John recorded that the martyrs “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4), and this comprises the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5-6), because those who were in the literal graves (Revelation 20:11-12) or who were buried in the sea (Revelation 20:13) didn’t live again, until the end of the thousand years (Revelation 20:5)! What can be understood from this?
John tells us that judgment (i.e. a verdict) was given to those who lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (Revelation 20:4), but this wasn’t done exclusively for the martyrs. The Lord also determined that all believers, including those still living out their physical lives would live and reign with Christ in heavenly places. Paul told his readers that they had been dead in their sins, but were quickened, i.e. born again (cp. John 3:3; 1Peter 1:23) or raised to life (Ephesians 2:1). In other words, while they walked in the course of this world (Ephesians 2:2-3), they were spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:5), but Christ quickened them and caused their spirits to live so they could sit in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6; Revelation 20:4). In other words, the death that John tells his readers they were raised out of was spiritual death, so, therefore, the first resurrection occurs for those who were physically alive but dead as far as spiritual things were concerned. They were raised to spiritual life, because they believed and obeyed the Gospel. Notice what Jesus says in the Gospel of John:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:24-29 KJV)
Jesus makes a distinction between those who hear and believe him (John 5:24) and those who are resurrected out of literal graves (John 5:28-29). Those who are resurrected out of literal graves are judged according to how they lived (John 5:29), but those, who are given everlasting life in John 5:24, live because they hear and believe Jesus (John 5:25). Moreover, Jesus describes this giving of life on his part as judgment, a verdict, if you will, that the Father had given him to exercise (John 5:27), and this is the same judgment or verdict that was given to those who lived and reigned with him for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4).
Therefore, according to the Apocalypse, the first resurrection has to do only with those who lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, and this affected only those living during the first century AD.[1] It had absolutely nothing to do with folks who were physically dead and rose from their graves (cp. Acts 2:29, 34). The resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 13:30, 36-42) wouldn’t occur until the end of the age (Matthew 13:39, 49) or after the millennium (Revelation 20:12-13).
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[1] See my earlier studies: The Millennium, a Period of Evaluation and What is the Millennium?
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8 responses to “The Millennium & the First Resurrection”
Greetings, Patricia, Lord bless you.
First off, I don’t see how the casting down of “Satan” in Revelation 12:12 has anything to do with his imprisonment in Revelation 20:3, 7. In previous studies, if have the bottomless pit as either death or ceasing to exist, so whatever “Satan” is he / it ceased to exist for a period of time–I have it between 6 AD and 66 AD, or the time when Rome directly ruled the Jewish state.
We have some fundamental difference here, Patricia, and that concerns Revelation 20. You go on to state what occurs in Revelation 21, but I haven’t published my studies of Revelation 21, yet, so I’d rather not comment on what is said there at this time.
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment.
Hi again Eddie,
I would need to review your post on the bottomless pit again, but I think we are more or less in agreement that the “bottomless pit” represents a changed CONDITION (not necessarily a place or a location) for the person or thing that is in that “pit”. In Christ’s case, being in the “abussos” bottomless pit (Romans10:7) did not mean that His physical body ceased to exist – only that it ceased to function in a living manner as it had before. In the case of Rev. 17:8’s Scarlet Beast of an independent Jewish state that was “about to arise from the “bottomless pit” in AD 66, as you have said, the state did not cease to exist, but its independent CONDITION did disappear while Rome ruled the Jewish state.
Just so in the case of Rev. 20:3 for the one John calls “the Devil, and Satan”. He / It did not actually cease to exist in this case, because a great chain was put on him / it for that thousand years. That chain prohibited deception of the nations (perhaps the Jewish nations of the land of Canaan only?), but that chain did not totally eliminate the existence or actions of this entity altogether during that time. A barking pit bull lunging at the end of a great chain can still bite if you get within range of his teeth. Likewise, the “binding of the strong man” does not cause the strong man to disappear from existence. It just changes his status for a time.
BEFORE that thousand years started in 968/967 BC, this “Devil and Satan” was freely allowed to deceive the nations at will, leading them to worship idols (as Paul testified in Acts 14:16 and 17:30). That full freedom to deceive was also allowed AFTER that thousand years had expired – but only when the “Devil and Satan” was cast out of heaven unto the earth for that “SHORT TIME” of Rev. 12:12, which is the same as the “LITTLE SEASON” of his loosing in Rev. 20:3. This then-present reality of a loosed Devil was repeated by Paul in II Tim. 2:26 (the snare of the Devil taking opponents of the gospel captive at his will), and by Peter in I Peter 5:8 (the “roaring lion” walking about, seeking whom he could devour).
It is this very “SHORT TIME” and “LITTLE SEASON” of loosing the Devil that dates the preceding millennium period to a very precise time. John told his readers that this Devil “IS COME DOWN unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time”. This was a very “short time” that had ALREADY STARTED BACK THEN in John’s days, based on the verb tense John used in Rev. 12:12. Since that “loosing” was to follow immediately AFTER the expiration of the millennium, (according to Rev. 20:3 & 7), then that millennium period MUST have been finished, even before John was writing Revelation.
Jesus also further refines this time that the Devil was going to be cast down unto the earth. Just five days before the Passover and His crucifixion, Christ told the people in John 12:31, “NOW is the judgment of this world: NOW shall the prince of this world be cast out.” That meant he was going to be “cast out” of HEAVEN unto the earth at that time, to plague the inhabitants of the earth (Israel) and of the sea (pagan Gentile nations), just as Rev. 12:12 repeated.
And even closer to the time of this “casting out” of the “prince of this world” from heaven, on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the PRINCE OF THIS WORLD COMETH, and hath nothing in me.” It would be the blood of the risen Lamb (presented on heaven’s mercy seat on the morning after His resurrection-day ascension) that would forever cast out the “accuser of the brethren” from having access to the court of heaven.
Because of being “cast out” of heaven unto the earth in “great wrath” for that “short time” (after the AD 33 “First resurrection” of Christ and the “remnant of the dead” Matt. 27 saints raised with Him), the Devil would make every effort to deceive the nations, because it was the last chance to plague humanity before his destruction in the Lake of Fire that was AD 70 Jerusalem’s fiery conclusion.
Greetings Patricia and thank you for reading my studies.
While we may agree on some things, we use that agreement to take us to different conclusions. For one thing, I don’t believe you and I share the same understanding of the identity of ‘satan’. Disagreement here changes everything. Who or what was imprisoned or taken out of the way, and in what context could John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2 and 1Peter 5:8 be true without contradicting Revelation 20:2-3, 7?
Your analogy of the pit bull is interesting, but a mere chain doesn’t change him, only the the territory of his control.
Concerning Revelation 12:12, we have the implementation of this verse in two different time lines. I have it occurring during Jesus ministry when he sent out the 70 (Luke 10:18).
Lord bless you, Patricia, and by the way, stay healthy during these dangerous times.