It is my contention that present Christian teaching concerning the last things relies too much on the belief of a future earthly millennial kingdom. Therefore, it may be profitable to see whether the idea that the thousand years mentioned by John refers to a future kingdom is consistent with what the NT , and Revelation in particular, teaches on Satan’s binding, the resurrection and the reign of the saints. Additionally, we should explore the clues provided by Revelation’s literary framework, style and structure, as those arising from the biblical use of the expression "one thousand years".
1. On whether there is chronological continuity between Revelation 19 and 20
Fundamental to a belief on a wholly future earthly millennial kingdom is the assumption of a chronological continuity between the visions of Chapter 19 and those of Chapter 20; that is, the defeat of the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies is temporally followed by Satan’s binding and the coming to life and reign of beheaded saints. However, that this is the case is by no means obvious. Most students of Revelation have long ago noticed that while in each vision there is some kind of orderly intensification (the seals, the trumpets, the vials), there are also discontinuities among them, as if each series of visions showed at least partially overlapped events.
From written records, we learn that the first to point out this characteristic feature of Revelation was the millennarian Church Father, Victorinus bishop of Pettau (who died ca. 304). At the end of his remarks on Ch. 7 he wrote, concerning the similarities between the seals, the trumpets and the bowls: "We must not regard the order of what is said, because frequently the Holy Spirit, when He has traversed even to the end of the last times, returns again to the same times, and fills up what He had [before] failed to see. Nor must we look for order in the Apocalypse; but we must follow the meaning of those things which are prophesied." (Commentary on the Apocalypse; in A. Roberts & J. Donaldson, Ed., The Antenicene Fathers; Repr. 1989, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 7:352). In other words, the Seer from Patmos leads us time and again from the beginning to the end of salvation history, in several partially paralel sections that follow a pattern of repetition with elaboration. This approach, later called recapitulation, is one of the keys for understanding Revelation.
Most interpreters from different schools agree that there is an evident discontinuity between Chapters 11 and 12: From the apparent end ushered by the seventh trumpet we are unexpectedly carried back to the time before Jesus Christ’s birth. Now, we can find clues that allows us to delineate seven sections in the book:
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