What Is the First Death?

from Google Images

John tells us that those who have a part in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:6) are blessed and holy (hagios – G40). God is holy, because he stands apart from his creation. Creation, itself, is common, meaning it can be used for corrupt matters or for good purposes. Things set apart for the worship of the Lord were considered holy things, whether that was the land upon which the Lord stood (Exodus 3:5), the sacrifices offered to him (Exodus 29:33) or the ceremonial materials used in worship of him (Exodus 30:25; Numbers 5:17; 1Kings 8:4) etc. All things, objects, animals or men, that were set apart for the service of God were holy (hagios – G40). In the context of those who were part of the first resurrection (Revelation 20:6), they have a special place in the history of mankind, because they had been chosen, set apart if you will, for the fulfilling of the commission of God to spread the Gospel over the whole civilized world (cp. Matthew 28:19-20).

 

The Millennium & the First Resurrection

from Google Images

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?

 

The Millennium Is a Little While!

from Google Images

In the past few studies I’ve been considering those who reign with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4), or for what modern Christians call the millennium. We have seen that the period of time we understand to be the millennium is, in fact, a far shorter period of time than a literal thousand years. In this study I hope to add even more credence to that assertion, thus establishing a surer foundation for the truth that the millennium both began and ended in the first century AD.

 

The Millennial Reign with Christ

from Google Images

John tells us that he saw thrones and “they sat on them” (Revelation 20:4). Who sat on thrones? Nearly all the scholars of whom I am aware agree that those on the thrones are believers who were martyred for Christ, but I don’t agree.[1] Those sitting on thrones are the Father and Christ. John also tells us that those who had given up their lives for the Gospel had neither worshiped the beast nor his image and had not received his mark. Therefore, they reigned with Christ for 1000 years (Revelation 20:4, 6; cp. 3:21), but, what does “they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” actually mean? Does the text mean they literally reigned in heaven over their enemies? Probably not!

 

How Long Is the Millennium?

from Google Images

Many modern Christians believe that Christ will return one day, perhaps in our lifetime, and initiate a thousand years of peace, and this thousand years of peace is referred to as the millennium. Still other Christians would tell us that Jesus won’t return until after the millennium, and the thousand year period is figurative and represents the present Christian Age. Once this age is over, Jesus will return! Finally, a much smaller group of Christians believe the thousand year period is a much shorter block of time and has already occurred in the first century AD. Which point of view is correct, and can we know?

 

What Is the Millennium?

from Google Images

The term a thousand years is found in the Apocalypse only in this chapter and elsewhere only in three places in Scripture. What does it mean, and how should it affect our understanding here? Through the centuries folks have placed their own interpretations upon the text and established a whole eschatology based upon what they believe the term millennium (the thousand years) means. If they are wrong about the millennium, their whole eschatological house of cards collapses! So much is dependent upon so little and that little is often so vague!

 

The Millennium, a Period of Evaluation

from Google Images

The angel laid hold of the dragon (i.e. the old serpent, the devil, satan) and he bound him in the chain for 1000 years and cast him into the abyss, or the bottomless pit, where he would be unable to deceive the ‘nations’ (ethnos; G1484) for that period of time he was there (Revelation 20:2-3). The Greek word for nations is usually translated gentiles or nation(s) or heathen, all with the intended meaning that the people cited are not Jews. However, Jesus mentioned that there are natural Jews who are not Jews (spiritually; Revelation 2:9; 3:9). In fact, he told the Jewish authorities that Abraham was not their father (John 8:39-40). Paul reiterated this claim in Romans 2:28-29, saying a Jew is a Jew inwardly (spiritually), not he who is one outwardly (physically). The point is this: how would one refer to natural Jews, if he wished to differentiate them from spiritual Jews (believers)? Couldn’t ethnos (G1484) refer to natural Jews that rejected Jesus, i.e. the Jewish nation? If so, then the text would mean the dragon could no longer deceive the Jews for the thousand years (cp. Revelation 7:1; Ezekiel 7:2)?

 

The Bottomless Pit & Revelation 9 & 20

from Google Images

There are many terms found in the Apocalypse that are either found nowhere else in the Bible, or they are found in only one or two other places in Scripture. For example the term bottomless pit (G12; abussos) is found seven times in the Apocalypse, but only once in Luke and Romans, respectively. What does it mean, and how does abussos affect the interpretation of the texts in which it is found? The pagans believed that Orcus (we call him Satan), the god of the underworld, ruled the abussos (G12), which was also supposed to be the abode of demons. Whatever light the New Covenant text sheds upon this Greek word, they certainly would not embrace the pagan thought about Orcus, the god of the underworld, nor would it be the abode of demons, in the sense they would be evil spirit beings roaming about in an imagined underworld, to which one’s spirit goes when one dies. Nevertheless, this seems to be what many modern Christians perceive, when they imagine Satan to be the ruler of hell. Such doctrines are purely pagan and are not supported in the Bible.

 

The Supper of the Great God!

from Google Imags

In Revelation 19:17 John saw an angel standing in the sun (i.e. in the east), and that angel called to all the fowls of the air to come to the supper of the great God! What I find interesting is what God had prepared for them to eat. It was not a meal that normal people would be expected to enjoy. Rather it was a meal that one would expect carnivorous or predatory beasts to gather to eat. It was: “the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” (Revelation 19:18). The question is: is this the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? The Greek word used for supper is deipnon (G1173), and it is the same word used in Revelation 19:9.

 

His Eyes Were as a Flame of Fire

from Google Images

John tells us that he sees a rider on a white horse coming out of heaven (Revelation 19:11-12), which in the context of the Apocalypse simply means the Rider came out of the Most Holy Place of the Temple. In other words, the Rider came out of the place where God dwells, and from where he rules. As John observes this Rider, he says the Horseman’s eyes were as a flame of fire, which is also how John described Jesus earlier in the Apocalypse (Revelation 1:14; 2:18). So, the Rider seems to be Jesus, and this becomes clearer and incontrovertible, as we read on (Revelation 19:13-16).

 

Open Up the Heavens!

from Google Images

In Revelation 19:11 John tells us he saw heaven opened! The Greek word, anoigo (G455), is the perfect passive participle, and the verb should be translated as in Young’s Literal Translation: “having been opened.”In other words, John saw an existing condition not an action.[1] All three Synoptics record that the heavens opened just after Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21), and all four Gospel accounts record that the (Holy) Spirit (of God) descended and remained on Jesus (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32-34). Moreover, not only had the heavens opened, but the Greek shows they stand open (John 1:51).[2] So, in the context of Revelation 19:11, John either turned his attention to the already opened heavens, or he was given a vision of the fact that the heavens were open.

 

John’s Improper Behavior and the Gospel

from Google Images

Presently I am involved in a study of the Apocalypse, chapter 19. The faithful in Christ had been called to echo the praises for the Lord, which they heard from heaven. Immediately after it was announced that the Lord God, omnipotent, reigns (Revelation 19:6), John was told: “Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And the angel told John, “These are the true sayings of God” (Revelation 19:9).

 

The Wedding Feast!

from Google Images

One of the great themes of the Bible is the wedding feast, which John begins to describe in the nineteenth chapter of the Apocalypse. Jesus, himself, uses the theme of a wedding in several of his parables. According to the perspective of the New Covenant (Matthew 25:1-13) the women await the coming of the Bridegroom (verse-10), which, of course, pointed to Jesus’ coming at the end of the age (Matthew 25:13; cp. 24:3). Here in Revelation 19:7 the great multitude who had been praising God, declared that the time of the wedding had come. That is, Jesus was at that time returning to take his Bride to himself.