Calculations

3459: The millennium starts

3459: The Premillennial Resurrection occurs

3959 / 70 AD (Av): Jesus marries the Church

4024 / 135 AD: The Third Coming Resurrection occurs

4459 / 570 AD: The Postmillennial Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment occur

4459 / 570 AD: Satan is released

4459 / 570 AD: Muhammad is born

Revelation 20 mentions a 1000-year period that involved the resurrection of some of God’s people, the binding and then release of Satan, some kind of massive battle between God’s people and God’s enemies, and a final judgment.

Let’s take note of a few things that can help us figure out what’s happening here:

• Satan’s initial binding was connected to evangelism amongst the nations. (v. 3)
• The Jewish Christians who resisted Bar Kokhba are resurrected during the thousand years. Possibly other martyred saints are resurrected as well. (v. 4)
• The 1000 years ends with the release of Satan, not the “final Satanic battle.” (v. 7)
• Satan’s release is tied to the deceiving of the nations around Israel. (v. 7-8)
• The final battle concerns Gog and Magog. (v. 8)

The Premillennial Resurrection

Here are the initial inferences we can make:

• The millennium is often spiritualized and taken to be figurative, but if we can, we should see if there is a proposal for a literal 1000-year period that makes sense within the Bible timeline.
• In Church history, deception of the nations around Israel is most connected to the rise of Islam. The battle in question would thus most likely be a conflict between Christians and Muslims.
• There is no conflict 1000 years after the life of Jesus, the First Jewish-Roman War, or the Third Jewish-Roman War that the Christians won that matches the description seen here. There is the battle of Manzikert in 1071, but that’s 1001 years after AD 70 (not 1000), and the Muslims defeated the Christians. Hence, the millennium did not begin during the events of the end times.
• The millennial resurrection includes the Jewish Christians who resisted Bar Kokhba, so the events listed in Revelation 20 have to extend past the Third Jewish-Roman War and into the Church Age.
• If we consider that the millennium might have begun during the Old Testament era, then bearing in mind the relevance of Islam, we can look at the timeline and find that the first Purim of 3459 (described in the book of Esther) occurred exactly 1000 years before the birth of Muhammad in 570 AD.

Does this fit? Yes, for several reasons:

