The 1,000 years of Revelation 20. #6 What, then, is the Symbolism of the Thousand Years?

"This also tells us something about the length of the millennium.

"Two thousand twenty-three years have now passed since Calvary and Pentecost.

"The millennium, therefore, the thousand years of Revelation 20,
is not and can not be literal because some 2,023 years
(which is more than 1,000 years) have passed.

"Psalm 50:10 says that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

"Who owns the cattle on the thousand and first hill?

"God’s owning the cattle on a thousand hills
means that He owns all the cattle; that is the point.2

"The book of Revelation is filled with symbolic numbers,
which is exactly what you would expect because it consists of visions.

"Six hundred and sixty-six, the number of the beast,
does not mean that you will be able to identify the Antichrist
because he will have 666 tattooed on his forehead.

"The number, 666, the Bible says, is the number of man (Rev. 13:18).

"Antichrist is the epitome of man sinning and coming short (666)
of the covenant perfection of God (777).

"Seven is also symbolic in Revelation: seven spirits of God, seven eyes,
seven horns, seven speaking thunders, seven heads of the beast, etc.

"In Revelation 14, we see the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed,
which is twelve times twelve (the number of the church) times a thousand.

"In Revelation 20, what, then, is the symbolism of the thousand years?

"The answer is very simple: the number one thousand is ten cubed,
ten times ten times ten.

"Ten in the Bible is the number of completeness.

"There were ten plagues—the fullness of God’s wrath upon Egypt.

"We have ten commandments—the fullness of God’s law, of all God’s judgments.

"So ten times ten times ten, which is a thousand,
is the complete and full New Testament age of the Kingdom of God
and the...churches of Jesus Christ.