11 Mar 2014

Revelation 20:4

Posted by joncooper

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.”

Who are these people? As you can see, they are the martyrs of the Tribulation. (They are clearly martyrs because they were beheaded.) This verse says that after Jesus returns they will be raised from the dead and will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years. Earlier in Revelation the privilege of reigning with Christ was granted to the Church; here it is also extended to the Tribulation saints.

This is another serious blow to amillennialism, which claims that the millennium is simply another word for the Church Age. First of all, the people who are reigning during the Millennium are the Tribulation saints. Second, those people were killed and then brought back to life. Is the world currently being ruled by resurrected martyrs? I didn’t think so! So amillennialism is simply not possible.

Notice how specifically the passage defines a Tribulation saint: it is someone who never worshiped the beast, who never worshiped his image, and who never received the Mark. Ever. Once you do any of those things you are lost forever; those sins cannot be forgiven. You cannot take the Mark and then undo it; once you cross that line it is over.

I do believe that the thousand years is literal. All of time periods in Revelation are literal, and this is no different. (In fact, all of the time periods mentioned in all Bible prophecy are always literal. Every single prophecy that has been fulfilled so far has been fulfilled literally, and the time period that was given was also fulfilled literally. There is zero support for a figurative interpretation of any prophecy or prophetic period.)

The passage repeats the phrase “a thousand years” six times. I don’t see how it could possibly be any more clear! It doesn’t say “it is like a thousand years”, or “it is a long period of time”; instead it specifically says “a thousand years” over and over and over again. There is no symbolic language here: there reason it says “a thousand years” is because it is going to last a thousand years.

After Jesus returns, defeats the antichrist, and binds Satan, He is going to remain on Earth and reign over it for 1000 years. During that time the Church and the Tribulation saints will reign with Him. That is what the passage says, and that is what’s going to happen.

Tags:

Comments are closed.