Dear Student of the Word,
Greetings from Jerusalem! I have one more day to tour here and then I will move on to Rome. We have had many discussions about the book of Revelation here and I am happy I found time to edit this next installment of my study, with only two more to go after this and I am done. This week we look at the chapter that contains the reference to the thousand-year rule of Christ. This is what I wrote about what has come to be known as the Millenium (the entire study is available to download below):
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6Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
20:6 – Are you blessed to be part of the first resurrection? I know I am and I hope you are, too. I can face the ultimate judgment of Christ, the second death, because I have experienced the born-again phenomenon. I was dead, but now I live. I am a priest of Christ and I am reigning with Him now, with the best yet to come:
As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall."
They stumble because they disobey the message – which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:4-10).
Will there be a literal 1,000-year reign on the earth? Perhaps, but that is not important. What is important is that you, like your brothers and sisters who first received Revelation, will rule now regardless of the circumstances in which you find yourself. You are a priest now. You rule with Christ now. You are enjoying resurrection life now. Should the Lord tarry, I know I will die, but that death cannot affect me. I am alive in Christ forevermore!
I had another seminary professor who said that eternal life is a quality of life so good and pure that nothing can end it, not even death. On that basis, we have entered into eternal life now. I refuse to spend one minute in foolish, useless speculation concerning obscure passages or concepts. If the Lord wanted me to know more about the millennium, He would have made it clear. He did not so I choose to focus on the many, many things He did make clear. It is a much better and wiser investment of my life, time, and ministry.
As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the daily devotional entitled Your Life Matters: Daily Reflections from the Book of Psalms. Thank you and soon I will begin sending you my edited studies from James' epistle. After that, we will only have the book of Revelation to complete before the entire New Testament is on the site where this study is posted.
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