Is 1000 year period from Revelations metaphorical?

Revelations 20

20 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyssand holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They[a] had not worshiped the beastor its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second deathhas no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

My simple question is: Is the above all metaphorical?

Thanks
 
Just to ad the following from Isaiah that I believe talks about 1000 year period:


Isaiah 11:8

New International Version

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

So there is going to be vipers around but they won’t be able to “harm us”.

Thanks
 
That will be a literal 1,000 years with Christ on earth. Referred to the Millennium Reign it can be somewhat divisive in some Christian circles. Some believers have a very hard time accepting God's Word as literal if they can't see it in a history book. Anyway, the Bible refers to it, I believe it, and I have no reason to think that when we leave this earth we will know or get less so why not believe it is true?
 
That will be a literal 1,000 years with Christ on earth. Referred to the Millennium Reign it can be somewhat divisive in some Christian circles. Some believers have a very hard time accepting God's Word as literal if they can't see it in a history book. Anyway, the Bible refers to it, I believe it, and I have no reason to think that when we leave this earth we will know or get less so why not believe it is true?

I believe it’s true, Servant, but I think it’s all metaphorical in how it’s supposed to be interpreted.
 
So, what is the lesson to be learned from the metaphor? A metaphor or parable always has a point.
I am not talking about a lesson being learned. I am just saying things like that the thousand years have maybe already started. So Satan still has powers at the moment, but can’t “hurt” as in take you out of Christianity for good. Hence:

Isaiah 11:8

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,​

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

So there is going to be vipers around but they won’t be able to “harm us”.
 
I am not talking about a lesson being learned. I am just saying things like that the thousand years have maybe already started. So Satan still has powers at the moment, but can’t “hurt” as in take you out of Christianity for good. Hence:

Isaiah 11:8​

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,​

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

So there is going to be vipers around but they won’t be able to “harm us”.
The New Jerusalem hasn't descended from Heaven yet, so we can be sure it hasn't started. Snakes still bite and I would call 911 on anyone who would lay an infant near a Cobra's den these days. A baby is lucky to get out of the womb these days much less lay with a Cobra. I hope what you are saying is a metaphor.
 
The New Jerusalem hasn't descended from Heaven yet, so we can be sure it hasn't started. Snakes still bite and I would call 911 on anyone who would lay an infant near a Cobra's den these days. A baby is lucky to get out of the womb these days much less lay with a Cobra. I hope what you are saying is a metaphor.
Of course it’s a metaphor. Infant is any true Christian, viper is satan his demons and their people.

Thanks
 
Revelations 20

20 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyssand holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They[a] had not worshiped the beastor its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second deathhas no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

My simple question is: Is the above all metaphorical?

Thanks

NO!

Prophecy, in order to be correctly understood, must be interpreted in a “literal” fashion unless a passage specifically indicates otherwise. The unstated assumption is that literal interpretation is more reliable than non-literal.

When the "non-literal" method is used, it opens the door to the speculation of the reader to believe as his mind tells him to believe.

An example in which symbolic interpretation is considered proper by proponents of strict literalism is found in Revelation 11:8. It informs the reader that the city in which the dead bodies of the two witnesses lay is “spiritually called Sodom and Egypt.” In this case, non-literal interpretation is allowed because of the description, “spiritually called.” Presumably, this means that neither “Sodom” nor “Egypt” refers to the actual geographic location.

Allow me to speak to the Scriptures you asked about........
Rev. 20:1, an "Angel" is an Angel! Good angels come "down out of heaven. So then we can say that a literal angel comes down from heaven.

That angel then has the key to the Abyss and that key is on a gold chain...........
The abyss or deep, is the same place out of which the beast ascended in Revelation 11:7. That means it is his "Home" or abiding place.
And the key of this becomes no hand so well as his who has the keys of hell and death, Revelation 1:18 who has all power in heaven and in earth, and has the power of hell, of opening and shutting it at his pleasure, which is signified by this phase.......The Lord Jesus Christ!

So far so good.