• The first Purim was the point during the 7 Weeks of Restoration, after the completion of the building of the Second Temple, when the Gentile nations began converting to Judaism (Esther 8:17). It’s plausible that this was due to Satan being “bound” and prevented from deceiving the nations. This would also explain why so many Gentiles were supporting the Jews and ready to receive Jesus by the time He came along.
• As James B. Jordan has explained (Biblical Horizons No. 2: The Battle of Gog and Magog), the prophecy of “Gog of Magog” in Ezekiel 38-39 was fulfilled in the events of Esther (Haman was the original Gog). Hence, the reference to Gog and Magog in Revelation 20:8 would connect Haman and his forces to the Muslims waging war on Christians.
• In Revelation 4, we see 24 elders seated on thrones around the throne of God. This means that there were already humans resurrected into heaven before the First Jewish-Roman War. Moreover, these thrones would match the thrones of Revelation 20:4, on which sat the saints who were part of the Premillennial Resurrection.
• After the battle of “Gog of Magog,” Ezekiel saw a heavenly temple. In Hebrews 9:12, we see that Jesus entered a Most Holy Place with His own blood to obtain eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:23-24 explains that the heavenly temple was real, the earthly temple was a copy of it, and Jesus performed His sacrifice of spiritual atonement in the heavenly temple. It is possible therefore that the saints resurrected at the beginning of the millennium after the defeat of Haman (Gog of Magog) ministered in the heavenly temple.
• Concerning who participated in the resurrection, there is a significant event mentioned by Jesus that is not depicted in the Old Testament: namely, the martyring of Zechariah the son of Berechiah (Matthew 23:35). As previously mentioned, Zechariah worked with Haggai to lead the Jews to finish rebuilding the temple. Might he have been martyred right before the events of Esther 3? That would explain why God allowed Haman to successfully use his position to pronounce a death sentence on the entire Jewish people. Note: Haman cast lots to destroy the Jewish people right at the beginning of 3459 (Esther 3:7). If Zechariah was martyred shortly before that in 3458, he would have died in a Sabbath year (3458 is divisible by 7), which would represent yet another instance of Sabbath failure in Scripture.
• That would also suggest that those who were “beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God” would be the martyrs from Abel to Zechariah (Matthew 23:35 again). In that verse, Jesus mentions those martyrs’ “righteous blood.” Most likely it was this blood that was “offered” in the heavenly sanctuary prior to Jesus’ own martyrdom. In fact, prior to Jesus’ sacrifice, possibly Abel’s blood was used to sanctify the heavenly Most Holy Place (Hebrews 12:24). This shows an additional level of symbolism that Jesus fulfilled with His sacrifice, as He was able to offer the perfect blood that removed the need for constant offerings of the imperfect blood of the martyrs. This also explains why the martyrs were under the altar in Revelation 6:9-11, calling out for their blood to be avenged on the Jews, just as Jesus said it would be in Matthew 23:29-36.
• The scope of the resurrection would be just the Old Covenant saints who suffered martyrdom (as described in Hebrews 11:35-38), not all the Old Covenant saints. This would explain why Abraham, who was not martyred, was still in the good side of Hades (the holding place for the dead while they awaited resurrection and judgment, with an area of peace for God’s people and an area of torment for God’s enemies) in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
• Revelation 7:9-17 describes the Christians martyred during the Great Tribulation as already being before the throne of God (at the time of the writing of Revelation) and serving Him day and night in His temple. Therefore, it’s plausible to infer that during the millennium, prior to the Second Coming and the elimination of the heavenly temple (discussed shortly), those martyred in the faith were immediately taken to Heaven to serve alongside the original Old Covenant martyrs. Further evidence for this is the language of the martyrs being “beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God” (Revelation 20:4). This is clearly a reference to John the Baptist, who was martyred by beheading (Matthew 14:10; Mark 6:27). John would thus have been immediately resurrected upon death as part of this ongoing resurrection of martyrs prior to the Second Coming.
• Satan’s being bound for 1000 years is tied figuratively to his ability to deceive the nations, meaning he could still be present on the earth to tempt Jesus, possess Judas, etc. Note that during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, locusts come out of the same bottomless pit that Satan was in during the millennium (compare Revelation 9:1-11 to 20:1-3), and their king is the angel of the bottomless pit, Abaddon/Apollyon (Revelation 9:11). A simple interpretation is that Satan was bound at that time and was therefore the angel of the bottomless pit.

The Marriage of Jesus and the Church

Further evidence for this interpretation of the millennium is the fact that the Second Coming and the abolition of the Old Covenant took place in 3959, 500 years after the initial resurrection of the Old Covenant martyrs in 3459 and exactly halfway through the millennium.

There is recurring language in the New Testament about the impending marriage of Jesus and the Church. For example, Jesus referred to Himself as a bridegroom (Matthew 9:14-15), while John referred to himself as Jesus’ best man (John 3:27-29). Jesus also used a parable that connected His Second Coming to marriage (Matthew 25:1-13), and the language of Jesus “going to prepare a place for [the apostles] and coming again and receiving them to Himself” (John 14:2-3) evokes the idea of a Jewish man building an addition to his father’s house for him to live in with his new bride.

In Revelation 19:7, we see that the marriage of the Lamb came right after the destruction of Jerusalem in Av of 70 AD. This connects to the giving of the New Heaven and the New Earth in Revelation 21:1-2, where Jesus marries the Church (the New Jerusalem). This timing makes sense, as the Old Heavens and the Old Earth were burned up at the Second Coming, as predicted in 2 Peter 3.

