Revelation 20:4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Four times in this chapter, John says: “And I saw” (verses 1, 4, 11, 12), thus stressing that he was an eyewitness of these amazing events which are to come. Immediately after he saw the beast and the false prophet cast into the lake of fire and Satan cast into the bottomless pit, he saw a vast array of thrones waiting to receive their kingly occupants. Then, as he watched, “they” sat upon them and the authority to act as rulers and judges was assigned to them.
But who are these kingly judges, and who are they to judge? In terms of the narrative just preceding, there can be only one answer as to the identity of the judges. They are the same saints, dressed in fine white linen, appropriate not only for the wedding feast but also for judicial robes, who comprised the armies accompanying Christ as He returned to earth (Revelation 19:8, 14, 19). All those who had been redeemed by His blood, resurrected from the grave, raptured into His presence, and evaluated for their rewards at His judgment seat will apparently be assigned individual thrones of authority and judgment, unless they are deemed undeserving of any reward at all (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
This remarkable situation is promised in many Scriptures, both directly and in parables. “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Corinthians 6:2). “Judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom” (Daniel 7:22).
The twelve apostles have already been assigned their own specific jurisdiction. “When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). Other realms of authority will be assigned in proportion to faithfulness, according to the parable of the pounds (Luke 19:11-27) and the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30).
Even in the introduction to the Book of Revelation, this future role of the saints is implied: “[He] loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:5, 6; 5:9, 10). Furthermore, such authority is to be executed rigidly, conforming to the “iron scepter” principle already noted (see Revelation 2:26, 27) under the direct command of Christ Himself (Revelation 19:15). In fact, as the verse under discussion plainly says: this reign of the saints will be with Christ.
Nor will the tribulation saints be forgotten in this assignment of jurisdiction, even though they were not among those resurrected and raptured at the beginning of the tribulation. They are, in fact, accorded very special recognition, in view of the unique circumstances which they have suffered. They had maintained a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus and the truth of His Word under some of the most severe difficulties ever experienced. All official or semiofficial toleration of Christianity by the governments of the nations had been withdrawn soon after the rapture, and those who dared to accept Christ had very soon faced fierce persecution everywhere. Many had been slain even in the early years of the tribulation (Revelation 6:9). Then a systematic extermination of believers had become the official policy of the world government when the beast acquired total power at the middle of the tribulation. Those who refused to worship the beast and receive his mark had been relentlessly hunted and executed.
John now saw the “souls” of all these who had died for their faith, just as he had seen the souls of some of them under the heavenly altar near the beginning of the tribulation. As each had been martyred during the tribulation, the soul of each had been translated to the heavenly temple, there to await this moment!
Finally now, they also participate in the glorious resurrection of the dead. They “lived”! This simple declaration is the climax of all their sufferings, and far more than compensates for all they had endured as they witnessed for Christ and His Word. They had cried “How long?” and now their blood had been avenged (Revelation 6:10).
The statement that they “lived” can only refer to the resurrection of their bodies. Amillennialists like to interpret this as referring to a resurrection of the soul at the time of conversion, but this is obviously a case of forced exegesis. Souls do not die and, hence, cannot be resurrected. The souls of these martyrs all along had been very much alive and aware and able even to speak, but now their bodies also “lived again” (v. 5), so that they also could reign with Christ. The resurrection thus includes the resurrection of Christ as the firstfruits, then the resurrection of those who had died before His second coming in the air, and finally the resurrection of those who die between the time He comes to the air and the time He finally returns to earth.
Thus will these tribulation saints also be installed on millennial thrones with appropriate spheres of authority, there to reign over the earth with Christ for a thousand years. In Revelation 5:10 the throng assembled at the heavenly throne had anticipated this coming privilege and responsibility, singing: “Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign over the earth.”
