Revelation Chapter 20
2022 - As 19 ended both the Antichrist and his false prophet, both men, have been thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. The way it is worded, being thrown in there alive is much worse than dieing first and then getting thrown in. But that is conjecture, and I cannot think why it would be.
Vs 1 - Wonder if this is the same angel that unlocked it at the fifth trumpet and let the locusts - and who knows how many others - out into the world. Perhaps this is the whole job of this angel. A heavenly jailer. It is interesting that in vs 4, it doesn't just say that the door was locked back. That might not keep Satan in. But it was sealed. As in the seal of God was put on the door that even Satan could not overcome it. This means, further, that it is God who releases him at the end of the Millennial.
The dragon is seized, and the dragon is confined in the bottomless pit. So he was not at the battle. The battle was the Antichrist and his false prophet. Perhaps the image was there also. But not the dragon himself. He is now bound with chains, thrown into the pit, and the pit sealed for a thousand years. No Satanic deception for 1000 years. What angel was given the job of chaining Satan - Lucifer himself - and confining him in that pit???
Thrones, with judges are seen. Martyrs beheaded for the testimony of Jesus. Those who remained faithful through the last seven years - or some part of it. They "came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years". So these are apparently those who died or were martyred during trib and great trib? MSB agrees on this. MSB adds that all believers, OT and NT, will also be present and rule and reign. Makes sense if they are part of the conquering army that defeats the beast.
2022 - Vs 4, quite a long verse:
"Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." [Rev 20:4 ESV]
Thrones plural. Makes you think of the 24 elders, but they are not mentioned here. These have authority to judge, but whom will they judge? I think this is Christ's kingdom, and his judges, who will settle all disputes with a rod of iron for the next thousand years being put into place. These have authority to judge, but it does not say they begin judging.
The two groups of dead people are resurrected. We had the rapture, where the dead in Christ arose, and now we have a rapture of...whom? Martyrs from t/gt, in two groups? First those martyred during tribulation but before the mark was offered? These might have been blamed for the seal judgements, and killed as scapegoats, or just out of vengeance against someone, anyone for what was going on. The other possibility is that these were the martyrs from the OT. But it could ONLY be them if they had not been raptured, right? So we have to choose here between the rapture of all the saved or the rapture only of those in Christ. If we say it is all martyrs, and that the OT saints were not raptured, then we are saying that only OT martyrs - not all the OT saved - are being resurrected here. That's a pretty interesting distinction, to raise the martyrs - the ones who physically died for Christ - before raising the rest of the saved from that time. So based on these considerations, I think only the martyrs coming out of t/gt are in view here. Martyrs in general
Then it gets even more interesting. Those who did not take the mark will be resurrected. So dead people who refused the mark - that means they died AFTER the false prophet instituted the mark, which means those who died in Great Tribulation. The last 3 1/2 years. So...were any left alive after Armageddon, or did saved and unsaved alike die at that point? Are the raptured the only saints EVER allowed to escape the "once to die" clause? This would make Zephaniah's prophecy of total death on earth - not one person left alive - entirely true. We must consider this as a possibility. What mitigates against this view? Well there's that "opinion" that only the living are judged at the Sheep and Goat judgment. Where did we get that view? Hmm...I just spent some time trying to find the specific verse - and I am sure there is one, that talks about the living standing before the throne, and that scripture is pretty certainly the S&G judgment. But right now, I cannot even find it.
2026 - Clearly, 20:4 says "and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." No way to read this except that there is some kind of resurrection at the end of the 70th but before the Millennial. A resurrection from the dead. THEN, right after that in 20:5, we get this:
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. [Rev 20:5 ESV]. This is a post-Millennial resurrection of some dead people. As we read it in English, the second one seems to be referenced as the first. Not possible. So the Bible is wrong - not possible - or the first resurrection is looking all the way back to vs 4. That one is the subject. Maybe some weird Greek language rule I don't know about that or the endings on the words. I need to look that up and see.
2026 - Whatever the problem is, there are two resurrections of the dead here. One immediately prior to the Millennial, one after the thousand years. The "second" death has no power over those of the first resurrection. This nails down when the first resurrection occurs and confirms the above. Those of the first resurrection reign for a thousand years - that's the Millennial - so we have a group resurrected before the first. I am thinking these are the Jews who come home after the church is removed, and remain faithful through the time of the MoL.
2026 - Then the second resurrection, the resurrection of EVERYONE ELSE, both saved and unsaved, those with faith and without, are resurrected at the second resurrection for the GWT judgment. These, since not ALL are saved, are subject to the second death. They died once during their lives, they are bodily resurrected as the church at the rapture, and then their resurrected body dies...and this death may be eternal separation from God. A perfect resurrected body might survive eternal fire and experience eternal suffering without madness.
