Intro to the End Times is a series walking through some of the key themes of the story of Jesus’ return from a historic premillennial perspective, with special focus on knowing the heart of Jesus as we partner with God through the most dramatic chapter of human history.
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I started this series in the early days of Covid… it’s taken a while, but I am SO EXCITED to be sharing the final post! Some really exciting new things are in store on the blog!!
At this point, we are officially out of the “end times” and taking a sneak peek into the next age. Before I continue, though, I feel the need to apologize… this is a HUGE subject, so one blog post can really only be the briefest of intros. Hopefully I can at least spark some ideas and direct you toward passages to study further!
When Jesus returns to the earth, He will launch a thousand year period where He is literal, physical king on the earth, ruling over every sub-king of the whole planet from His throne in Jerusalem. We generally call this the Millennium. We get the number 1000 from a cluster of verses in Revelation 20:1-6, but the descriptions of what will happen span the entire Bible.
Birth of a New Age
The Bible describes the next age as though it’s a baby that is being birthed. Jesus referred to the “birth pains” before He comes (Mk. 13:8). He also said that the difficulty of this entire age is like a pregnancy, and it will all be forgotten in the joy of the “birth” of the next (Jn. 16:21-22). Paul said that all of creation is groaning in the “pains of childbirth” until the final resurrection (Ro. 8:22).
Think of how a baby is born. After nine months of general discomfort, a woman enters into labor, which starts gradually and then intensifies into hard labor, where pain is at its peak and just when it seems impossible– the baby is born. The woman is exhausted and in need of healing, but new life has come and joy overwhelms her.
The next age, the Millennium, is the “baby” that makes all of the pain of this age and the final tribulation (like hard labor) worthwhile. Just like the woman needs rest and healing, the earth is devastated by judgment and needs a season of intentional restoration before its glorious eternity can unfold.
Here are a few key points that characterize the Millennium:
Restoration of All Things
Acts 3:20-21 says that Jesus must stay in heaven until the time for the “restoration of all things,” as the prophets spoke. In my opinion, this is the lens through which all the other promises should be viewed. God is restoring His original good plan for the earth. It’s not a coincidence that there’s so much overlap between the descriptions of Eden and the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:5 says that God will make “all things new”. I love that He doesn’t say He will make “all new things,” by destroying the old and starting over, but rather, He’ll do arguably a greater miracle– He’ll make old things new. Just like He’ll transform our very bodies in the final resurrection, He’ll make the entire earth new. This process begins during the Millennium, and further transformation happens afterward.
John Eldredge has a beautiful book on this called All Things New. It’s very biblical but not academic at all (if you’ve read Eldredge you know the style) and will dramatically stir your heart and imagination to set your hope in the next age. Read my review here, or find it on Amazon.
New Jerusalem Is Near the Earth
The City of Heaven, the City of God, the New Jerusalem, will descend near the earth (Re. 21:10). It won’t fully land on earth until after the Millennium (Re. 21:2), but it will be just above the earthly Jerusalem in full view.
The city is described as a giant cube (although I’ve heard some interesting arguments for seeing it as a pyramid!), approximately 1400 miles square (Re. 21:16). This is where the resurrected saints will live, while we walk out our assignments of ruling with Jesus on the earth.
Resurrected Saints Reign on Earth
Jesus will be head of a global government, and we all will have roles of leadership under Him. The degree of authority we each receive is decided by God in direct proportion to our humility and faithfulness in this life (see my post on eternal rewards), but we will all have assigned positions ruling alongside Jesus (Da. 7:27; Lk. 19:13-19; Mt. 5:3, 5, 10, 19:28; 1 Co. 6:2-3; Re. 2:26-27, 3:21, 5:10, 20:4-6, 22:5).
A quick note: Revelation 20:4 highlights the Tribulation martyrs specifically ruling alongside Jesus. I love that it’s in God’s heart to honor these ones with a special mention, but taken alongside so many other passages such as those mentioned above, it’s clear that the privilege of ruling in Jesus’ kingdom is an honor given at some level to all the saints!
Satan Is Bound
When Jesus establishes His Kingdom on earth, Satan will be bound for 1000 years (Re. 20:2-3). Can you imagine humanity without any demonic influence? Granted, we have enough wickedness in our hearts without Satan’s help, but it’s going to be so much better to have him locked away for the entirety of the Millennium!
