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The Whosoever Study Bible
Whosoever will, may come.
Three Millennial Views
What is the thousand years of Revelation 20?
Scroll the table sideways to compare all three
| PremillennialThis Bible holds this | Amillennial | Postmillennial | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rev 20:1-6“a thousand years" (six times)” | A literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth after His return, Satan bound, the saints reigning with Him.The answer → | Symbolic of the present church age; Satan is bound now in the sense that he cannot stop the gospel; the "first resurrection" is regeneration or the soul's entry into heaven. | Symbolic of a long golden age the gospel brings in before Christ returns; the church Christianizes the world, then He comes. |
| Order of events | Return (19:11-21), then reign (20:4-6), then final rebellion and judgment (20:7-15): the chapters are read in sequence. | Rev 20 recapitulates the church age; it is not after chapter 19 in time. | Christ returns after the millennium, hence post-. |
| Israel's covenants“(land, Davidic throne)” | Fulfilled literally in the millennium: Christ on David's throne in Jerusalem (Luke 1:32-33), Israel in the land Ezekiel surveyed (47-48). | Fulfilled spiritually in Christ and the church; no future for national Israel distinct from the church. | Largely as amillennial, with Israel's conversion possibly part of the gospel's triumph. |
| The early church | Chiliasm (literal millennium) was the common view of the first two centuries (Papias, Justin, Irenaeus). | Became dominant after Augustine's City of God reinterpreted the thousand years as the church age. | Rose in the Puritan and Enlightenment eras with optimism about the gospel's progress. |
Why this Bible reads it this way
The site is premillennial because Revelation 20 follows Revelation 19 and names the thousand years six times, and because the covenants to Abraham and David await a fulfillment history has not yet supplied.
Answered at length:What is the millennium? Is the thousand-year reign literal?