Limapela Education Project
Faith in Action
This project aims to provide quality education to children in Zambia's Copperbelt Province.
It is ironic - and sad - that that Bible's depiction of a coming age of peace should have become a subject of such controversy among Christians. But many more biblical prophecies focus on a coming age of peace than the one passage in the Bible that refers to the 'millennium'. In this message, given at Greyfriars' Classical Service on 3 May 2009, Senior Minister Rob Yule shows what is at stake in the conflicting views about the coming millennium, and outlines the wonderful hopes it enshrines for the earth to have its day in the sun.
The term 'millennium' comes from the Latin mille (thousand) and annus (year). It refers to the period of one thousand years that Christ will reign in person on earth.
The millennium is referred to in only one passage in the Bible (Revelation 20:1-7), but in this passage the period of one thousand years is mentioned six times. Satan will be bound for a thousand years, and Christ will reign together with those who were martyred during the Great Tribulation and who didn't compromise their faith or receive the mark of the beast.
Although the term 'millennium' only occurs in this passage, the reality of a coming age of peace and prosperity is predicted in many prophecies in the Bible. Outside of Scripture people have long dreamed of a coming age of peace - for example, the ancient Greek ideal of a rural paradise of Arcadia, the visions of many European writers since Sir Thomas More's Utopia, or the now-discredited Marxist visions of a classless society. Christians base their hopes not on these extra-biblical notions but on the visions of the Hebrew prophets.
It's odd that the coming age of peace should have become a subject of so much strife and disagreement among Christians! The main views are:
This is the view that there is no future millennial kingdom, that we are in it already, quite simply, that the church is the kingdom of God. It is a very influential view in the historic churches, dating from Augustine's identification of the kingdom of God with the church.
Proponents of this view spiritualise the many references to the coming age of peace in the biblical prophets. Key texts adduced in support are Jesus' words to Pilate, 'My kingdom is not of this world' (John 18:36), or Jesus' saying, 'The kingdom of God is within you' (which really should be translated, 'The kingdom of God is among you', Luke 17:21). This view maintains that the kingdom of God refers to the invisible reign of Jesus in the hearts of his people (as evangelicals prefer), or is expressed through the authority of the church (as Catholic teaching has it).
The main difficulty with this view is that it doesn't do justice to the Bible's teaching about a visible coming of Christ to establish his kingdom in the future. It is the first step to demythologising the Second Coming of Christ. If Christ's kingdom is spiritual, why not also his return?
This is the view that Jesus will come after the millennial kingdom has been established. On this view, the biblical prophecies about the kingdom of God and the age of peace refer to the social outworking and consequences of the preaching and spread of the Gospel.
This was the view of the Puritans, and the dominant evangelical viewpoint of the early Protestant missionary movement, down to the middle of the nineteenth century. Its favourite text was of the earth being 'full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea' (Isaiah 11:9b). It was a confident, optimistic view of the kingdom of God advancing and progressing throughout the world. The debacle of the First World War severely dented this mood of progress.
The main difficulty with this view is that there are numerous Scripture passages which speak, not of an age of peace preceding the coming of Jesus, but a time of great tribulation and suffering, so severe that no one would survive - not even the elect - unless the Lord intervened in person to shorten those days (Matthew 24:21-22, Mark 13:19-20, cf. Joel 2:31-32).
The pre-millennial view is the view that Jesus' will come before the millennial kingdom is established - indeed, that Jesus' coming will establish the kingdom.
On this view, the biblical prophecies of a coming age of peace refer to a time inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah, and that Jesus will reign, on earth, from Jerusalem, for a thousand years.
This is my own personal understanding of the relevant Scriptures. It does justice to those passages that speak of an attempt by Satan to pre-empt Christ's kingdom by the vicious but short-lived reign of the Antichrist. The kingdom is inaugurated by the personal coming of Christ himself. It fits with what Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer: 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.' And it was the view of the early church, down to the time of Irenaeus - before the Christian hope was spiritualised by Origen and the Greek theologians of Alexandria.
