Will Jesus Be an Earthly Ruler?

Articles

Lance Byers
05/24/24 - Theology

Many in the religious community have a belief that Jesus will, one day, come back to this earth to rule for a thousand years, or a millennium. This idea is called “pre-millennialism” since we would be living in a time before Jesus’ reign as king of this earth for a literal thousand years before the judgement. While Revelation 20 is certainly an exciting and necessary read for Christians, one must ask if it’s literal or figurative.

The symbology in Revelation is undeniable. Even those who claim that the numbers are literal and able to be manipulated through arithmetic to get real numbers, will acknowledge the highly symbolic nature of the numbers themselves: 7 and 3 relating to God and perfection, 6 referring to failure, combining 6 three times meaning perfect failure or Satan, 12 and 24 referring to humanity in some capacity, etc. All this symbology calls into question the “literal” nature of virtually anything in the Revelation and is worthy of a deep study of the text.

If the Messiah is going to rule for a thousand years in a perfect kingdom ruled by that Messiah, and we understand that Jesus IS that Messiah why didn’t He establish that kingdom when he arrived the first time and end our suffering in sin for all eternity by ending humanity somewhere just prior to the year 1,000? Ezekiel was looking forward to this happening and is one of the reasons why the Jews were looking for an earthly king when Jesus came.

Jesus did have opportunities to become an earthly king. One example is when Jesus fed the 5,000, the people saw who Jesus was as the Messiah talked about in scripture, and misunderstanding those scriptures, were going to take Him, by force, if necessary, to be their king. (John 6:14-15) Even His disciples were still thinking He would be an earthly king as evidenced by their arguments about who would be greatest in the (earthly) kingdom. (Example: Mark 10:37-41)) In this same example, Jesus hid from the crowd after sending his disciples away so they would not get caught up in this mob.

What confuses many is the fact that Jesus IS King. He even acknowledges this to Pilate in John 18:34-38 after Pilate, hearing people saying that Jesus is the “King of the Jews” directly asks Jesus if it’s true. Jesus’ answer is the key to the discussion at hand:

“You say that I am a king. For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

If this was Jesus’ purpose, and we are still in a pre-millennial situation, then only one conclusion can be drawn: Jesus is a failure; He failed in His purpose and must come to this earth a second time to finish the job and create that millennial kingdom.

So, Pilate asks, “What is truth?” Jesus’ words are the truth, and if we listen to His words written down for us just prior to this statement, we can understand why Jesus is not going to rule any kingdom on earth. In verse 36, Jesus tells Pilate:

“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

If Jesus was going to be an earthly king, it would have been done. His power and authority are omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. (Psalm 139) There is nothing we could have done to Him had it not been His plan. God is not capable of failure. Failure is what Satan has chosen and is tempting all of us to follow the same path to destruction. Jesus will not rule on this earth. His kingdom is established, and we are in the time before the judgment. That kingdom is the church, and His reign is of the spiritual places. We all submit to Him and humble our spirit to His will and no longer wait for that thousand year reign for we understand that He is king now reigning from the heavenly places and speaking to us through His Word.

Lance Byers