Re: matthew 18
By interpreting it literally of course before we've even considered what the prose sections of the NT have to say on the subject. Or are you admitting that this is the only instance where the millennium is explicitly mentioned in the Bible? If so, that alone should be sufficient warning to you to tread carefully.
Furthermore, if an earthly millennial kingdom is so important to a correct understanding of the future, is it not at least passing strange that the rest of the NT is not only silent on the subject, but contains a whole army of references that flatly contradict such a notion? Think about it, not a single anthropological description of this future kingdom in the NT, but numerous quotations from the OT which, by common consent, are regarded as seminal references to the kingdom, yet all applied to the present gospel age.
Sorry refreshed, but to demand yet another earthly, visible, materialistic, carnal (ad nauseam) fulfilment of these prophecies is precisely that - pandering to our baser instincts. It is the same motivation that led the Jews to repeatedly demand a sign of Jesus. You should remind yourself of the answers He gave them. You'll find them in Mt 12 &16, and Jn 2 & 6.