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Welcome back to All Things Reformed Baptists. And today, um, we're gonna dive into one of the big questions of Christian eschatology, the study of end times, revelation, and and what is, you know, what is the view that I hold, because there are several different views, and so I'm just gonna go right out and and say it. I subscribe um to what is called our millennialism. Now, most important here is that we should hold our views about the end times with humility and with hope. All right, so let's let's let's get into it. Ah millennialism is the view that the quote unquote thousand years described in Revelation 20 is not a future, literal, earthly reign of Christ that begins after his second coming. Instead, the thousand years is a symbolic way of describing the entire present church age, that is, the time between Christ's first coming and then his return. The prefix ah simply means no future earthly millennium in the classic sense. Many prefer the more positive term realized millennialism because ah millennialists do believe Christ is reigning right now. Here's the core picture. When Jesus died, rose, and ascended, he bound Satan in a decisive but limited way. Satan can no longer prevent the gospel from going to the nations. You look at verses like Matthew 12, 28 to 29, or uh John chapter 12, verse 31, and uh Colossians chapter 2 verse 15, and then of course Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 3. Christ is already seated at the right hand of the Father with all authority. That's Ephesians 1, 20 through 23, and of course Matthew 28. Believers who die go to be with him and reign with him in heaven. That is the first resurrection of Revelation chapter 20, verses 4 through 6. Good and evil continue side by side until the end. Then Jesus returns once, raises all the dead, judges the living and the dead, and ushers in the new heavens and new earth. There is no intervening thousand-year earthly golden age. That reading flows from the two-age framework that runs throughout the New Testament. This age, quote unquote, and the age to come, quote unquote, with the kingdom already inaugurated but not yet consummated. The number 1,000 in apocalyptic literature often symbolizes completeness, just as the 144,000 represents the full people of God. Now, fair-minded people raise some strong objections. So let's address a few of the main ones. First, they say you're spiritualizing the text. Revelation 20 says a thousand years. Why not take it literally? Glad you asked. As an A-Millennialist, we reply that Revelation is saturated with symbols, dragons, beasts, a woman clothed with the sun, a city coming down from heaven. Almost no one takes every number or image in the book with wooden literalism. The question is which interpretation best fits the whole of scripture in the genre. All millennialists argue that progressive parallelism, you know, seeing the visions as overlapping rather than strictly sequential, makes better sense of the book's structure and of passages like John chapter 5, verses 28 to 29 in 2 Peter 3, that move directly from this age to the final age of the Lord and the new creation. Here's another objection. They say Satan sure doesn't look bound today. Look at all the evil in the world. Alright? So the binding in Revelation 20 is specific, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. Before the cross, the nations were largely in darkness. Since Pentecost, the gospel has reached every continent. That does not mean Satan is inactive. He still prowls like a roaring lion, but his power to keep the nations in total spiritual blindness has been decisively broken. The church's missionary expansion is evidence of that binding. Now, maybe another objection that people will say, they'll say, What about all the Old Testament promises of peace, a restored Israel, and a golden age? All millennialists, especially in the Reformed tradition, see those promises finding their fulfillment first in Christ and his church, and ultimately and fully in the new earth of Revelation chapter 21 and 22, not in a temporary intermediate kingdom. Many of the richest descriptions of future blessing point beyond any earthly millennium to the eternal state. Now, it's important to say this clearly. Others have been postmillennial. These are intramural debates among people who all confess the same Lord. What unites us is far greater than what divides us. The non-negotiable is this: that Jesus Christ is coming back. He will raise the dead, judge the world in righteousness, and make all things new. The call of every New Testament writer is the same. Be ready, live holy lives, love one another, preach the gospel, watch and pray. Whether the millennium is present or future, the king is coming. And that changes how we live today. So hold your eschatology with conviction and with charity. Study the scriptures carefully, but never let secondary timelines distract you from our primary hope that behold, I am coming soon. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. That is it. Thank you for listening on all things we formed Baptist, and I look forward to our time next time, next episode.