The plainest reading of Revelation 20 is a literal thousand-year reign of Christ. The apostle John mentions it six times in seven verses. Why not take John’s number literally?

Daniel would have. Toward the end of his life, the prophet Daniel called on God to forgive the Jewish people and return them to Jerusalem. What prompted the prayer? He was reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). At the time, sixty-seven years of captivity had passed. Daniel assumed it meant seventy literal years, so he prayed for God to keep his promise.

In the book of Revelation, John promised a thousand-year reign of Christ. I believe Daniel would have taken the number at face value; I choose to do the same.

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