THE MILLENNIUM

The millennium is the 1,000 year period between the two resurrections, which begins with the second coming. Most Christian religions think this period will be spent here on earth, but scripture does not support this view. Christ said, "in my Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you... I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." [JOHN 14:2-3] The righteous are removed from the earth, and the wicked are slain at the second coming by the power of Christ's shining glory.

The millennium is to be a great sabbath of rest for the earth and the people of God. During the millennium the earth will lie ruined, desolate, and quiet. And for a thousand years Satan will be imprisioned here, on our ruined world, held not with a literal chain as some think Revelation 20:1-3 says, but he is entrapped by a chain of circumstance. He is kept here, with no people to tempt, all the wicked dead, and made to see the utter desolation that his ways have wrought.

While the saints are in heaven, judging the fallen angels and the wicked that are "asleep," [1 COR 6:2-3] Satan spends the millennium in the desolate dark abyss of a thousand-year "nuclear winter."

For 6,000 years the earth has been alive and "used," then for this seventh thousand year period it will lie fallow, quiet, unused. Just as God instructed Isreal in Exodus 23:10-11: "Six years thou shalt sow thy land... but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still."

Now remember that a thousand years are as "a day" to the Lord. So the millennium is the Earth's "day of rest."

   END OF THE WORLD                               NEW EARTH AND ETERNITY

   Christ's     Righteous Dead             Christ and        Wicked Dead Raised
   2nd Coming   Raised                     Saints Descend --.  |
         | ,-----------'                                    |  | ,--- Satan
         v v                                                v  v v    Loosed
    ------| |<----------- 1,000 Year Millennium ------------->| |-------
        ^    ^ ^                                           ^      ^
        |    | '----------------.             Christ and --'      |
  End of     Wicked Perrish     |             Saints              Wicked
  7 Last     Satan "Bound"      |             Descend             Destroyed
  Plagues                   Righteous
                         Ascend To Heaven