America is enamored with Dispensational Premillenialsm, which says that Christ will literally and physically be on earth for his millennial reign, at this second coming.
Christ's second coming includes MUCH more than this view espouses.
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Reguarding Scripture:
Premillennialism is based a lot on a literal interpretation of Revelation 20:1-6. Especially verse 2:
"And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years"
Rev 20:2 mentions that Satan was bound. When did this happen? We must look to Scripture for help. The only other reference to binding the devil in the New Testament occurs in a parallel account in Matt 12, Mark 3, and Luke 11 when Jesus was casting out demons and was accused of doing it "in the power of Beelzebub."
Jesus responds and mentions that one must "bind" the strong man. This word used in Matthew and Luke is the same used in Rev 20:2.
The "strong man" is Satan. Jesus was saying that as he was casting out demons, he was setting these people free from the slavery of Satan. He was showing that in him, the kingdom of God had come.
The devil was bound, counquered and judged as the result of Christ's life, death on the cross, and resurrection.
Also, a couple verses help determine when this binding of Satan and the 1000 years took place:
2 Peter 2:4
"For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;"
and Jude 6
"And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—"
These scriptures clearly show that the fallen angels were bound for judgement.
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Regarding the 1000 years, there are only two other passages that mention a time period of 1000 years.
Ps 90:4
"For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, For a thousand years in your sight are but as or as a watch in the night."
and
2 Pet 3:8
"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
Here, 1000 years is a general reference to a lengthy period of earthly time, which is brief in God's view.
Also helpful is Ps 50:10 for this idea of 1000:
"For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills."
This does not reference 1000 specific hills, but is a way of referring to a large number of hills. 1000 is a number of completeness meaning "all the hills." Also similar is Isaiah 7:23:
"In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns."
Here 1000 means, "abundant," "many" vines.
These scriptures show that 1000 years is not so much a literal chronological, period of time, but a time of completeness. The biblical tradition of "a one day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day" points to the sense of completeness all of that God has planned.
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I believe in the visible, personal return of Christ, but I have a number of disagreements will the Premillennial view on the end times.
My church (the LCMS) holds a view which is called "amillennialist" (sometimes called "realized millennialism" because the period spoken of in Revelation 20 is now in the process of realization). Amillenialists believe that the "thousand-year" reference in Revelation 20 is a figurative expression for the present reign of Christ which began upon His ascension into heaven and will be fully manifested at His second coming. Christ's second coming will be one event at which time He will, "raise up me and all the dead, and give unto me and all believers in Christ eternal life".
I firmly hold the amillenialist view and ground my belief solidly in the whole of scripture. I think that Premillenialism tends to overlook the greater story of Scripture as seen through Christ and his work on the Cross. Here are some of my (and my church's) basic disagreements with Premillenialism (summarized from LCMS literature):
1. Premillennialism teaches that the Messiah and His kingdom promised in the Old Testament are essentially political in nature. Christ's atoning work on the cross is not central in God's plan according to this view. Rather, He is wrongly perceived as coming to set up a this-worldly kingdom.
2. The view regards the Messianic age as only a future reality, depriving people of the comforting promises of the Gospel in the present. In truth, Christ inaugurated the kingdom of heaven at His first coming, a kingdom which is now ours by faith even while it is yet hidden under the cross until its consummation at Christ's second coming.
3. Dispensational premillennialism tends to regard the glory of God as the center of theology, rather than the mercy of God revealed, and yet hidden, in the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world. The visible manifestations of God's power at the end of history and obedience to the will of God become the primary focus, instead of the grace of God revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 2:2)--which by faith the Christian regards and accepts as the place of God's definitive triumph over sin and every evil.
4. All prophecy points to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment. When the reality to which the Old Testament points does come, one cannot revert back to the "shadows," such as the Old Testament temple (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 10:1).
5. It makes a radical distinction between the Mosaic "law" period and the church age of "grace." The relationship between the Old and New Testaments is that of promise and fulfillment.
6. Ultimately, Premillenialism offers a dangerously false hope of exemption from the intensified persecution toward the end. Moreover, it offers a second chance of conversion for those who are left after the rapture. The focus of the Scripture's hope is not an earthly kingdom lasting 1000 years but eternity with Christ.
7. The premillenial view of a radical break between Israel and the church contradicts the Scriptural teaching that the cross of Christ has eliminated forever the distinction between Jew and Gentile (Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:11-22; Rom. 2:25-29).
8. Using consistent literalism in Biblical interpretation is contrary to the Scripturally-derived principles of interpretation.
9. Multiple resurrections and judgments are contrary to the clear Scriptural teaching on the end times.
10. The assurance and hope of salvation tend to be grounded on an interpretation of the signs of the times rather than on the sure Word of promise imparted in the means of grace.
11. The sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper, both of which are important for a Biblical understanding of the end times, have little place in premillenial teaching.
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