What Happens During the 1,000 Years?

The millennium opens with the second coming of Christ: "The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). John calls this "the first resurrection" and says those in it "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years" (Revelation 20:4–6). Jesus described two resurrections — one "of life" and one "of damnation" (John 5:28–29).

Satan is bound in "the bottomless pit" for the thousand years "that he should deceive the nations no more" (Revelation 20:2–3). The Greek abussos is the word used in the Septuagint of Genesis 1:2 for the formless deep. Jeremiah, in language echoed by John, saw the earth after the Lord's fierce anger: "without form, and void... no man... all the cities thereof were broken down" (Jeremiah 4:23–27).

Satan's chain is a chain of circumstances: with the righteous in heaven and the wicked dead, there is no one left to tempt. He is confined to the ruined earth to contemplate the results of his rebellion.

During the millennium the redeemed participate in reviewing the cases of the lost: "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (1 Corinthians 6:2–3). John saw thrones, "and judgment was given unto them" (Revelation 20:4). This answers the question every thinking person asks about lost loved ones: God's decisions are opened to His people, so that all can see He has been just and merciful.

When the thousand years expire, "the rest of the dead" live again (Revelation 20:5), Satan is released and gathers the nations — Gog and Magog — to surround the camp of the saints. Then fire comes down from God and devours them; the devil is cast into the lake of fire, "which is the second death" (Revelation 20:7–15). Every knee bows and every tongue confesses that God is just (Philippians 2:10–11).

Then comes the promise that anchors the whole Bible: "Behold, I make all things new... And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain" (Revelation 21:1–5).