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 The Millennium (the thousand-year reign of Messiah of Rev. 20:1-7) is one of the most hotly debated of all end-time topics. Yet there are crucial issues that have been neglected concerning two of the most popular views about this end-time period: for one, a link with anti-Semitic views; and for the other, a spurious claim to represent the views of the earliest Church.
The most popular view about the Millennium, held through a large portion of church history, was the Amillennial ("no Millennium") view. This understanding, still popular in traditional churches, rejects the idea of a future millennium after the return of Jesus, and interprets Rev. 20:1-7 to refer, either literally or symbolically, to the present age: that it is now before the return of Messiah. This was the nearly unchallenged position of the Western Church for more than a thousand years, after Augustine of Hippo adopted it early in the 5th century AD.
But the Amillennial position has an anti-Semitic history that is rarely considered in judging its merits. The roots of this interpretation must be traced back to the Alogoi of the  2nd century. This influential group in Rome rejected the book of Revelation because of its teaching about a literal millennium, an idea they disliked, and so claimed the book was written by the heretic Cerinthus.* To their taste, the teaching of a literal millennium was simply "too Jewish," glorifying Israel and the Jewish people in a way that was unacceptable to a growing anti-Semitic element within the Church. It's no coincidence that the rejection of a literal millennium became widespread after the Council of Nicea, which incorporated anti-Semitism into Church law.
* A view shared by Eusebius, the influential church historian of the 4th century.
Many modern amillennialists outside of traditional churches have adopted this position out of intellectual frustration with what is currently the most popular view: Dispensational Premillennialism, which is strongly promoted in conservative Protestant churches. I, too, once fell in this category. The Dispensational teaching of marriage and the begetting of children in the Millennium directly contradicts the teaching of Jesus (Matt. 22:30, Luke 20:35), and was one of the main reasons that the early teaching of Premillennialism was rejected by Augustine and others. The Dispensational teaching that glorified saints (in their resurrection bodies) will rule over fleshly sinners (in earthly bodies) during the Millennium sounds too much like the Inquisition to my taste--not to mention the even more bizarre idea of multiple resurrections (or raptures) of believers at different times. Those "left behind" because of their lack of faith, as in the popular book and film series by that name, experience what is in effect a new Protestant version of Purgatory.* But it is possible to accept the truth of Premillennialism without these Dispensational excesses by returning to the earliest views of the Church.
* The Bible clearly teaches a single resurrection for the righteous, referred to over and over again as the resurrection (Matt. 22:28, 22:30, 22:31, John 11:24, Acts 4:33, etc.) In Luke 14:14, Jesus specifically mentions "the resurrection of the righteous." This will take place at Jesus' return (1 Cor. 15:13). There will also be a single resurrection of the wicked (John 5:29, Acts 24:15) that will take place after the Millennium (Rev. 20:13).
Who Will Survive the Return of Messiah?
The Premillennialism popular today dates back to the Darbyites of the 19th century. They resurrected the belief in a literal Millennium after more than a thousand years of suppression. This was a remarkable accomplishment. But they packaged this belief with dispensational ideas that led them to accept many elements that were not in the teaching of the earliest Church. The most glaring difference concerns the survivability of the events immediately preceding the return of Messiah. Many present-day Premillennialists teach that the destruction accompanying the return of Jesus will not affect most people on earth, but only the armies gathered against Jerusalem. As a result, many will survive Jesus' return, resulting in sinners living in the Millennium (as mentioned above). But in spite of claims to the contrary, this was not the view of the earliest Church, or of Jesus himself.
When Jesus taught about his return, he compared it to the Flood of Noah: "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:26, also in Matt. 24:38-39). Just as in the time of Noah, when ordinary activities continued up to the last moment--eating, drinking, marrying--so it will be at Jesus' return (Luke 17:27). Today, most take these words to refer to the sudden and unexpected nature of Jesus' return. But there is an additional point that Jesus is making with just as much force: "and the Flood came and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:27, emphasis added). Not only is Jesus saying that his coming will catch the world by surprise: he's warning that it will result in the destruction of everyone on earth, just as in the Flood of Noah. Only a remnant will be preserved, this time by being caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17; the resurrection of the righteous or "rapture"). All the rest will die.
This point is given additional emphasis in Luke, where not only the Flood, but also the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is used to illustrate the destruction to come (Luke 17:26-30). The result of the fire and brimstone coming from heaven against Sodom is that it "destroyed them all" (Luke 17:29, emphasis added). Immediately after this, Jesus adds, "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:30, emphasis added). The point, again, is that all will die.
