Hello Everyone,
In the previous video, we learned that Revelation chapter 20 contains three visions given to the Apostle John that give us some insight into what the thousand-year reign of Christ will accomplish. If you haven’t seen that video, please watch it before continuing as it lays the foundation for what we’re going to examine next.
If you have watched it, you’ll recall that understanding John’s three visions in Revelation 20 begins with understanding God’s purpose, as Paul explained it to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 15:20–28, we learned that Jesus and the children of God are resurrected first. Their work during the thousand years will be to remove all authority, government, and rulership that opposes Yehovah God. When that work is complete, death will be no more. In the end, Jesus will submit himself to the Father, so that God can be all things to everyone.
Revelation chapter 20 contains three distinct visions given to John about the future. These visions provide an overview of what is to come, but like much of Revelation, they are wrapped in symbolism. As Paul said to the Corinthians, who also wanted to understand many things that were still hidden:
“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT)
So, let’s see what we can discern from those “puzzling reflections”.
The first three verses of the chapter contain vision number one.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. After that, he must be released for a brief period of time. (Revelation 20:1-3)
As King of God’s kingdom,
[Jesus will] “destroy every ruler and authority and power” in opposition to God. (1 Corinthians 15:24 NLT)
It only makes sense to for Jesus to start by eliminating the influence of the god of this wicked world, Satan himself. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Satan will be gone for the full term of God’s kingdom. But why is he only imprisoned? Why not destroy him outright at the start? What possible purpose could he serve?
We’ll soon see.
Now let’s turn to the second vision given to John by our Lord, recorded in Revelation chapter 20.
We’ll divide it into two parts to better digest its message.
Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their 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 hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)
Here we find the second and third references to the thousand-year reign. This will be a period of divine judgment—a thousand-year judgment day. Those given the authority to judge have already been fully tested, proving their unwavering obedience to God.
In addition to serving as judges, they are also priests of God. In ancient Israel, the role of a priest was to act as a mediator between the people and God. They accepted sacrificial offerings—physical expressions of a person’s repentance for sins committed. They also taught the law to the people.
So they rule, they judge, and they mediate.
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.” (Revelation 5:10)
Their rulership will be like princes working under a central ruler or King. This was prophesied to be by Isaiah.
“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice. Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land. Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently. No longer will a fool be called noble, nor a scoundrel be respected.” (Isaiah 32:1-5)
We’ve seen so many scoundrels rise to positions of great power in the nations of the world, so many fools praised as noble men. But that won’t be the case under God’s kingdom. These princes will rule with justice. They will provide refreshment, waters of life, and instruction to the ignorant. The stammering one will be made to stand confidently. Those who now speak rashly will learn to understand the ways of God.
But over whom will these ones rule? Whom will they judge? To whom will they minister as priests?
This is where things begin to get a little confusing, because Revelation 20:5 says:
The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. (Revelation 20:5 BSB)
(All of these quotes will be from the BSB unless otherwise specified.)
First of all, we never base our understanding of any verse solely on how it’s translated in one Bible version. Why? Because no translator is immune to doctrinal or cultural bias, or even to making a simplistic assumption.
The Berean Standard Bible is one of my preferred versions, but in this case, its rendering is biased. It says: “the dead did not come back to life.” But you can’t come back to life if you weren’t alive before. This translation is telling us that the actual, physical resurrection of the wicked happens only after the thousand years.
But many Bible versions don’t remove the ambiguity in this verse. Translations like the New International Version, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Christian Standard Bible, NET Bible, and others all render the phrase as: “The rest of the dead did not come to life…”
From a scriptural point of view, coming to life and coming back to life are not necessarily the same thing.
The Weymouth New Testament introduces an opposite bias with its rendering:
No one else who was dead rose to Life until the thousand years were at an end.
The first resurrection is to Life (capital “L”), but among those who make up the second resurrection, some will also rise to life, though only after the thousand years have ended.
Now, we’ve seen two biased renderings. The BSB clearly refers to being resurrected. The Weymouth, on the other hand, speaks about the result of the resurrection—either to life or to death.
Both translations are biased, but that doesn’t mean they’re both wrong. You can be biased and still be right. Personally, I prefer the Weymouth rendering, but my general preference for any translation is that it should preserve the ambiguity of the original and let the reader decide through proper exegesis.
So, here is my exegesis. You may disagree, and that’s okay. I may be wrong. But this isn’t a salvation issue, so we can work together to refine our understanding.
Exegesis takes into account everything we know about God, Scripture, language, and culture. So, let’s reason this out.
