Many people mistakenly believe that the only scriptural basis of a Millennial reign of Jesus is Revelation 20. But the concept of the Messiah returning to reign over all the earth in peace, righteousness, and justice is found throughout the Scriptures, both New Testament and Old.

I.    I believe Jesus is returning to reign on earth be­cause the Old Testament prophets say so.

1)   The Psalms

a)   Psalm 2:6-9 — David says the Messi­ah will reign over “the very ends of the earth” from Mount Zion in Jerusa­lem.

b)   Psalm 22:27-31 — David again affirms that the Messiah will be given dominion over “the ends of the earth” at the time when He “rules over the nations.”

c)   Psalm 47 — The sons of Korah rejoice over the day when the Lord will be “a great King over all the earth,” and they state that this will take place when the Lord subdues the “nations under our feet.”

d)   Psalm 67 — An unidentified psalmist speaks prophetically of the time when the nations of the world will “be glad and sing for joy.” This will be when the Lord comes to “judge the peoples with uprightness.” At that time the Lord will “guide the nations on the earth” so that “all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”

e)   Psalm 89:19-29 — The psalmist, Ethan, speaks of the Davidic Covenant and proclaims that it will be fulfilled when God makes His “first-born the highest of the kings of the earth.”

f)    Psalm 110 — David says a time will come when God will make the enemies of the Messiah a footstool under His feet. This will occur when the Messiah stretches forth His “strong scepter from Zion.” At that time He will “rule in the midst of His enemies,” for . . . “He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath, He will judge among the nations.”

g)   Psalm 132:13-18 — An unnamed psalmist speaks of God’s fulfillment of the Davidic Cov­enant. He says this will occur at a time when “the horn of David” springs forth to reign from Zion. He says “His crown will shine,” and He will make Zion His “resting place forever” for He will dwell there.

 

2) Isaiah

a)   Isaiah 2:1-4 — Isaiah says that “in the last days” the Messiah will reign from Mount Zion in Jerusalem and the entire world will experience peace.

b)   Isaiah 9:6-7 — The Messiah will rule from the throne of David, giving the world a government of peace, justice, and righteousness. (Note: The throne of David is not in Heaven. It is located in Jerusalem — see Psalm 122. Jesus is not now on the throne of David. He sits at the right hand of His Father on His Father’s throne — see Revelation 3:21.)

c)   Isaiah 11:3b-9 — The Messiah will bring “right­eousness and fairness” to the earth when He returns to “slay the wicked.” At that time, the curse will be lifted and the plant and ani­mal kingdoms will be restored to their original per­fection.

d)   Isaiah 24:21-23 — When the Messiah returns, He will punish Satan and his demonic hordes in the heavens and then will punish “the kings of the earth, on earth.” He will then “reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem” for the purpose of manifesting His glory.

 

3) Jeremiah

a)   Jeremiah 23:5 — “‘Behold, the days are com­ing,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.'” (Note: The term, “Branch,” is a Messianic title.)

b)   Jeremiah 33:6-18 — A day will come when the Lord will regather the dispersed of both Judah and Israel and will save a great remnant. At that time the Lord “will cause a rigthteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.”

 

4) Ezekiel

a)   Ezekiel 20:33-44 — The Lord says a day will come when He will regather the Jews to their land and will “enter into judgment” with them. He says that at that time “I shall be king over you.” He then adds that “the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land.”

b)   Ezekiel 37:24-28 — The Lord says that He will dwell in the midst of Israel after a remnant of the Jews is regathered to the land and saved, and He promises that “David My servant shall be their prince forever.”

c)   Ezekiel 39:21-29 — The Lord says that follow­ing the battle of Armageddon (verses 17-20), “I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.”

d)   Ezekiel 43:7 — While being given a tour of the future Millennial Temple, Ezekiel is told by the Lord: “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet; where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever.”

 

5) Daniel

Daniel 7:13-14,18,27 — Daniel says he was given a vision in which he saw the Messiah (“Son of Man”) given dominion over all the earth by God the Father (“the Ancient of Days”). And then he adds in verses 18 and 27 that the kingdom is shared “with the saints of the Highest One,” and they are allowed to exercise sovereignty with Him over “all the kingdoms under the whole heaven.”

