Here are the facts from Revelation 20 on the millennium, the 1,000 years. Read the chapter.

1. Satan was bound in some way for 1,000 years. He was not allowed to deceive the nations for that period of time.
2. After the 1,000 years is completed Satan is released but only for a short time.
3. Those martyred for their faith in Jesus come to life and reign with Christ for 1,000 years. Their coming to life is the “first resurrection”.
4. The “rest of the dead” don’t come to life till the end of. the 1,000 years. They will be given the second death.
5. At the end of the 1,000 years Satan will be released for a short time to deceive the nations (20:3 said he could not do that for the 1,000 years).
6. The nations are called God and Magog from Ezekiel 38-39 where Gog (the leader of the land of Magog) and Magog (the land) will attack Israel in the “latter years” (38:8). Ezekiel said this had been prophesied by “God’s servants the prophets of Israel” (38:17). He says that God and Magog will be defeated and destroyed. He says that God then will pour out His Spirit on the house of Israel (Ezekiel 39:29).
7. Gog and Magog “surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city” but Gog and Magog are devoured by fire (Revelation 20:9).
8. The devil is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone.
9. There is then a great white throne judgement. Heavens and earth pass away. Death and Hades give up their dead to be judged. Death and Hades are then thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone which is the 2nd death.

I remind you that Revelation is predicting things that are near, to shortly take place (Revelation 1:1-3; 22:6-10). Thus we expect chapter 20 to take place shortly also. The key is #7 above. At the end of the 1,000 years Gog and Magog surround the “beloved city” and the “saints”. The beloved city would have to Jerusalem, so this would refer to the Romans (God and Magog) sieging Jerusalem in 70 AD, destroying the temple and the city. The saints attacked would be the Jews, God’s people of the old testament. Ezekiel said that the prophets had predicted God and Magog and indeed several prophets predicted the destruction of Jerusalem by the “nations” (the Romans) in 70 AD (Joel 3; Zechariah 14; Deuteronomy 30; Daniel 9,12).

Notice that #7 takes place at the end of the 1,000 years (#5). The end of the 1,000 years must be 70 AD. Therefore the 1,000 years must be the 40 year period from 30 AD (when the gospel was preached to the whole Roman Empire, the church was established, and Christians began to be martyred for their faith in Jesus) to 70 AD. The martyred saints during that period would receive their resurrected bodies (the 1st resurrection) spiritually and reign with Jesus in heaven during that period. The “rest of the dead” would be those who died in the Old Testament and were held in Hades waiting for their eternal fate. They would be raised in 70 AD just as Daniel 12:2 predicted would happen at the “end of the age” (i.e. the end of the Jewish age in 70 AD). The wicked would be raised spiritually to receive their fate, the 2nd death of fire and brimstone.

The pouring out of the Spirit on Israel (Ezekiel 39:29) is often predicted by the prophets (Joel 2:28-32; Isaiah 44:3; Zechariah 12:10). That was also fulfilled during the “last days” of the Jewish Age from AD 30 to 70 AD as seen in the book of Acts. The “Israel” the Spirit was poured out on has to be the remnant of Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah and who became the first church in the book of Acts. The Spirit was not poured out on the whole nation. Instead God judged the wicked unbelieving Jews and sent the Romans to kill one million Jews in 70 AD. That was the great white throne judgment.

Satan is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone at the end of the 1,000 years in 70 AD. I personally believe that means that Satan was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone in 70 AD b/c that is what it says. That means that Satan is no longer allowed to roam the earth and deceive people after 70 AD. He is “toast”, either annihilated or burning forever. Evil would continue after 70 AD since evil is the result of our lusts (James 1) and Satan. is not some omnipotent being who personally induces every person on the earth to sin. Spiritual death is destroyed in. 70 AD. The last enemy Jesus conquered was spiritual death (1 Corinthians 15:26) and spiritual death would be destroyed when the Law, the source of death (1 Corinthians 15:56), was destroyed in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed, the Law was finally removed once and for all (Hebrews 8:13 it “disappeared” in 70 AD), and spiritual death is destroyed for every believer in Jesus from AD 70 forward. Hades, the waiting place of the Olld Testament dead, was also destroyed in 70 AD. There was no need for a “waiting place” any longer. After 70 AD Christians who die go directly to be with Jesus. They will live spiritually even if they die physically (John 11:25-26).

That, right or wrong, is about as short and through as I can make it. That means the 1,000 years (the millennium) ended in 70 AD. The number 1,000 is a figurative number just like many numbers in the book of Revelation. That means that Jesus is not coming back to set up a 1,000 year reign on earth in a. physical power based kingdom. Most evangelicals believe that and are waiting for Jesus to come set up an earthly kingdom. They believe the battle of Armageddon will happen at the end of the 1,000 years, but Armageddon in the book of Revelation happened in 70 AD when the Romans attacked Jerusalem. Jesus’s kingdom was a spiritual kingdom, the church, not of this world (John 18:36). So many predictions for the beginning of the 1,000 years have failed. Dispensationalists thought it would begin in the 7th millennium since the creation, which, if you beleive the earth was created about 4,000 BC, would begin in the year 2,000 AD. It did not. All the false expectations of a millennium happening in our future is just an unnecessary distraction to the preaching of the gospel and the glory that should be given to God in the church. When predictions of a future 2nd coming and millennium don’t come true, many might lose their faith in the Bible since they think the predictions failed to come true. Instead of rejecting those false prophets who made the false predictions, they reject the Bible itself.

These are the conclusions of my study of the millennium. Thanks for reading even if you disagree!