eclipsenow
Scripture is God's word, Science is God's works
- Dec 17, 2010
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Agreed even if fictional, it is a good encouragement to get memorising! (A nice version like Today's New International Version which had many problems of the NIV solved).
Agreed; and Partial Preterist's are not saying that. The Lord Jesus is still to return. Full Preterist's are a heresy.
Agreed it is just that I don't see any evidence for a so-called Millennium. John defines the Millennium as running from the resurrection of Jesus (first resurrection) until the end of the world/judgement day/ 2nd death.
There's no way that 1000 years is literal.
Here are a bunch of verses that indicate 1000 means 'a really big round number'.
There ARE times when multiples of a thousand indicate an actual, 'close enough', literal number, such as when describing how many men went into battle or how many people they captured. This is clear from the specific context.
EG: 1 Chronicles 5:21
They seized the livestock of the Hagritesfifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep and two thousand donkeys. They also took one hundred thousand people captive,
But these are usually in the multiples of 1000.
The USUAL usage of the actual symbol 1000 is anything but an actual number. It's like us saying 'about a gazillion' to modern ears. It's about exaggeration, not accuracy; it's about making a point, not counting.
Deuteronomy 32:30
How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
Joshua 23:10
One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised.
Job 9:3
Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand.
Job 33:23
Yet if there is an angel at their side, a messenger, one out of a thousand, sent to tell them how to be upright,
Psalm 50:10
for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
(Are you REALLY going to read this literally and therefore conclude that God does not own the cattle on the gazillion other hills on planet earth?)
Psalm 84:10
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Ecclesiastes 7:28
while I was still searching but not finding I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.
Isaiah 30:17
A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
Ezekiel 47:5
He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim ina river that no one could cross.
2 Peter 3:8
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
If you have half an ounce of literary prowess, you'll see that 1000 means 'a really big round number' here, or in the case of 2 Peter 3, 'a really long time'. Both Peter and John are picking up on this Jewish number symbolism when they write 'a day is like a really long time' or 'they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a really long time'.
I see the rest of the NT as saying they are the one and same day. We will rise to new life NOT to just reign for 1000 years, but to see judgement Day. John himself the author of Revelation says so.
John 5
28 Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come outthose who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
This is a common problem for many people. It's called 'eschatological tension'. We live seated with Christ in heaven right now! But there is a 'not yet' about the passage, there is something still to come.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressionsit is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
We ARE the Kingdom of God now, both Jews and Gentiles that trust in Christ. But we are also to inherit the kingdom that will never perish, when we will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, where ALL evil will be judged and where we will reign for ever.
The Millennium is just picture language for the martyred saints coming to life in heaven and waiting till the end of the age, as we see elsewhere in Revelation. That's it!
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