THE Second Coming of Christ is one of the clearest doctrines revealed in the New Testament and must be held at all costs by every true Christian but whether that coming is to be before or after what is termed the Millennium has divided those who firmly believe the doctrine into two schools of interpretation—the Pre-millenarian and Post-millenarian. The Pre-millenarians hold that the Coming is before the Millennium while the Post-millenarians hold that is after it. Another school of interpreters hold that the only Millennium taught in Scripture is the state of God’s redeemed in heaven. This school has its advocates in English-speaking countries chiefly among Dutch Reformed theologians in America and those who have come under their influence in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of the United States. One of the outstanding books advocating this view is Dr. Masselink’s Why a Thousand Years (Grand Rapids, Mich., U.S.A., 1930). Dr. Berkhof in his Reformed Dogmatics holds that this view has always prevailed in Reformed circles (vol. ii. p. 326). As we do not purpose in this article to deal with A-millenarianism we refrain from any criticism meantime of this statement and also his assertion that Luther and Calvin were A-millenarians. The A-millenarian view has been attacked from the Pre-millenarian standpoint in Dr. Feinberg’s Pre-millennialism or Amillennialism? (Zondervan Publishing House, U.S.A.). In recent years Pre-millenarianism has swept over Evangelical circles both in America and Great Britain and Dr. Chafer, one of its foremost advocates in U.S.A., does not hesitate to assert that this view was the unquestioned belief not only of the early Church Fathers but of the Apostles and Prophets. As Dr. Kuyper points out in his Chiliasm or the Doctrine of Pre-millennialism (p. 12) Pre-millenarians do not rely wholly on Revelation xx. for their view but make an appeal to a number of Old Testament passages and Rom. xi., still it may be said that if the Pre-millennial interpretation of Rev. xx. cannot hold and that the chapter can be interpreted in a way that does not interfere with the Post-millenarian view the none of the strong pillars of Pre-millenarianism has been undermined.
Let us proceed then to an examination of this important chapter. The Millennium receives its title from the Latin word millennium, “a thousand years” mentioned in Rev. xx. 4, 5, 6. In Revelation xvii. 16 we have the fall of the Romanist false church symbolized first by the woman in scarlet and secondly by the mystic Babylon. This downfall was brought about by two agencies: first, the governments of the earth “shall hate the harlot and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (Rev. xvii. 16); the second agency was preaching the pure gospel by the saints and exposing her heresies and idolatries (Rev. xii. 11) and by their prayers bringing the judgment of God on her (Rev. vi. 10; viii. 3-5). A second precursor of the Millennium is the ingathering of the Jews which is to be as life from the dead for the Gentile nations. When the nations that had gathered to destroy them God arose and destroyed the Beast and the False Prophet and all governments contrary to Him.
The last precursor of the Millennium is the chaining of Satan when his agencies are not only checked but swept away. When all this comes to pass the happy Millennium is due—a time when the glory of the Lord will cover the face of the earth and when Satan’s power is chained. In Rev. xx. 4 the Apostle has a wonderful vision given him—”I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them” who were these sitting upon thrones? Is it not that crowd of saints in fine linen pure and white who followed the Lamb in His great warfare (Rev. xix.). They are now sitting on thrones, they are now reigning in the Millennium—government is now in the hands of the saints.
We come now to the statement about the dead—”And I saw the souls [mark not bodies] of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither the image of the beast, and received not the mark upon their foreheads nor upon their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Where is Christ? Reigning in Heaven and the souls of the righteous dead live and reign with him. Their state is called the first resurrection—”Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” It must be remembered that the word resurrection is not limited to the resurrection of the body. The Lord Jesus speaks of two resurrections one spiritual meaning regeneration, the other physical, referring to the body (John, v. 25-29). But the resurrection referred to in Revelation while spiritual is not regeneration. Let us clearly understand at the outset whatever it means it does not refer to the body. Let us now go back to Rev. vi. 9—”And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them, that they should rest for a little season until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” The work of the righteous dead looks as if it had been a failure. They were put to death and the enemy seemed to have triumphed. It is not apparent that they won a victory. Their names are written on the records of their persecutors as felons and they are condemned and put to death. But now Babylon that branded their names with shame is judged and condemned. The martyrs are avenged and vindicated. Hence the announcement is made: “Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them.” God has avenged them—their enemies are fallen and the verdict of these enemies is reversed. It is seen now that to have died in the Lord was a triumph and not a defeat. The change is so great that is spoken of as a resurrection. This is the only place is the Bible where this term “first resurrection” is found and it is expressly declared to be a resurrection of souls and not of bodies. “The rest of the dead” (that is, the wicked dead) “lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. xx. 5). When the Millennium is ended Satan is now loosed out of his prison for a season and shall go out to deceive the nations (Rev. xx. 7, 8). Then follows the judgment on Satan when he is cast into the lake of fire where the Beast and False Prophet are. This is followed by the general judgment which follows the Millennium. The small and dead stand before God and are judged out of those things written in the books. Let it be noted that in the verses about the Millennium there is not a word about Christ’s Second Coming. The Post-Millennial view is that the Saviour’s Second Coming is when He comes to judge the world after the Millennium, a view which is supported by the interpretation given above of the foregoing passages in Revelation. The words first resurrection have been assumed by Pre-millenarians to mean a resurrection of the bodies of some of the saints who are to reign with Christ in a kingdom set up in this world, a view that is quite untenable from Rev. xx.