Brother Eby wrote:
In Bible usage, one thousand is a round, indefinite number. Psalm 50:10 states, “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” Does that mean only a thousand? When you get to the second thousand hills do all the cattle belong to someone other than the Lord? In like manner, does the kingdom of Christ last a thousand years, or does it stand forever?
We know that the kingdom of Christ does not last only for a thousand years, for according to various scriptures Christ is the King of the ages, He is also the King eternal, and one scripture says that of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end! Do the sons of God reign with Christ for a thousand years, or do they reign throughout all ages until all things are subdued unto the Father, until creation is delivered from the bondage of corruption — meaning the last enemy is destroyed — and God is “all in all”?
Is the kingdom really an “age” at all — or is it not rather a LIVING POWER AND REALITY! “God keeps covenant and mercy unto a thousand generations,” says the prophet (Deut. 7:9). Does His mercy end there? “He commanded His word to a thousand generations” (Ps. 105:8). Does God’s word become void at the end of the thousand generations? It should be clear to any thinking mind that the thousand is not literal in any of these.
These expressions were intended to show the quality of God’s faithfulness in respect to any given promise or blessing, and not the precise length of the time involved. To put the emphasis on the time expression itself would defeat the very meaning and purpose of it, because if God is faithful to His covenant and His word time-wise for exactly a thousand generations, who would want to live in the time periods beyond that? They speak figuratively of an abiding principle and the unchanging character of God throughout all generations and ages!
The same is true with respect to the one thousand year binding of Satan. The symbol was meant to show how thoroughly, not how long, the defeat of Satan is!
Yes, many think Christ will come and reign for a thousand years — and He will, for one thousand years is as a day, and a day is as a thousand years, and that day is the Day of the Lord in your life. Individually, the thousand years is the symbol of a time in a person’s walk where he experiences the power and glory of ruling and reigning with Christ in his life. It is the symbol of an attainment and ministry whereby the authority and power of God’s Christ is expressed and revealed in and through us as sons of God. I know no words, be they many or few, that could more adequately establish that the term “thousand years” is the New Testament code-word for THE DAY OF THE LORD.
The thousand years is the symbol of a time in the life of a son of God where he experiences the absolute and total binding of Satan, so that Satan is not only cast out of his heavens, as seen in chapter twelve of the Revelation, but is now effectively bound in his earth, until he can say in all confidence with the firstborn Son of God, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
The thousand years is the symbol of that place in the life of a son of God where he experiences the power and glory of ruling and reigning with Christ. It is not a literal thousand years, it signifies an attainment of reality, maturity, and ministry whereby the authority and power of God’s Christ is revealed and expressed through us in its totality as the elect of God. It is dawning within us now, but must shine brighter and brighter until the full accomplishment and revelation of it.
When Satan is bound in your life one hundred percent, when Christ rules in you one hundred percent, the brightness of the Day of the Lord has reached its zenith within your life. Again — it is not a date on the calendar — it is reality in the spirit!