The lack of a sea (Revelation 21:1) indicates that after the elimination of the Old Covenant, the special place of the Jews within the Church (Romans 3:1-2) was eliminated. Also, just as the earthly temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the heavenly temple was eliminated as well, being replaced by the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (Revelation 21:22).

To clarify, the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in the Bible can sometimes refer to the covenantal system put in place by God, not the literal heavens and the literal earth. For example, Isaiah refers to the conquering of Babylon by the Medes as a “shaking of the heavens and the earth” (Isaiah 13:13). Haggai says something similar about the events of Esther in Haggai 2:6 and 2:21, and Joel 3:16 is possibly a reference to the same thing (it is connected to the time period of the return from Exile, per Joel 3:1).

Now, 2 Peter 3:5-6 connects “the world that then existed [that] perished” at the time of the Flood to the “heavens of old” and the “earth standing out of the water and in the water.” In other words, the literal heavens and earth weren’t destroyed by flooding, but the people of the world and the old Adamic covenant were.

After the Flood, a new system of Gentile nations was put in place, and the entire history of Israel occurred within that context. The first-century Church brought that second era of humanity to a close through the Great Commission. Once the Great Commission was complete (discussed more later in this article) and God was ready for vengeance on the Jews who rejected Jesus, He destroyed the heavens and the earth with fire (2 Peter 3:7), i.e., burning the Second Temple and the holy city of Jerusalem to the ground, leaving the standalone New Covenant as the “New Heaven and New Earth” (Revelation 21:1).

To understand this “New Heaven and New Earth,” consider Genesis 1:1-2:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

When the original heavens and earth were created on Day 0 of the initial creation, the heavens were created fully formed, while the earth was in an immature form. Per Jordan (Biblical Chronology 9-10: The Sequence of Events in the Creation Week, Part 1):

“The earth as it was made was good, of course, but not yet developed. It lacked structure, was empty, and was dark. Nothing like this is said of heaven. Indeed, it is clear from the rest of the Bible that heaven was made structured, full, and bright from the beginning. The angelic host does not multiply, and so new angels do not appear in the process of time. Humanity was created as a race that matures into a host, while the angels were created as a host from the beginning.

The earth matures in a way that heaven does not. Heaven is thus the model or paradigm for the earth. The earth is to grow more and more heaven-like. In the rest of the Bible, when heaven opens, men see the models they are to reproduce on the earth, as when Moses was shown the model for the tabernacle.”

The picture of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22 is seen as a perfect eternal existence, while the picture of Jerusalem in the New Heavens and the New Earth in Isaiah 65:17-25 still contains references to death and sinners in verse 20. The key to understanding this is that the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22 is the New Jerusalem of the New Heaven, which represents the eternal dwelling place of the resurrected saints. It was created to be perfect right away, without sin or suffering.

Just as the original earth was physically formless, void, and dark, the New Earth (the world under the full force of the New Covenant) was initially spiritually formless, void, and dark. However, it has been maturing through the spread and development of the Church over the last two millennia to become increasingly like the New Heaven. During this time, the leaves of the Tree of Life have been for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).

The New Heaven and the New Earth will never end, which means there will be no end to the birth and death of saints, which is why the gates of the New Jerusalem will never be shut (Revelation 21:25). The righteous will always dwell first in the New Earth, then go to the New Jerusalem when they die.

The New Jerusalem of the New Earth, as described in Isaiah, is still in our future and represents the culmination of the spiritual maturing of the earth under the influence of the gospel (to be discussed later in this article).

The Resurrection at the Third Coming

Revelation 16:15 implies that there was a “Third Coming” of Jesus before the final successful Roman conquest of the Third Jewish-Roman War, similar to the Second Coming in that Jesus would visit Israel in judgment as the heavenly supervisor of Roman armies sent to put down a Jewish rebellion, just as He did during the First Jewish-Roman War.

