if you ask a dispensationalist like me, well, yes, the 1000 year period stipulated in rev. 20 is literal.
1) amellinialist deny this interpretation saying that we are not to literally interpret it as such because the book of rev. is a book replete with symbols and so the one thousand they say is symbollic.
but this arguement forgets the fact that NOT ALL in the book is symbollic. studying the immediate context of revelation 20 will lead us to realize that the 1000 year period is not symbollic.
2) some posit the arguement that in other books of the Bible the 1000 years is symbollic and not literal citing 2 Peter 3:8 and Psalms 90:4.
Ps 90:4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night.
2Pe 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day
But read it again. 1000 years in these two verses are all literal.
For a [literal] thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past......
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing; that with the Lord [literal] one day [24 hours] is AS a [literal] thousand years, and a [literal] thousand years as [literal] one day [24 hours].
Psalms is saying that literal 1000 years is like yesterday when it is over.
Peter is saying that to God Almighty who inhabits eternity literal 1000 years is like literal one day and vice versa.
God is not confined and limited by time.
So the real score is: every other mention of a thousand years in the Bible refers to a literal time frame. Why not this one here [in revelation 20]?
thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
