May 6 2023
THE ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE.
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Revelation 20: 2
“If you are in a minority, and even alone, this does not mean you are crazy.” Orwell, in ‘1984’.
May 5 1945, saw the End of The German Reich, whose officials in 1939, when World War II began, boasted that it would endure for One Thousand Years. The entire Nazi venture, this truly evil empire, totally inspired by ‘that ancient serpent’, only lasted 13 years.
The ‘One Thousand Year’ phenomenon, so prominently mentioned in the last Bible book, has given rise to immense speculation, dividing the church in ‘pre-millennian’ adherents whobelieve Christ returns after the millennium as a golden age, when the majority of the world has converted to Christianity, while post-millennian’ believers hold that Christ returns before the millennium, preceded by a period of intense tribulation.
There also are Amillennialism advocates, who do not expect a literal 1,000, but rather view it as Christ’s reign with his saints during the time between his two comings.
All of them are wrong.
Johan Herman Bavinck, in his book on Revelation – and I translate – writes:
“Nowhere does the Bible speak of two returns of Christ, and nowhere else has the Bible ever referred to ‘1000 years of peace’ that is supposed to occur between these two returns, and this chapter – Revelation 20- even though it has definite mysterious passages, does not point into that direction at all. That’s all I want to comment here.”
So, Dr. Bavinck leaves us in the dark.
Eugene H. Peterson, in his well-written REVERSED THUNDER, the Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination, does not mention ‘1000 years of peace’ at all.
Here are two eminent and prominent theologians who have no explanation of an event that has divided the church, especially in the USA, engrossed as it is with The Last Days. Why then, would I be so bold and venture to comment on this puzzling passage?
Well, I live in 2023. Both Bavinck and Peterson wrote their books more than 40 years ago, when Climate Change was not an everyday topic. We now have daily warnings of environmental perils, the latest being that plastic is everywhere: even in our bloodstream, even in newborn children. All purity is gone. There is no single drop of water in the oceans that cover 70 percent of the planet, totally uncontaminated; all soil, too, is polluted. The food we eat is basically oil.
One Thousand Years ago.
One Thousand Years ago, the world’s population was somewhere between 250 and 300 million. Today there are more than 8 billion, a 30-fold increase. Then the biggest city, Constantinople, had an estimated population of 350,000. In comparison, London was a mere speck on the map, with some 20,000 citizens. Then Europe and America were entirely covered in forest. The only paved roads were the remnants of those left behind by the long-departed Romans.
Anno 1,000, the mechanical clock would not be invented for another 300 years. Chimneys would not be used in domestic settings for another century. The mathematical concept of zero was as yet unknown in Europe; so, too, was movable type. It was, to quote the great historian William Manchester, “a world lit only by fire.”
Fire.
2 Peter 3:10 applies here: The Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens – the clouds – will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Methane means fire. ARCTIC NEWS’ latest headline is, Will Humanity go extinct in 2026? The scientists there see trillions of tons of buried Methane as the imminent danger. Methane, a flammable, odourless gas, is the main ingredient of the stuff we use for cooking and heating.
2026 could well be the beginning of the One Thousand Years of Peace. Satan and his followers to be imprisoned, so that they no longer can be the leaders and promoters of perennial perdition, with us as complacent planet-wide participants. With Satan bound, and us also out of the way, the earth will enter a long period of rest and recuperation, to be ready for the Redeemed of the Lord, who “will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Isaiah 51: 11.
A word on AI.
Will the Lord intervene as he did with the Tower of Babel, of which Artificial Intelligence is today’s equivalent? “If as one people speaking the same language can do this…… then nothing they plan to do is impossible for them”. (Genesis 11:6). Will God call their bluff again?