Revelation Part 4: The Millennium (Addendum)
I’ve been thinking about my Revelation article lately, and I thought it appropriate to tack on one more point that I believe further seals the deal on the timing of the millennium. It has to do with Revelation 20:9.
“They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them” (Revelation 20:9).
If we can identify the “beloved city” then we can identify “the war” that takes place in the “little while” loosing of Satan following the millennium. This is the only place in the entirety of the New Testament that the phrase “beloved city” is used when considering the Greek terms; however, we can easily determine who this city is by calling into question how many cities God loves. Basically, it falls down to two options and two holy cities: the old Jerusalem or the new Jerusalem – that is, the Jerusalem where the temple stood for around 400 years, was destroyed, rebuilt, and stood for another 500 or so, or the Jerusalem that Paul said was our mother above: the church. Has God loved both of these cities in the course of redemption history? I would say so. Notice these words of Jesus: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37). Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." (Luke 19:41-44).
Jesus loved that old city, but He knew the day was coming when it would be destroyed (see Matthew 24:1ff). He loves the church now, of course, and He calls it His bride (Revelation 21:1ff). Unlike the old Jerusalem, the church will never pass away (Isaiah 9:7). Now, turning our attention back to Revelation 20, consider this: If the New Jerusalem does not come down out of Heaven until after the judgement scene of Revelation 20 and after the old heavens and earth pass away, how can it be possible that the beloved city in Revelation 20 is the “new Jerusalem” of Revelation 21:2? The beloved city is no different than the “holy city” Jerusalem that stood in contrast to the Jerusalem above (Revelation 11:2; cf. Galatians 4:21ff, esp. 25-26). And, truly, it was destroyed and not one stone of the temple was left upon another when the Lord came in the clouds to judge that old world in AD70 (Matthew 24:29-31, 34).