Let’s consider another key part of Revelation—determining when this all has/will be happening.  It focuses on one word—millennium. How long is a thousand years?

When it comes to the end times, it all depends on who you ask.

Near the end of his visions on the island of Patmos, John glimpses a glorious angelic being. The angel bursts forth from the heavens with a chain and a key in hand. Suddenly, a dragon appears as well—the same dragon who had slithered into Eden as a serpent and who whispered temptations in the Messiah’s ear in the deserts of Judea.

The divinely-empowered angel seizes the dragon, chains him, and hurls him into a bottomless pit where he will remain for “a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1-3). Throughout this span of a thousand years, the souls of martyrs and faithful witnesses live and reign with Christ (Revelation 20:4–5). In Christian theology, this thousand-year reign has become known as the “millennium,” from the Latin terms for “thousand” (mille) and “year” (annum).