The declarative statement in this verse of the millennial reign of Christ and His saints is sparse in details concerning the nature of that reign and conditions in the world at that future time. Such information has already been provided, however, in previous passages of both Old and New Testaments, so is not repeated here by John. One very vital item of information is given here for the first time, however, namely, the duration of this period. That bit of information is given here no less than six times, in fact, so there should be no doubt that this wonderful future “dispensation,” also known by some as the “mediatorial kingdom,” will endure for a thousand years.
The period will apparently be initiated by an eent known as the judgment of the nations, described in Matthew 25:31-46. Its chronology is clearly just following the tribulation. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days . . . they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29, 30). Then, in the next chapter, the narrative part of this great Olivet discourse continues: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations [or, “Gentiles,” which is the same Greek word, ethnos]: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31, 32).
The account in Revelation has given us the further information that, before this assumption of His glorious earthly throne, Christ had already slain the armies massed at Armageddon and resurrected His tribulation martyrs. Thus the only ones left on earth are those followers of the beast who were not in the armies at Armageddon and who had not already perished in the plagues, as well as those who had managed somehow to escape the beast’s executioners while still refusing to receive his mark. These are evidently the goats and the sheep, respectively.
These will all be gathered to His throne from the ends of the earth by the holy angels (Matthew 24:31). There will not be too many, though that exact number is unknown. “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof . . . Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left” (Isaiah 24:1-6).
Superficially the basis of the judgment of these survivors of the tribulation period may seem legalistic, but actually it is very realistic in the context of the tribulation. Those who were adjudged as “goats” had refused succor “to the least of these my brethren,” when they had suffered for lack of food or drink or clothing, or were even languishing in prison, no doubt awaiting execution, either because they were afraid to help or because they agreed with their persecutors, or both. Both attitudes characterized people who either had, or would have, if the beast’s minions had reached them, received the dread “mark” of the beast. Consequently, in view of the dire warning of Revelation 14:9-11, they must be condemned. No doubt, they, like their compatriots at Armageddon, will then be slain, with their souls dispatched for a time to Hades. Ultimately, these must depart into “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
The “sheep,” no the other hand, had been both compassionate and courageous, rendering such help as the could to these persecuted “brethren” of the son of man, at the risk of their own lives. Such people would undoubtedly have refused the mark of the beast if his emissaries had reached them, and thus had exhibited that attitude of faith toward their Creator and His Word which either had resulted in their acceptance of Him as their Lord and Savior or would have as soon as the true gospel of Christ was made known to them.
The immediate destiny of these, however, was not departure to heaven, but to “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Eventually, of course, their great faith, which had manifested itself in such gracious and courageous works, like the great men and women of faith catalogued in Hebrews 11, would assure also their entrance into “life eternal” (Matthew 25:46).
The “brethren” of whom the Lord had spoken could only be the persecuted tribulation martyrs, both Jew and Gentile, Jesus said: “. . . my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:21). Jesus called His disciples “my brethren” (Matthew 12:49; John 20:17), but never the Jews, as a nation. Prophetically He said: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee” (Hebrews 2:12).
The “goats,” no doubt, at this time are composed almost exclusively of Gentiles (hence the “judgment of the Gentiles”), since the nation Israel has been undergoing its “day of Jacob’s trouble,” with the final result of its complete national conversion at the glorious return of Christ (Zechariah 12:10; 13:1; Romans 11:26). These redeemed of Israel will also, of course, at this time “inherit the kingdom,” and thus enter the millennium, ready to enjoy the fulfillment of all God’s ancient promises to their fathers.
From each nation, with Israel at the head, will thus come a remnant to rebuild their devastated countries. Even though the initial population of each nation will be small, the conditions and incentives will be present to encourage large families, and the populations will grow rapidly. Furthermore, antediluvian longevity will be restored. “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:20). This may be accomplished partially by the restoration of antediluvian climatological and agricultural conditions and partially by new technologies developed by millennial scientists. In fact, scientific and technological research will thrive as never before, as mankind seeks as never before to fulfill its primeval commission to “subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
Israel, of course, will be the chief nation of the world during the millennium. “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” (Micah 4:2).