Then this verse:
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. [Rev 20:5 ESV]
So no unbelievers have been resurrected at this time. Their souls remain in Sheol, they are likely aware of events (this is me talking, not MSB or BTN), and know that their judgement is near.
Vs 6 makes it clear that if you are resurrected in the Millennial, whether OT or NT or Tribulation Period, you need not fear the Great White Throne Judgement. However, there will be some unbelievers in the Millennial period, else there could be no final battle at the end of it. Those opposing Jesus at that final battle will be "like the sand of the sea" in number. So many, still not believing. The second double punishment of the Gentiles?
2022 - Worth a closer look:
"Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years." [Rev 20:6 ESV]
What is the second death would be the first question. There are two other verses that mention it and give us more information about it. Though both come later in Revelation we will look quickly at them now:
"Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." [Rev 20:14 ESV]. This is at the Great White Throne, later in this same chapter. The unsaved are resurrected for the Great White Throne judgement. They are currently buried, in the ocean, in Hades. In each case, the point is that they died in the past and are still dead. So that was their first death. Their second death comes when they are judged guilty at the GWT and thrown in the lake of fire. No one ever comes back from there. The second death is the final fate of the unsaved. There are no appeals from here, no later judgment at which to make a case. This is ETERNAL CONDEMNATION, with no hope of even a second of respite.
"But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."" [Rev 21:8 ESV]
This verse says the same thing.
Now. Who "shares in the first resurrection"? This comes right after it says that the martyrs came to life and reigned. Is the same word used for "resurrection" and "came to life"? Resurrection in vs 6 is translated from the Greek "anastasis". It means literally "to stand up again". In vs 4, come to life is the Greek word "zao", which we have seen before. It means to breathe, to be among the living. So...the first means to come back from the dead and the second means to be alive.
I think that unless we want to make things overly complicated, our answer is right in front of us in vs 5: "The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection." [Rev 20:5 ESV]. This is surely looking back no further than the previous verse, where those killed while faithful and saved in t/gt come to life and (resurrected would be interchangeable with came to life in this case, as I read it) rise to reign with Christ for a thousand years. The first resurrection is not about the rapture. So we might reasonably ask whether the second death is potential for the raptured? Of course the answer is no. The raptured are in Christ's hands, saved from wrath, and who have a place prepared for them by Jesus. They will not stand before the GWT. They will stand before the bema - though I really do not like that terminology. They will observe, both at the Sheep and Goat and at the GWT.
2022 later (12/13/22) - If this is the first resurrection, why does the rapture not count? It surely has happened by this time...hasn't it? The more I read, the more attention I pay, the less sure I am about any of this end times stuff. Maybe that's where you get. You think you can unravel it all, where no one has succeeded before, but the "smarter" you get, the more holes you can punch in any proposal, especially in your own!
(((Note: After the verses from Zephaniah, I am really needing a double check on the S&G being a judgment only of the living. I have built much on this concept and now I cannot find my "proof text" for this position. Thing is, I know it is in here, I just have to find it!!!))).
2023- How can this be if the marryrs have just been resurrected? They will not be judged? Big problems here
Note also, at the end of vs 6 that these "first resurrection" martyrs will be the priests of the Millennial. This is their reward for faithfulness during t/gt. Does this tie back to Rev 5, when the Lamb takes the scroll from the hand of God?
"And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation," [Rev 5:9 ESV]
"and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."" [Rev 5:10 ESV]
In verse 7 we jump ahead a full thousand years to the end of the Millennial. We aren't told about anything that goes on during the reign of Christ on earth.
For some reason, we are not told why, Satan gets released from his pit after the thousand years.
This verse about Satan's actions when he is released:
"and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea." [Rev 20:8 ESV]
So even though perfect justice has prevailed for a thousand years, Satan is still able to find millions of people who are unhappy enough to try and put an end to perfection. How can this be, unless man is truly corrupt in his very nature. And how could there be this many people still available to fight against Jerusalem? Where did they all come from?
2023 - I recently read a verse saying that God makes the rulers of this time susceptible to Satan's lies. This is part of.the plan. I don't remember where I read it but I think it was in my recent OT minor prophet reading.
This is a lot of "people". We saw that God wiped out the entire army of Satan at the Battle of Armageddon. To understand the numbers in this last battle, I have to interpret that part about wiping out everyone to refer to those who came for the battle. It says the birds were "overhead", rather than all the birds of the earth. That's not much to base a position on, but at least it is something. Those armies left families behind, people behind, kings and governors and mayors behind. All those left behind - or most all of them - supported the battle against the saints. Jesus was not expected to arrive and reinforce the Jews who were concentrated in that valley to do battle. Jesus' arrival was likely resented by the families of the dead. Then Jesus sets up his own kingdom, his own judges over the whole world, and that rod of iron thing is for real. He tolerates NO petty theft, no market cornering, no taking advantage of widows and orphans. If you want to make money, you have to do it fair and square. Not many want to do it this way. So over the next thousand years, I can see a lot of resentment growing under the surface. And if we believe that not ALL people died, lost and saved alike, then people are still having babies. In a world where crops grow, rain falls, and distribution is according to need, everyone is healthy and productive. So in a thousand years...50 generations are easily possible. At 3 kids per family average, the population increases 50% each of those 50 generations. You wouldn't need all that many survivors to start with to end up with the sands of the sea.
