Understanding the Millennium - Part 4

I was going to finish this series with the previous post, but I needed some more practice writing millennium (two l's, two n's). So, to start with, the structure. Again, as with the last section of chapter 19, 20:1-10 is concentric, meaning the elements repeat each other with the first reoccurring last, the second reoccurring second last, usually placing the emphasis on the middle element.

A 20:1-3a Satan is bound in the Abyss for 1000 years

B 20:3b Satan is released for a short time

C 20:4-6 The martyrs are resurrected and given thrones for 1000 years

B` 20:7-9a Satan is released and leads an end-time army

A` 20:9b-10 Satan's army is destroyed and he is thrown into the lake of sulphur forever

Working from the outside in, how does this structure help us make sense of this, and, in particular, the 1000 years?

• A, A` (1-3a, 9b-10) Important to note here is that the situation is not too different from the beginning to the end. Satan is out of the way. In the first part, he is bound for a very long time, and in the second, he is thrown into the fiery lake forever. If there weren't a release, one could almost be forgiven for thinking 1000 years is almost as good as eternity. 1000 years is longer than any human can contemplate - what will things be like in 3020 AD?  But it is temporary, even in such a time-frame, but it will be made permanent, as the dragon, the source of the other two parts of the satanic trinity, is likewise thrown into the fiery lake to join them.
• B, B` (3b, 7-9a) Here we see an inexplicable release. It really doesn't make sense, because he is bad, he is the pangolin or the bat or whatever started Covid19, and he has no business being released. And yet, he is. For a short time. Not 1000 years, perhaps not even 3½ years. Enough time to rouse up an end-time army to erect a siege around the holy city. It is again important to note that the release in 20:3 is the same release as 20:7, so that this paragraph reads as a whole structure rather than linearly. Again, as Jason suggested to me, rather than the "Israel smashes her enemies" battle, this is more a "Israel is under siege" battle, reminiscent of Assyria's siege of Jerusalem under King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18-19). Perhaps it is a concidence, but a fascinating one, that before that siege begins, Hezekiah is established as the one who smashed the bronze snake statue which people had begun to worship (18:4). And now here, in a "type" of that scene, the "ancient serpent" leads the end-time armies of Gog and Magog to besiege God's people yet again. 
• C (4-6) Despite the goings-on, the central focus is not the rampaging of the dragon, but the people of God, the martyrs, who are given thrones and authority to rule. They are the ones who did not receive the mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-17; cf 19:20), but stayed true and trusted God. This time period appears to be concurrent with Satan's imprisonment, and is the rule which has been promised to the saints in Thyatira back in 2:24-29 who resisted Satan. This millennial rule and the binding and destruction of Satan is also the answer to the cries of the martyrs in 6:9-11; their time has now come. 

I think the exegetical payoff of seeing the passage in this way, noting the parallel structures, is that it shows equivalencies - the two releases of Satan are clearly one and the same, but the 1000 year imprisonment and eternal destruction are also not so different. Sure, one includes a release for bad behaviour, but on the one hand, it is very short lived, and on the other, it confirms God in his judgement that the dragon, and all who followed him, are incurably evil and are rightly condemned to the fiery lake. 

This structure also shows the focus - it is not about the 1000 years, but about the reign of the saints in the midst of the destruction of evil. Again, Satan is described in a fourfold manner: 

1. the dragon
2. that ancient serpent
3. the devil
4. the Satan

The dragon is the most vicious character of the book - he devours the children of God - the very people who will judge him; the serpent is the pangolin of sin from Genesis 3; the devil is God's adversary, and the Satan is the accuser. But his destruction is assured, in the same way as the martyr's vindication is assured. 

I think my point in all this is that trying to work out timetables and pre- and post- and even a-millennialism is a route which not only misreads the genre of Revelation, it also emphasises something which isn't a thing. The purpose of the 1000 year binding/reign is to show that the saints have been vindicated. But instead it is weaponised into this highly technical and irrelevant doctrine to divide and confuse. 

Why, however, is Satan released? It is not explained in the text. One suggestion is that it is to prove Satan's guilt - after 1000 years, surely Satan would be reformed? Sorry, no, still a scorpion. The other is, and this links really well with the Gog and Magog story from Ezekiel 38-39 which is referenced here, is that Satan's attack is used against her. Koester notes that "Gog, who devised battle plans against Israel (Ezek 38:11–12) only to find that God used Gog’s own schemes to defeat him (Ezek 38:4, 17; 39:2)." (Koester, Anchor, 771) What worse place to mount an attack against God's people than at God's holy city. But when Satan is released, he assembles the armies, and heads straight to the place which will mean his ultimate downfall. 

The question which must be answered by anyone who holds a view that this is not a story of a deeper reality and a deeper truth, but a timeline of the last days, is, how does a timeline of 1900 years plus in the future (and counting) help the original recipients in the 90s AD in western Asia Minor? 