 

6) Hosea

Hosea 3:4-5 — The Jews will be set aside “for many days,” but a time will come “in the last days” when they “will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.”

 

7) Joel

Joel 3:14-17,21 — Joel says that following the battle of Armageddon (verses 14-16), the Lord will dwell “in Zion, My holy mountain.” He repeats this in verse 21. And in verse 17 He identifies Zion as the city of Jerusalem.

 

8) Micah

Micah 4:1-7 —Micah repeats in greater detail the prophecy contained in Isaiah 2. Like Isaiah, he says the Lord will make Jerusalem the capital of the world. The world will be flooded with peace and prosperity. All believing Jews will be regath­ered to Israel, and “the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion.”

 

9) Zephaniah

Zephaniah 3:14-20 — This entire book is devoted to a description of the day the Lord will return to the earth in vengeance. The prophet says that at the end of that day, when the Lord’s enemies have been destroyed, the Jewish remnant will shout in triumphant joy because “the King of Israel, the Lord,” will be in their midst.

 

10)    Haggai

Haggai 2:20-23 — The Lord says that a day will come when He will “overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the king­doms of the nations.” Then, using Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, as a type of the Messiah, the prophet adds: “‘On that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealti­el, my servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the Lord of hosts.” The reference to the signet ring means the Father will grant His Son ruling authority.

 

11)    Zechariah

a)  Zechariah 2:10-13 — The Lord says that when He comes, He will “dwell in the midst” of the Jews, possessing Judah as “His portion in the holy land” and again choosing Jerusalem.

b)  Zechariah 6:12-13 — When the Messiah (“the Branch”) returns, He will build a temple and “rule on His throne,” and the offices of priest and king will be combined in Him. Thus, “He will be a priest on His throne.”

c)  Zechariah 8:2-3 — The Lord promises that when He returns to Zion, He will “dwell in the midst of Jerusalem,” and Jerusalem will be called “the city of Truth.”

d)  Zechariah 9:10 — The Messiah will bring peace to the nations and “His dominion will be from sea to sea.”

e)  Zechariah 14:1-9 — The Messiah will return to the Mount of Olives. The Mount will split in half when His foot touches it, and the Jewish rem­nant left alive in Jerusalem will flee the city and hide in the cleavage of the Mount. Verse 9 says that on that day, “the Lord will become king over all the earth.”

II.    I believe Jesus is returning to reign over the earth because the New Testament prophets say so.

1) Peter

Acts 3:21 — In his sermon on the portico of Solo­mon, Peter says Jesus must remain in Heaven “until the period of the restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.” The period of resto­ration spoken of here will occur during the Millen­nium when the curse is partially lifted and nature is restored (Romans 8:18-23).

2) Paul

a)  2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 — Paul says that when Jesus returns “dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel,” He will also come for the purpose of being glorified before His saints. The return of Jesus to be glorified before His saints and all the nations of the world is one of the persistent themes of Old Testament proph­ecy (Isaiah 24:23, Isaiah 52:10,13, Isaiah 61:3, and Psalm 46:10).

b)  2 Timothy 2:12 — Paul says “if we endure, we shall also reign with Him.”

 

3) John

a)  Revelation 12:5 — John sees a vision in which a sun clothed woman (Israel) gives birth to a male child (Jesus) “who is to rule all the na­tions with a rod of iron.”

b)  Revelation 19:15-16 — In his description of Jesus returning to earth, John says He bears the title, “King of kings and Lord of lords,” and John says He will “rule the nations with a rod of iron.”

c)  Revelation 20:4,6 — John says that after the return of Jesus to the earth, He will reign with His saints (“those to whom judgment has been given”) for a thousand years.

III.    I believe Jesus is returning to earth to reign because the Heavenly Host say so.

 

1) Gabriel

Luke 1:26-38 — When the archangel Gabriel ap­peared to Mary, he told her that she would bear a son named Jesus who would be called “the Son of the Most High.” He then added three pro­mises that are yet to be fulfilled: “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end.”

