Give me precept upon precept, line upon line from the Bible to support this believe of yours. Convince me
I'm glad you asked. I only hope your intention is not to summarily dismiss everything I've written here, but to actually consider my point of view with an open mind to see if anything I believe has merit. I've supported all my statements with scripture.
Took me a few days to put it all together, but here it is...
The Resurrections
Understanding scripture is like putting a puzzle together, and the verses are the pieces. So, since the pieces are the facts, let’s begin there.
1. There are two primary resurrections.
Revelation 20
They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
2. The first resurrection is only for the righteous.
Revelation 20
They[a] 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 a thousand years.
3. There will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
Acts 24:15
and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
4. There will be
no more nights on the new earth. Which means there will be a “
last day”.
Revelation 22:5
There will be no more night.
5. The resurrection happens
on the last day.
John 6:39
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
So if the first resurrection is only for the righteous then we know that the second resurrection includes both the righteous and the wicked. And since the resurrection Jesus spoke of is to occur
on the last day,
this must be the second resurrection (since obviously you can’t have 1000 years following the “last day”, or it wouldn’t really be the last day).
Furthermore, given that we know
at some point there will be no more days or nights, and we know that we will be resurrected on
the last day, we can know for certain that we will be resurrected just before the new earth. This means the resurrection Jesus spoke of (the resurrection on the last day) is the resurrection for both the righteous and the wicked and it is
at the end of the thousand years, because the end of the thousand years is just before the new earth (where there is no more night) and also because we know
death is not destroyed until then.
This conclusion is supported by
1 Corinthians 15
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
All will be made alive … then he hands over the kingdom (end of 1000 years), as death is destroyed.
This is further supported by Daniel 12 when the angel told Daniel that he would be resurrected at the end of days.
Daniel 12:13
As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.
Earlier in that same chapter, the angel also confirmed that this resurrection will include both the righteous and the wicked. And surely Daniel is one of the righteous.
Daniel 12:1
But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
So knowing those facts, we are left with some interesting questions. For example, if Daniel died 2000 years ago and he will not be resurrected until the end of the thousand years, then does that mean he will be overlooked during the first resurrection?
And if Jesus talked about the second resurrection (on the last day), surely he must’ve also talked about the first resurrection. Where in the gospels do we see anything about the first resurrection?
What is this mysterious first resurrection?
The confusion comes from expecting both resurrections to be physical. It’s natural to assume that of course because a physical resurrection is much easier to conceive of than anything spiritual or symbolic. However, given that we’ve already established that Daniel will rest until the second resurrection, we can conclude that
the first resurrection must be something different,
because he surely would take part in it as he was a righteous man.
Knowing that there is a resurrection other than the one on the last day, surely scripture must talk about it. And of course it does. It turns out there is a lot of talk about dying and rising, though if you’re expecting the first resurrection to be physical it’s easy to dismiss this stuff as being unrelated. However, given that we’ve already established that
the first resurrection must be something different, let’s take another look at this evidence.
First of all, in Galatians 2, Paul says that he has been crucified with Christ. This is clearly not literal, but spiritual.
Galatians 2:19
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
Romans 6 makes it clear that
we were crucified with him, which means
we died. And further tells us that
we have been brought from death to life in Christ. That is literally the definition of resurrection. Dying, then coming to life.
Romans 6:4
For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
But that’s talking about the future physical resurrection, is it not? Because just as Christ was physically raised from the dead, we will be also. Or is it? Let’s look at another example.
Romans 6:6
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Paul is clearly stating that, in a sense, we were crucified with him and died with him. Though of course we didn’t die physically when he was crucified, rather Paul explains that it was “
our old self” which died along with him. All of these examples are speaking of
spiritual death, and therefore, the life that we received after this death is also
spiritual life. When you put it all together you have a spiritual resurrection. We died, and came to life.
Paul goes on to confirm that
we have been brought back to life already.
Romans 6:13
Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life
In John 5 we can see the words of Jesus himself, where he explains that simply believing on him
we are passed from death unto life. And further confirms that
now is the hour that the dead shall live.
John 5:24-25
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
The hour that now is, means
currently we are in the hour that people are being resurrected by coming into life by believing in Christ.
This is the first resurrection.
Still not convinced? Well then Ephesians 2 is by far the clearest scripture that tells us that we’ve been resurrected with Christ, and even goes one step further.
Not only does it say that we were resurrected with Christ, but also that we are now seated on our thrones with Christ.
Ephesians 2:4-6
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus
We have not been
physically beheaded, nor were we
physically resurrected, but we have been
spiritually beheaded by leaving our old lives behind, and
spiritually raised up by being born again,
a new creation with new life in Jesus. This is what Revelation 20 was speaking of, and this is what Jesus was speaking of in Matthew 10.
