How can there be 1000 years of peace upon the earth WITHOUT the physical presence and active ruling of Christ?
Post millennium theory sounds like a rejection of Christ to me.
As confusing and difficult to interpret as revelations is,
that aspect of it seems pretty clear to me. It begins with the arrival of Christ in His full glory and establishment of His kingdom on earth after defeating Satan once and for all at the end of the great tribulation.
Knowing whether or not your name is written in the Lamb’s book of Life TODAY, is certainly more important than what theories can be gleaned from reading about the future.
When you look at the Revelation in relation to the ages-long conflict between God and Satan, yes, definitely so, Revelation is linear:
1. Satan as the dragon or serpent, with his two front men the beast and the false prophet, succeeds in deceiving the entire world into an antichristian endtime one world government. The seven heads and ten horns on the red dragon/serpent in Rev. 12, and on the beast in Rev. 13, depict that endtime one world government. A socialist-nihilist one, in my opinion, notice the serpent’s color - red.
2. At the first resurrection and second coming of Christ, Satan’s two front men and the socialist one world government are destroyed. Satan, however, is not...not until 1000 years later, he is not yet destroyed he is incarcerated where he can’t deceive the nations.
3. Next in linear sequence, comes Christ’s 1000 year rule on earth, with Satan unable to deceive the nations. Without Satan around, true peace reigns on earth under the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
4. At the end of the 1000 years, the nations are given their final test, Satan is loosed to deceive the nations again. The finality of which, the nations deceived by Satan are destroyed, and Satan finally meets his end, the same end the beast and false prophet got 1000 years previous.
Now this is the natural, linear way Revelation reads. To say that we are presently in some kind of spiritualized 1000 years with Satan incarcerated where he cannot deceive the nations, is a gross convolution of what the word of God describes.
Granted, the Revelation causes many to not see the forest for the trees. One can get confused in all the imagery of seals, trumpets, bowls, etc., and not see the big overarching picture. That is, the linear process of God’s dealings with Satan - and all that are deceived by him. The endtime is when all of this comes to a head, in a Satanic, antichristian one world government.