Revelation 20 Part 5 Bible Teaching

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Revelation 20 Part V
May 6th 2018
Meat
Left off at verse two and three again before wrapping our time up together last week:

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, (which again, at this point and in light of the full preterist position, all the time from the baptism of Jesus until he was loosed)
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

So we left off last week explaining verses 1-3 and I merely reiterate that when Jesus walked the earth he said, according to John 12:31

“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

This phrase here, descriptive of Satan as in possession of the evil world, occurs again in John 14:30 and then again in John 16:11.

We remember that in the wilderness temptations Satan claims power over the world and offers to share it with Jesus (we can read about them in Matthew 4:8-10; Lu 4:5-8).

We noted that Jesus did not deny Satan’s power then, but here, as early as John 12, then 14, then 16, Jesus proclaims final victory over him.

I see no reason to see Satan and his role as having any more place in modernity.

So, that said, let’s continue forward with our verse by verse – verse 4:

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.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Now, I have to admit, verse four at first glance is tough relative to the full preterist view of things and while I actually type these VERY words I am at a loss on how to explain them.

(It was at this point that I am going to go to work and study – okay, I’m back).

First of all, I have once again been shown how scant and undisciplined my reading can be through my recent studies.

I have also seen that there are a number of misconceptions about Revelation which have been ingrained through centuries of casual surface reading of which I am also guilty.

The study of the millennium is one of the most misunderstood and misread.

Notice here in verse four that the text does not say that “the 1,000 years is a reign of Christ.”

That is what I assumed when I first read it and I assumed this because that is the way I have been taught to see it.

It took searching and re-reading of the text to open my eyes to this fail. How? The text actually says that those who were beheaded for the witness of Christ

“lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

Now, there are a number of interpretations of beheadings out there today. In fact I had a dear and well read pastor friend of mine (who is a total reconciliationist, by the way) who believes that when Revelation speaks of being beheaded it means any who will be in the presence of God will have to have LOST their mind – and if you don’t believe me here is a short book he wrote to support this belief.

Anyway, I would suggest strongly that while beheadings may continue to occur in certain places of the world that that method of taking life is archaic and speaks to an ancient time not modern.

Regina Janes wrote a book called, “Losing our Heads” with the by-line being:

“Beheadings in Literature and Culture” and pretty much shows the significance of the practice anciently (Goliath, John the Baptist) and also illustrates that it is less practiced today, helping to prove my point.

In any case, these martyrs (THEN) had been beheaded, so they were dead and I reject the idea that this is speaking spiritually.

The “righteous dead” as we would describe them, have naturally passed from mortal life to immortal life, so they were not living on earth any more. Where did they go? They went to be with Christ, and where was Christ? He had ascended to the Father after He had appeared to His disciples for a few days.

As Christ was in heaven, then so were the martyrs in heaven with Him, and the time that they would reign with Him from heaven would be a millennium or the period of time called “1,000 years.”

Because of the way this this is written, that the beheaded “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

“thousand” in verse 4 is not literal and we can justify this by a word study on “thousand” throughout the OT that shows that it can be literal when counting something, (for instance coins, people, etc.) but when it is used in terms of poetry or prophesy it is symbolic meaning for fullness / completeness of time.

So here I would suggest that it means that the martyrs would “reign with Christ for a number of years that God would determine as full or complete.”

We might say that is forever or we might say that it has a term – I suggest the latter.

We cannot help but note that the previous verses describe a “thousand years” (or complete amount of time) being described in verse 2 & 3 when Satan was bound.

I would suggest that this was a different period of time than the “thousand years” of vs. 4 because the dragon was loosened in vs. 7 while the saints / martyrs were still reigning with Christ in heaven.

OOoooooooo . . . awwwwwwwww!

Also note that the rest of the dead were those in either “Hades Paradise and Hades Tartarus (according to Luke 16:22-31), who had been waiting ever since Abel had died for the moment in time… namely, the destruction of Jerusalem and that old Mosaic sacrificial temple in AD 70, to end which would introduce the releasing of them and the Great White throne judgment.

As we have pointed out before, in Matthew 22:1-14 the parable of the wedding feast is a short but precise description of this as it lays out the sequence of events in the following summarized way:

First there was

The call to the wedding (the gospel call of Christ)
The messengers are killed (Christ and the apostles)
The king destroys the city (Jerusalem, AD 70)
The wedding and wedding feast take place immediately afterwards
Judgment occurs at the wedding feast.
Those clothed in the proper wedding garments (those clothed in the righteousness of Christ) were reclining, thus at rest.
The one not clothed in the proper wedding garments / not clothed in the righteousness of Christ was bound and cast into outer darkness.

