The Lost Thousand Years Between Two Resurrections
by Rev. Nollie Malabuyo
In the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds (or tares) in Matthew 13:24–30 (with its interpretation in Matthew 13:36–43), Jesus explains that the Son of Man sows good seed—the children of the kingdom—in the world. But the devil came at night and sowed weeds—the children of Satan—among the good seed. At the close of the age, the Son of Man will send His angels to separate out of His kingdom all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. The righteous will then shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Another parable in parallel to this is the Parable of the Net in Matthew 13:47–50. Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a net that catches all kinds of fish. When the net is full at the end of the age, the net is drawn by men who separate the good fish (the righteous) from the bad (the wicked). The good fish are kept, and the bad are thrown away into the fiery furnace. How could there be an interval of one thousand years between the drawing of the good and the bad when there is only one net that hauls in fish of both kinds in one catch?
Based on these passages alone, the resurrection of all the dead—righteous and wicked—will take place, not as two events, but as one event at the end of the world. These clear texts contradict the dispensational premillennialist teaching of multiple resurrections. In the dispensationalist scheme of the end times, the righteous will be resurrected at the so-called Secret Rapture, and 1,007 years later, the wicked will in turn be resurrected, judged and sent to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11–15). The intervening period includes a seven-year tribulation after the rapture and a thousand-year millennial reign of Christ.
This scheme is classic eisegesis, or reading ideas into the text. Because dispensationalists presuppose a literal millennium, every passage has to be examined through the millennial lens. However, in addition to the above, many other texts show that this imaginary thousand-year separation between two resurrections is inserted by dispensationalists without even an iota of Scripture as basis, in contradiction to the biblical teaching of a general resurrection on “the last day.” Let us examine some of these different points of view.
One Resurrection on the Last Day
Several Pauline texts teach that the righteous will be resurrected when Christ returns. At “the coming of the Lord . . . the dead in Christ will rise first,” preceding the righteous who are still alive (1 Thessalonians 4:15–16). Christians “await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20–21). Christ, being “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” will be resurrected first, “then at his coming those who belong to Christ” will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23).
When would this resurrection of the righteous happen? Jesus repeatedly points out—four times to be exact—that it will be on the “last day” (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54). If the wicked are resurrected a thousand years after the righteous, how can the resurrection of the righteous be on “the last day?” As well, in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus foretells that when the Son of Man comes “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”—unmistakable second coming language—His angels “will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29–31).
Several texts are very clear that there is one general resurrection at the end of the age. Daniel 12:1–2 speaks of the awakening of “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth” “at the time of the end” (Dan. 11:40)—“some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Jesus uses similar language when he said in John 5:28–29 that “an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” Paul also preached “a resurrection [anastasin, singular] of both the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15). Can “an hour” span a thousand years? Can two resurrections separated by a thousand years be properly called a single resurrection?
http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/eschatology/dispensationalism/the-lost-thousand-years-between-two-resurrections-by-rev-nollie-malabuyo/#
Matthew 12:32
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,
either in this age or in the age to come.
Mark 10:28-30
Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!”
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions)
and in the age to come, eternal life.
two ages.
that's it.
