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Finale Revelation and Imagination Daily Devotional- 48

by David Joynt on July 23, 2021


REVELATION 20:4-6 | 4 Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.

2 PETER 3:8 | 8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

These verses have given rise to great controversies. Millennium is the Roman word for 1000. Many theories about the millennium and its relation to Jesus’ return and other “end like” events have been offered, and sometimes fantastically and erroneously connected to present-day politics. But Revelation is not a schematic of history’s final events, instead it is a symbolic appeal to our imaginations, and use of images to build trust in the ultimate destiny of Christ’s followers and the final triumph of God.

Readers of Revelation were being persecuted and are being told that death will have no power over them and they will eventually share in Christ’s royal power and authority. Does 1000 years mean a long time? Is it a period before Christ comes for final judgement or after? Or does it refer to the entire time between Jesus’ resurrection and return when Satan’s power is limited by Christ’s victory over death and sin and the Spirit’s power? Exegetes and readers will differ but all can agree on the essentials; Christ will return, evil will be annihilated, and the Kingdom established.

What form of evil in this world would you like to see banished and destroyed?

 

Tags: evil, destroyed, banished

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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