Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
President-Emeritus
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
However, a more careful study of God’s Word dissipates this
conclusion. The truth
is that the “thousand years,” along with parallel expressions, are
found in both testaments and constitutes one of the high points in
Biblical prophecy. Before we
look at some of these key texts, it is important to note that the
The
The Two Advents:
The Kingdom of God has two advents, two ages, two resurrections, and
two end points. Few,
except some of Jesus’ own kin-folks, deny that the first advent has
already occurred. In a
Television debate I had with Rabbi Pincas Lapide on the John
Ankerberg Television show a good number of years ago, he observed
that the difference between his Jewish viewpoint and my evangelical
one was that I, as an evangelical, believed in two comings of the
Messiah and he, as a believer in the Tenak (= the Old Testament),
only adopted one: a coming of the Messiah in a time of world peace.
I replied, “But Dr. Lapide, Zechariah 12: 10 says `They will
look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him
as one mourns for an only child… a firstborn son.’
I asked, `Who is the one speaking in this text that they will
look on?’ He replied: `The
Almighty!’ Then I
asked, `How did he get pierced, then?’
‘I do not know he said.’
My retort was, `I have an idea how: it was at Calvary in his
first coming.’ Later
the Messiah will come in a second advent in a time of final peace as
this same chapter in Zechariah points out.”
Yes, there are two advents advocated in the Biblical text of
both the Old and the New Testaments.
The Two Ages:
But besides the two advents of Messiah, there are also two ages: in
Hebrew- “`Olam Hazzeh,” “This age,” and “`Olam Habba,
“The age to come.” The
New Testament Greek employs these same two divisions of time some
thirty times: “Aion ho houtos, “This age,” and “Aion ho
mellon,” “The age to come.” The
“Age to come” overlaps “this Age” with the work of Christ in casting
out demons, and especially in his resurrection from the dead.
While the “age to come” is still only in its incipient form,
for the second advent will come in the future in its full
realization.
The Two Resurrections of I Corinthians 15: 22 - 24
Even more significantly, there are two resurrections, not just one.
Revelation 20: 5 speaks of “the first resurrection,” which
all too many seek to reduce in meaning by spiritualizing,
allegorizing, or idealizing it in place of a literal resurrection.
But what John calls “the first resurrection,” the apostle
Paul refers to “those who are Christ’s at his coming” in 1
Corinthians 15: 23. In
fact, the Apostle Paul has given us just as strong a text for
pre-millennialism as has the Apostle John in the Apocalypse.
I Corinthians 15: 22 begins that just as “…in Adam all die, [for
which the cemetery is our main, but all convincing, evidence], so in
Christ all will be made alive.”
This affirms that every mortal, regardless of race, gender,
religion, or the absence of any religious affiliation, will be
resurrected in the final day.
Instead of proving universalism, as Karl Barth taught from
this passage (i.e., that every one will eventually be saved), the
Greek text, which had no punctuation in the original text, follows
immediately after observing that “all will be made alive,” with the
qualification, “but each in his own turn.” The Greek word for “turn”
is a military term (Tagmati), meaning “rank,” “squad,” or
“platoon.” So all are resurrectible, i.e., they can “be made alive,”
but only in distinct squads, platoons, or divisions.
This text lists three such squads: (1) [vs 23] “Christ, the
firstfruits,” [at the first Easter morning] (2) “then, when
he comes for those who belong to him,” and (3) [vs 24] “Then
the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father
after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power” (emphasis
mine). The most
important matter to note is that Christ’s resurrection sets the
pattern for the two resurrections that are to follow in the plan of
the
In just the same manner, the Greek Aorist tense of “lived” or “came
to life” (in Revelation 20: 40 indicated one definite act, which was
called the “First Resurrection” in Revelation 20: 4.
“They lived” can only mean they came to life again and
returned to a life like their former life as it also means in
Revelation 2:8, and of the beast in Revelation 13:14 and elsewhere
(e.g., John 5: 25; Romans 8: 13). The
famous quote of Alford needs to be stated again:
“If in a passage [Rev 20:4] where two resurrections are mentioned, –
where certain souls lived, at first, and the `Rest
of
the
dead’ lived only at the
end of a specified period, after that first, -- the `First
Resurrection’ may be understood to mean a
spiritual rising with
Christ, while the second means a
literal rising from the
grave, then there is an end of all significance in language, and
Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to anything. If the
`First Resurrection’ is
spiritual, then so is the second, – which I suppose none will be
hardy enough to maintain.
But if the second is
literal, then so is the first, which, in common with the whole
primitive church, and many of the best expositors, I do maintain and
receive as an article of faith and hope….
I have ventured to speak strongly, because my conviction is
strong, founded on the rules of fair and consistent interpretation.
It is a strange sight, in these days, to see expositors, who
are among the first, in reverence of antiquity, complacently casting
aside the most cogent instance of unanimity which primitive
antiquity presents.”
Nor does the fact that John saw only “souls” detract from a literal
bodily resurrection, for the souls that had heretofore enjoyed
heavenly joy were now to be reunited with their bodies.
Note that John does not say the “souls” “lived and reigned,”
but the same “they” who were beheaded, and the “they” who had not
received the mark of the beast, were the same ones who “came alive”
and were reunited with their bodies and who reigned with Christ for
a thousand years.
The Two Ends:
There are also two ends along with the two advents, two ages, and
two resurrections. The
first end is signaled by the coming of the Son of Man, our Lord
Jesus from the clouds of heaven in his second advent. The prophet
Daniel brilliantly laid this out in Daniel 7:9 – 14 as did the
prophet Ezekiel in his Apocalypse in chapters 37 – 48. Instead of a
The second end comes with the Great White Judgment throne in which
all the rest of the dead are resurrected to be examined by our Lord
to see if their names are in the Lamb’s book of Life.