Other nations will be expected to honor Israel and to center their worship there: “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain” (Zechariah 14:16, 17). A great temple will be established in Jerusalem, as described in Ezekiel 40-46, and a form of the ancient worship instituted again, complete with priestly orders and sacrificial animal offerings. The worship will not be mere ritual, however, as it often was in pre-Christian Israel. “Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and seethe therein” (Zechariah 14:21).
Such animal sacrifices had been, of course, set aside after the death and resurrection of Christ, for “he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever” (Hebrews 10:12). During the Christian dispensation, the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ needed no animal sacrifices either as evidence of faith or as aid to faith. In the millennium, however, it will be different. It will be easy to believe in Christ – in fact almost impossible not to believe. No longer will one suffer ridicule or persecution if he takes a stand for Christ, nor will he ever be led astray by evolutionary teachings in the schools or by overt temptations to sin by his peers.
In every dispensation, salvation is offered only by the grace of God on the basis of the substitutionary death of Christ for sin. Before His first coming people had given evidence of their faith in God’s promised redemption by offering sacrificial animals in atonement for their sins. In that case, the sacrifices had served both as a significant aid to faith and as a testimony to their faith. Even in the Christian age “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20), but that faith is exercised in the person and finished work of Christ, as confirmed and recorded in the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament.
In the Millennial Age, with the glorified Christ and His resurrected and reigning saints personally present and with Satan and his hosts out of the way, there will be no room whatsoever for intellectual doubt as to the deity of Christ and the truth of His Word. Nevertheless, salvation will still require a personal faith and commitment to Christ and, more than ever, the genuineness of such faith must be evidenced by works. It may well be that this is at least part of the reason for the reinstitution of animal sacrifices. In the days of His humiliation, it requires strong faith to believe in His coming glorification. In the days of His glory, it will be difficult to remember and believe in His humiliation and death, and yet it is still as important as ever that men and women understand and believe that they are sinners and can only be saved through the substitutionary death of Christ for their sins. Thus, the animal sacrifices will be a memorial and reminder of the great saving work of Christ, and thus will also serve both as an aid and evidence of faith.
Revelation 20:5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
The “rest of the dead,” of course, refers to the unsaved men and women whose souls are imprisoned in Hades. This statement (that they “lived not again”) makes it crystal clear that the “resurrection” of which these verses speak is a bodily resurrection. At the end of the millennium, Hades delivers up these spirits so that they also live again in the body (v. 13). Their souls had never ceased to have conscious existence (see for example, Luke 16:23, as well as Revelation 6:9, 10). So the phrase “live again” would be quite meaningless except in terms of the body.
The resurrection of the unsaved will be the “resurrection unto damnation,” which was distinguished as a separate resurrection from the “resurrection of life” by the Lord Jesus Christ in John 5:29. He also implied that “the resurrection of the just” was a distinct event (Luke 14:14). Here, finally, it is revealed that the “first resurrection” precedes the second by a thousand years.
This resurrection of the souls of the tribulation martyrs thus completes the first resurrection. In the final sentence of this verse, the word “is” appears in italics (KJV) indicating its absence in the original. The sense of the sentence is simply, “This completes the first resurrection.
The word “resurrection” in Greek is anastasis, meaning literally “standing again.” It is used forty times in the New Testament, and always refers most naturally to a bodily rising from the dead (John 11:24; Acts 4:33). There is certainly no warrant for taking it to mean something else in this passage.
The “first resurrection” does occur in more than one stage, according to 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. The resurrection of the dead began with Christ Himself, as the “firstfruits of them that slept,” followed immediately by “many bodies of the saints” which “came out of the graves after his resurrection” (Matthew 27:52, 53). Next comes the rapture, when “the dead in Christ shall rise” along with the living saints (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). At the middle of the tribulation the two witnesses rise (Revelation 11:11) and now finally all the rest of the tribulation martyrs.
