Revelation 20:1-9~"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
So many NT doctrine are within these nine verses. We shall briefly consider of them so taht we can get an overall understanding of revelation twenty.
Revelation is a book that is
not written in chronological order, but a book given to us with each chapter giving us an bird's eye view
from Christ's death and ascension to his second coming and
related events during this period and the end of the world as we know it, with an usher in of the New heavens and New earth.
Revelation twenty is no exception, but an perfect example of what we have just said.
Before I start, one can read what Augustine taught, and he learned from another person whose works are not with us today, yet mentioned by Augustine. I find it amazing that some taught back then (almost verbatim) shortly after the apostles what we do today ~ we have so much more to guide us than they had. We are living in the mist of the prophecy, they had not even begin to see what we can see with our eyes, which helps (at least I would think so) to see the true understanding of Revelation 20:1-8.
It is evident from Augustine’s writings that he drew significantly on the work of a theologian named Tyconius, whose writings are lost
apart from the use made of them by Augustine. Tyconius, a fourth-century African Donatist theologian, wrote a work on biblical interpretation entitled
The Book of Rules, which set out seven rules that exerted a powerful influence on subsequent biblical interpretation. I would have love to have read this, but we can only imagine by reading Augustine as he learned from Tyconius. One can google and read a verse by verse of Augustine's understanding of Revelation 20:1-8.
The question we have at hand here is, "
does the one thousand year reign spoken of in Revelation chapter 20, mean that Christ is going to come and reign on this earth after the Tribulation?" This is a theory that is taught by a great many theologians, and churches, but the question is, can it be verified by the scriptures themselves?
And the answer is, No. The whole idea is contradictory to God's word when we consider all of the pertinent scriptures that are used to justify it. Nowhere is this doctrine explicitly mentioned in scripture, but some say it is implied. However, in reality,
it is based solely on the misunderstanding or private interpretation of a few select verses. God does not say He will rapture the church
before any tribulation.
In fact, the Lord says just the opposite as He explicitly states that the church will not be taken off the earth until the end of the world. He says the rapture or saints gathering together in the air (1st Thessalonians 4:17) is at
the last day and the last trumpet. These ideas of a pre-tribulation rapture and an earthly reign of Christ are built upon an
unsound foundation that will not stand the test of Holy Scripture.
It's important in this introduction of Revelation 20 that this should be made perfectly clear up front exactly what GOD says (
and does not say) about the return of the Lord. Understanding this, we can better grasp what has been
the speculations, assumptions, and suppositions by men, and what are solid biblical facts. Let's begin by taking a quick look at a few of the verses that may have a direct bearing on this issue.
Matthew 24:29-31~"
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and
then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven: and
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels
with a great sound of a Trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven unto the other."
God says
"immediately" after the tribulation, the trumpet will sound and it's the gathering together of the
elect.
Both context and content illustrate that this is so. In other words, the elect believers
are still on this earth after the great tribulation period because they haven't been raptured. Indeed, what would be the point? Likewise it says, be ye also ready for the Lord's return, because for those who aren't (
verse 51) there is judgment, and weeping and gnashing of teeth. God is talking to the church and He is telling them to be ready for this event. Note, the Disciples ask Jesus when will be the sign of His coming again and the end of the world. It is then that He tells them these things. i.e.,
"this is the signs of His coming and the end of the world". When the fig tree is in leaf, then He is even at the doors! These are the signs.
In Premillennial theology, (which I was in for a brief period, when I first came to Christ over fifty years ago) there seem to be three implicit three comings of Christ. This cannot be denied, for as one was at His birth, one is at the (supposed) pretribulation rapture of the church, and the third is here when He comes to gather the Elect at the judgment of the last day, at the end of the world. The obvious problem is that there
is nothing in scripture to justify that there are three comings of Christ!
This idea is not biblically validated. We read of the coming of Christ to confirm (
Daniel 9:27; make strong) the Covenant at His birth, after which
He ascended to heaven to reign over His Kingdom as was prophesied. And then there is the return of Christ to both rapture the church and judge the wicked
at the completion of that New Covenant period. This second advent is what Matthew chapter 24 is talking about,
not the third. Christ
doesn't come for the church
before the great tribulation. When He returns on the clouds of glory
it is the second and last coming. Likewise, because we read that this trumpet sounds (
Matthew 24:31) and it is obviously the end of the world (
which even most all Pretribulation theorists agree) then this
has to also be the time of Christ gathering the elect together in the air. Because God says that this rapture occurs at "
The Last Trumpet" and He is not the author of confusion. To say anything less about the trumpet seems to distort the very scripture record.
It's just a matter of humbly receiving what is written. Consider these next two passages:
1st Thessalonians 4:16~"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the
Trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
This notation of being "
caught up together" in the air is what we call the rapture. The word rapture is derived from a Latin term meaning to be "
caught away" and is merely used by Christians to avoid repetitive and awkward quoting of the entire verse (
1 Thess. 4:16) each time we reference this glorious event it describes. So let me be clear that when I use the word rapture, I am simply speaking about nothing more and nothing less than what the scripture itself defines as believers being caught up together with Christ in the air (1st Thess. 4:16).
Comparing scripture with scripture, and this verse with the verses of Matthew 24:29-31, it becomes easy (
despite premil objections) to see when the rapture takes place.
In fact, you'd have to be trying very hard not to see it. The trumpet will sound, and the gathering of the chosen or elect that are left on earth into the heavens commences. Those who have died in the Lord are with Christ, and believers on earth are caught up in the air to be with Christ and His messengers.
The unbelievers are left there on earth to watch this event and then are judged. I believe that this is as Matthew 24 declares that one will be taken and the other left. It specifically states that it was at "the trumpet's sound" immediately after the great tribulation period. Not Before! Moreover:
1st Corinthians 15:51~"Behold I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
The Last Trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Here we see the rapture spoken of again. And note "carefully" that God declares that it takes place at the sound of the l
ast trumpet. Not the next to the last,
but specifically the last! That means that there are no other trumpets after this trumpet.
It is the last trumpet and it is the rapture. And so we see (
if we believe God's Word) that the trumpet sounding in Matthew 24 cannot possibly be "after" this one, because this rapture is at the
Last trumpet. PreTribulation Rapture theology teaches that the trumpet in Matthew 24 takes place after this last trumpet spoken of 1st Corinthians. They are
effectively denying God's word by privately interpreting 1st Corinthians to "Not Be" the last Trumpet. The question becomes, why would anyone professing faithfulness to scripture do this? And the only answer I can come up with is that they know that if Matthew chapter 24's trumpet isn't after the rapture trumpet of 1st Corinthians, then their whole theory of the rapture before the tribulation is
totally bankrupt, as Matthew 24 declares it is immediately after the tribulation of those days. Yet they go to great lengths trying to rationalize away the last trumpet of 1st Corinthians. One fellow asked me, "..has God
really said this is the last Trumpet?" Yes, this sounds an awful lot like the question of the serpent in the garden, doesn't it? "
..hath God said ye shall not eat of the tree?"
Yes, He did. He says the end is at the
last trumpet as well. If it is true that God's word says this, then the Matthew 24 Trumpet Christ speaks about must
also be the last trumpet, because they themselves admit that this verse is in reference to the end of the world. That means Matthew, 1st Thessalonians, and 1st Corinthians, are all talking abou
t the same time period. Judgment Day and the Rapture at the very same Last Trumpet.
Later.....