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The Meaning of the “Millennium”

The Meaning of the “Millennium”

By Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Th.D. / The Chalcedon Foundation

One of the more familiar topics in Christian prophecy discussions is the millennial reign of Christ mentioned by John in Revelation 20:1-6. The word “millennium” is based on the Latin translation of the phrase “thousand years” which is found six times in these six verses. In fact, this brief passage provides us the descriptive phraseology differentiating the three basic evangelical schools of Biblical prophecy: premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism.

The immensely popular dispensational brand of premillennialism is solidly rooted in Revelation 20. Indeed, dispensationalists consider the literal understanding of this passage as proof positive of their premillennialism, whereas both the amillennial and postmillennial positions teach that the 1,000 years is a symbolic period of time, rather than a literal 365,000 days.

But is the dispensational approach to Revelation 20 appropriate? And if not, how shall we interpret this important passage?


The Chalcedon Foundation

Posted by Editor at July 31, 2005 01:30 PM