Revelation 20:6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
No matter which stage of the first resurrection one may participate in, he is thereby assured that his future life will be one of blessedness and holiness. He may have experienced the pains of death, but these will all be forgotten in the glorious resurrection, and he will never die again. The awful second death which awaits the unsaved at the “second” resurrection cannot touch him any more than it could the body of the risen Christ (Revelation 1:18).
On the other hand, the obverse side of this fifth of Revelation’s beatitudes suggests that the second death does have the “authority” in the case of all those who do not participate in the first resurrection. Their future is one of misery and corruption, forever, in the lake of fire, rather than one of eternal blessedness and holiness in the fellowship of Christ.
Not only will the saints reign with Christ a thousand years, but also they will be His priests (Revelation 1:6), thus directing both the civil government and spiritual instruction for the millennial populations. Christ is High Priest, as well as King of kings, and all the resurrected saints will exercise varied religious and political functions under His supreme command throughout the millennium, in accord with the faithfulness of their service in this present life.
The detailed manner and variety of these administrations is yet to be revealed. The resurrected saints have their citizenship in heaven, not on earth (Philippians 3:20), and it is likely that once they have been awarded the heavenly “mansion” prepared for them by Christ (John 14:2, 3), they will never again reside on earth – at least not until their heavenly city descends from heaven to the renovated earth at the end of the millennium (Revelation 21:2). Presumably at proper times, however, they will appear on earth to exercise prescribed duties with respect to their earthly charges. For example, the resurrected apostles of the Lord have been promised that they will be assigned earthly thrones from which they will judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:28-30). It seems also that the resurrected King David may be placed over the entire nation of Israel (Ezekiel 37:24, 25; Jeremiah 30:9; Hosea 3:5). Some will be assigned jurisdiction over ten cities, some over five (Luke 19:17, 19). Apparently there will be a hierarchy of authority assigned to the saints in either civil or religious duties or both.
It may appear at first that the hosts of resurrected saints, including all the redeemed of all the ages, will so far outnumber the depleted population of the earth at the beginning of the millennium, that there will be more “kings and priests” than “subjects.” Although the Scriptures give very little specific information about this intriguing topic, there are a number of factors at least to be considered. In the first place, not all the saints will receive a reward. Many will “scarcely be saved” and “shall suffer loss” (1 Corinthians 3:15), so that the opportunity they might have had for fruitful service in the millennial age will be given to others (Luke 19:24-26). Thus there may even be many of the raptured and glorified saints who will still themselves need some measure of supervision and guidance during at least the first years of the millennium. Those who had attained a higher state of spiritual knowledge and effectiveness in the days of their flesh may well serve as teachers and leaders for those who died as “babes in Christ,” at least for the early years when the human population on earth is still low.
Furthermore their ministries will be needed for all those who had died while still too young (many even still in the fetal state) to have even reached the so-called “age of accountability.” They must surely be allowed to grow to maturity somehow, both physically and spiritually, and many of the more mature saints may well have assignments to train and tutor these. Possibly the Lord may assign many of these specific duties to godly redeemed women in the heavenly city.
There is no way to know precisely how many resurrected saints will be there in heaven in these glorious days to come during the millennium, but a reasonable guess might be about 4 billion. This is roughly equal to the present population of the world and is 10 percent of what seems to be a plausible figure for the total number of men and women who have lived since Adam (probably about 40 billion). Since the large majority of people die in an unsaved condition (Matthew 7:13, 14), the 10 percent figure seems at least reasonable.
Whatever the number may be, it will undoubtedly be much larger than terrestrial populations at the beginning of the millennium. However, the conditions favorable to human fertility and longevity will have been restored, as discussed earlier, and it will not take many years before God’s primeval command to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1) will be essentially accomplished, with numbers of people like “the sand of the sea” (verse 8). There will by that time be such an abundance of people on earth as indeed to provide adequate challenge for all the saints, both those who were prepared for such responsibilities at the beginning of the thousand years and those who had required further training during its early years.