If everyone not included in the first resurrection is only raised after the thousand years of Christ’s rule have ended, that would mean he is a king without subjects. Those in the first resurrection would be judges without anyone to judge, and priests without anyone to minister to. That makes no sense.
Ah, but what about survivors of Armageddon?
I’m not saying there will be survivors. I’m not saying there won’t be either. That’s a separate discussion we’ll cover in another video in our Good News series. But for the sake of argument, let’s say there will be survivors, billions of them.
Jesus and his brothers would minister to those people, judge them, and rule over them. Some will accept the provision of life, repent, and put faith in God. They will be saved and freed from sin. Others won’t. They’ll continue to age and gradually die.
By the end of the first hundred years, the unrepentant will have died of old age, and the rest will be sinless, perfect humans. Jesus will have completed his purpose early. He will have destroyed all dominion, authority, and government, and death will be no more. There would be no need to wait another 900 years to submit to his Father so that God can be all things to everyone, just as 1 Corinthians 15:28 says.
There’s something off here, don’t you think?
This is one of the reasons it makes sense that the second resurrection takes place during the thousand-year span of God’s kingdom. The Bible doesn’t explicitly say when the second resurrection occurs. Remember, Revelation chapter 20 consists of three distinct visions. Some assume these are part of a single chronological sequence, but that’s just an assumption, not a fact. Does that assumption hold up when tested against the rest of Scripture? Or to put it plainly, is that sound exegesis—or just more eisegesis, like what most religions use to prop up their own theology?
Also, isn’t it inconsistent with the character of a loving God to condemn a wicked person simply because they happened to die a day or a week before Armageddon, while giving someone else—who happened to survive—the opportunity to repent and live?
Are we really to believe that survivors get a chance at redemption, but those who died just before the end will rise only to be told, “Too bad, so sad, but dem’s the breaks”?
Does that fit the God we’ve come to know and love?
I think Revelation 20:5 deserves more than a casual reading, don’t you?
Would it surprise you to learn there’s significant evidence that this verse is spurious—a later addition to John’s original writing?
For example, some early copies of the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) show those words in the margin. In certain Syriac and Coptic translations, the clause is either missing or footnoted. I’ll provide a link to the evidence in the description of this video. (See https://2001translation.org/notes/revelation20-5.)
Now, proponents of the belief in a resurrection to condemnation will say the evidence isn’t conclusive that it’s spurious. They may even accuse us of trying to dodge the issue.
But that’s not true.
While I believe these words were likely added later by a well-meaning copyist, I also believe what they say is accurate and consistent with what Scripture teaches about life and death.
I believe the person who added that marginal note was expressing an accurate understanding of the destiny of the wicked.
For a true disciple of Jesus, people don’t die—they fall asleep. I’m referring to the death inherited from Adam, the kind from which a person can be resurrected after dying physically. There is another death, the second death, and that one is different. You don’t wake up from the second death.
First and second-century Christians understood that physical death isn’t real death.
Let me ask you this: when did Adam die?
Physically, he lived to be 930 years old, but God said he would die on the day he ate the forbidden fruit. And that’s exactly what happened. He died that day. He lost his eternal life. That is death from God’s point of view. Does any other point of view matter? I don’t think so.
Jesus tells us that while we are alive, we are actually dead. But he also tells us there is a way to pass from death to life—through faith.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24 ESV)
Notice that statement: He does not come into judgment. Right after saying this, Jesus spoke of the two resurrections.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:25-29 ESV)
Can you see this from God’s point of view? In the first century, there were good people and evil people. The Pharisees were evil. The apostles were good. While both groups were alive, God saw the Pharisees as dead, but he saw the apostles as alive.
Both groups of men are now long dead and buried in their graves, yet God still sees the Pharisees as dead and the apostles as alive. When both groups are resurrected, the apostles will rise in the first resurrection and the Pharisees in the second. They will both be alive in a physical sense, but their standing before God will not have changed. The Pharisees will still be dead, and the apostles will still be alive.
As Jesus promised, the apostles will not come into judgment. Only the dead—dead from God’s perspective—are judged.
I believe the scribe who added that footnote in verse 5 was expressing the view that whenever the physical resurrection of the wicked takes place, they will continue in a state of death until God declares them righteous, which would only happen after the thousand years have ended.
Let’s work with that understanding from here on and see if it fits all the available evidence.
I don’t like these videos to run too long, and we still have a lot to analyze, so we’ll look at the second part of the second vision in our next video.
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