The Millennium and the Judgment

Chapter 20 addresses the most controversial topic in Christian eschatology: the Millennium. When does Christ's thousand-year reign occur? Is Satan bound now or in the future? What is the First Resurrection? This chapter transforms fear-based speculation into confidence in Christ's present victory and future judgment.

The greatest error in interpreting Revelation 20 is failing to recognize that it speaks of present realities in the Christian life. The Bible is clear: through baptism, we have been resurrected to eternal life and rule with Christ now, in this age. The First Resurrection is taking place now. Jesus Christ is reigning now. And this means the Millennium is taking place now as well.

Orthodox Christianity has always been both postmillennial (Christ returns after the thousand years) and amillennial (rejecting futuristic chiliasm). The difference isn't about timing but about recognizing that Christ's Kingdom began at His Resurrection and continues until all things are thoroughly subdued under His feet.

The Millennium: Christ's Present Kingdom

The "thousand years" is symbolic language representing a vast, complete period of time. In Scripture, ten signifies quantitative completeness (think Ten Commandments), and a thousand multiplies this to express great vastness. Just as God owns "the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10)—meaning all cattle on all hills—the thousand years represents the entire age between Christ's first and second advents.

This period has already lasted almost 2,000 years and will continue until Christ puts all enemies under His feet. It's the same era described in Daniel 2:35 when the stone fills the whole earth, and in Matthew 13:31-32 when the mustard seed grows into a great tree. The Millennium is simply another name for the Kingdom of Christ that began at His resurrection and ascension.

The Binding of Satan

John sees an Angel (Christ Himself) coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss and a great chain. This represents Christ's absolute authority over Satan and the spiritual realm. The binding occurred at Christ's first advent—specifically during His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, culminating in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Satan's binding doesn't mean he's completely inactive, but that he's prevented from deceiving the nations as he did before Christ came. Before the Gospel, Satan controlled the nations through idolatry and ignorance. Now the Gospel breaks his death-grip, opening blind eyes and turning people "from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God" (Acts 26:18).

Jesus told His disciples: "The strong man is fully armed and guards his own house, but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder" (Luke 11:21-22). Christ is the stronger man who has bound Satan, the strong man, and is now plundering his house by rescuing people from every nation through the Gospel.

Paul assured the Roman Christians that "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20), written just before Jerusalem's destruction completed Satan's binding. The phrase "until the thousand years are completed" indicates this binding has a limited duration—it will end just before Christ's Second Coming for the final battle.

The First Resurrection

John sees thrones with people seated on them—the twenty-four elders representing the Church, the royal priesthood. He specifically mentions "the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus" and those who "had not worshiped the Beast or his image." These aren't just martyrs but all faithful Christians who have resisted worldly compromise.

The description of those in the First Resurrection perfectly matches what John tells us elsewhere about all believers: they are blessed and holy (saints), the Second Death has no power over them, and they are priests who reign with Christ. This isn't describing a special class of super-Christians—it's describing the normal Christian life!

Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (John 5:24). The First Resurrection is this passing from spiritual death to spiritual life that occurs at conversion. It's what Paul describes in Ephesians 2:5-6: "Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

"The rest of the dead" mentioned in verse 5 refers to unbelievers who remain spiritually dead throughout the Millennium. They will not experience resurrection life until the final judgment when they are raised for condemnation. The First Resurrection has no power over them because they have rejected the Gospel message.

The Last Battle

After the Millennium ends, Satan is released from his prison to deceive the nations "which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog." This imagery comes from Ezekiel 38-39, where Gog and Magog represent the archetypal enemies of God's people. They're not specific nations but symbols of all who oppose Christ's kingdom.

Postmillennialism doesn't teach absolute universalism—not everyone will be converted during the Millennium. Like Ezekiel's vision of the River of Life, some "swamps and marshes" remain unhealed (Ezekiel 47:11). As the Gospel transforms the world and Christians become more consistent to their faith, unbelievers also become more self-conscious in their rebellion against God.

The battle is brief and decisive. The nations surround the "camp of the saints and the beloved City" (the Church), but fire comes down from heaven and devours them. This parallels the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment on Korah's rebellion. God doesn't allow His enemies to destroy the fruit of the Millennium—the Christianized world that demonstrates His word has been obeyed.

Satan's final release serves God's purposes by revealing the true nature of those who have outwardly conformed to Christian civilization without inward conversion. When Satan offers them the chance to throw off Christ's "yoke," they eagerly join his rebellion, proving their hearts were never truly changed. Their defeat is swift and final—Satan and all his followers are thrown into the lake of fire where the Beast and False Prophet already are.

The Great White Throne Judgment

History has ended, and John's vision is filled with a great white throne and Him who sits upon it. This is likely Christ Himself in His role as Judge, since He sits on a white throne (matching the white cloud in 14:14 and white horse in 19:11). The Father has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), and Christ will be the Judge at the Last Day.

From His face "earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them." This doesn't mean the physical universe is annihilated, but that the old order passes away. Like Psalm 114 describes God's appearance at Sinai when the mountains skipped and the sea fled, this is cosmic imagery for God's awesome presence in judgment. For God's people, this judgment is redemptive; for the wicked, it's destructive.

John sees "the dead, the great and the small, standing before the Throne." These are specifically the wicked dead—those who remained spiritually dead throughout the Millennium. The righteous who participated in the First Resurrection are not in view here because they "shall not come into judgment, but have passed from death into life" (John 5:24).

The dead are judged "according to their works." This often surprises modern evangelicals, but Scripture repeatedly teaches this (Psalm 62:12; Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6-13; 2 Corinthians 5:10). The point isn't "salvation by works" but "damnation by works." While we're not saved by works, we're also not saved without works. Genuine faith always produces the fruit of righteousness; the absence of good works proves the absence of saving faith.

The Second Death

Death and Hades, which have been paired throughout Revelation (1:18; 6:8), are thrown into the lake of fire. Paul proclaimed that when Christ returns at the end of His mediatorial Kingdom, "the last enemy that will be abolished is Death" (1 Corinthians 15:26). This is that final victory—death itself is destroyed.

The lake of fire represents the final state of all who reject God's salvation. Using imagery from Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction and the rebels in the wilderness, John shows the complete and irreversible nature of this judgment. Universalists try to evade this clear teaching, but Scripture "slams the furnace lid shut" over those who are finally impenitent.

Jesus Himself used similar language: "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (John 15:6). There is no life outside of Jesus Christ. Those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world will never experience resurrection life.

The entire picture of judgment is wrapped in symbolic language, but the certain revelation is the final overthrow of all who live and die as subjects of sin and death. Evil is not eternal—only God and His righteousness endure forever. The lake of fire represents the complete absence of God's life and blessing, the ultimate consequence of rejecting His grace.

Dispensationalist vs. Preterist Views