In Revelation 7:1-8, we see faithful Christian Jews (symbolically estimated as 144,000) being sealed before the First Jewish-Roman War, which allowed them to be spared from the judgment and to instead participate with Jesus in it. In Revelation 14, the same 144,000 Jewish Christians appear with the Lamb as final judgment looms over Israel. These Jewish Christians were resurrected or raptured in 70 AD and are “virgins” now that they are in heaven (Revelation 14:4; see Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25).

The first generation of Christians (the first-century Church) were a firstfruits offering to God (James 1:18), which explains why the resurrected Jews are called “firstfruits” (Revelation 14:4). When Jesus returned in 135 AD at his “Third Coming,” this original batch of Jewish saints would meet the newly resurrected and raptured Christian Jews who suffered or died while opposing Bar Kokhba, and together the two groups would join Jesus in judging Israel.

Note that in discussing Vespasian’s tribulation of the Jews during the First Jewish-Roman War, Jesus mentioned that it would be cut short before the Jewish nation was completely destroyed, and this would be done “for the elect’s sake” (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20). The “elect” in these verses refers to the Jews who would embrace Jesus as Messiah between 70 AD and 135 AD. Had Jesus completely destroyed Israel during the First Jewish-Roman War, this later round of Christian Jews, referred to in Revelation 20:4 as those “who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands,” would never have arisen. This is why there was such a long gap between the two halves of the Week of War.

Revelation 14:12-13 says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”’” This means that in 135 AD, any Christian who had died in the New Covenant and wasn’t already resurrected in the Second Coming Resurrection was now resurrected, and any Christian who would die from that point forward would go directly to heaven to join Jesus as well.

This straight ticket to Heaven for Christians lasted for the remainder of the millennium.

The Postmillennial Resurrection

Returning to Revelation 20, we see in verses 11-15 that the Great White Throne Judgment is associated with either the end of the final Satanic battle or the end of the millennium. However, based on verse 5, which says the “rest of the dead” came to life at the end of the millennium, we know this judgment must have occurred then, not after the final battle.

Therefore, in 4459 (570 AD), the Postmillennial Resurrection raised everyone still in Hades, including Gentiles (the “dead in the sea” – Revelation 20:13), and sent them to Heaven or Hell based on their works (i.e., whether they followed God or not). This Great White Throne Judgment is “the judgment” of Matthew 12:41-42, Luke 10:14, and Luke 11:31-32. At that point, Hades was destroyed (Revelation 20:14), which means ever since, everyone who dies is judged immediately upon death, without a waiting period. With the New Covenant in full effect, there is no more need for a temporary holding place.

Note: The Great White Throne Judgment and the abolition of Death and Hades took place in 4459, which was a Sabbath of Sabbaths. Moreover, 4459 = 13 x 7 x 7 x 7, meaning the number of the Sabbath of Sabbaths is itself divisible by 7.

Revelation 13 already set the stage for the establishment of Rabbinic Judaism (through the example set by Bar Kokhba and Rabbi Akiva). Revelation 20 now sets the stage for Islam. Hence, we are currently living in a world where Satan is roaming free and where three factions – Jews, Christians, and Muslims – vie for control of Jerusalem.

The Future

From this point forward, I will be dealing with numerological speculation, so take these ideas with a grain of salt.

The resurrection of Jesus happened on the 80^th Jubilee from creation, which as I’ve previously discussed represented the end of the connection between every tenth Jubilee and the portion of Israel’s history that started with the Exodus. However, we are currently in the Jubilee cycle that started the year after the 120^th Sabbath of Sabbaths in 5880: the 120^th Jubilee, 5881, began in Nisan/spring of 1992 AD. The number 12 is strongly associated with Israel, and thus the 120^th Jubilee (the 12^th tenth Jubilee) could have been the beginning of the time period that will bring in the salvation of all Israel mentioned in Romans 11:25-27.