There is one other intriguing possibility. There exists “an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22) and these were created to be “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). This relationship presumably will continue forever, since there is no intimation in Scripture that it will be changed in the new earth.
Many of these angels have rebelled against God, following Satan, and these will all be consigned to everlasting fire (Matthew 25:41). Those who had remained faithful to their calling, however, and who thus will still be subservient to the will of Christ, will probably also be under the direction of those who will “reign with Him.” This is likely the meaning of the rather cryptic reference in 1 Corinthians 6:3. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”
Revelation 20:7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.
Note that Satan does not escape from his prison. The Lord Jesus Christ is on the throne of the cosmos, with all power in heaven and earth belonging to Him. Even though the saints are reigning with Him, it is His authority which they exercise, and Satan is firmly bound in his prison, utterly helpless to interfere.
Even though King David, in his resurrected body, may have been assigned immediate jurisdiction over Israel (Ezekiel 34:23, 24), the Son of David, Jesus Christ, actually rules over the whole world from the throne of David in Zion, and will do so for ever (Isaiah 9:7; Luke 1:31-33; Revelation 11:15; Isaiah 2:2-4). He will be in absolute control, ruling all nations with a rod of iron (Psalm 2:6-9).
And yet, according to verse 3 of this chapter, Satan must be loosed a little season. During the wonderful Millennial Age, any crime and overt wickedness will have been rigidly prevented. Although ample time will be provided for such flagrant sinners to repent, they likely will be exposed to capital punishment if they have not done so by age 100 (Isaiah 65:20).
Furthermore, everyone will be well exposed to the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ as their Creator, Redeemer, and King. They will probably be able to see Him personally if they wish, as well as the glorified saints who are more directly accessible to them as their own kings and priests. They will be well instructed in the necessity of substitutionary sacrifice for salvation from sin, as each nation must regularly send delegates to Jerusalem to offer memorial animal sacrifices, keeping ever before them the remembrance that, long ago, their great King in Jerusalem had Himself borne their sins in His own body as He died on the tree of Calvary to save their souls (1 Peter 2:24).
And yet, with all these privileges, with every possible incentive to believe on His name and to love and serve Him, there will still be multitudes who will reject Him in their hearts. These will not be those who first enter the millennium, of course, but will come from the generations of those who follow them. These, for the most part, will refrain from overt acts of sin and rebellion, but this restraint for many will be one of fear, not love.
To men and women who have been born and raised in such an ideal environment, so that all they have ever known is peace, prosperity and righteousness, the stories told them about the former ages by their parents and by their heavenly rulers and teachers will sound increasingly fanciful as the centuries go by. Soon those ancient times will begin to seem glamorous, with their supposed freedom and excitement, and many in the younger generations will begin inwardly to resent the constraints under which they must live. Even though Satan is bound, and there are no external temptations to doubt God or to disobey His will, they are not innocent, like Adam and Eve in the garden. Their hearts are naturally “deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), simply by virtue of genetic inheritance, and they must consciously accept Christ as personal Savior if they are to be saved just as their ancestors did. With so little contact with overt sin and with provision of every material need to easily available, this may be even more difficult for them than it had been for their forebears.
It is apparently for such reasons that the Devil, and presumably all his hosts, must be released for a little season. All these millennial generations, all of which are living, must also be confronted with a clearcut choice. Will they trust their great Savior and King in Jerusalem, or will they, when finally they have the opportunity, choose sin as their life-style and Satan as their god?
This will be mankind’s last and greatest test. In former ages, men had used their environmental problems, such as poverty, pornography, war, intellectual pressures, and sickness as excuses for rejecting Christ. But with all these suppressed for almost a thousand years, there is no more excuse but their own sinful hearts, and these must be exposed.