Our next subject under consideration is,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

Seventh Day Adventist state:

“The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints in heaven between the first and second resurrections. During this time the wicked dead will be judged; the earth will be utterly desolate, without living human inhabitants, but occupied by Satan and his angels. At its close, Christ with His saints and the Holy City will descend from heaven to earth. The unrighteous dead will then be resurrected, and with Satan and his angels will surround the city; but fire from God will consume them and cleanse the earth. The universe will thus be freed of sin and sinners forever.”

Now this is merely a condensed statement or general outline of what they believe will be the sequence of events comprising the millennial age. They go on to elaborate a bit more upon some of this as we continue.

The following are several key points taken from this opening statement which we believe will need to be addressed. Most of these are mentioned in their detailed summation of events and will be addressed as they come up. We will review these at the conclusion of this segment and address those which were not covered.

1) The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints.

2) The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints in heaven.

3) The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints in heaven between the first and second resurrections.

4) During this time the wicked dead will be judged.

5) The earth will be utterly desolate, without living human inhabitants, but occupied by Satan and his angels.

6) At its close, Christ with His saints and the Holy City will descend from heaven to earth.

7) The unrighteous dead will then be resurrected.

8) The unrighteous dead will then be resurrected, and with Satan and his angels will surround the city; but fire from God will consume them and cleanse the earth.

9) The universe will thus be freed of sin and sinners forever.

What is the Millennium?

According to Seventh Day Adventist:

“The Bible speaks of a millennium, a thousand-year period of time where God’s people will be dwelling in heaven with Him while Satan and his fallen angels will be bound on earth.

The simplest way to understand the millennium is to go straight to the source. The book of Revelation gives a clear description of how this thousand-year piece of time is going to unfold.

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And 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 shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who 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 for 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 is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1-6, ESV, emphasis added).

This millennium, this thousand-year period, takes place between the first and second resurrection: the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked.”

It is apparent that our Adventist friends have a very distorted view of Rev 20:1-6 and have arrived at several erroneous conclusions which are contrary to the divine testimony. Errors which could easily have been avoided if one were to consider the whole counsel of the Word of God (i.e., a comparison of all scripture related to a particular subject to find the truth of the matter). But alas this seems to be a common theme with the professing church as a whole, to jump to hasty conclusions and to build a whole doctrine or system of belief based upon one or two scriptures. With this thought in mind perhaps we should begin with a reexamination of the text quoted.

In our next post we will begin with the latter half, Verses 4-6 and save our thoughts on Verses 1-3 until we get to the part where our friends discuss Satan being locked up during the millennial age.