Classical or Historic Premillennialism: The prefix “pre-” means “before,” and the “premillennial” position says that Christ will come back before the millennium. This viewpoint has a long history from the earliest centuries onward.

• According to this viewpoint, the present church age will continue until, as it nears the end, a time of great tribulation and suffering comes on the earth (the “T” in the diagram stands for tribulation).
• After that time of tribulation Christ will return to earth to establish a millennial kingdom.
• When he comes back, believers who have died will be raised from the dead, their bodies will be reunited with their spirits, and these believers will reign with Christ on earth for one thousand years. Some premillennialists take this to be a literal one thousand years, and others understand it to be a symbolic expression for a long period of time.
• During this time, Christ will be physically present on the earth in his resurrected body, and will reign as King over the entire earth.
• The believers who have been raised from the dead, and those who were on earth when Christ returns, will receive glorified resurrection bodies that will never die, and in these resurrection bodies they will live on the earth and reign with Christ.
• Of the unbelievers who remain on earth, many (but not all) will turn to Christ and be saved.
• Jesus will reign in perfect righteousness and there will be peace throughout the earth.
• Many premillennialists hold that the earth will be renewed and we will in fact see the new heavens and new earth at this time (but it is not essential to premillennialism to hold to this, for one could be a premillennialist and hold that the new heavens and new earth will not occur until after the final judgment).
• At the beginning of this time Satan will be bound and cast into the bottomless pit so that he will have no influence on the earth during the millennium (Rev. 20:1–3).
• According to the premillennial viewpoint, at the end of the thousand years Satan will be loosed from the bottomless pit and will join forces with many unbelievers who have submitted outwardly to Christ’s reign but have inwardly been seething in rebellion against him. Satan will gather these rebellious people for battle against Christ, but they will be decisively defeated.
• Christ will then raise from the dead all the unbelievers who have died throughout history (verse 5: “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended”) and they will stand before him for final judgment.
• After the final judgment has occurred, believers will enter into the eternal state.

“HISTORIC PREMILLENNIALISM”
George Eldon Ladd

“Premillennialism is the doctrine stating that after the Second Coming of Christ, he will reign for a thousand years over the earth before the final consummation of God’s redemptive purpose in the new heavens and the new earth of the Age to Come. This is the natural reading of Revelation 20:1–6.

• Revelation 19:11–16 pictures the Second Coming of Christ as a conqueror coming to destroy his enemies: the Antichrist, Satan, and Death.
• Revelation 19:17–21 pictures first the destruction of Antichrist and the hosts which have supported him in opposition to the kingdom of God.
• Revelation 20 then relates the destruction of the evil power behind the Antichrist—“the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan” (Rev. 20:2). This occurs in two stages.

First, Satan is bound and incarcerated in “the bottomless pit” (Rev. 20:1) for a thousand years “that he should deceive the nations no more” (Rev. 20:3) as he had done through Antichrist. At this time occurs the “first resurrection” (Rev. 20:5) of saints who share Christ’s rule over the earth for the thousand years. After this Satan is loosed from his bonds, and in spite of the fact that Christ has reigned over the earth for a thousand years, he finds the hearts of unregenerated men still ready to rebel against God. The final eschatological war follows when the devil is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. Then occurs a second resurrection of those who had not been raised before the millennium. They appear before the judgment throne of God to be judged according to their works. “If any one’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). Then Death and the grave are thrown into the lake of fire. Thus, Christ wins his victory over his three enemies: Antichrist, Satan, and Death. Only then, when all hostile powers have been subdued, is the scene ready for the eternal state—the coming of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1–4).”

(RECAP) In favor of the amillennial view, the following arguments are advanced:
1. When we look through the whole of the Bible, amillennialists will say, only one passage (Rev. 20:1–6) appears to teach a future earthly millennial rule of Christ, and that passage is itself obscure. It is unwise to base such a major doctrine on one passage of uncertain and widely disputed interpretation.
2. Scripture teaches only one resurrection when both believers and unbelievers will be raised, not two resurrections (a resurrection of believers before the millennium begins, and a resurrection of unbelievers to judgment after the end of the millennium).
3. The idea of glorified believers and sinners living on earth together is too difficult to accept.
4. If Christ comes in glory to reign on the earth, then how could people still persist in sin?
5. There seems to be no convincing purpose for such a millennium. Once the church age has ended and Christ has returned, then what is the reason for delaying the start of the eternal state?

The Context of Revelation 20

“Jesus comes in judgment in 19:11–21, slays his enemies, and throws the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire (19:20, 21). Then Satan is bound for a thousand years (20:1–3), and during those thousand years resurrected believers reign with Christ on earth (20:4–6). At the end of the thousand years, Satan is released and deceives the nations, led by Gog of the land of Magog, as prophesied in Ezekiel 38, 39, in a final rebellion. Note that in Ezekiel 38, 39 in the latter days Gog attacks the land that has experienced eschatological restoration (cf. especially Ezekiel 38:8, 11, 12). Satan’s final rebellion is defeated in 20:7–10, and then 20:11–15 shows the final judgment at the great white throne. Just as the defeat of Gog of Magog in Ezekiel 38, 39 is followed by the description of the new heaven and earth in the form of a cosmic temple in Ezekiel 40–48, so also the defeat of Gog of Magog in 20:7–10 is followed, after the final judgment, by a new heaven and new earth as a cosmic temple in Revelation 21, 22.” (James M. Hamilton)