HOW CAN MAN REBEL AGAINST GOD AFTER THE MILLENNIUM?

by Shawn Brasseaux

How can mankind rebel against the LORD God after the 1,000 years have run their course?

We turn to Revelation chapter 20: “[1] And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, [3] And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

[4] And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [5] But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

“[7] And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, [8] And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. [9] And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Indeed, it is unfathomable that the nations will actually unite against Jesus Christ the King at the end of the Millennium. After witnessing what they did for the last 1,000 years—seeing the benevolent reign of the perfect, wisest King over a restored, breathtaking creation—they side against Him. Satan, having been imprisoned for the last 10 centuries, is now free and he persuades the nations to attack Jerusalem and the saints. Why did these Gentiles not convert to the Lord Jesus Christ while He was reigning? Beholding the wisdom of God during all those centuries, we would expect them to have become His children at some point. Alas, with the Millennium expired, they are just as determined to destroy Jerusalem and kill Christ’s followers as Satan himself had intended before the 1,000 years!

According to Revelation 19:11-21, prior to the Millennium, the Second Coming of Christ and the Battle of Armageddon occurred (see also 16:14-16). The Old Testament Prophet Zechariah already predicted the necessity of this war between God and Satan, Jesus Christ and Antichrist.

Zechariah chapter 12: “[2] Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. [3] And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it…. [9] And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

Chapter 14: “[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth…. [16] And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

Throughout Daniel’s 70th Week, the seven-year Tribulation, sinful men wanted to follow Satan in destroying Jerusalem. Near the end of that time, God will grant them their wish to come against His capital city. Through the Antichrist’s agenda, He gathers them and then returns to defeat them in power and great glory (Christ’s fiery Second Coming in Revelation chapter 19). Then, the Millennial Reign of Christ begins and Satan is bound in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-6).

After these 1,000 years, as we saw in our opening remarks, Satan is released and the nations again purpose to assault Jerusalem and the followers of Christ. The generations of people born during the Millennium must make a choice between God and Satan. Even during those 1,000 years, they still have a sin nature—but there is individual rebellion as opposed to national rebellion. (Zechariah 14:16-19 and Matthew 5:29-30 show there is most definitely unbelief and sin in the Millennium.)

Though God punished Satan for a time, notice how he has not been reformed. Satan resumes his plans that he attempted to accomplish 10 centuries earlier. God confined him to the bottomless pit, but God has let him free and he still intends on resuming his previous activity of trying to establish his kingdom in the Earth (and man will go along with it). While they plan on having a battle, it will be nothing like Armageddon 1,000 years earlier. Jesus Christ will not bother to go out to fight against His enemies as He did at His Second Coming. Instead, fire from God out of heaven falls on Satan and his followers and they are vanquished. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). Then, the unsaved are judged at the Great White Throne Judgment and finally tossed into the Lake of Fire where Satan was already permanently placed (verses 11-15).

Also see:
» Who will have children during the Millennium?
» What is the “Apocalypse?”
» Are we “doom and gloom” Bible-prophecy believers?