The Mountain of the Lord’s House

But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Micah 4:1-3

Unlike the full preterist, and indeed many of the partial preterists out there today, I do not believe scriptures such as the above are fulfilled.  The scripture clearly points out a greater day that is yet to come, which by all appearances have not been fulfilled.  For example,

[I]n the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Matthew 13:30, portion

I would say, for most of us, it is quite clear that we are not “in the barn” yet.  This parable of Jesus, like the passage above, is simply not fulfilled, along with numerous other scriptures.

Now, granted, the majority of Scripture is fulfilled, simply because the vast majority of the major prophets spoke to things either relating to the centuries surrounding themselves, or to the coming of Messiah, but that does not change the simple truth that we look forward to a glorious day.

Of note, however, is the over abundance of readiness to attribute every passage such as the above specifically to the Millennial reign of Christ.  While this is quite common, it should be evident from the above that there is no absolute connection between this passage the thousand year reign of Christ.

Indeed, the Millennium talked about in Revelation, while I believe it to be a literal 1000-year period, is often idealized in its content, or quality.  That is, who is to say that the description above will be the Millennium, and that this supposed Millennium is a fully glorious time?

If we were to take the falling of the rock in Daniel 2:44 to be Millennial Kingdom, which I do not agree with, but even so if we did, that rock would still have to grow and become a mountain to fill the entire Earth.

Just as the Israelites did not have all their enemies defeated at once, lest the land be overrun with wild beasts, this growth of the Kingdom does not necessitate it being glorious, but rather, exapanding, possibly against pressure.

There is no guarantee that this season of the Millennium will be without wars, but, to the contrary, it most likely will involve some conflict.

Further, the description given in Revelation 20 only indicates that the dragon himself will be bound, that is, the master-mind.  If you imprison the head of a mob crime circuit, the lesser factions may still exists, but without their leader to coordinate, they will be unable to function as a cohesive whole.

Finally, at the end of the thousand years of Revelation 20, the dragon is released from his prison.  We have to wonder why this is.  Was it simply a non-life sentence, or do conditions on the Earth warrant his release.  Either way, the concept that “neither shall they learn war anymore” would then have to be contextually understood, because they most certainly will need some type of war knowledge at the end of it.  If, after the end of Revelation’s Millennium, they had no knowledge whatsoever of combat, they would be ill-prepared for the battle that follows directly after.