Yes.
Why?
Revelation does not exist in a vacuum. It must be harmonized with the whole of scripture.
And the Revelation is Bookended with the same phrase:
Revelation 1:1-3
1The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—
things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified
it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 3 Blessed
is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it;
for the time is near.
Revelation 226-7, 20
6 Then he said to me, “These words
are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the
things which must shortly take place.
7 “Behold,
I am coming quickly! Blessed
is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely
I am coming quickly.”
All events within these bookends were ordained to "shortly take place for the time was near".
Scripture does not allow for stretching any of the events beyond the apostolic generation.
And to be clear one does not have to be a full preterist to affirm this Biblical fact.
The Bible itself proves there is no literal, FUTURE, earthly millennium. The "evidence" is in the
apostolic eschatological doctrine that prohibits any view of the "millennium" that portrays it as a future, literal, earthly epoch. A simple examination of the NT epistles shows that there is no future historical "thousand-years" period. We know this with certainty, for the apostles explicitly identified the precise timing of the resurrection, the judgment, and the New Heaven/Earth --
they all occur at the coming of Jesus Christ, thus proving that there is no literal "thousand years" that separates these events out over time.
(1) The resurrection occurs at the coming of Christ (1 Cor 15:23)
(2) The judgment occurs at the coming of Christ (2 Tim 4:1; Rev 11:15-18)
(3) The "New Heavens/Earth" occurs at the coming of Christ -- i.e., the "thief's coming," the "day of the Lord" (2 Peter 3:10/1 Thessalonians 5:2, Revelation 3:3)
These key eschatological events all occur at the precise moment of the coming of Jesus Christ. THEREFORE,
as the apostles themselves understood, there is no literal, historic millennium separating them.
The popular millennialist maps separate these three eschatological events by a period of 1000 temporal, earthly years--or, in some cases, 1007 years. The bible doesn't allow it. The bible proves there is no literal earthly "millennium." Once we understand the plain truth of this, we can turn our efforts to understanding
the apostolic teaching of the "thousand years" as a typological symbol--one of many in John's highly typological and symbolic vision.
What is it a Typological Symbol of?
The Thousand years is a typological reference to the length of the Davidic Monarchy, from David, the first King in the line, to Christ, the Final, and Completion/Restoration of the Line, which is a period of...
wait for it......
1000 LITERAL years!
The "Thousand years" shows that Christ fulfilled the hopes of the Davidic Monarchy that Christ would fill David's office as King (
Luke 1:68-69;
Acts 2:30-36;
1 Timothy 1:17;
Mark 11:10; ) and restore the tabernacle of David (
Acts 15:16-17) so that all the gentile nations could join in to the true worship of Jehovah. The 1000 years shows a completed Monarchy instead of the fact that the Monarchy had fallen into ruin in the 500s BC via the Babylonian captivity.
David and Christ being the only 2 Kings in the line that matter, David the type, Christ the antitype, or fulfillment.
Christ fulfilled what all other kings in the line failed to do, thus bringing completion to, and fulfilling the purpose for, the Davidic monarchy, which was the "1000 year reign".
Again, the idea of a thousand years reign with Israel's Monarchy was an Old Testament hope -- one that was wished for but failed. The hopes of this glorious reign were laid out when Solomon took the throne after David. It was said that Israel would walk in the covenant blessings, and so much so that the Gentiles would come into the covenant (such as the Queen of Sheba's homage to Solomon). However, the "tabernacle of David" began to quickly crumble, and fell into total ruin by the time of the Babylonian exile. This all summarizes an OT type. Now, fast-forward to all the NT typology about Jesus being the TRUE "son of David" who was born as THE
MESSIANIC HEIR to David's throne for raising up the Monarchy. This is what
Revelation 20 is doing. It is using the Davidic Monarchy typology and applying it to Christ and the martyr-kings who reign in the Christic Monarchy, and it does so in exactly the same typological sense as other types we are more familiar with (Jesus is the "sacrifical lamb," etc). In
Revelation 20 we see Jesus and his tribulation-martyr-kings reign; they defeat satan; they bring in the gentiles; and they judge the world. These are all the things hoped for in the OT times, but fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the New Covenant Church. The Church has all dominion with Christ over heaven and earth, satan was defeated, the gentles are now in the covenant, and Christ and the Church are the judges of the whole world.
Amazing LITERAL History.
None of this negates the future to us Consummation spoken of in the Historic Creeds, the timing and details of which have not been revealed to men (Deuteronomy 29:29)