Hi,I am asking to see if the thousand years come before or after the war of Gog and Magog? My friend thinks the war of Gog and magog comes first. I think the thousand years come first. I am going by what it says in Revelation,20:4-9. I don't want to say something that is wrong. I would like your input in this. Thanks Caroline Ray.

Some very sincere and dedicated "Christians" look for the Lord to return and reign for a literal thousand years. However, we must question, in a book of symbols, the duration of a thousand years? In Revelation 20:1-7, the Greek language does not support the picture that our English words seem to give. "to chilioi (the thousands = plural) etos (year = singular)" give us the sentence structure of "the thousands year." The Greek words, chilia etē are accusative of the extent of time.


As to the term "thousand years," it is a mystic number among the Jews. Midrash Tillin, commenting on Psalms 40:15, "Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us," adds "by Babylon, Greece, and the Romans; and in the days of the Messiah. How many are the days of the Messiah? Rabbi Elieser, the son of R. Jose, of Galilee, said, The days of the Messiah are a thousand years." Under the word qr’a, Rabbi Aruch says: "There is a tradition in the house of Elias. The righteous, of whom the holy blessed God shall raise from the dead, shall not return again to the dust; but for the space of a thousand years, in which the holy blessed God shall renew the world, they shall have wings like the wings of eagles, and shall fly above the waters." It appears that this phraseology is purely rabbinical.

Jesus spoke of a special "year" in Luke, when He stood in the synagogue and read from Isaiah. He then stopped and sat down. He said… "this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears." Those Jews heard the announcement of the acceptable "year" of the Lord. It was the Jubilee year when slaves were freed and debts were erased from the books. It was the year of liberty for all. Jesus said that the acceptable year of their Lord had arrived and He was Lord of it. This "chilioi" year was the time of Jubilee. If one tries to make this year stretch out over a literal one thousand years, it will not work in other passages and typology. Jesus reigned on a heavenly throne through the year of Jubilee, which was not for a thousand years. Read Peter’s statement again:


"But this one thing, forget not beloved, That one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."


Here, this Greek word for "a thousand" is chilia and was a special span of time, proclaimed to the people. Paul called it "the acceptable year of the Lord." The humiliation of death, entombment, resurrection and the exaltation of ascension into the Father’s Rights were the initiation of that Jubilee year. It lasted the same amount of years that David reigned over Judah and Israel. At the end of the chiliad or kingdom reign of the Messiah, He handed His it over to the Father at "the end," in AD 70.