Matthew 10:39
whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
But that would require the thousand years to be now…
So if the first resurrection is spiritual, then that must mean the thousand years is now. But in order for the thousand years to be now, that means Jesus would have to be reigning, and we with him. Does scripture support that? Let’s look at some more facts.
1. Jesus has received all authority and power
Matthew 28:1
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
2. Jesus disciples also received authority and power over Satan.
Mark 3:15
He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
3. Every believer has received authority and power over Satan.
Mark 16:17
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons
4. During Jesus reign there is still death and sin and mourning and sorrow.
1 Corinthians 15
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
5. Only on the new earth are we free from death and mourning and crying and pain.
Revelation 21:4
There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
6. During the thousand years a mysterious group of people are seated on thrones
Revelation 20:4
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.
According to Paul,
we are those people right now.
Ephesians 2:6
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus
So, yes, there
is scriptural evidence to support a current reign of Christ and the saints. Plenty of it.
So to summarize the facts as seen in scripture:
· Jesus has received all authority and power.
· Jesus gave that same authority and power to those who believe.
· Death and sorrow and pain still exist during his reign.
· We are currently seated with Jesus on thrones.
All of this evidence strongly supports a current thousand year reign.
But Satan still prowls around, so…
1 Peter 5:8
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
If Satan still prowls around the earth seeking whom he may devour, then we can not be in the thousand years because during the thousand years Satan is “bound”, right?
Revelation 20:2
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
But what does it really mean for Satan to be bound? Naturally we would expect Satan to be completely out of the picture, as that’s how we picture things to be in our earthly realm. When a prisoner is locked up he is completely isolated from society.
However, does Satan live in a physical world that he can be locked behind bars? Obviously not, so it stands to reason that this “binding” of Satan may take a different form than what we would naturally expect. So, aside from our own perceptions of the world around us, and our own assumptions about what the world would be like if Satan is bound,
is there any scriptural evidence to suggest that Satan is currently bound? Well, yes, there is.
1. In order for Jesus to have all the authority, he must first bind the strong man
Mark 3:27
In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.
2. Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven.
Luke 10:18
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven".
3. When Satan fell from heaven, Jesus received his authority.
Revelation 12:8
But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb
Notice that Revelation 12 says “
Now has come the authority of the Messiah”. This is exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18 “
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. This links the two passages together on the timeline, and confirms that Satan was cast out of heaven when Jesus was sacrificed and resurrected.
Since Jesus can not have authority and power without first binding the strong man, and Jesus
has received his authority and power,
we can know that he has bound the strong man. But how is he bound?
He is bound to earth, with no authority over Christ or those who believe in Him.
Don’t forget, we already know that death exists during Jesus’ reign, so since death is the result of sin, we know that the time of Jesus’ reign will look very much the same as the world looks today.
Full of death and mourning and crying and pain. So there’s no reason to think the thousand years would be paradise on earth where there is no Satan and no sin.
1 Corinthians 15:25
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
He reigns
until, death is destroyed. And where there’s death, there’s sin and pain and sorrow.
But Jesus hasn’t returned yet, so…
Scripture does not require Jesus to have returned for the thousand year reign to begin. Yes, Jesus will return as promised.
Acts 1:11
This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
And yes, Jesus reigns during the thousand years.
Revelation 20:6
they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
But notice that this verse says nothing about Jesus being
on earth during his reign. In fact, Acts 3:21 tells us that
Jesus will not return to earth until the restoration of all things, which we know occurs
after his reign ends (ie. The new heaven and new earth begins).
Acts 3:21
Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
1 Corinthians 15 tells us the same thing.
When he comes, then he will hand over the kingdom. In other words, when he comes, then his reign ends.
1 Corinthians 15
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
So Jesus reigns until he’s destroyed all his enemies, including death. Which means during his reign, death still exists. It also means that the resurrection (the end of death) happens at the end of his reign, because resurrection literally means “the end of death”. And furthermore, we can see by combining 1 Corinthians 15 and Acts 3:21 that Jesus returns at the end of his reign. So, yes, Jesus will return to earth, but at what point in the timeline? That is the key. And Acts 3:21 and 1 Corinthians 15 give us that answer beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But Rev 20 comes after Rev 19…
So this is literally
the single reason that most Christians believe in a certain order of events. The rest of scripture lays out a completely different order of events than what you would find if you read Revelation as a chronologically detailed book of fiction, but because Revelation 20 comes after Revelation 19, most readers just can’t see that.
Now to base an entire understanding of eschatology on just this
one single reason is folly, to say the least. If the rest of scripture seems to contradict this chronology then you have to either dismiss the Bible as a contradictory mess, or you have to reconcile the two so that they agree.
