Millenium

The period referred to as “a thousand years” in Rev. 20 —the interval between the first and second resurrections—during which Satan is bound and those raised in the first resurrection reign with Christ. Literally the term (Latin mille , “thousand,” and annum , “year”) means simply a period of a thousand years; for example, the Exodus occurred in the second millennium before Christ. I. Millerite Views Versus Others. The founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, having belonged to the earlier Adventist (Millerite) movement, inherited from it the distinctive Adventist interpretation, namely, that the millennium represents the beginning of the eternal reign of the immortal saints and that it comes after the close of human probation. The Millerite view was a distinct departure from the popular millennialism of that time. The other premillennialists (premillennialism is the view that the second advent of Christ precedes the millennium) called Literalists, and the postmillennialists (postmillennialism is the view that the second advent of Christ comes after the millennium) both taught a “temporal” millennium, that is, one in which existed mortals still unregenerate, in which births and deaths still occurred, and in which there was still sin and repentance. Both applied to the millennium the OT kingdom prophecies concerning Israel. The postmillennialists applied these prophecies in a spiritual sense and referred them to an age of gradual improvement, social betterment, and the triumph of Christianity in the world in its present state. The Literalist premillennialists interpreted these prophecies literally and expected the Second Advent to inaugurate a reign not only of resurrected saints but also of mortals on earth. This earthly kingdom was pictured as the “iron-rod rule” of Christ, under which the Jews would rule and teach the “nations” from literal Jerusalem, where the Temple and the sacrifices would be restored, until the final revolt and destruction of the rebellious nations at the end of the millennium. The Millerites, rejecting the positions of both these groups, emphatically declared: “The only Millennium found in the word of God, is the thousand years which are to intervene between the first and second resurrections, as brought to view in the 20th of Revelation” (“Fundamental Principles,” as printed in The Western Midnight Cry 2:65, Feb. 10, 1844). The Seventh-day Adventist view is essentially that of the Millerites, but with one significant difference. SDA s teach that the redeemed are in heaven during the millennium and that the renewal of the earth occurs at the end of the period, whereas the Millerites held that the saints were to reign on the renewed earth during that time. II. Development of Seventh-day Adventist View. The shift toward the SDA view began in 1845. James White afterward wrote that as early as 1845 he had taught that the kingdom of God would not be established on the earth until the end of the millennium, and added that E. R. Pinney (a Millerite minister) had held the same view in 1844 ( Review and Herald 7:61, Oct. 16, 1855). Pinney, however, by 1850 was holding the old Millerite view. An ex-Millerite writing in the Day-Star (8:28, Nov. 22, 1845) mentioned “some” among the Adventists who “conclude that we shall not have the new heaven and earth until after the second resurrection, or end of the 1000 years.” This view was adopted, he asserted, to avoid the absurdity of having the bodies of the wicked dead rise from the cleansed and renewed earth after Christ and the saints had already reigned over it for a thousand years. It is not known how many Adventists held this in 1844—some in one Philadelphia congregation, also Storrs and reputedly Fitch. But these held, in addition, probation for some after the Advent. This was part of Literalism, which Storrs embraced in 1845. But Pinney and White, like the majority of Adventists, utterly rejected that view of prophecy. Enoch Jacobs, in an editor’s note, says that all Adventist writings “hitherto, have been very dark and cloudy about the work of this 1000 years” ( ibid. 29). This haziness on the details of the millennium is apparent in O.R.L. Crosier’s article ( Day-Star Extra, Feb. 7, 1846) entitled “The Law of Moses,” in which he explained the new sanctuary doctrine and in which he equated the antitype of the Day of Atonement with a period including the millennium. He described the next age as “the times of restitution” ( p. 42), the uniting of the capital and the King in heaven with His subjects and territory on earth, and the millennium as “a stepping-stone” to “the earth redeemed and Edenized again”; yet he obviously expected the saved to be taken to the heavenly city at the Advent. The proto-Seventh-day Adventists, who adopted Crosier’s exposition of the sanctuary doctrine as an explanation of the Millerite disappointment, took scant notice of his treatment of the millennium, since their emphasis, like his, lay elsewhere. However, in May 1846 Joseph Bates expressed a position intermediate between the Millerite doctrine and what was to become the SDA view. He expected the earth to be renewed at the Second Advent in one spot only—the place on which the Holy City was to rest (The Opening Heavens, pp. 22, 32). On Apr. 7, 1847, Ellen White wrote a letter to Bates, later published by James White in A Word to the “Little Flock,” in which she implied that, following the Second Advent, the earth would be uninhabited ( p. 20). Although not directly mentioning the millennium, she designated the “jubilee” as a time “when the land should rest,” and described (as also in her earliest communication, dating from the end of 1844) the returning Christ as taking the resurrected and the living saints to heaven. Two weeks later she wrote to Eli Curtis ( ibid. , pp. 11, 12) expressing disagreement with certain of his views, but agreeing with his belief that the new heavens and the new earth would not appear until after the destruction of the wicked at the end of the thousand years. She also described the loosing of Satan as taking place at the time when the wicked dead would be raised, and showed