January 17: WHAT IS THE MILLENNIUM? (part 4)

Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. Revelation 20:7-8

After the earth lay in utter devastation with no man alive during the thousand years, a second resurrection occurs: the resurrection of the wicked. Other references mention the two resurrections (Daniel 12:2, John 5:28-29), but only Revelation 20:5 highlights that the two are a thousand years apart. The resurrection of the wicked effects Satan’s “release” from his prison. Immediately he puts his deceptive ways back into action, mustering all the unsaved who have ever lived to fight against the Lord.

The headline of chapter 21 speaks of the restored earth which John saw in vision, including its new capital city: the New Jerusalem (21:2), where the redeemed live during the millennium. At the close of the thousand years, the city (with its redeemed inhabitants) settles upon the earth. Its resting place is the Mount of Olives which has been smoothed by the Lord into a great plain (see Zechariah 14). But before the restoration of the earth, there is a time when the New Jerusalem rests upon the earth in its devastated condition. This is why it is called the camp of the saints.*

In this setting, a moment in time comes in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, reiterated by Paul:  that at the name of Jesus every knee (both the saved and the lost) should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11

But for all of those who repeatedly refused the Holy Spirit’s gentle nudging during their lifetime, the deceptions of Satan bear upon them once again—and for the last time. Satan convinces them that they can collectively overpower God and take the city for themselves. This maneuver shows the entire watching universe that Satan, his angels, and that lost portion of humanity, willingly deceived, have judged themselves unworthy of eternal life. What they refused to accept as a gift from God, they believe they can now take by force.

*They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them . . . This is the second death. Revelation 20:9,14b (see also Malachi 4:1-3)

The millennium is “bookended” by the two mass resurrections: that of the righteous unto eternal life and that of the wicked unto eternal death.