Gwen Frangs / Cambridge, UK / 29 May 2021
In Revelation 19:7 we are told that the marriage of the Lamb has come and in Revelation 19:9 John is instructed to write: ‘Blessed are those who have been invited to the supper of the marriage feast of the Lamb.’ In Revelation 21 the bride is taken to the place that Jesus has prepared for her to live, the new earth (Revelations 21:2; 9 and 10) and the marriage is consummated when Jesus comes and lives within her (Revelation 22:3).
However, it seems very strange that the wedding feast is mentioned in Revelation 19:7-9, but that the actual feast itself is not mentioned anywhere in the remainder of Revelation 19 or in Revelation 20, 21 and 22. What makes it stranger is that the wedding motif runs through the entire New Testament in an elaborate and extensive manner1. So, it does not make sense that the highlight of the wedding ceremony, the wedding feast would not be described in Revelation.
When pondering this seemingly strange exclusion the questions that came to my mind were that if the marriage is announced in Revelation 19:7 and the bride goes to her new residence in Revelation 21:2, is it possible that the actual marriage feast takes place somewhere in scripture between Revelation 19:9 and Revelation 21. Also, is it possible that we have not noticed that it is there because it is not explained in great depth and that it takes a thorough understanding of the Jewish wedding system in order to be able to identify it as being there? I concluded that we must look very carefully at Revelation 19:11-21 and at Revelation 20, through the lens of what occurred within the traditional Jewish wedding system to see if the wedding feast may actually be found in these portions of scripture.
The Millennial Reign is described in Revelation 20:4-6:
And I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgement was given to them and the souls of those having been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God and those who did not worship the beast nor the image of him and did not take the mark upon their forehead or upon their hand and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not again until shall have been completed the thousand years. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one having a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has not power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him a thousand years.
Revelations 20:4-6 Interlinear
In Revelation 20:4 the word χίλια (chilia) meaning ‘a thousand’ is not an arbitrary number. It is a clue placed there by the Holy Spirit so that we can understand what Revelation 20:4-6 mean. It is explained in 1 Peter 3:8:
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
2 Peter 3:8 NIV
This clue in 2 Peter 3:8 tells us that the thousand year reign described in Revelation 20:6 is a day in Heaven. In terms of time in Heaven a thousand years is only one day.
In Revelation 20:4-6 we see that the church sits on thrones and that they reign in Heaven during this day. According to Jewish tradition a man and woman are treated as royalty on one day and that day is their wedding day. A Jewish bride even sits on a throne-like chair at the beginning of the wedding ceremony. An excellent article about the Jewish wedding ceremony by Chabad.org says the following:
Our sages tell us that on their wedding day, the bridegroom is like a king and the bride is like a queen. Special powers are granted to them from On High; they are made sovereign over their own lives and over their surroundings. All their previous sins and failings are forgiven, and they are empowered to chart a new future for themselves and bestow blessing and grace to their loved ones and friends. It is to honor their special status that we hold a reception for them, as for visiting royalty.
Christ and the church can be described as ‘visiting royalty’ in Heaven because they do not remain in Heaven after the wedding but come down to live on the new earth in Revelation 21. Revelation 21 and 22 indicate that Jesus, who is God in the form of a man, was not created to permanently rule from Heaven, but that the plan of God was that Jesus would live permanently on the new earth and rule over everything from there.
In Revelation 20:4 we are told that it has been given to three groups of people to judge:
- The group which is designated by the word ‘they’.
- The souls of those having been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God
- Those who did not worship the beast and the image of him and did not take the mark
The apostle Paul provides the answer to who the first group is in 1 Corinthians 6:
6 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!
1 Corinthians 6:1-6 NIV
It is clear from the above verses that those who will judge are the church and, therefore, the ‘they’ referred to in Revelation 20:4 is the church. But we see that the other two groups are also included as judges. We are told that it has been given to them to judge. In other words, a gift has been given to these people by God. Traditionally the Jewish bridegroom gives his bride a wedding gift on their wedding day and Christ’s wedding gift to His bride is the fact that they can participate in the judgement of the dead. The power to judge is a gift from Christ to them. It means that the Christian’s who had been martyred and persecuted can confront those who wronged them and to judge these people. This is Christ’s great wedding gift on their wedding day to His bride. We see from 1 Corinthians 6:3 that they will even judge angels. In Psalm 82:7 God tells the evil angels that they will die like men. Therefore these angels must be among the ‘great’ dead spoken of in Revelation 20.