 

2) The Four Living Creatures and the 24 Elders

Revelation 5:9-10 — When John is raptured to Heav­en and finds himself standing before the throne of God (Revelation 4), he hears “the four living creatures” (special angelic creatures called seraphim in Isaiah 6) and “the twenty-four elders” (probably representative of the redeemed) sing­ing a song of praise to Jesus. In this song they say that Jesus is a Worthy Lamb who has made His redeemed a kingdom, “and they will reign upon the earth.”

 

3) The Angels of God

Revelation 11:15 — Voices from Heaven make a proleptic proclamation in the midst of the Tribula­tion: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” (Note: A proleptic statement is one that speaks of a future event as if it has already occurred. This is a com­mon form of expres­sion in prophecy be­cause all future events are settled in the mind of God as if they had al­ready happened in history.)

 

4) The Tribulation Martyrs

Revelation 15:3-4 — At the end of the Tribula­tion, right before the final pouring out of God’s wrath in the form of the bowl judgments, all the Tribula­tion martyrs who are in Heaven join together in singing “the song of Moses . . . and the song of the Lamb.” In that song, they declare the Lamb (Jesus) to be the “King of the nations,” and they proclaim that “all the nations will come and wor­ship be­fore Thee.”

IV.    I be­lieve Jesus is returning to reign on the earth be­cause Jesus said so.

 

1) Matthew 19:28 — Jesus said that during “the re­generation” (the same time as “the period of res­toration” referred to by Peter in Acts 3:21), He will “sit on His glorious throne,” and the Apostles will join Him in judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

2) Matthew 25:31 — Jesus said that when He returns in glory, “the Son of Man . . . will sit on His glori­ous throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him” for judgment. The throne of Jesus is the throne of David which has always been locat­ed in only one place — in Jerusalem (see Isaiah 9:6-7 and Psalm 122).

3) Acts 1:3-6 — Luke says that Jesus spent 40 days teaching His disciples about the kingdom of God. Then, as He was ready to ascend into Heaven, one of the disciples asked, “Lord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” The question indicates that Jesus taught a time would come when the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Jesus’ response to the question indicated the same thing. He did not rebuke the question. Rather, He simply said it was not for them to know the times and seasons when the kingdom would be restored to Israel.

4) Rev­ela­tion 2:26-27 — Jesus says that He has a special reward for any “over­comer” who keeps His deeds until the end: “To him I will give author­i­ty over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.”

5) Revelation 3:21 — Jesus makes it clear that the overcomers will reign jointly with Him: “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Again, the throne of Jesus is the throne of David (Luke 1:32 and Revela­tion 3:7). The throne of David is in Jerusa­lem, not in Heaven (Psalm 122). Jesus currently shares His Father’s throne. He is not sitting on His own throne and will not do so until He returns to this earth. Then He will allow the redeemed to share His throne with Him.

An Exercise in Imagination or  the Application of Plain Sense?

When I was about 12 years old, I stumbled across Zechariah 14. It was an amazing discovery. You see, I grew up in a church where we were told over and over that “there is not one verse in the Bible that even implies that Jesus will ever set His feet on this earth again.”

Simple Language
Well, Zechariah 14 not only implies that the Lord is coming back to this earth again, it says so point- blank! It says that the Lord will return to this earth at a time when the Jews are back in the land of Israel and their capital city, Jerusalem, is under siege. Just as the city is about to fall, the Lord will return to the Mount of Olives.

When His feet touch the ground, the mount will split in half. The remnant of Jews left in the city will take refuge in the cleavage of the mountain. The Lord will then speak a supernatural word, and the armies surrounding Jerusalem will be destroyed in an instant.

Verse 9 declares that on that day “the Lord will be king over all the earth.”

Muddled Interpretations
When I first discovered this passage, I took it to my minister and asked him what it meant. I will never forget his response. He thought for a moment, and then He said, “Son I don’t know what it means, but I’ll guarantee you one thing: it doesn’t mean what it says!”

For years after that, I would show Zechariah 14 to every visiting evangelist who came preaching that Jesus would never return to this earth. I always received the same response: “It doesn’t mean what it says.” I couldn’t buy that answer.

Finally, I ran across a minister who was a seminary graduate, and he gave me the answer I could live with. “Nothing in Zechariah means what it says,” he explained, “because the whole book is apocalyptic.”

