The Coming Millennium

25-08-2025 - Posted by Geert-Jan
Originally posted on March 30, 2000 – by Andre Piet

The following article appeared in the March issue (2000) of the magazine Profetisch Perspectief

At last the moment has come. The year two thousand has begun. The year two thousand after Christ, we say. What we mean is: two thousand years after the birth of Christ. The wording “after Christ” could give an uninformed outsider the impression that our calendar counts from Christ’s departure. After all, only then does the time “after Christ” begin. The following article draws your attention to what can rightly be called the year 2000 after Christ.

“After Two Days”

The millennium shift that this article addresses does not take the birth of Jesus Christ as its starting point but the year of His ascension. The year, therefore, also of His death and resurrection. The year in which He could rightly say: “I will go away, I will return to My place.” Read the following significant words from Hosea 5 and 6:

14 For I am as a lion to Ephraim, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I tear and go, I carry away, and there is none delivering.
15 I go—I return to My place, till they confess their guilt, and have sought My face; in their distress they do seek Me speedily.

1 “Come, and we turn back unto Jehovah, For He hath torn, and He doth heal us, He smiteth, and He bindeth us up.
2 He doth revive us after two days, In the third day He doth raise us up, And we live before Him.
3 And we know—we pursue to know Jehovah, As the morning His going forth is prepared, And He cometh in as rain to us, As gathered rain—sprinkling earth.”
— Hosea 5:14–6:3 (YLT)

In this passage the LORD is spoken of as returning to His place, heaven. And about the subsequent fate of the people of Israel. In just a few strokes, more than 19 centuries of salvation history are laid out. Or should we in this context speak of disaster history? Be that as it may, this period of disaster, as always thank God, comes to an end. In unmistakable terms Hosea mentions an “until.” Set out point by point, this “until” has the following characteristics:

1. they will feel guilty;
2. it will make them afraid;
3. they will longingly look for Me;
4. they will return to the LORD;
5. after two days they will be revived;
6. on the third day they will be raised up;
7. then the LORD will come to them as the dawn and as the latter rain.

Just as Ezekiel in his famous 37th chapter, Hosea 6 describes the death and resurrection of Israel. And the associated return of the LORD. For that is crystal clear in this passage: when Israel repents, then the Lord will return. More on that shortly. What interests us most at this point is the remarkable, cryptic way in which the when of all this is described: “after two days” and “on the third day.” However we turn it, whether we understand it or not, this is a time indication. Most commentators go no further than to suggest that we may perhaps see in it a reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus we read in the annotations of the Statenvertaling translation on these verses:

“… thus these beautiful Evangelical words (…) may fittingly be interpreted of the resurrection of our Savior and Head Jesus Christ on the third day, and of the glorious fruits which (…) His church enjoys from it.”

Is this passage thereby “fittingly interpreted”? No, on the contrary. Hosea 6 does not speak of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for it says: “He will revive us.” Nor does it speak of “His church” but of Ephraim and Judah. We do not need to “interpret” here but simply to read and believe. Hosea unmistakably speaks of Israel’s restoration and of the return of the LORD. “After two days” and “on the third day.” What do these expressions mean? In other words, what is one day to the Lord?

What We Must Not Overlook

These questions lead us naturally to the third chapter of the second letter of Peter. This same Peter once, decades earlier, on the temple square, delivered a speech to the men of Israel. He told them that when they would repent, “times of refreshing” would come. Then also the Christ, who was received up into heaven “until the times of restoration of all things,” would be sent back [1]. The entire preaching and the accompanying signs in the book of Acts stand in that perspective. Gradually, however, an opposite development emerges. For although tens of thousands of Jews became believers [2], Israel’s leaders remained enemies of the Gospel. The end of Acts describes the dramatic outcome of that fact. By the mouth of the apostle to the nations, Paul, it is declared that Israel can (for the time being) no longer repent and therefore neither be restored by the Lord [3]. Salvation makes a detour to the nations. From prison Paul makes known a new dispensation (administration) [4].