There is a second layer of numerological symbolism here. Gary North has speculated (I am currently unable to locate the reference) that there may be a Sabbath millennium starting around the year 6000 (though he does not claim to be the first to suggest this), if every 1000 years of history symbolically corresponds to a day (as suggested in Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 – note that the first millennium would be from 0 to 1000). Also, as previously mentioned, for the 50^th, 60^th, and 70^th Jubilees, each one was preceded and/or followed by a corresponding number (50, 60, or 70) of years or Sabbath year cycles before or after another significant event. Mathematically the 120^th Jubilee of 5881 would be the first year of 120 years that would end in exactly the Biblical year 6000. This potentially connects the idea of the conversion of the Jews after the 120^th Jubilee to the Sabbath millennium that would begin around 2111 AD.

Yet a third layer of numerological symbolism is that there were exactly 40 Jubilees between the 80^th Jubilee and the 120^th Jubilee. The number 40 typically represents completion or totality in the Bible, so 40 Jubilees could represent the entirety of the Church Age prior to the 120-year countdown to the Sabbath millennium. Furthermore, there were two Jubilees between the crucifixion and the Third Jewish-Roman War, so the time of the Jewish church and the time of the almost completely Gentile church (provoking the Jews to jealousy) would fit the standard 2 + 38 = 40 paradigm we’ve seen so often in Scripture. The 120-year countdown would then be exactly three final 40-year generations.

Looking at modern history, the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the Sabbath of Sabbaths of the previous Jubilee cycle, establishing the world order we have today right at the beginning of the 120-year countdown. Also, if there will indeed be a mass conversion of the Jews before the year 6000, Jews from around the world being gathered within the borders of the historical nation of Israel (which has been happening for almost a century) would be a very obvious precursor.

I therefore speculate that in our near future, the Jews in the nation of Israel will experience a massive national conversion after the gospel finishes permeating the Gentile world.

Timing the Satanic Final Battle

Note that the siege of Revelation 20:7-9 is against “the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” This means the final Satanic battle will most likely be a full-scale assault by Muslims, allied with apostate Western forces, against a redeemed Jerusalem, once the Jews convert to Messianic Judaism. Note: Islam is of the spirit of Amalek and corresponds to Haman (Gog), while apostate Western forces will recreate the rebellious attempt to murder God’s people by degenerate members of Darius the Great’s empire, despite him authorizing the Jews to defend themselves (Magog).

As for the exact timing of the satanic battle, as Jordan has pointed out (Biblical Horizons No. 133: 153 Large Fish), the number 17 is fundamental to understanding the spread of the gospel in the New Covenant. Rather than being 10 x 7, 17 is 10 + 7.

Now, 17 x 7 (17 Sabbath year cycles) = 119. This suggests (again, this is pure speculation), that one of the following three things might happen:

• We are in the 70 (10 x 7) years from spring of 1992 to spring of 2062 that will witness the completion of the spread of the gospel to the Gentile nations. The final battle will occur between spring 2061 and spring of 2062, and then the next 49 (7 x 7) years, from spring of 2062 to spring of 2111, will encompass the conversion of the Jews to Messianic Judaism. This would mimic the 70 years in Babylon and the subsequent 49 years that saw the re-establishment of Judaism under Persian rule after the return from Exile.
• The symbolism could possibly be reversed, seeing the completion of the Gentile conversion before the next Jubilee in spring of 2041 (49 years after the Jubilee of 1992), the final battle occurring between spring of 2040 and spring of 2041, and then the following 70 years overseeing the final Jewish conversion.
• The 119th year, from spring of 2110 to spring of 2111, will be a Sabbath year, the Biblical year 5999. The 120th year, the Biblical year 6000, will be the first year of a new Sabbath cycle, which means the final battle might occur in 5999 and be followed immediately by a Sabbath millennium of global faithfulness to Christ. Even though the Book of Revelation follows the final Satanic battle with a description of the Jerusalem of the New Heaven, chronologically, the battle will be followed by the full establishment of the New Jerusalem of the New Earth (a nice thematic parallel).

