Missing Millennium (3)

Many Christians will find this hard to accept, but the commonly-believed idea that a millennium occurs at the end of the age does not come from the scriptures. This raises and interesting problem. Where did this deception come from? When forensic accountants are tracking down fraud, they say “Follow the money”. In other words, to find out who perpetrated a fraud, find out who benefits. The best way to find out the source of the “millennium fraud” is to work out who benefits.

Robbed of Promises
Christians have not benefitted from the millennium deception. Instead they have been robbed of many of the promises of God by end-times Bible teachers who take all the good promises in the scriptures and assigned to the millennium. All the good promises are pushed out into the future, so that Christians are left with scraps for the current season. This has left many Christians very negative and defeated by the immediate future.

Holy Spirit Insulted
The millennium deception is an insult to the Holy Spirit. The cross and the resurrection opened up the way for him to do great things on earth, but if God’s victory does not come until the millennium, after the Holy Spirit has been taken out of the world, he is destined to be a failure. He was supposed to do greater things than Jesus, so if he cannot pull off a victory and has to call in Jesus to do it for him, he is not much cop. The Holy Sprit did not come up with this deception.

Power to the Enemy
The sole beneficiary of the millennium deception is the devil. Here is how it works. If the saints do not reign until the end of the age, they are slaves now. If the devil is not bound until the end of the age, he has full freedom on earth now. If Jesus does not reign until the end of the age, someone else can reign until then. That can only be one person. The problem with the millennium deception is what happens before the millennium. If Jesus only reigns during the millennium, then the devil is reigning until the millennium comes.

If these ideas are true, the great commission is totally changed. Here is what Jesus must have said.

All authority in heaven and on earth was been given to me, but I am giving it back to the devil for a couple of thousand years. Go and make disciples, but it will be really hard work, because the devil reigns on earth until end of the age. The Holy Spirit will be with you, but he is no match for the enemy.

This is obviously absurd; but it is the clear implication of the millennium deception. That alone should be enough to make us let it go.

The Kingdom
Our gospel is the good news of the kingdom. The kingdom is our inheritance and the kingdom is our hope. The millennium is a trick to give power to the devil. We should give up looking for a millennium in the never-never, and focus our energies on the kingdom of God that came with Jesus.

Forget about the millennium and focus on the kingdom of God.