Will the millennium reign be in heaven or earth?

Q. Will the millennial reign be on earth or in heaven? Revelation 20:6 seems to indicate that we'll be priests with Christ, and we will reign with Him for a thousand years. Then Isaiah 65:25 speaks of the wolf and lamb feeding together.

The passage in Isaiah and Revelation actually do not go together sequentially. When I first read about he millennium, I understood it to mean a thousand years of peace here on earth. But a problem occurred when I realized the sequence of events that happens when Jesus comes.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, we see the description of Jesus descending from the clouds and take up His followers. This is what is called the rapture being caught up. He then says, "I will take you to my Father's house and where I am you may be also." This is where He takes us to the mansions that He had prepared for us.

Then in Revelation 21, we read, "I saw the New Jerusalem come down from God." But in Revelation 20, it says that we are living and reigning with Him. So if New Jerusalem are where our mansions are, and it had not come down to earth, where are we going to be during the 1,000 years? I believe this means we are not going to be on the earth.

Another clue comes from Isaiah, where we get a picture of what the condition of the earth will be during the 1,000 years. It says, "I'll make the earth utterly empty. I'll turn it upside down." And then in Jeremiah 4:23, we read, "I beheld the earth and lo, it was without form and void. And the heavens had no light." Of course, when you first read this, it sounds like it's right out from Genesis, but if you keep reading: "I beheld the mountains and lo, they trembled and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld and lo, there was no man and all the birds of Heaven were fled."

Clearly, this means the mountains were there, but then they were gone. It continues, "I beheld and the fruitful place was a wilderness and all the cities were broken down." Now you have cities that were broken down, so it is not the garden of Eden or a pre-creation. But what broke them down? The Bible says, "The presence of the Lord and His fierce anger." It goes on to say that there is no life on earth. Jeremiah also says that the slain of the Lord will cover the earth from one end to another and there's no one to lament, to mourn, or to bury them. Also, in Isaiah 24:1 we learn, "Behold the Lord makes the earth empty. He makes it waste. He scatters abroad its inhabitants."

So the earth is in a condition where nobody's alive, it's dark, and the cities are broken down. When could this be? Well, it's very simple. When the Lord comes down, the righteous are caught up with Him, the righteous dead are resurrected, the living are destroyed by the brightness of His coming, and as Revelation 20 says, the rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years are finished.

Jesus also speaks of the second resurrection. It's a time when the wicked come forth from their graves at the end of the 1,000 years for their judgment meaning there are two distinct resurrections. When I first heard that I thought, "What?!" But I kept studying and it became very clear.

This means that there won't be anybody alive on earth during the 1,000 years. The earth is desolate and dark, and Satan is bound. And he has no one to tempt or manipulate. And so this means that we will be in heaven with Christ, until we descend with Him when New Jerusalem comes to the earth.

We have a great Study Guide you can get called "The Worldwide Blackout," free from Amazing Facts, that explains the millennium in greater detail.