Now, I didn’t have the slightest idea what “apocalyptic” meant. I didn’t know if it was a disease or a philosophy. But it sounded sophisticated, and, after all, the fellow was a seminary graduate, so he should know.

A Discovery Experience
When I began to preach, I parroted what I had heard from the pulpit all my life. When I spoke on prophecy, I would always make the point that Jesus will never return to this earth. Occasionally, people would come up after the sermon and ask, “What about Zechariah 14?” I would snap back at them with one word: “APOCALYPTIC!” They would usually run for the door in fright. They didn’t know what I was talking about (and neither did I).

Then one day I sat down and read the whole book of Zechariah. And guess what? My entire argument went down the drain!

I discovered that the book contains many prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus, and I discovered that all those prophecies meant what they said. It suddenly occurred to me that if Zechariah’s First Coming prophecies meant what they said, then why shouldn’t his Second Coming promises mean what they say?

The Plain Sense Rule
That was the day that I stopped playing games with God’s Prophetic Word. I started accepting it for its plain sense meaning. I decided that if the plain sense makes sense, I would look for no other sense, lest I end up with nonsense.

A good example of the nonsense approach is one I found several years ago in a book on the Millennium. The author spiritualized all of Zechariah 14. He argued that the Mount of Olives is symbolic of the human heart surrounded by evil. When a person accepts Jesus as Savior, Jesus comes into the person’s life and stands on his “Mount of Olives” (his heart). The person’s heart breaks in contrition (the cleaving of the mountain), and Jesus then defeats the enemy forces in the person’s life.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? When people insist on spiritualizing the Scriptures like this, the Scriptures end up meaning whatever they want them to mean.

Keys to Understanding
I believe God knows how to communicate. I believe He says what He means and means what He says. I don’t believe you have to have a doctorate in hermeneutics to understand the Bible. The essentials, instead, are an honest heart and the filling of God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).

One crucial key is to approach the Scriptures with childlike faith. Dr. Henry Morris addresses this issue in his great commentary on Revelation, called The Revelation Record. He says, “Revelation is not difficult to understand. It is difficult to believe. If you will believe it, you will understand it.”

For example, in Revelation 7 it says that at the start of the Tribulation God is going to seal a great host of Jews to serve as His special “bond-servants.” The text specifies that the number will be 144,000, and that 12,000 will be selected from each of 12 specified tribes.

Now, I ask you: What would God have to do to convince us that He intends to set aside 144,000 Jews for special service during the Tribulation? The text is crystal clear. Yet, hundreds of commentators have denied the clear meaning and have spiritualized the passage to make it refer to the Church! This is reckless handling of God’s Word, and it produces nothing but confusion.

The Meaning of Symbols
“But what about symbols?” some ask. Another crucial key is to keep in mind that a symbol stands for something, otherwise it would not be a symbol. There is always a literal reality or plain sense meaning behind every symbol.

Jesus is called “the rose of Sharon.” He is not referred to as “the tumbleweed of Texas.” The image that a rose conjures up is something beautiful; a tumbleweed is ugly.

The Bible is its own best interpreter as to the meaning of the symbols which it uses. Sometimes the symbols are clearly explained, as when God reveals to Ezekiel the meaning of the symbols in his vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:11-14). In like manner, the apostle John was told the meaning of certain symbols which he saw in his Patmos vision of the glorified Lord (Revelation 1:20).

At other times, a simple search of the Scriptures will reveal the meaning of a symbol. Consider the statement in Revelation 12:14 where it says that the Jewish remnant will escape from the Antichrist into the wilderness “on the two wings of the great eagle.”

Is this a literal eagle? Is it an air lift provided by the U.S.A. whose national symbol is an eagle?

A concordance search will show that the same symbolism is used in Exodus 19:4 to describe the flight of the children of Israel as they escaped from Egypt. The symbol, as Exodus 19 makes clear, is a poetic reference to the loving care of God.

The Importance of Context
Another key to understanding prophecy is one that applies to the interpretation of all Scripture. It is the principle that the meaning of words is determined by their context.

I ran across a good example of this problem recently in a book in which the author was trying to prove that Jesus is never coming back to reign upon this earth. Such a position, of course, required him to spiritualize Revelation chapter 20 where it says six times that there will be a reign of the Lord that will last one thousand years.

