Revelation (The John Walvoord Prophecy Commentaries)

by John Walvoord

Premillenarians have objected to these types of arguments as being inconclusive. The six mentions of “a thousand years” in Revelation 20 are sufficient to establish the doctrine as scriptural. Amillennarians base much of their position on the argument that numbers in Revelation, such as the thousand years, are symbolic and thus not to be understood literally. Thomas ably refutes this presupposition,6 and MacArthur adds, “It is highly doubtful that any symbolic number would be repeated six times in a text, as a thousand is here.”7 Hoehner notes, “Whenever the number one thousand is used in Revelation, it refers to something definite.”7 Examples are the 144,000 (Rev. 4:7; 14:1, 3); the 1,260 days (Rev. 11:3; 12:6); the 1,600 stadia (Rev. 14:20); and the 12,000 stadia (Rev. 21:16).