusalem, ensconced in heavenly glory. In that day, believers from throughout the ages will return from heaven in glorified supernatural bodies to rule the kingdom under Christ’s headship. Eden-like conditions will be restored in Holy Land and the nation of Israel will bless the entire human race in extraordinary ways. In Israel, if not throughout the world, human lifespans will be dramatically extended, and predatory animals will become plant eaters and will coexist peacefully with other animals and with humans. Even the cosmos will undergo dramatic changes, all for the betterment of life on earth. What a wonderful time for today’s believer to look forward to!