My humble suggestion is that for people in fear of their lives, whose children were being stolen as slaves, whose cities were garrisons for their oppressors, that the distant future approaches to reading Revelation would be an insult to them. "You mean we have to wait that long for God to do anything?" Instead, the reading that is as true for them as it is for us is this:

Evil seems powerful and it seems like the Jesus who died and rose and ascended into heaven does not care and is not coming back. But this is God's world. Nothing happens he does not know about, and nothing can change the truth about good and evil. It is right to persevere and to resist and to stay true to your saviour who stayed true to you. And because this is God's world, and because it is stained and contorted by sin, God will bring an end to the very thing that started sin in the first place. 

So that's how I read Revelation, and if you have thoughts or suggestions, you're welcome to comment here or on fb or twitter or pigeon post. Actually, scratch that last option. I don't like pigeons. Chickens are cool though. 

Understanding the Millennium - Part 3

As we get ever closer to the key passage, it is worth noting, as my friend Jason reminded me, that there are two battles depicted which describe the destruction of the satanic trinity. The first, in chapter 19, details the destruction of the beasts we first met in chapter 13.

A 17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair,  “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

B 19 [And] Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army.

C 20a But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf.  

D 20b With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshipped its image. 

C` 20c The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur.

B` 21a The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, 

A` 21b and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

• A, A` (17-18, 21b) The expectation after 19:1-10 is that the wedding feast of the Lamb will follow. But instead we arrive at the "great supper of God." It is not a feast for the people of God, but a slaughter. The only people who will feast are the birds--the birds of carrion--who are gathered to feast before the battle has begun, and shortly thereafter have a banquet on which to gorge themselves. 
• B, B` (19, 21a) The followers of the beast gather with him, but with no description of the battle required, the battle is won the moment it is begun.
• C, C` (20a, 20c) The description of the capture and dispatch of the beast and the prophet is similarly brief, but brutally final. No one looks forward to going down to the underworld, but even worse, it seems (at least from Num 16:33; Ps 55:15) is to be thrown down alive. This preempts the identical punishment of the dragon in the following scene (20:10).
• D (20b) At the centre of this scene is an epexegetical comment which explains that the central issue is the idolatry encouraged by the false prophet, of the beast. This central concern of the book of Revelation, that Christ alone should be given glory. From the inaugural vision of Christ in chapter 1, through the warnings to persevere in chapters 2-3, and the lion/lamb at the centre of the throne room in chapters 4-5 - not to mention the depiction of the beast as a pseudo-Christ in chapter 13 - the question of who you worship is what it is all about. 

There are three key things to take away from this first battle:

1. the battle is swift - too short to describe and easily won by Christ
2. the indictment is how they have misdirected worship away from Christ
3. this battle is reminiscent of many battles easily won by the people of God in the Old Testament. Battles were either won with hardly a casualty, or they were lost disastrously and embarrassingly. This is the first type, and it is over before it is begun.

What then of the the second battle, where the Satan - noticeably absent from this battle - is destroyed?

At the outset, it is worth noting that the capture and imprisonment of the dragon is similarly swift and one-sided (20:1-3a). It is an angel - not even Jesus - who is able to lock Satan away in the Abyss. It could be a part of the first battle, or a consequence of it, although the introductory formula (και ειδον, and I saw) seems to suggest it might be a new scene or sequence. Nevertheless, he is imprisoned and, after a few things happening, is similarly dispatched to the fiery lake of sulphur to complete the destruction of the satanic trinity (20:10).

That is, whatever the details, and however troubling the intervening events might be, the outcome is certain, and the saints can be reassured that staying faithful to Jesus is worth it, they will be vindicated, and the very instigator of evil - the ancient serpent - will be destroyed forever.

Secondly, what is going on with the 1000 years, with the release, with the new wave of attacks, with the 1000 reign of martyrs? I'll get to that next time.

Understanding the Millennium - Part 2

The central passage, from which all other passages are reinterpreted, is Revelation 20:1–10. It concludes a cycle which began in chapter 12 and introduced three characters, often referred to as the anti-trinity or the satanic-trinity: the dragon (12:3), the beast (13:1) and the false-prophet (13:11). The second and third characters (both described as beasts) get their power from the dragon, and the focus seems to be on cultivating worship for the first beast. In this way they are like the trinity, where the dragon is like the Father, the first beast is like the Son, and the second beast is like the Holy Spirit. The actual trinity can be described in similar ways, whereby Father is the source who eternally begets the Son, and the Spirit is not trying to draw attention to himself but to the Son. The satanic-trinity imitates the actual trinity in similar ways. 