The New International Version and a number of other Bible translations have completely botched their translation of Revelation 20:4. Because Revelation 20:4 does not explain who the subject is that is designated by the word ‘they’, these translators decided to change the subject by designating the subject to be ‘those who had been given authority to judge’. They achieved this by inserting the words ‘ And I saw the souls’ into the verse . You will notice that these five words are not found in the original Greek. Therefore, the first part of the verse now reads as: ‘4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God….’
The NIV translators have added words to scripture. Exactly what John said at the end of Revelation should not be done. The effect of adding these five extra words is that it is no longer clear that all three groups are given the gift of being able to judge. This obscures the fact that the thousand year period is a wedding day. Therefore, the fact that the NIV translators, and a number of other Bible translators, chose to deviate from what was in the original Greek text has obscured the fact that the Millennial Reign is a wedding day.
In traditional Jewish weddings the groom would return after a betrothal period, which lasted a year or two, to collect his bride from her father’s house, where she had been preparing for the wedding. In Revelation 19:11-21 Jesus returns with his angels and vanquishes the beast and the false prophet. In Revelation 20:2-3 Satan is bound by a single angel and cast into the Abyss (Revelation 20:2-3). Although nothing is explicitly stated about believers being removed from the earth after this point it seems fair to assume that after the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) is defeated, it is then possible for the believers who are on the earth to be raised into the air, as a group, to meet the Lord as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV
The fact that this return of Jesus to defeat the beast and the false prophet occurs in Revelation 19:11-21, which is only a few verses prior to Revelation 20:4-6, lends greater weight to the idea that the Millennial Reign is the church’s wedding day and the church, the bride of Christ, is collected from the earth at that time by Jesus.
Understanding that the Millennial Reign is the wedding day of Christ, and the church has implications for understanding where the Millennial Reign takes place. Those scholars who have taught that the Millennial Reign takes place on the earth have failed to take the wedding motif into account when studying Revelation 20:4-6. Taking the wedding motif in the final chapters of Revelation into account indicates that the Millennial Reign occurs in Heaven and not on the earth. The traditional Jewish wedding took place at the groom’s father’s house. Traditionally the Jewish bride lived at the groom’s father’s house after the wedding. She was not returned to her father’s house to live at any point after the wedding. Jesus told His disciples that in His father’s house are many rooms and that He was going to prepare a place for them:
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
John 14:2-4 NIV
He said that He would come back and take them back there to be with Him to His Father’s house and that they will remain with Him always. He does not say that there will be a stop over on the earth before leaving to go to the Father’s house, nor does He say that they are going to leave the Father’s house at any point and return to the earth. In His parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30, the church signified by the wheat is gathered into the barn. It is not returned to the field.
However, confusion is caused by Revelation 20:9:
9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
Revelation 20:9 NIV
Firstly, it should be clarified that the camp is the city of Jerusalem as this is not clear in every Bible translation. Hebrews 13:11-14 clarifies that the camp is Jerusalem:
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Hebrews 13:11-14 NIV
Revelation 20:9 does indeed make it seem as if the church is still living on the earth and that Satan marches against them. The Greek word ἁγίων (hagiōn) is used in Revelation 20:9 to describe God’s people who live in Jerusalem. This word is translated ‘saints’ in the Interlinear Bible and it is used on a number of occasions earlier in Revelation to refer to the church. However, nowhere in previous chapters in Revelation is there any indication that the Jewish people occupying Jerusalem have been removed. Furthermore, the reference to Gog and Magog verifies that these are Jewish people living in Jerusalem because in the prophecy in Ezekiel 38 and 39 the attack is against the Israelites. Also, if this was the church it would have been referred to as the new Jerusalem because John makes that distinction calling the bride of Christ the new Jerusalem in the very next chapter, Revelation 21. Therefore, these are Jewish people living in Jerusalem and Satan gathers armies to march on Jerusalem to destroy them. The fact that they are referred to as God’s people must indicate that by this time Israel has come to serve Jesus. The apostle Paul said that this would happen in Romans 11:
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way[e] all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion;
Romans 11:25-26 NIV
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
Therefore, it is possible that the return of Jesus and the removal of the believers who remain alive on the earth may make such an impression on Israel that they finally believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that they are saved.