Then we see......"And a great chain in his hand; the key in one hand, and the chain in another;
IMO.
by which last is meant, not any material chain, with which spirits cannot be bound, nor indeed sometimes bodies possessed by evil spirits, Mark 5:3 but the almighty power of Christ, which he will now display in binding Satan faster and closer than ever. This is a picture of the SPIRITUAL conflict that will take place with the incarceration of Satan. Is it a Literal event. YES it is but it is in the SPIRITUAL realm of which we can not see.

.In Revelation 20 verses 2-7, six times we are told that Satan will be bound and that Christ will reign for a thousand years.

Literal or symbolic???


Since year (and years) has only a literal and absolute meaning when preceded by a cardinal number, our next undertaking is to try to correctly understand “thousand.” Is there something in the word which would lead us to conclude that thousand could mean something other than its literal and plain meaning?

Thousand (chilia χίλια) occurs in the New Testament eleven times, six of those being in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. Twice it occurs in 2 Peter 3:8, “…that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The other three occurrences are in the book of Revelation as well. The number of verses with which we can compare the word thousand in the New Testament in order to correctly determine the meaning is somewhat limited since six of the eleven examples occur in Revelation 20. Thus, we need to turn to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament translated from the Hebrew in approximately 270 B.C.

The word thousand appears 504 times in the Septuagint where it is translated from the Hebrew word אלף elef, which simply means thousand. It never refers to any kind of imaginary number, nor does it signify an indefinite quantity. The Septuagint merely translates that word literally and carries the same meaning. There are cases where a text will say thousands in the plural and of course, that by definition is indefinite. But whenever a text refers to one thousand it is speaking in a literal sense.

So then.....1000 years means 1000 years!
 
I am not talking about a lesson being learned. I am just saying things like that the thousand years have maybe already started. So Satan still has powers at the moment, but can’t “hurt” as in take you out of Christianity for good. Hence:

Isaiah 11:8​

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,​

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

So there is going to be vipers around but they won’t be able to “harm us”.

This, then, leads to the question as to when the great tribulation happened in the past, because if the thousand has already started, at what time in history did the islands all sink into the sea and the mountains leveled, not to be found any more? Do we allegoricalize/methaphorize all that, even though there are still many islands and mountains still on this earth?

Why stop there? Let's also allegorize Isaiah 53 and many other prophecies about Christ Jesus...that He wasn't a literal, physical Being walking this earth, but just a metaphor of fulfillment that nobody saw, heard and touched?

Please don't see this as my being snide. This leads to my question to those who see the prophecies about the tribulation and millennium as being allegorical/metaphorical of things maybe already going on, or are about to happen, or have already ended. What's the absolute acid test for determining what is allegorical/metaphorical, and what can be taken as literal/physical? There seem to be so many authorities out there over all this, and yet they end up on the side of one faction or another. The Bible is an Eastern book, and here we are in our Western mindset disagreeing over this one simple question from the perspectives of Westernized thinking of superiority in personal understanding. We are an arrogant bunch, are we not?

So, why quibble over specifics until we can agree as to the empirical means by which we can discern what is spiritual, allegorical, and what is literal/physical?

MM
 
These are excellent points that you raise Musicmaster something that we should all consider when God speaks to us through his written word.

I grew up in a church that emphasized prophecy and legalism. Latter I came to realize that I needed to be sure of what God's word was really saying as opposed to what I had heard was said within. I began an intense study on many topics. God has helped me as he helps all of us his children through his Holy Spirit.

I leave these two scriptures as additional things to ponder.

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (KJV)

1 Thess 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (KJV)

cp
 
This, then, leads to the question as to when the great tribulation happened in the past, because if the thousand has already started, at what time in history did the islands all sink into the sea and the mountains leveled, not to be found any more? Do we allegoricalize/methaphorize all that, even though there are still many islands and mountains still on this earth?

Why stop there? Let's also allegorize Isaiah 53 and many other prophecies about Christ Jesus...that He wasn't a literal, physical Being walking this earth, but just a metaphor of fulfillment that nobody saw, heard and touched?

