This will be a colossal event: the devil is finally bound! What a terrible trail of destruction he has left in the history of mankind and the world. He has cunningly deflected the love of man’s heart towards narcissism, love of self, egoism. Man started loving himself instead of God, and wanted to be like God. Instead of simply telling the serpent, the ‘nachash’, the ‘shining one’, the super-angel, that God had warned them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for then they would die, and death would make its entrance, the first human beings entertained the idea that being like God, being ‘gods’ themselves was indeed an attractive prospect. There was no thought that God had meant the best for them when He commanded them not to eat of that tree. So Genesis 3:6 says “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” The result was the entrance of death and earth was cursed because of man. The first murder took place shortly after the Fall when Cain killed his brother, Abel.1 An endless river of blood followed—cruelty, hunger, wars, natural disasters, diseases etc. We are living on a dying planet. How beautiful it could have been if man had remained in fellowship with God. Fortunately, there exists the possibility of restoring the relationship with God for every human being, because Jesus brought about reconciliation between God and man and paid man’s debt. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all Creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the Heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been Created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the Church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in Heaven.” (Colossians 1:16-20). A glorious future is dawning, not just for redeemed people, but for the Universe and Creation itself as well! The devil is ‘lord and master’ on earth however, together with his fallen angels. (Compare Hebrews 2:8b-11) The ‘ruler of this world’ (John 16:8-11) keeps individuals as well as peoples still in slavery. He inspires them to entertain increasingly greater delusions of grandeur, to propose insane ideas and to commit outrageous acts. However, the excellence of God’s government (‘theocracy’ means government by God) over the earth and under the rule of Christ is now to be revealed. The rabbis say: ‘World history consists of seven days, just like Creation.’ Scripture says: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”2 God took six days to make Heaven, earth and all that are in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Human history will therefore last six days of a thousand years each, followed by a day of rest lasting a thousand years—a thousand years of Peace and Righteousness. After that comes the 8th day: eternity, they say – with the ‘renewal of all things’. Jews do not calculate the years as we do – before or after Christ, BC or AD. They count the years from Creation, and say that we are now (2019 -2020 AD) living in the year 5780. And if some corrections are made, because they calculate using luni-solar system for years and we use solar years, we could be a lot closer to the year six thousand than we think. This is not to say that we could calculate by doing sums when Christ will return and the time of the ‘Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness’ begins – the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ or the ‘Kingdom of God’ given on earth by the Heavens, given by God, Acts 1:7, Matthew 24:36. But one-day, and maybe very soon because the Jewish people are returning back to the Promised Land Israel and to Jerusalem, Christ’s rule will dawn. Once, and perhaps very soon, it will happen, and finally there will be peace for the nations that are still remaining on earth, that have survived the ‘disasters’ and the ‘wars’ and the ‘judgments’. What a glorious prospect!
• A-millennialism teaches that there is no ‘golden age’ to be expected, or a ‘thousand year rule by Christ’. They hold the view that Satan is already bound now, as a result of Christ’s victory on the cross and in the resurrection, and that the number ‘thousand’ must therefore not be taken literally.
• For them, the ‘Millennium’ is the rule of Christ through His Church on earth now, and the ever-increasing expansion of Christianity by the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
• They regard the ‘first resurrection’ as people being converted today, plus those who are in Heaven already. With martyrs in Heaven reigning together with Christ, until the day of the ‘second resurrection’ when Christ returns. And then there will be the last judgment, the end of the world and the New Heavens and the New Earth.
• But how, when one looks at the misery in the world, the wars etc., could we truly believe that we are already now living in Christ’s Kingdom of Peace? Has Satan already today really be bound? Hard to believe! Look at all the violence, and all the ‘signs of the times’!
Bible References:
1.Genesis 4 2.Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8 NIV
