
- MILLENNIUM
mə'lɛ.ni.əm noun. Thousand years. - 2. One of the thousand-year periods after Christ’s birth: The first millennium, the third millennium, etc.
- 3. Where one thousand-year period ends and another begins.
- 4. [theology] Christ Jesus’s reign on earth, represented in an apocalypse as a thousand-year age.
- [Millennial
mɪ'lɛ.ni.əl adjective.]
Whenever Christians talk about being “premillennial” or “amillenial,” no we’re not criticizing millennials, the kids born after the year 2000. We’re talking End Times theories. (We’ll use other terms to criticize millennials.)
The idea comes from Revelation. In one of its visions
Shall I quote the vision? Yeah, why not.
Revelation 20.1-10 NRSVue 1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years3 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.4 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 brand on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.6 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.7 When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison8 and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea.9 They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
At face value, it looks like Jesus is literally gonna reign over earth, as the human king of a political kingdom, for a literal thousand years. If Jesus returned in 1988 (he didn’t; I'm just picking
But bear in mind: This millennium is part of
Hence Christians have come up with various ideas of what it looks like, and generally I’m going over the main three. Handy-dandy chart time:
Three possible timelines of the future. That’ll make things clear as mud.