that they would be burned up, root and branch, while attacking the Holy City, after which would come the new heavens and the new earth, the home of the righteous. First mention of the millennium in the pioneer Seventh-day Adventist periodical The Present Truth (1849–1850) was in the issue for April 1850, in which Mrs. White spoke of the resurrected saints in heaven during the one thousand years; of the Holy City then descending to the earth; of the wicked raised, attacking the city and being destroyed; then of the cleansing and renewal of the earth, “for the feet of the wicked will never desecrate the earth made new” (1:71, 72; also reprinted in 1851 in A Sketch of the Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, p. 33). In September 1850, in an article in The Advent Review (1:49–51, September 1850), James White referred to the millennium as the antitypical jubilee, a period of rest for the earth. He observed further that after the upheavals in connection with the Second Advent, and after the slaughter of all except the saints, the earth would be desolate and uninhabited, while the saints would be judging the world and the fallen angels during this thousand-year day of judgment. In the Advent Review Extra (September 1850) Hiram Edson emphasized the same essential points that had appeared in James White’s article. In the last issue of The Present Truth (1:86, November 1850) a communication from Mrs. White (also reprinted in 1851 in her Experience and Views , pp. 33–35) describes the millennium in similar terms; it mentions the saints’ participation in apportioning punishment to the wicked according to the records, and emphasizes the destruction of the wicked at the end of the thousand years as the execution of judgment. In the early 1850s the millennium became a topic of controversy because the “age-to-come” theory, advocated by Joseph Marsh and certain other former Millerites, was then being advocated by a small group of Adventist dissidents in Wisconsin ( see Messenger Party ). This doctrine was actually nothing new, but was the old Literalist form of premillennialism, already mentioned, from which the Millerite view had dissented. The necessity of combating this doctrine called forth considerable discussion of the millennium in the Review and Herald . Two points especially were stressed: (1) the kingdom promises to the Jews were conditional, and (2) the probation of all closes at the Second Advent. One article, by J. B. Frisbie ( Review and Herald 5:6, Jan. 24, 1854), offered Scripture evidence to show that the binding of Satan would be a condition resulting from the absence of any people to deceive, and that the chaotic and empty earth would be the “bottomless pit” in which Satan and his angels were to be confined during the thousand years. Between 1855 and 1857 several series of articles were written by James White, Joseph Bates, and J. H. Waggoner; the last named spoke of the removal of the inhabitants of the earth, leaving Satan, as the scapegoat, to roam in a “land uninhabited” ( ibid. 9:93, Jan. 22, 1857). III. Summary of Seventh-day Adventist View. SDA s generally discuss the millennium under three headings: 1. Events at the Beginning of the Millennium. The event that marks the opening of the millennium is the second advent of Jesus Christ. This is clear from the context of Rev. 20. Immediately preceding a discussion of the events of the millennium, Jesus is represented as descending from heaven upon a white horse, accompanied by the armies of heaven, smiting the nations of the earth, and leaving the dead strewn on the battlefield ( Rev. 19:11–21 ). A resurrection is also noted, called the first, and those who are raised in it are represented as living and reigning with Christ ( Rev. 20:4–6 ). Paul also connects the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the righteous dead, adding that at the same time the living righteous are changed to immortality, and that both groups meet the Lord in the air ( 1 Thess. 4:16 , 17 ; 1 Cor. 15:51–54 ). According to John 14:1–3 , Christ takes the saints to the place He has prepared for them in His Father’s house, heaven ( see Second Advent ). At the beginning of the millennium occurs also the binding and confining of Satan, represented in the vision by the dragon’s being chained and cast into the bottomless pit “that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled” ( Rev. 20:1–3 ). These symbols Seventh-day Adventists believe will be fulfilled in the confinement of Satan to this earth, which has been desolated by the judgments of God ( Rev. 16:17–21 ), and in the restriction of his activities, caused by the depopulation of the earth as a result of the removal of the redeemed to heaven and the destruction of the wicked. 2. Events During the Millennium. The earth during this period is without a human inhabitant and in a state of ruin and desolation caused by the judgments of God associated with the second coming of Christ ( see above ) . The redeemed live and reign with Christ a thousand years ( Rev. 20:4 ). Christ having taken them to be where He is, in heaven ( John 14:3 ; Heb. 11:16 ). They sit on thrones, and “judgment was given unto them” ( Rev. 20:4 ). This, SDA s hold to be the judgment to which Paul referred when he said, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” ( 1 Cor. 6:2 , 3 ). Together with Christ the redeemed consider the cases of the wicked and decide their punishment. 3. Events at the Close of the Millennium. At the close of the period the wicked dead are raised ( Rev. 20:5 ). This event looses Satan from his prison, for once more he has subjects upon whom to practice his wiles ( v. 7 ). He deceives the nations of the wicked, and gathers them for an attack on the Holy City ( v. 9 ), which by now has been transferred to the earth, though the actual descent is not mentioned till Rev. 21:2 . The move upon the city results in the final destruction of the wicked in the lake of fire, which is declared to be the second death ( see Hell ). Out of the fires that destroy both sinners and the earth, emerges a new earth ( 2 Peter 3:12 , 13 ; Rev. 21:1 , 2 ; see Home of the Redeemed ).