I have read articles that say that Jesus has to reign on the earth during the Millennial Reign in order to fulfil a number of old Testament covenants between God and Israel. However, the apostle Paul makes it clear that the true Israel is a spiritual Israel:
6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[a]8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
Romans 9:6-8 NIV
Therefore, the covenants do not have to be fulfilled on this old earth but will all be fulfilled on the new earth where Jesus will live in the new Jerusalem with the spiritual Israel.
Finally, in Revelations 21 a big deal is made about the fact that Jesus tabernacles with men on the new earth. It is clear from the text that this is considered to be a new and unique situation. It is a cause for celebration. However, it would not be a unique situation if it had already happened in Revelation 20. It wouldn’t be big news anymore. Everyone would be used to having Jesus living with them on the earth if He had already been living with believers on this earth for a thousand years. So, clearly, no such reign takes place on this earth.
Understanding that the Millennial Reign is Christ and the church’s wedding day helps us to understand another puzzling question which is why Satan is imprisoned for a thousand years and then released. If one understands the wedding motif, one understands that the reason that Satan is imprisoned for a thousand years is so that the wedding feast of Jesus and the church can take place without interruption. Jesus and His angels do not have to go off and fight Satan and His angels during that period because they have been safely locked away. Therefore, Jesus can enjoy his wedding day without being called away to go and fight against Satan and his angels.
In conclusion, five things point to the fact that Revelation 20:4-6 is the wedding day of Christ and the church:
- An extensive and elaborate wedding motif underlies the entire New Testament and it would be very strange indeed if the wedding day of Christ and the church was not mentioned in Revelation 20.
- The placement of verses within chapters 19, 21 and 22 all of which highlight the wedding motif. It would be strange that the motif does not occur in chapter 20 as well.
- Jesus vanquishes the beast, the false prophet and Satan in Revelation 19:11-21. Implicit in this is the fact that for the first time believers who are alive on the earth would be able to rise into the air on mass to meet Him, which mirrors the fetching of the bride from her father’s house by the bridegroom.
- The fact that the bride reigns in heaven for a period of one day in the same way that the Jewish bride in the traditional Jewish wedding system is treated as royalty on her wedding day.
- The gift to the bride of judgement of the dead mirrors the gift given to the bride by the bridegroom at the traditional Jewish wedding.
The false doctrine that the Millennial reign occurs on earth creates confusion. For example, it is hard to explain why we would be taken up into the air, as is the case in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, only to be taken right back down again? Also, it makes scripture seem to contradict itself. Why would Jesus say that when He returns He will take us to his Father’s house, if before we went there with Him we first have to reign with Him on the earth for a thousand years? These contradictions raise questions in people’s minds regarding the validity of Jesus’s teaching and create doubts regarding the ability of the New Testament authors to accurately receive information imparted to them from the Spirit of God. As Jesus’ teaching and the teaching of the New Testament authors form the bedrock of Christianity, any doctrine which chips away at the validity of this bedrock is an extremely dangerous doctrine indeed and needs to be eradicated from modern church teaching.
Notes:
1Jesus referred to Himself as the bridegroom and His life and ministry on the earth followed the pattern of a bridegroom purchasing a bride according to the elements of the traditional Jewish wedding system. The purchase price, which had to be paid to the bride’s father for the bride, was Jesus’ blood shed at Calvary. The drinking of wine to seal the wedding contract and the proclamation of the wedding blessings takes place when we take Communion. The ritual cleansing of the groom and the bride with water took place when Jesus was baptized at the beginning of His ministry and when believers are baptized after they are added to the church.
The giving of a ring to the bride by the bridegroom was fulfilled by Jesus giving the church the Holy Spirit, Who is the seal of our inheritance. The giving of gifts to the bride was fulfilled by Jesus giving the church the gifts of the Spirit and the ministry gifts of pastor, teacher, apostle, evangelist, and prophet. The marriage contract, which is read aloud during the wedding ceremony and promises that the groom will care for and provide for the bride, is the New Testament. The marriage vows take place when we confess Jesus before men, and He confesses us before His Father in Heaven.
The betrothal period, where the bride continues to live in her father’s house and prepare her wedding garments for the wedding, is the church age. The wedding garments are spoken of in Revelation 19 as being the righteous acts of the saints. During the betrothal period the groom returns to His father’s house and builds an extension to the house for himself and the bride to live in after the wedding. During the past two thousand years Jesus has been building a new heaven (a new universe) and a new earth for us. In the traditional Jewish wedding system, the groom had two witnesses. Jesus’ two witnesses are revealed in Revelation 11.