The Millennium
After all of the events of the tribulation Satan will be locked up for 1,000 years (Rev 20:2-3). John then describes in Revelation 20:4, seeing “the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” So John sees martyrs who died for the sake of Christ along with other faithful Christians who had just been resurrected reigning with Jesus for 1,000 years. The close proximity of this to the resurrection is evidence for a post-tribulation rapture. John says in the next verse that this is the first resurrection. These new resurrected bodies as previously discussed are indestructible and will never die again. Unbelievers will later be raised to face judgement but then die a second death as they are condemned to their eternal fate.
Hell and the Lake of Fire
The devil, the antichrist and the false prophet (also known as the serpent, the beast and the false prophet) are eventually thrown into the lake of fire where they are, “tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20:10). At this point all of the unbelievers who had died are raised and judged (Rev 20:12-13). Then all of them, along with hell itself where they previously had resided, are thrown into the lake of fire as well where they experience the second death. All of these places are actually litteral places and not simply metaphorical. The word for hell in the New Testament is the word Gehenna which means the Valley of Hinnom. In OT the Hinnom Valley was a place where israelites participated in the idol worship of Baal and Molech and where they sacrificed their children causing them to “pass through fire.” Jeremiah described it as the Valley of Slaughter and in Jeremiah 19:7-9 God says that he,
“will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.”
Jesus used this well known place on earth as a way of describing what hell is like. If this is how the physical place on earth was described, then it’s hard to imagine how much worse hell itself will be for those who go there. In Matthew 25:31-32 Jesus describes this moment of judgement saying, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” And in verse 46, those who are found guilty have this fate: “And these will go away into eternal punishment.” And in that eternal place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:40–42).
The New Heaven and Earth
The current heaven and earth as we known them will pass away (Rev 21:1) and God will make all things new (Rev 21:5). From this new heaven, a city will descend to the new earth earth which is the new Jerusalem. In Revelation 21:3-4 John writes, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” So in this new city, God will dwell with us and there will no longer be any sadness or suffering. The glory of God will be its light (Rev 21:23) and we will finally be able to eat from the tree of life (Rev 22:2). And all of those, whose names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 21:27) will live there forever, and in fact reign with Jesus forever (Rev 22:5).
The Church Age
The time from Acts 2 at Pentecost until the end comes is the time known as the church age. It is the time period in which the church is called to carry out and complete the mission of God in the world. There many doctrines which have been covered in this paper which are disputable, especially as it relates to the end times. But the key for us to remember in this church age is that the Bible was not written for us to simply write out timelines of events. The words of scripture were breathed out by God for the purpose of, “teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” We must not get distracted by debates and fail to be equipped. The equipping is so that we can carry out God’s mission. As spiritual leaders we will be judged more severely (James 3:1) and have a responsibility to faithfully preach the word, being ready in and out of season to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). The message of the book of Revelation is to be ready because Jesus is coming soon. Until that day, we have a mission to love God, love others and make disciples.