Whichever of these options is the right one (if any), the conversion of the Jews will lead to the establishment of Jerusalem as the Christianized capital of the redeemed Israel. This is the “New Jerusalem” of the New Earth, as described in Isaiah 65:17-25. The peace and prosperity depicted therein is the permanent state of Israel after the gospel conquers the world.

Isaiah 66 describes the gathering of Jews from around the world to the restored faithful Jerusalem (v. 20), their peace with the Gentiles (v. 12, 19), their final happy state (vv. 22-23), and the eternal punishment of their enemies in the Lake of Fire (v. 24).

When the gospel has finished spreading across the world, suffering and sin will be greatly minimized in the New Earth. I would speculate that eventually humans will spread to other habitable planets (possibly we will develop terraforming technology), and the Church will encompass Christian empires that span galaxies.

Commentary

The Spread of the Gospel

The overarching model for the Church Age that I have laid out reflects the model of the spread of the gospel to the early Church on a larger scale.

Early Church:

1. The gospel came to the Jews from the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist until the conversion of Cornelius. This was the first phase of the Great Commission (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 13:10), which was originally understood by the apostles as applying to the Jews scattered amongst the nations.
2. The gospel and the Great Commission were extended to the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy (Romans 11:11). Indeed, the Gentiles proved more receptive than the Jews (see Romans 10:18-21). Eventually the Great Commission was fulfilled when the gospel was preached throughout the nations of the Roman Empire to both Jew and Gentile (Colossians 1:5-6; Colossians 1:23).
3. The Jews had an opportunity to respond with conversion, but only a remnant did (Romans 11:5). The remnant (the elect) was saved, while the Jewish nation that was beyond hope was destroyed during the Third Jewish-Roman War.

The larger paradigm of the Church Age:

1. The Church from John’s ministry to the end of the Third Jewish-Roman War was founded on Judaism and primarily focused on Jews, with Gentiles being allowed in to provoke the Jews to jealousy.
2. Israel as a nation was destroyed, while the Christian faith was taken over by Gentiles and is being spread throughout the entire globe, to the literal ends of the earth, like leaven in meal (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:20-21). Note: I call this spread of the gospel the “Greater Commission,” as it is similar to the original Great Commission but much more vast and thorough in scope.
3. Once the “fullness of the Gentiles has come in, all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-27), implying that the entire Jewish people, centered in the nation of Israel with Jerusalem as its capital, will finally convert en masse to Christianity when the world is conquered for Christ.

The End of the Earth

The idea of there being no discrete “end” to the earth raises the question of how there can be true worldwide peace and prosperity under Adam’s curse. I would propose that the curse pronounced on Adam in Genesis 3:17-19 actually represented a curse on the production of vine-grapes.

The model presented in the Bible is that men eat bread in the morning before working and then drink wine at night to relax. Wine is an essential part of rest. However, when Adam was cursed, the ground would only bring forth thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18), not the grapes required to make wine. Therefore, the antediluvian patriarchs had no true rest – they could only eat the herbs of the field and the bread that would nourish them while they toiled (Genesis 3:18-19).

Noah’s father Lamech predicted that Noah would bring comfort from Adam’s curse (Genesis 5:29). Therefore, it is probable that during the Flood, the water from below (Genesis 7:11) changed the nature of the soil, allowing for vine-grapes to finally be growable. And indeed, the Bible draws attention to Noah planting a vineyard after the Flood (Genesis 9:20).

Thus, I would suggest that what we suffer from today is not Adam’s curse, but rather the devastating immediate and generational consequences of individual and societal sin. If a worldwide Christian political system were to arise (similar to under Joseph’s converted Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, or Darius), the world could soon heal to a place of widespread shalom (albeit not complete sinlessness).