But of course, Revelation is written to real people at a real time and real place, and so the powers which are front and centre in their lives are the Roman Empire, who is depicted by the dragon; the Roman Emperor, depicted by the first beast; and the local leaders and priests, prominent in chapters 2–3, who encourage idolatrous worship of the emperor in order to gain economic benefit. But the Roman reality is not the ultimate reality; John is saying (or the angel is telling John) that when you unmask Rome, you get the devil. When you worship the emperor, you are blaspheming Christ. 

What we see with each of these characters is that they are introduced in order, and then dismissed in the reverse order. Koester in his 2015 Anchor commentary outlines the concentric structure which sees their introduction and dismissal, as follows: 

A 12 Dragon/Satan thrown from heaven to earth to destroy

B 13 Beast and False Prophet destroy on the earth

C 17a Whore rides the beast

C` 17b Whore destroyed by the beast

B` 19b Beast and False Prophet captured and destroyed in sulphur

A 20 Dragon/Satan captured (then released!) then destroyed in sulphur

I'm not 100% sure how to describe the whore of Babylon (note that Babylon was what Rome was called only after they destroyed the temple in 70 AD like the real Babylon did 600 years earlier), except that to say she would seem to be city of Rome herself, or the people of Rome, or the idea of the city of Rome - something along those lines. 

But the important thing to note is there is a certainty; as certainly as there are forces against God, who look indestructible, and wreak havoc, so too is their destruction guaranteed. What goes up must come down, and the harder they come the harder they fall. So as bad as things look today, the hope embodied in Revelation is that we are about to reach peak bad, and things will start to get better, as the city, the promoters, the emperor, and ultimately the whole empire will be destroyed. 

Of course, the reality is that it is not enough for simply the manifestation of evil to be destroyed, but the spiritual reality behind it must be dealt with also. So when the final enemy, the source of all, the dragon is to be destroyed, it is described in a fourfold manner:

[The angel] seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and the Satan, and bound him for 1000 years. (Rev 20:2)

In particular, it is his description as "the ancient serpent" which makes us recall Genesis 3, with the entry of sin which cursed the world, and now, with his destruction, its exit and time of healing. 

The power which was behind the Roman (Revelation) is the same power which was behind the Seleucid Empire (Daniel) is the same empire behind the Babylonian Empire and Tyre (Isaiah, Ezekiel). Whichever kingdom we might point at and say "that's the kingdom of the devil!", it is the devil which is the ultimate target, because there will always be another Babylon, another power which is interested in enticing people to blaspheme Christ in idolatrous worship. That is, until the devil himself is dealt with. 

Now if you are especially astute you will have noticed that I still haven't got to the millennium. Next post. Probably.

Understanding the Millennium - Part 1

One good thing about being an Australian is discussions about the various millennialisms don't really come up that much, and when they do they tend to be more out of curiosity than having any real importance or emotion tied up with it. Of course not all Australians have had that experience, and I'm sure other places around the world are similarly unperturbed by these discussions.

However, there are people who worry about this stuff—really worry about it. I've looked for images of diagrams of the millennium on google and they are super crazy. Crazy in a way in which crazy people would ask them, "Are you okay?" And there are two things about this:

1. It's really new. It's not a thing which has been around for all that long, at least in the form we know it from things like the Left Behind series.
2. It's a whole thing built on only a few verses; essentially just Revelation 20:1–10. 

The Schofield Reference Bible (first published in 1909), Wikipedia tells me, was the first Bible since the Geneva Bible to have a commentary running alongside the text. Thanks to Cyrus Schofield, a century of Bible readers are not just really into Schofield's version of millennialism (pre-, in his case), but they are also really into Schofield's version of creationism, which dates creation back to 4004 BC. Imagine if an apathetic Aussie had've got their study Bible out instead - creationism and premillennialism might not even be a thing! (Well, they probably would, but perhaps not in the divisive way they are today. Well, maybe not that either. But it was still important.)

As a gross oversimplification, there are four views on the millennium (check out Mark's simple diagram at visualunit):

1. there are the post-millennialists, who think things are going to generally get better (for 1000 years) and then Jesus will return.
2. there are the pre-millennialists, who think things are going to generally get worse and then Jesus will return and reign (for 1000 years).
3. there are the a-millennialists, who say the 1000 years is all symbolic for the current reality of reigning with Jesus.
4. there are the pan-millennialists, who trust that everything will pan out in the end.

The fourth group are obviously not a real doctrine, but they do exist, because a lot of people really don't care for shaping an entire doctrine around 10 very confusing verses in a very confusing book. I think, as someone who has only ever heard three sermons from anywhere in the book in my life, that it hasn't been an issue for me. But that's not great either - it shouldn't be neglected, but perhaps is because we don't know what to do with it. However, after preaching through the entire book (I have four out of 20 sermons left), I realise I should probably convert my pan-millennialism to something a little more concrete. So in the next post, I'll try and explain what I think is going on in Revelation 20 and how it fits into the book as a whole.