Back to Peter. In his old age he writes the following in his spiritual testament:

3 This first: knowing that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking according to their own desires, 4 and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers did fall asleep, all things so remain from the beginning of the creation. (…)
8 But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Peter states explicitly that despite the disappointment over the apparent delay of Christ’s return, the promise has not been withdrawn. There is not even talk of postponement or delay: “The Lord is not slow concerning the promise.” Peter does, however, by this time reckon with millennia. That is unimaginable for someone who at first thought in terms of, at most, decades. The general notion even existed that the apostle John would never have to die, because he was thought to remain alive until the return of Jesus Christ [5]. But now, Peter writes with the utmost emphasis: “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Twice he speaks of a day… and twice of a thousand years. Taken literally, this statement means that when around 2030 two thousand years will have passed since Christ’s departure, for the Lord only… two days will have passed. Two days! Is this the key to unlocking the cryptic statement of Hosea 6? Indeed, in Peter we find the missing puzzle piece for Hosea. The “two days” in Hosea point to two millennia!

Longsuffering

Peter adds something more:

9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as certain count slackness; but is longsuffering toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

The usual explanation of this verse is: the Lord delays His return in order to still give people the opportunity to repent so that they will not be lost. If this explanation were correct, then it would mean that the Lord largely fails in His purpose. After all, the longer He waits, the more people are also lost. How many hundreds of millions of lost ones would it not have spared if He had already returned in the days of the apostles?

Moreover, Paul states in Romans 9:19 that no one resists God’s will. The word for “will” that Paul uses there is identical to the word used in 2 Peter 3:9. It is the word boulomai, which denotes “intention.” God’s boulomai is “irresistible,” Paul writes. If God intends the repentance of all, then all will repent. Period.

Does this mean that all people must first come to repentance before the Lord will return? No, from the Bible we know better. But Peter also did not write a “general epistle.” As “apostle of the circumcision,” he addresses the people of Israel [6]. This second letter, like the first, is addressed to “sojourners of the dispersion” [7]. The “you” of 2 Peter 3:9 are Jews. The Lord is longsuffering and waits until all of Israel will come to repentance. With this realization we suddenly stand on solid “Old Testament” ground. For when (the remnant of) Israel repents, then the Lord will return. We already saw this earlier in Hosea. And Zechariah 13 foretells that in the tribulation two-thirds of the people will indeed perish, but that one-third will remain in the land. They will call upon the name of the LORD. And all Israel will be saved! [8] That is what the Lord is waiting for. 2 Peter 3:9 thus places us right in the midst of the environment of Israel’s prophets.

The Third Day

The third day is by definition a special day in the Bible. It is the day of a new beginning, of new life. It already starts in Genesis 1. On the third day land rises out of the (death) waters and life appears for the first time. Abraham received his only son (figuratively speaking) back from the dead… on the third day [9]. The LORD descended on the mountain, before the eyes of the people of Israel and with loud trumpet sound… on the third day [10]. Esther received the golden scepter… on the third day [11]. Hezekiah appeared as reborn in the house of God… on the third day [12]. Jonah was spat out by the great fish to still carry out his great task… on the third day [13]. The wedding at Cana took place… on the third day [14]. And “last but not least,” Jesus Christ Himself, the last Adam, rose as Firstfruit in incorruptibility… on the third day! [15]

Should it then surprise us that the revival of Israel and the return of the Lord will also take place on “the third day”? The third day of a thousand years. The day of Israel’s acceptance. Listen to the apostle Paul: “For if the casting away of them is the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” [16]

A Wondrous Distance
In Joshua 3 we find the account of the crossing of the Jordan. The Ark goes before, and the people of Israel follow. From the letter to the Hebrews we know that the Ark refers to Israel’s Messiah: He in whose innermost being the law was written. He who accomplished the reconciliation of the world. He who went through the Jordan of death to bring to light, as Firstfruit, new life on the third day (!). Israel will follow her Messiah. But at a distance. As Joshua once said to the people: “yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about two thousand cubits…” (Josh. 3:4).

Footnotes

1. Acts 3:19–21
2. Acts 21:20
3. Acts 28:25–31
4. Ephesians 3
5. John 21:19–21
6. Galatians 2:7–9
7. 1 Peter 1:1 & 2 Peter 3:1
8. Romans 11:26
9. Genesis 22:3 / Hebrews 11:18
10. Exodus 19:11,16
11. Esther 5:1
12. 2 Kings 20:8
13. Jonah 1:17
14. John 2:1
15. 1 Corinthians 15:4
16. Romans 11:15

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