After the 1000 years, Satan will be released temporarily to attempt to deceive as many as he can into rebelling against God (Re. 20:7-10). This is the Battle of Jerusalem Part 2. This vindicates God’s righteousness and proves that even after an entire millennium of Jesus reigning on earth as king over a perfect society with His beauty fully on display, the heart is still deceitful and sick (Je. 17:9) and some people will still choose not to follow Him.
Earth Will be Repopulated
But wait, who is Satan even trying to deceive? Resurrected saints aren’t the only kind of humans on the earth- there will also be humans with natural bodies living semi-normal human lives (with super long lifespans like in the days before Noah, see Isa. 65:20). These are the descendants of those who weren’t saved during the tribulation but resisted the antichrist for their own reasons, and get saved when they see Jesus appear in the sky. They missed the rapture by this much, and so enter the Millennium much as we are now, with the Holy Spirit inside of them but still in a body of natural flesh.
The Bible talks about this group as “those who are left,” “survivors,” or “the remnant”. The passages mostly focus on Israel (Isa. 4:2-3, 10:20-22, 11:11, 11:16, 28:5, 37:31-32; Je. 23:3, 31:2; Ez. 7:16, 20:38-42; Da. 12:1; Jo. 2:32; Mi. 4:7-8; Zp. 2:9, 3:13), but also mentions Gentile survivors of the tribulation (Isa. 49:6, Ez. 36:36, Zc. 14:16). We talked about this in an earlier post when we looked at how all Israel will be saved.
Israel’s Promises Fulfilled
In this context, Israel can finally enter a golden era that they have never before experienced. They will flourish in safety and won’t even need walls to guard their cities (Zc. 2:4). They will all worship the Lord without idolatry (Eze. 43:7). Every promise God has ever made, every prophecy every Orthodox Jew holds dear in anticipation of the Messianic Age– these will all be fulfilled in the Millennium. (See my post on God’s promises to Israel.)
I used to get so confused when I read passages like Isaiah 60. The headline in my Bible is “The Future Glory of Israel.” I thought, “I don’t know Bible history that well, but I’m pretty sure this never happened, right? Was it a potential future that God wanted to give but never happened? Or is this just symbolic of the church?” No. This is real, it’s for Israel, and it will happen when Jesus returns.
Jerusalem Will Be the Praise of the Earth
This is such a deep and tender part of God’s heart. Jerusalem is the apple of His eye (Zc. 2:8) and the city of the great king (Ps. 48:2, Mt. 5:35). When Jesus comes, He will set up the capital of His global government in Jerusalem and personally dwell there forever (Eze. 43:7, Je. 3:17). All the nations will come to Jerusalem to honor Jesus and learn from Him (Isa. 2:2-3). Jerusalem will be the praise of the earth (Isa. 62:7, Je. 33:9).
Right now, Jerusalem is not the praise of the whole earth. It’s currently a small city in a small nation that somehow has become the greatest point of war and controversy on the planet. But when Jesus returns and plants His glory there, it will become the place that people everywhere speak of with reverence and awe. From His throne in His city of Jerusalem, God’s glory will cover the whole earth as the waters cover the seas (Ha. 2:14).
Epilogue: After the Millennium
I’m not going to spend an entire post on what happens after the 1000 years, but I will hit a few quick events that are described in Revelation 20-21:
- Satan is released to deceive the nations.
- Battle of Jerusalem Part 2 occurs, and Jesus destroys them with fire.
- All of the wicked dead from throughout history are raised and judged.
- All of the Millennium natural-body saints are given resurrected bodies.
- The New Jerusalem descends all the way to earth.
- The Father Himself dwells on earth forever (WHAT??!!)
Consider this: if the Millennium is like a baby that is born, a baby doesn’t stay a baby forever. In time, it matures into adulthood. Ephesians 2:7 says there are “ages” to come. Isaiah 9:7 says “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” His kingdom will keep continually expanding forever! The Millennium is just where it starts to get good. We have an eternity of glory and mystery ahead of us! God will never run out of ideas to keep making it better and better forever.
If you’ll indulge me in a quotation of my favorite non-Bible passage, C. S. Lewis captures this ever-increasing glory perfectly on the very last page of The Chronicles of Narnia:
“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
(The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis)
More Resources
If you’re interested in further study resources on this topic, I recommend these from Brad Stroup. For more recommended resources, I have a list of books, films, podcasts, etc prepared for you!
- Audio “Life in the Millennial Kingdom” (8 part series or 3 part series)
- PDF “Concordance of End Time Themes and Topics” (here)
- PDF “100 FAQ on the End Times” (here)