In this author’s desperate attempt to explain away the thousand years, he referred to Psalm 50:10 where it says that God owns “the cattle on a thousand hills.” He then asked, “Are there only one thousand hills in the world?” He answered his question, “Of course not!” He then proceeded to explain that the term is used figuratively. But then he made a quantum leap in logic by proclaiming, “therefore, the term, ‘one thousand,’ is always used symbolically.”

Not so. It depends on context. In Psalm 50 the term is clearly symbolic. But in Revelation 20, it is not so. Again, the thousand years is mentioned six times. What would the Lord have to do to convince us that He means a thousand years? Put it in the sky in neon lights? Pay attention to context!

Reconciling Passages
An additional key to understanding prophecy is one that applies to all Scripture. It is the principle of searching out everything that the Bible has to say on a particular point.

Avoid hanging a doctrine on one isolated verse. All verses on a particular topic must be searched out, compared, and then reconciled.

Let me give you a prophetic example. Second Peter 3:10 says that when the Lord returns, “the heavens will pass away with a roar . . . and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Now, if this were the only verse in the Bible about the Second Coming, we could confidently conclude that the heavens and earth will be burned up on the day that Jesus returns.

But, there are many other verses in both the Old and New Testaments, which make it abundantly clear that the Lord will reign over all the earth before it is consumed with fire. Those verses must be considered together with the passage in 2 Peter 3 in order to get the correct overall view.

Special Problems
There are some special problems related to prophetic interpretation. One is that prophecy is often prefilled in symbolic type before it is completely fulfilled.

In this regard, I feel certain that the Jewish people must have felt that Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilled Daniel’s prophecies about a tyrannical leader who would severely persecute the Jews. But 200 years after Antiochus, Jesus took those prophecies of Daniel and told His disciples they were yet to be fulfilled.

Another example is the sign which Isaiah gave to King Ahaz to assure him that the city of Jerusalem would not fall to the Syrians who had it under siege. The sign was that a young woman would give birth to a son whose name would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:1-19). The passage certainly implies that such a boy was born at that time.

But hundreds of years later, Matthew, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reached back to Isaiah’s prophecy and proclaimed that its ultimate fulfillment was to be found in the virgin birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:22-23).

Compressed Time
Another peculiar feature of prophetic literature is called “telescoping.” This occurs when a prophet compresses the time interval between two prophetic events. This phenomenon is very common.

The reason for it has to do with the perspective of the prophet. As he looks into the future and sees a series of prophetic events, they appear to him as if they are in immediate sequence.

It is like looking down a mountain range and viewing three peaks, one behind the other, each sequentially higher than the one in front of it. The peaks look like they are right up against each other because the person viewing them cannot see the valleys that separate them.

In Zechariah 9:9-10 there is a passage with three prophecies which are compressed into two verses but are widely separated in time. Verse 9 says the Messiah will come humbly on a donkey. The first part of verse 10 says the Jewish people will be set aside. The second part of verse 10 says the Messiah will reign over all the nations.

These three events — the First Coming, the setting aside of Israel, and the reign of Christ — appear to occur in quick succession, but in reality, there were 40 years between the first two events, and there have been over 1,900 years thus far between the second and third events.

Another way of viewing the phenomenon of telescoping is to focus on what are called “prophetic gaps.” These are the time periods between the mountain peak prophetic events.

Because the Old Testament rabbis could not see the gap between the first and second comings of the Messiah, some theorized that there would be two Messiahs — a “Messiah ben Joseph” who would suffer and a “Messiah ben David who would conquer. From our New Testament perspective we can see that the Old Testament prophets were speaking of one Messiah who would come twice. We can see the gap between the two comings.

A Challenge
I ask you: How do you treat Zechariah 14 — as fact or fiction? Are you guilty of playing games with God’s Word in order to justify sacred traditions and doctrines of men?

I challenge you to interpret God’s Word — all of it — for its plain sense meaning. As you do so, you are very likely to find yourself challenged to discard old doctrines and to adopt new ones. This will be a painful process, but it will be a fruitful one, for you will be blessed with the truth of God’s Word.

“If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” — John 8:31-32.