For many good Christians, it seems that the New Testament Word of GOD is under constant, violent attack. Such people who may claim to be 'Christian' but are in fact nothing more than monied mercenaries who seek only to serve themselves - not GOD. 

As we head into the end of this century and approach the next millennium, you'll be hearing a lot of talk about the 'Last Days', the 'End Times' , and various other descriptions all centering around the year 1999 and 2005. 

Most of this talk will be simply gibberish! (gibberish!) and you won't be able to easily understand the truth about what the millennium really means for good Christians. 

In the Christian tradition it refers to the period, described in Revelation 20:1-8, during which "the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan," was to be bound, making possible a universal blessedness. During this period Christ would rule, and the martyrs, those who have died for the Christian faith, would be raised to rule with Him; the remainder of the faithful dead would not be raised until the thousand years were ended. At the end of the thousand years (the millennium) Satan would be temporarily released to devastate the earth, but before long he would be bound again and be "cast into a lake of fire" with "the beast and the false prophet," this time "for ever and ever" (20:10). 

WHAT IS THE WORD?

This is the sole New Testament basis for belief in the millennium. The verse in 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 can hardly be fitted into the conception.

The early church was much interested in the question of future times and seasons. Even during our Lord's lifetime the question was a popular one (Matthew 24:1-31). There was a common expectation among the first Christians of the Lord's return, to judge the wicked and to reward the righteous, and to introduce an era of peace (Acts 1:6) -- the millennium, but it was not necessarily thought of according to the pattern of the Revelation of John described above. Indeed, the description written by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is very different from that of John. Paul's words, "so shall we ever be with the Lord" (verse 17), could be held to refer to the millennium, but the reference is much more likely to "heaven."

The millennial hope has always been strong in the Church during times of great hardship, persecution and tribulation. Peter offered a twofold reason why the Lord delayed His return: 1st, what to the Lord seemed "soon" might be to men a thousand years; 2nd the Lord postponed His return in order to keep open the door of repentance for the indifferent (II Peter 3:3-13). The millennial hope in one form or another of its forms characterizes Second Adventism and various other sects. The two groups who call themselves respectively Premillennarians and Postmillennarians divide on the question whether the return of Christ, the establishing of His universal rule, and the resurrection of the redeemed, will precede or follow the millennium.