But that's not the end of it. Jesus continues to make the same point when he talks about the separation of the righteous and the unrighteous at his return ("One will be taken, the other will be left"; Luke 17:34,35,36). When the disciples ask, "Where, Lord?"--that is, what will happen to those left behind--Jesus replies, "Where the corpse is, there will the vultures also be gathered" (Luke 17:37, an allusion to Ezekiel 39:17-20). The message? The outcome for the wicked will be death. The teaching that many or even most of the wicked survive Messiah's return, and therefore have a "second chance" at salvation, clearly contradicts Jesus' own teaching.*
* By contrast, the whole point of the popular "Left Behind" series, based on the popular Dispensational view, is that the wicked will have a chance at survival.
This is also the point of Jesus' parable about the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-12). When the Messiah (the bridegroom) comes, he gathers the faithful (the five wise virgins), and the door is locked behind them (Matt. 25:10).* There is no second chance for those left behind (Matt. 25:11,12).
* The verb kleio that appears here is often translated "shut," but its derivation from the noun kleis ("key") indicates its primary meaning: "locked."
 The book of Revelation confirms this idea that all the wicked will die at Messiah's return. In Rev. 19, the birds flying overhead* are summoned to eat the flesh, not only of slain kings and warriors, but "the flesh of all people, both free and slaves, and small and great" (Rev. 19:18, emphasis added). The qualification of "all people" by the words "both free and slaves, and small and great" makes it as clear as possible that "all people" here means exactly that: all the people remaining on the face of the earth. (This passage is also an allusion to Ezekiel 39:17-20, and an intentional reminder of Jesus' own teaching.)
* The word "mid-heaven" used in many translations does not refer to the second of three levels of heaven, as is sometimes taught. The original Greek word means "zenith" or "directly overhead."
Who Will the Saints Reign Over?
Many have been thrown off by Rev. 20:3 and its description of the binding of Satan, "that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the 1,000 years are finished." They assume this implies that the unbelieving nations continue to exist in the Millennium. But the verse doesn't say that. It simply says that Satan's days of deceiving people (the word "nations" can also be translated "Gentiles") are over for a thousand years.
Another stumbling block is the statement that the saints will reign with Messiah during the thousand years (Rev. 20:4,6). Many assume that this, too, means there will be unbelievers around for the righteous to rule over. But these verses don't say that. God's universal reign is over more than just people. It is over stars, planets, and galaxies, as well as angels and earthly creatures of every variety. The Bible specifically says that we will judge (i.e. rule over*) the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). There will also be a large population of believers to be governed. There is nothing in these verses that requires there to be unbelievers around; in fact, quite the contrary: how then would this be a time of blessing? (Rev. 20:6) It would be just like the present age of the earth, with sinners constantly grieving the heart of God and the saints.** Rather, as Commodianus, an early Christian writer (3rd cent.) put it: “But from the thousand years God will destroy all those evils” (Christian Discipline 44).
* In Biblical thinking, the one who judges is the one who rules.
** Some claim that "every knee will bow" (Phil. 2:10) is a description of nonbelievers on earth being forced into submission to Jesus in the Millennium. But in that same verse, those who bow the knee include not only those on earth, but those who are "under the earth." These are the dead nonbelievers, excluded from the millennial blessing on earth.
The Resurrection of the Unrighteous
Nonbelievers do not show up again until the end of the thousand years, at the time of the resurrection of the unrighteous, which takes place when Satan is released from prison (Rev. 20:5,7). This second resurrection is described in Rev. 20:9, when it says that the wicked dead "ascended to the surface of the earth," coming up with Satan from the pit.* This second resurrection is where the nations of Gog and Magog come from that are introduced in the previous verse (Rev. 20:8).**
* Vs. 9 doesn't say “they marched across” as in the NIV, or “they marched up over” as in the NRSV, or “they swarmed up over” as in the Amplified Bible—all of which take considerable liberty with the text—but “they came up” or “they went up” as in the NASB and KJV. The Greek literally says “they ascended to the breadth of the earth”--as opposed to the confines of the pit.
** John first describes what is going to take place using the future tense in vss. 7 and 8. He then brings us into the action using the past tense in vss. 9 and 10.
This gives us a radically different picture of the end-time battle of Gog and Magog than that envisioned by the Dispensationalists (Rev. 20:7-10). They typically teach this to be a war between glorified saints on one side and fleshly nonbelievers on the other. But this wouldn't be much of a battle, since resurrection bodies will be invulnerable, and the flesh of earthly men is not. Rather the Bible presents the battle of Gog and Magog as a war between resurrected saints on one hand and a multitude of resurrected sinners on the other: a truly awe-inspiring and very threatening challenge, one that only the awesome power of God himself can overcome (Rev. 20:9).
The resurrection of the unrighteous at the end of the millennium also resolves an important theological issue: that of God's justice. Without it, the individual guilt of sinners might be disputed, with claims continuing into eternity that God was not fair in his judgment (just as many today claim they are "basically good people," and think that because of this God should accept them). But in the titanic end-time battle of Gog and Magog, the guilt of all sinners from all ages will be clearly established beyond any doubt when, after being raised from the dead, they choose to fight against Jesus himself and against his chosen people. Their judgment will be just.
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