This does not end the Age to come, for it goes on without
cessation into the eternal state and the Messianic Age of Eternity.
The Witness of Isaiah 24: 21-23 to the “Multitude of Days”
In addition to the two great New Testament passages dealing
with the millennium, Isaiah 24:21 – 23 can take the next pride of
place. It too places
its prediction in “that day of the Lord” (Isa 24:21), which “Day of
the Lord” is mainly an Old Testament term that parallels the
contents of the New Testament “Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” (Rev
1:1). Exhibiting the
organic nature of prophecy, a separate name in germ form (an example
of an epigenetic growth) is used for what John will later call in
Greek Chilia Ete, “a thousand years.”
Isaiah names that same period of time Rov Yamim, “a
multitude of days,” or “many days.”
Isaiah speaks of the Day of the Lord when Messiah himself
will judge and then restore the kingdom to
This is the time during the thousand years when Satan is cast
down to the pit “In that day.”
It is when Michael stands forth to fight for Israel (Dan
12:1; Rev 12:7) and when according to the vision of John “the angel,
having the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand, laid
hold of the dragon, the Old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan,
and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and
shut and sealed him over, that he should deceive the nations no
more, until the thousand years should be finished, or almost so,
after which he must be loosed for a little season” (Rev 20:1-3).
Note that Isaiah also fixes the duration of the imprisonment
of Satan as a “multitude of days,” or “many days.”
Isaiah also says that it is “after” these “many days” that
the “powers of heaven” and the kings of earth” will have their final
retribution. This
implies their future unchaining and being loosed again.
Thus Isaiah 24:22 involves a resurrection of the wicked at
the close of the “many days.”
The Witness of Ezekiel 37 – 48
In this Ezekielian Apocalpyse of chapters 37 – 48, the “whole
house of
But again, “after many days,” (Ezekiel 38: 8), Judgment will
come on Gog with a punishment and visitation similar to what Isaiah
24:22 and Revelation 20:7 – 10 depict.
The termini of Isaiah 24:22, Ezekiel 38:8 and
Revelation 20:7 are identical. Remarkably,
Ezekiel 28:25 – 26 notes that Israel will be secured from attack and
the people will live in safety and their security will be
undisturbed (also Ezekiel 38:8, 11, 12; Jeremiah 32:36 - 44).
Other Equivalent Expressions in Other Passages
If time and space would allow, we could add Psalm 102:13 –
22, where Messiah comes with his holy angels with glory to build up
Zion. Then he will
judge the world in righteousness and “give dominion in the morning.”
In addition to Psalm 102, is the expression “In His days,”
found in Psalm 72:7. This too is a text noted as a great Messianic
Psalm.
There is also that
group of four bright Messianic Psalms in Psalms 96, 97, 98, and 99,
ending in the remarkable Psalm 100.
Here every land in the world is called upon to make a joyful
noise unto the Lord as he concludes the work in history he said he
would do.
Conclusion
But notwithstanding all this data (and much more) on the
terms for the “Thousand Years,” “Multitude of Days,” “Many Days,”
“In His Day,” the case for Pre-millennialism is almost completely
missed if one does not focus on the everlasting promise of God made
to his people Israel.
Pre-millennialism is defined not merely as the future time in
the Rule and Reign of God (the kingdom of God), bounded by the
resurrection of all believers on the front end and the resurrection
of the unbelieving wicked dead on the opposite end, during
which period Satan is bound, but loosed for a brief time at the end
of the millennium before he is cast forever into the abyss.
It is more precisely the time when God finishes in space and
time what he promised historically to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
David and his line. It
is therefore a whole philosophy of history with implications for the
Christ-and-culture-hiatus that must find its resolution in the Lord
of all creation and all value and beauty.
Principally the Abrahamic promise (Genesis 12:2 – 3) had three
parts: (1) the promise of a Seed, the coming Messiah, (2) the
promise of the land as a gift to Israel, but owned by God,
and (3) the promise of the “Gospel” in which all the families
of the earth would be blessed (Paul equated this aspect of the
promise with the “Gospel” in Galatians 3:8).
It is impossible to read, teach, and preach on the prophets
of the Old Testament without bumping into the promise of a return of
Some will attempt to say that
To say that the Church replaces
What is lost, some will ask, if we demote Pre-millennialism
to a secondary doctrinal status?
Isn’t it true that the majority of Christians today do not
recognize it as taught in the Bible – especially in a reformed or
covenantal understanding of the text?
And if they do not recognize this doctrine, isn’t it also
true that most think this teaching is reduced to only one teaching
passage in the Bible?
But we have shown that it is widely represented in the
Biblical text.
Moreover, most will also concede that pre-millennialism was the
majority view of the Christian Church in the first three or four
Christian centuries. It
was the influence of Origen’s allegorizing tendencies,
But what is affected the most is the doctrine of redemption
and God’s promise-plan for the ages.
It becomes a much more difficult matter to teach the
I urge Christ’s Church to go slowly in its rush to jettison
the pre-millennial position, or to avoid teaching about the future
return of Israel to the land God promised her.
It can only lead to other problems down the road:
problems with correctly exegeting numerous passages from the
prophets about Israel’s future; problems with the nature and extent
of the “Gospel,” problems with a view of history; problems with the
definition of the Kingdom of God; and problems with being ashamed of
the whole redemptive program of God that is for the Jew first and
then for the Gentile/Greek.
May our Lord grant us his grace and wisdom to fairly
represent the entirety of the “Good News.”
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
President Emeritus
Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and
Ethics
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
9/06
[1] Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., An Assessment of Replacement Theology: The Relationship Between Israel of the Abrahamic-Davidic Covenant and the Christian Church,” Mishkan, 21(1994): 9-20.