There is only one problem with this scenario. If the Sheep and Goat judgment that we saw in the last chapter sent ALL the goats to:
"And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."" [Mat 25:46 ESV]...who was it that got judged? How did those survivors not get judged here? If that whole army was wiped out dead AND we are right about the sheep and goat being a judgment of living persons only (which I really really have to nail down again, though I KNOW that is how it is), then who was there to be judged? ONLY the Jews who returned to Israel during t/gt and survived until the end. Besides the dead army of the beast, and our "surmised" survivors in the rest of the world - which we need to stay alive and not go immediately to hell so they can produce the last army of Satan a thousand years later - the only other people on the planet are returned Jews. So...to make that work, we have to say that while God calls all the descendants of Abraham home to Israel during t/gt - which is possible since Antichrist would have persecuted them for their parentage, not their dedication to God in the same way that Hitler killed Jews loyal to the party right along with all the rest - he does not necessarily save them all. We might well say - and I lean strongly this way - that the Millennial Kingdom in Israel is ONLY for the Jews. It is THE FULFILLMENT of the unconditional promises to Abraham and his descendants. So ONLY the Jews who's works prove they are sheep of the shepherd, and not goats of the deceiver, get past the Sheep and Goat judgment.
I have never heard this explained this way before. It is the only way I can make it work.
Vss 9, 10 are pretty succinct. This monstrous army comes to surround Jerusalem. Maybe it surrounds all Israel. But there is no battle. Instead, there is a "sign from heaven". Fire comes down, as on Elijah's altar, and consumes everything and everyone. I can see THIS fire killing every person outside the Millennial Kingdom on the entire earth dying in this fire. Man, woman and child. This is the end.
2026 - Look at this verse:
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, [Rev 20:9 ESV].
This reads like a siege of Jerusalem, surrounded by armies, at the end of the Millennial. This ties pretty dang well to all those descriptions of siege conditions that we saw in Zechariah 12. It specifically uses the beloved city was surrounded. So this, at least, is certainly and specifically something that happens at the end of the Millennial.
Vs 11:
"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them." [Rev 20:11 ESV]
I think this is literal. I think the nation of Israel will remain, and nothing else. The sky won't be the same. The earth will end at the border of Israel. The earth as we know it will be forever gone when the fires go out.
This is the FINAL judgment. There won't be any more chances for anyone. No more rewards for anyone. Note in vs 12 that "the dead were judged by what they had done". The book of life is also opened here. So the saved can be verified? Or to prove that no one being judged is in that book? It said back at the sheep and goat - in Matthew, that those who go into the Millennial live forever and ever. So they will not be judged here. Everyone else is dead, and the dead stand for judgement. Death, and Hades, and the Sea all give up their dead. Not going to try and figure these three out. For tonight, I am going with "absolutely every unsaved person who has ever died, and not been previously judged somewhere".
The big question here is, are there any saved people standing before this throne? Those resurrected from t/gt to enter the Millennial are not at risk here. This judgment will not find any of them guilty. The second death is no worry for them. It is a worry for the lost.
What about the OT saints? Are they here, just now resurrected? Adam, Noah, Daniel and Job. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Have they waited all this out in Abraham's bosom but must now stand before the GWT and be judged? Well...once to die and after this the judgment. So either they were raptured and judged at the bema seat, they were resurrected for the Sheep and Goat pre-Millennial and reigned in the Millennial with Christ, though what a lot of them that would have been, and we have no direct mention of such a thing, OR they are resurrected here, at the GWT, and judged last of all, and with the lake of fire open wide before them and millions - no billions - thrown into it.
Is verse 15 about these OT saints?
"And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." [Rev 20:15 ESV]
Hmm...If there were both kinds, both written in the book and not written in the book, wouldn't it be written more like the Sheep and Goat, which reads this way:
"And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."" [Mat 25:46 ESV]
It seems like it would. My conclusion then is that the OT saints are not here. And if they are not, they must also have been raptured...but they are not part of the church. Raptured, but not dressed in bright linen as the bride.
As of this point, we have also not seen an actual wedding. Perhaps we saw the supper...but no wedding.
The earth though, is ended now. The judging is all done. ALL the unsaved are in the lake of fire. Satan and all his angels are in there also. Somehow, whether we can trace their movements or not, all the saved are now identified and await eternity's beginning.