My wife disagrees with all these views. She considers herself a pan-millennialist - believing that everything will pan out in the end! She thinks the earth will be consumed in fervent heat, and the heavens rolled up like a scroll. I think that more things will happen in history first! Let me share some of them with you.
The prophet Isaiah presents the best-known and most comprehensive visions of this coming age of peace, though there are more detailed descriptions of how it will come to pass in the prophecy of Zechariah (chapters 12 and 14).
The age of peace will be introduced by the Prince of peace, the Messiah of David's lineage, whose kingdom will grow and have no end (Isaiah 9:6-7). There is no true or lasting peace apart from Jesus. I find it very interesting that in the last twenty years the most significant initiatives in peace and reconciliation have been Christian initiatives, inspired by Jesus, the Prince of peace. The surprisingly successful Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa was initiated by Bishop Desmond Tutu, and has inspired other similar initiatives around the world, most recently in the Solomon Islands.
Just and lasting peace can ultimately only come through Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God - the divinely-equipped counsellor who is anointed with 'the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.' (Isaiah 11:2). Jesus has been a victim of injustice, so he knows what it's like to be a persecuted and helpless. His Messianic sufferings have qualified him to exercise world authority with gentleness and justice. The humble Lamb who was slain is the one who is worthy to reign (Revelation 5:12).
'Peace with justice' is not just a left-wing slogan. There can be no true peace without justice, without the righting of wrongs and removal of injustices, without an overthrow of oppression and a true acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
Jesus is equipped by the Spirit of wisdom and counsel to judge fairly. He doesn't judge by social appearances, party allegiance, by accepting bribes, or by taking sides with the oppressor. He will judge justly, according to the righteous standards and character of God, and vindicate the poor of the earth (Psalm 72:12-14, 102:17).
Paul alludes to Isaiah 11:4b in his discussion of the overthrow of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:8. It is 'the breath of his mouth' that will 'slay the wicked', the spoken word or just verdict of the Messiah that will overthrow the Antichrist and his authoritarian rule on earth.
'The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.' (Isaiah 11:6). This passage is beautiful prophetic poetry - a glorious vision of a great age of harmony, even between people and animals and among animals themselves. Here we get a glimpse of how much sin has destroyed the harmony of God's creation. In the coming kingdom of peace nature will no longer be 'red in tooth and claw', and its groaning in travail for redemption will be fulfilled.
In glorious poetry the prophet Isaiah foresees a coming era of international peace, when disputes between nations will be settled. Tanks will be turned into tractors, weapons of war will be converted into agricultural machinery, the technology of destruction will be converted into the technology of production, and military training will cease (Isaiah 2:4). There will be peace between nations, even Middle Eastern nations, with arbitration instead of warfare as a means of settling disputes.
Today peace in the Middle East seems a long way off. But God says, 'I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem.' (Zechariah 9:10). 'They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain.' (Isaiah 11:9a). There will be peace between Israel and its immediate neighbours. 'In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria…. In that day Israel will be a third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.' (Isaiah 19:23-24).
The root and basis of all true peace is through being reconciled to God. Unless our conscience is stilled, our sins forgiven and our guilt removed, we cannot experience peace in ourselves or be at peace with one another. In the coming age of peace and prosperity foretold by the prophets 'the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.' (Isaiah 11:9b).
Maori evangelist Bob Kingi once told me about the Nagaland Revival in northeast India. It began in 1968 with several pastors praying. It has grown - despite the election of a Communist government - till today, according to Operation World, some 90% of the population are born-again believers. It is characterised by a wonderful spirit of kindness. The police are out of work - as they were in the Welsh Revival of 1905! One day this is what the whole world will be like, when the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.
In this coming age of peace people will come to Jerusalem to be taught the ways of the Lord (Isaiah 1:3). Jerusalem will once again be a centre of pilgrimage for the nations - replacing the pilgrimage to Mecca! At that time, according to the prophet Zechariah, ten Gentiles will take hold of the prayer shawl of a Jew and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.' (Zechariah 8:20-23).
What a time to look forward to that will be!
Rob Yule, 3 May 2009
© 2009, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church
