The book of Revelation is a masterpiece of God, revealing the history of the New Testament church from the time of Christ till the end of time. This period is also known as the gospel day.
Satan is aware that if we know the prophetic mysteries of this book, we will understand the times. Therefore, being the deceiver that he is, he has taken people on a wild, windy ride through its pages, as “children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness.” (Eph. 4:14).
All manner of errors have been propagated. One of the prevalent winds of false doctrine today is the millennial reign theory. The early church did not teach this.
Revelation is a book of symbols. If a literal translation is applied, error will ensue, as is the case with the millennialist’s interpretation of Revelation 20:1-6.
This is the only place in the Bible where a thousand years is even mentioned, and, again, this span of time is not literal, but symbolic, as are other numbers within Revelation. Void of prophetic understanding, false prophets propagating this heresy view the events in Revelation primarily as yet future, as in believing that Jesus on His white horse is making war (Rev. 19:11) at the battle of Armageddon in the Valley of Megiddo. But Armageddon started at Eden and Jesus, with His redeemed army, has been fighting the powers of darkness for a long time now.
We maintain a partial preterist view, as Revelation takes us through the history of the New Testament church in a series of seven dispensations. It speaks of seven seals and seven trumpets. The entire history is encapsulated within these seven. The seals and trumpets are parallel to each other in time, each bringing out different aspects of the respective periods. The first trumpet sounded when God established His church in power on the day of Pentecost (Rev. 8:3-7). The first seal typifies this infant church as a white horse and its rider going forth to conquer (Rev. 6:1-2).
The sixth trumpet sounded near the end of the 19th century. The seventh trumpet started to sound around 1980, and it is the last in the series of seven. When its prophecies are fully fulfilled, Christ shall return and usher in the Final Judgment. This consummation is near. There will be no thousand year reign on earth, as multitudes have been led to believe. The scriptures simply do not support it.
