The Millennium: 1,000 Years of Peace
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Listen to the "Verse by Verse" episode covering this scripture.
The book of Revelation contrasts those who worshipped the evil beast and received the mark of the beast (symbolic of compromising with God’s law), with those who worshipped and obeyed God to the death, if necessary, and received the seal of God, the Holy Spirit ( Revelation 7:3 ; Ephesians 1:13 ; 2 Timothy 2:19 ).
The faithful followers of Jesus Christ will be resurrected or changed to immortality at Christ’s second coming and will help Him set up the Kingdom of God to rule over the earth ( Revelation 5:10 ). This thousand-year rule has become known as the Millennium, from the Latin word for a thousand years.
Although not all people will immediately accept Christ as King of kings, it will grow to be a time of peace and prosperity as people see that following God’s laws brings beneficial results. This utopian time is pictured by the annual Feast of Tabernacles, and we will post more about this over the next week during this Feast of Tabernacles.
For more about the coming Kingdom of God, read the articles in the section “The Kingdom of God: The Best News You Could Hear.”