Of course if you’re one of those who still believe Revelation is 100% chronological, then you’ve probably already dismissed all the evidence I’ve presented thus far. The reason for that is because, in your mind, it contradicts the truth. I get that. It’s called a mental block and the mental block is the first thing you believe and once you believe it, everything else that doesn’t jive bounces off. No it’s not a disease, it’s a normal thing. Everybody’s brain works this way, unless you make a conscious effort to open up your mind, and that’s what I’m hoping you can do here.
So please consider another possibility. In this case, the possibility that Revelation was written in a style called “Progressive Parallelism”. Progressive parallelism repeats the same narrative several times (in parallel), but each time with progressively more or less detail.
Now when you read Revelation with this consideration in mind, you start to see patterns. Such as the battle of Armageddon being mentioned three times.
Revelation 16:12-16
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
Revelation 19:19
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army.
Revelation 20:7-10
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves.
The binding of Satan being mentioned twice.
Revelation 12:9
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray…. They triumphed over him…
Revelation 20:3
He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him
The release of Satan being mentioned twice.
Revelation 9
The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth (Satan). The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss… he opened the Abyss …They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
Revelation 20:3
After that, he must be set free for a short time.
The judgment being mentioned twice.
Revelation 11:18
The time has come for judging the dead
Revelation 20:11
The dead were judged…
God the Father and his Christ beginning their eternal reign together being mentioned twice.
Revelation 11:15
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:5
And they will reign for ever and ever.
The completion of the mystery of God being mentioned twice.
Revelation 16:17
It is done
Revelation 21:6
It is done
And all this is because Revelation is written in a style called
progressive parallelism. Yes, it’s a real thing. Look it up.
When you realize the style of writing used here,
you can no longer base your entire understanding of the timeline of eschatology on a chronological reading of the book of Revelation. And that’s when all the other scriptures magically begin to make sense.
And that’s when you no longer have to work overtime to come up with reasons why those other scriptures don’t say what they actually
do say. Like Acts 3:21
Heaven must receive him until the time of the restitution of all things. Yes,
all things, is the new heaven and new earth. To claim anything else would be solely for the purpose of aligning this verse with a chronological reading of Revelation. As I said, that is the single thing that most Christians base their entire understanding of eschatology on. And it’s most unfortunate, because it blocks your brain from seeing other things.
The most obvious example is the description of the seventh trumpet in Revelation chapter 11. With a chronological reading of Revelation, chapter 11 comes before chapter 20, so the inclination is to assume that the seventh trumpet is blown before the thousand years begin, but if you read the description of the seventh trumpet, you’ll see that this is actually impossible.
The seventh trumpet tells us three things that we know happen at the end of the thousand years, not the beginning.
1. The time has come for the judging of the dead.
2. The time has come for God the father and his Christ to begin their eternal reign.
3. The mystery of God is done.
Those three details alone should be enough to convince any serious Bible student that the seventh trumpet is blown at the end of the thousand years, not the beginning, and therefore we know that the book of Revelation is not 100% chronologically written.
Summary
So here is what we can deduce from the facts we see in scripture.
1. A spiritual resurrection occurs in each of us, as we accept Christ.
2. Jesus’ reign began when Satan was cast out of heaven, 2000 years ago.
3. When Jesus returns, his reign ends, and the new heaven and earth are revealed.
4. The second resurrection is the resurrection Jesus was speaking of.
5. The book of Revelation is not a single chronological account of the eschatological timeline.
Jesus told us straight up that Satan fell from heaven, and Revelation 12 tells us straight up that when Satan was cast out of heaven, the kingdom of God came and Jesus received his authority. This is the kingdom the Jews were waiting for but didn’t recognize, because it’s not a kingdom of this world. It’s a spiritual kingdom.
All believers have authority over Satan, because Christ lives in them. In this way we reign with Christ right now. We have taken part in the first resurrection, and therefore don’t have to fear the second death.
Nowhere does scripture tell us that the reign of Christ is a time without sin or death or suffering, in fact the very opposite as death is not made his footstool until the end of Christ’s reign. Nowhere does scripture tell us that the thousand years requires Jesus to be on earth. In fact, several key passages tell us the exact opposite, as he returns to earth at the end of his reign.
When Jesus’ reign ends, death will be destroyed once and for all and there will be no more sorrow and pain and tears, as we take possession of the new earth in our new glorified spiritual resurrected bodies. The resurrection is literally the end of death. That is the definition of resurrection. The first resurrection is the end of the second death (for those who believe), and the second resurrection is the end of physical death (for everyone).
And finally, if you insist on a chronological reading of Revelation, none of what I said will make sense to you. If, however, you open your mind to seeing Revelation differently, then all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly.