Is it literally 24 hours, or literally 1 hour, or simply conveying the idea of 'happening suddenly'?
Revelation Chapter 18
8 | Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her. |
17 | for in an hour so great riches is made desolate. And every shipmaster, and every one that saileth any wither, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood afar off, |
In an hour fits into a day.
And “in an hour” is the expression of the merchants. The merchants could be exaggerating or entirely correct.
Is it literally, exactly, one thousand years to the day? Or simply conveying the idea of a long period of time?
God is able to keep punctual timing. So whether or not it is possible to be exactly 1000 years is not a question.
I don’t see why the specific number of years should be given if it were not close to a thousand, within the same unit of measure of a year. But if it is to be taken literally, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be exactly within the day or the second. Time serves God. He created it. It limits us.
It conveys a long period of time either way. It allows for a limited amount of time and a defined period and purpose if it is literal.
In a young earth viewpoint, there were about two thousand years from creation to Noah, another two thousand from Noah to Christ, and another two thousand from Christ to now. (all rough estimates. I’m not speculating dates for return)
In the day is as a thousand years view, that leaves only one more day, The seventh day, and by the pattern of creation, a day of rest.
After the flood, God remade the physical world. A rebuilding of the physical world took place afterwards. That was is insufficient to bring about reformation of man.
In Christ, God allowed for a recreation of the inner man. In the following days, a recreation of the spiritual world has a foundation established to be built upon. In a physically present thousand year reign, there will be rest from all of our work.
And afterward, a new heaven and a new earth with a new man to inhabit it.
The explanation fits what I see and matches too a God of order. I am not dogmatic that it is correct. But it fits.
In the same way creation shows that God made
| 1. Day/night | 2. sky/water | 3. dry land and plants |
| Filled with | filled with | filled with |
| 4. Sun moon stars | 5. Fish and birds | 6. Land animals and man |
Pardon the children’s Sunday School vocabulary. I know that the uses of these words are controversial for some. I intend to show the correlation between days.
Revelation Chapter 20
4 | And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. |
So I don’t see a problem with a literal thousand years. It shows order.
I am not bound to it. I am bound to whatever God actually is doing. But it will be a little while before I know for certain that we have passed the realm of possibility of literal thousand years equaling a “day” in God’s week.
Is it literally, only a thousand hills?
Psalms Chapter 50
10 | For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. |
In context of the rest of the chapter, it is clearly all the cattle.
“For every beast of the forest is mine,
and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains:
and the wild beasts of the field are mine.”
“for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”
So context makes certain that you know that the limit of what God owns in this world is only what He has placed here.
There is apparently no such clear context for a thousand year reign because we are here discussing it and will not be the last people to do it. (As far as I can tell)
