Premillennialism (Part 2)
The second fundamental aspect of premillennialism is that Jesus, at His next coming, will return to Jerusalem to establish His kingdom and to rule on David's throne for 1000 years. Is this true? No, it is not true for several reasons.

First, as we reiterated in Part 1, Jesus established His kingdom in the first century (cf. Mark 9:1; Acts 1:8; 2:1ff). Since Christ's kingdom is eternal (cf. Dan. 2:44), it is still in existence and will remain so forever. Thus, Jesus is not going to come back to Earth in order to establish His kingdom. He has already done that, once and for all!

Second, Jesus is not coming back to Jerusalem in order to reign on David's throne for 1000 years. David's throne is a spiritual throne, and it is in heaven! This can be deduced from Acts 2:29-36. Jesus was raised from the dead in the first century to rule on David's throne (cf. 2:30). However, it is clear that Christ was reigning in heaven after His ascension (cf. 2:33,34), and He has been reigning there for nearly 2000 years now! He will rule there until all of His enemies are destroyed--which would include death (cf. 2:35; I Cor. 15:25,26). In other words, He will rule there until the end of the world when He returns for final judgment (not a 1000 year reign on Earth). Since God intended to raise Jesus from the dead to sit on David's throne, and since Jesus was raised from the dead and is now sitting on a throne at the Father's right hand, is it not reasonable to understand that the throne upon which Christ now reigns is "David's throne," in a spiritual sense? There is nothing in these verses that requires Jesus to sit on a physical throne in physical Jerusalem (cf. Eph. 1:19-23).

Third, if God failed to properly establish His kingdom the first time (as premillennialists allege), who is to say that He won't fail again? To even suggest that God was caught off guard or surprised by the Jewish rejection of Christ is ludicrous and reflects very poorly upon the omniscience of God! If God didn't know how things were going to unfold in the first century, then what confidence can we have that He knows any better how things will happen at Christ's return?! When a doctrine implies an error or false position, that doctrine itself is false.

Finally, I Thessalonians 4:16-18 reads - "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." Paul here speaks of the second coming of Christ. It will not be a secret event; everyone will know of His coming (cf. Rev. 1:7). All those who have died will be raised and those who are still alive will be changed (cf. I Cor. 15:51,52). Most significantly for our study on premillennialism is that the faithful followers of Jesus will meet Him "in the air"! There is no indication that Jesus will set foot on Earth again, let alone rule on a physical throne in Jerusalem for 1000 years! When Jesus comes again, He will destroy the physical universe (cf. II Pet. 3:10-13). Friends, the second fundamental aspect of premillennialism is also false.