Revelation 20:1-15

Steven Spielberg’s Deep Impact, screening at Australian cinemas everywhere this weekend [June 21, 1998], is a movie about the apocalyptic end of the world (at least the world as we know it), with cosmic judgement falling from the sky on an unsuspecting world in the form of a giant comet.

I haven’t yet seen the movie, but I have read the reviews and I can safely say that Deep Impact’s vision of salvation and hope for humankind (in the form of a spaceship code-named ‘The Messiah’) differs greatly from the Bible’s vision of salvation and hope, which centres on the return of Jesus Christ to reign over the earth and to judge all people according to God’s standard of righteousness and justice.

Last week we looked at what happens when I die: what we call ‘individual eschatology.’ Tonight we’re going to look further into the future, guided by the biblical record, and have a brief look at ‘corporate eschatology’: how the world will end according to God’s cosmic ‘screenplay.’

Unfortunately, whenever we talk about the ‘end times’ we encounter two problems. First, various systems of thought develop on the basis of differing interpretive frameworks; and, second, even among those who share the same convictions about how scripture should be interpreted, there will be differences of opinion about what a certain phrase or event signifies.

So I begin my message tonight by acknowledging that not everyone will agree about everything I say in the next twenty minutes. I ask that if you disagree, please do it with an attitude of love. Be like Jesus, not like his opponents the Pharisees. If you’re really fired up about something I say, don’t go and tell all your friends that the pastor at Blakehurst is “astray” or “in error” on the Second Coming – talk to me about it, and we’ll try to understand each other. What the Bible clearly teaches is what is important – not what you or I think about it.

“Back soon – Jesus”

Having said that, let’s jump in the deep end and see what the Bible teaches about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus clearly intended to come back a second time to our world: there are over 250 clear references to the event in the New Testament. Here are some of the key references: John 14:3; Acts 1:10-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Hebrews 9:28; 8-11; 1 John 3:2-3; Revelation 22:20.

Those who believe the Bible agree that Jesus is coming back, but they disagree on the timing of his return in relation to the ‘tribulation’ and the ‘millennium’; and they disagree on the nature of his return. Will Jesus return at the beginning, middle or end of the period described in Revelation as the ‘tribulation,’ or at the end of the millennium? Will his return be a single glorious event, or will it be in two parts – first a ‘secret rapture’ for Christians, and then a public appearing to reign? These two issues cause the most heat and least light of all the ‘end times’ controversies!

Revelation 20 refers to the millennial reign of Christ, but says nothing about when he will return. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 refers to the return of Christ but says nothing about the millennium. And tribulation (or trials, distress, affliction) are both to be expected throughout history, and to intensify as a prelude to the return of Christ in glory (Matthew 24:21; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-6; 2 Timothy 3:1-5). I believe Jesus will return in glory to Jerusalem at the conclusion of the period referred to in the New Testament as the ‘tribulation.’

But will this glorious appearing of the Lord be preceded by a ‘secret rapture’? To answer this question adequately we need to take a quick history lesson. Until about 1830 Christians of evangelical ilk agreed that Jesus would return, that believers who had died would be raised, and that they would be joined by living believers and “be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Prior to 1830 there was no trace of a two-part return of Christ. But in about that year, allegedly through a “prophetic utterance” by Margaret Macdonald in Port Glasgow, Scotland, and then in the prophetic teaching of Edward Irvine (founder of the Catholic Apostolic church) and John Nelson Darby (co-founder of the Brethren movement), the novel doctrine of a ‘secret rapture’ of the church prior to the ‘tribulation’ appeared and spread rapidly around the world.

Darby persuaded a lawyer, C.I. Scofield, to adopt his teaching on the Second Coming, and Scofield brilliantly incorporated the concept into the Scofield Reference Bible which became a best-seller and the biggest single factor in the spread of the idea.

The doctrine of a ‘secret rapture’ is now taught as a central plank of dispensational theology in seminaries such as Dallas, and is widely promoted by dispensational radio preachers such as Chuck Swindoll, popular dispensational authors such as Hal Lindsay [and Tim LaHaye], and theologians such as Charles Ryrie, Lewis Sperry Chafer, J. Dwight Pentecost and John Walvoord.

So. what does the Bible teach?

Darby emphasised a phrase from the AV of 2 Timothy 2:15 about the need to “rightly divide the word of truth.” He became famous for dividing biblical history into seven eras or dispensations, dividing the future destiny of the church (God’s heavenly people) from that of Israel (God’s earthly people), and dividing the Lord’s second coming into two events – one private and invisible, and one public and visible – separated by a seven-year tribulation period.