Please don't see this as my being snide. This leads to my question to those who see the prophecies about the tribulation and millennium as being allegorical/metaphorical of things maybe already going on, or are about to happen, or have already ended. What's the absolute acid test for determining what is allegorical/metaphorical, and what can be taken as literal/physical? There seem to be so many authorities out there over all this, and yet they end up on the side of one faction or another. The Bible is an Eastern book, and here we are in our Western mindset disagreeing over this one simple question from the perspectives of Westernized thinking of superiority in personal understanding. We are an arrogant bunch, are we not?

So, why quibble over specifics until we can agree as to the empirical means by which we can discern what is spiritual, allegorical, and what is literal/physical?

MM

Yes.....your comment is well taken and I appreciate your post!

IF Jesus came again in 70 AD and the Great Tribulation took place when Rome destroyed Jerusalem, as the Preterist teach, then we all have a HUGE problem especailly the Preterist.

THINK about this. Did Jesus Christ, God in the flesh tell us in the Word of God that NO MAN knows when He will return, NOT EVEN HIMSELF and only the Father knows????? YES HE DID!

Matthew 24:36........
But of that day and hour no one knows.” Matthew 24:36

Jesus told us that we cannot know the day of his return but we do know where He will return, and how He will return. These events that will surround His second coming are prophesied in both the Old and New Testament.

Now then the problem is that the Preterists position is that they know when and how he already returned - in 70 AD.

Preterists teach that Jesus returned spiritually through the acts of the Roman army when they destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. According to the Bible the Millennium with Christ ruling would have commenced. So this has to be explained away.
How far from reality does one need to be to know they are wrong? The fact that the world has sustained sin and evil since 70 AD. Instead of it diminishing, it has reached a new zenith which does not fit at all into the description of the Millennium from the Bible.

When we open the door to "Metaphysical/Symbolism" in understanding to SPIRITUALIZE the Word of God, we are then at the mercy of the "Interpreter" instead of the Bible itself.

THAT is exactly where cults such as Jim Jones and David Koresh come from.
 
These are excellent points that you raise Musicmaster something that we should all consider when God speaks to us through his written word.

I grew up in a church that emphasized prophecy and legalism. Latter I came to realize that I needed to be sure of what God's word was really saying as opposed to what I had heard was said within. I began an intense study on many topics. God has helped me as he helps all of us his children through his Holy Spirit.

I leave these two scriptures as additional things to ponder.

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (KJV)

1 Thess 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (KJV)

cp

AMEN!
 
Why do we want to allegorize future events when prophecies fulfilled in the past were fulfilled literally? (thinking of all the OT prophecies pointing to Jesus Christ ).
I don't know if the '1000' is 365.25 x 1000 exact days but the Kingdom reign of the Messiah here on earth is plastered all over the Old Testament.
 
Why do we want to allegorize future events when prophecies fulfilled in the past were fulfilled literally? (thinking of all the OT prophecies pointing to Jesus Christ ).
I don't know if the '1000' is 365.25 x 1000 exact days but the Kingdom reign of the Messiah here on earth is plastered all over the Old Testament.
Only two lines and ended an endless debate. Well said, crossnote, as always.
 
Why do we want to allegorize future events when prophecies fulfilled in the past were fulfilled literally? (thinking of all the OT prophecies pointing to Jesus Christ ).
I don't know if the '1000' is 365.25 x 1000 exact days but the Kingdom reign of the Messiah here on earth is plastered all over the Old Testament.

Dear "crossnote". I just read your post and noticed the 365.25 days thing. I am NOT correcting anyone and please feel free to completely ignore this and , Please do not take this is any way other than me just noticing it and wanting you to know this.......In the Bible, Twelve months of 30 days equals 360-days in a prophetic year. I did not know if you were aware of this but the Bible has been written with a "PROPHETIC YEAR" defined as 360 days in length. This is only applied to biblical prophecy.
 
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