Millenialism

According to John, when Christ comes a second time, things will be different.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years. - Revelation to John 20:1-6

John talks about a 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth before the Last Judgment.  

During that reign, those who were beheaded for their belief in Christ will be resurrected, because they had not received the mark of Satan on them.  They were pure and so they are the ones who come back and will not be judged in the end.

There are four different views regarding millennialism among the various Protestant forms of Christianity.  They are shown in the image above, and they all involve some form of judgment or rapture.

There is a commercial for a book about this time that shows people being taken up, disappearing suddenly while others remain.

The thought that this could happen without warning could be scary, especially for those of us who don't pay much attention to the belief.

Jesus did talk about this, though.  He said they will be working in the field and some will be taken and some will remain.

Should we worry about this?

Well, imagine for a moment that we Christians are not the only ones who believe in a period of time when Satan is released to rule the earth, or that there will be a 1,000 year period where the saints will reign.

There are religious zealots today justifying their acts of terror as a battle against the Great Satan, which they see as us.

So, we don't all agree on what constitutes a reign of the saints or where we are on the millennial timeline.

What we are coming to see, though, is some are hell-bent on bringing about the end time, whether Jesus is involved or not.

More to come...