The idea of a pre-tribulation rapture is, on one hand, an immense comfort because we’re told that we won’t experience the tribulation. But it’s also an enormous challenge, pressuring unbelievers to accept Christ before it’s too late.

Many children in Brethren assemblies and conservative American Baptist churches have turned to Christ out of fear that their parents would disappear during the night; I am one of those. My brother remembers being asked as a child how he hoped to open the kitchen cupboards to feed himself after mum and dad were ‘raptured’! The New Testament knows nothing of this kind of emotional pressure in evangelism, and I believe the Bible teaches nothing about a secret return of Christ separate to his glorious appearing.

I do believe the plain truth of scripture that believers will be ‘raptured,’ united with Christ, and reign with him over the earth: that’s the “blessed hope” of the church! The “blessed hope” is not the ‘secret rapture’ but the revelation, or parousia, of the Lord, as Titus 2:13 makes clear.

If the Bible teaches that Jesus will return in glory to ‘rapture’ his saints at the end of the ‘tribulation,’ then they must experience the tribulation woes. This is the down-side of classic or historic premillennialism. But it’s better to warn believers to be prepared for the tribulation and then discover they won’t go through it, than to tell them they have nothing to worry about and then find themselves unprepared! Forewarned is forearmed. Listen to Corrie Ten Boom’s testimony:

I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China the Christians were told: ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes, you will be translated, raptured.’ Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a bishop from China say, sadly: ‘We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first.’ Turning to me, he said: ‘Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint.’

David Pawson, who relates this correspondence with Corrie Ten Boom in When Jesus Returns (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1995), adds: “Few could have put it better . . . She is now with her Lord, having been through her own tribulation. When we go through ours, whether that be personal, local or universal, may we be among the ‘overcomers,’ as she was and is.”

The tribulation is predicted by Jesus in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, John 16:33. Revelation 6-19 outlines its terrible course as God pours out his wrath against human sin, describing the judgements in three series of seven seals (Revelation 6:1-8:1), seven trumpets (8:2-11:19) and seven bowls (15:1-16:21). Finally Babylon is destroyed (17:1-18:24), making way for the return of Christ (19:11-21). I understand Babylon to be symbolic of the political, economic and spiritual world in opposition to God.

When the Lord returns, the Bible teaches that he will gather his people to himself, reign for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-10), complete the work of redemption (1 Corinthians 15:22-28, 42-57), and judge “the living and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:1; cf Acts 17:31; Jude 14-15; Revelation 20:11-15). Revelation 20 says nothing about the timing of the Lord’s return; hence the confusion about the nature and timing of the millennium. Amillennialists hold the non-literal interpretation that the thousand years of Revelation 20 symbolise the entire period between Jesus’ first and second comings.

Most postmillennialists hold that the thousand years stand for the present period in which the gospel is preached, after which Christ returns. Most premillennialists teach that the Lord will return to inaugurate his literal thousand-year reign, the millennial kingdom.

Why does it matter?

What is the purpose of the millennium? It’s the time where God’s servants who have remained faithful through the trial of their faith are rewarded (Revelation 20:4-6); and it’s a period of righteousness and peace when the devil is bound and imprisoned (Rev 20:2-3); and it’s the time during which Jesus puts “all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25).

At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, the devil will be released (Revelation 20:3, 7; cf 12:12), there will be a second resurrection (20:5), the dead will be judged (v. 12), and death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire; death will finally be destroyed (v. 14).

Why is it important to familiarise ourselves with the Bible’s teaching about the end of the world? First, because God has graciously given us a window on the future in his word: it is his written revelation to us. Not all the Bible is about us, but all the Bible is for us, and we have a responsibility to read and understand it. Second, what God reveals about the future instils hope and confidence in believers. Third, an understanding of the culmination of God’s redemptive purposes challenges us to mission and evangelism. Finally, the Bible’s eschatological teaching challenges us to shape our lives on biblical principles. After describing the Day of the Lord, Peter says,

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him (2 Peter 3:11-14).

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

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E135 Copyright (c) 2003 Rod Benson. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980). To talk with Rod about this message, email or write to P.O. Box 1790, MACQUARIE CENTRE 2113 AUSTRALIA. To subscribe, email with “subscribe-river” in the subject. To unsubscribe, type “unsubscribe-river” in the subject.