Remember, Jesus told this parable to his disciples. Then. In a story that they would understand as describing events happening to them.

Well, much of this is repeated in Revelation 20, and the judgment that occurred after Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 was when the separation occurred of the rest of the dead that had waited in Hades for another “thousands of years,” or fulness of time allotted.

Those in “Hades Paradise” (who had already been determined as the faithful when they died and were separated to the right) and those in Hades Tartarus (who had already been determined to be unworthy and sent to the left (which is described in Matthew 25:31-46, again, through the words of Jesus using agricultural language those people would understand).

In it, the sheep were taken home to heaven with Christ (where they continue to reign with Him forever) and the goats were cast into the lake of fire (which is what we will read in our last verse of Revelation 20:15) and which is also the place where the devil, the beast, and the false prophet had also been thrown.

I am personally convinced that this Lake of Fire, which Matthew 25:41 has Jesus says “unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,”

That because it was prepared for Satan and his angels that all human beings that experienced it will come out suffering loss of all their ungodly ways.

In any case, Hades had been a prison with gates, a dark place, and Christ held the keys (as we are informed of by Jesus in Matthew 16:18 and in the first chapter of Revelation verse 18).

Of course, no one could ascend to the Father before Christ’s atoning sacrifice. So when Christ went to that prison after His death on the cross (according to 1st Peter 3:19) His purpose seems to have been to tell those spirits waiting there that the time was shortly coming for them to be released.

Ever since the specific judgment, which Christ told those (in the first century) that He was bringing with Him when He came back to them (along with reward – and these promises are reiterated to them in Matthew 7:2; 10:15; 11:22; 12:18, 20, 36, 41, 42; 23:33, and many more places) that Nation, that Age, that dispensation was collectively judged and rewarded.

And everyone since that time those who “die in the Lord” goes home to heaven as Revelation 14:13 say,

“Happy are the dead who in the Lord are dying from this time!’Yes, (saith the Spirit,) That they may rest from their labours — and their works do follow them!'” (YLT)

For the last 1982 years or so, it seems to me that everyone who has passed is immediately raised, judged individually, and awarded a resurrected body (fitted for heaven) as we all pass from this mortal life into the next.

Those counted worthy to receive the resurrection of life (which to me seems to mean they will possess heavenly bodies that can abide in the Heavenly New Jerusalem) will be changed in the twinkling of an eye and taken home to be with the rest of the saints in the City.

This imagery was applicable to the early church and I suggest that imagery remains in tact to us today. Listen to what Paul said of the Resurrection to them.

After describing varying glories Paul says:

1st Corinthians 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 ¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And then to the believers at Thessalonica, Paul explains how those who have already passed would participate in Jesus return, saying in 1st Thessalonians 4:13:

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Because the New Jerusalem is in heaven, with its own temple and holy of holies, and since judgment fell corporately on them at the National level, and because all things that can be shaken have been shaken, and because God now writes His laws upon our hearts and minds, and because sin has been paid for once and for all, Jesus does not need to come down to earth to judge the worlds inhabitants.

He did that with His own, His own brethren and His own Nation, and judgment is immediate from on high.

We must note that while Revelation 20:4 does speak of reigning it never says anything about Christ reigning from an earthly physical kingdom.

This is a misconception and there are many more misconceptions of the scriptures that have to be examined for the prophesy to be understood.

The NT is written content telling those of that that those were the last days of the old Mosaic sacrificial covenant.

The information started with John the Baptist appearing and saying that the axe was laid at the root of the tree and ended with this Revelation to the seven churches in Asia minor.

The only generation that could have a second appearance of Him.

Hebrews 9:28 confirms this, saying:

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Most (to All) of what we have read in Revelation is traceable to the Old Testament and the Old Testament is the source code for not only Revelation, but all of the New Testament as well. So . . .

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 what else)?

“ and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands;

If you were with us when we studied the descriptions of the Beast and his image, and the number of the Anti-Christ I am more than convinced that we have adequately proven that it was all associated with Rome, the Emperors, the cult of Rome and Nero.

So again, verse 4 narrows (with reason and rationality) the identity of that beast and since the rejection of worshipping him in any way is associated with those who were beheaded, we are given a time stamp of some real reliability here.

And the rest of that passage which we have covered . . .
“and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

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