Is the Lord's prophetic word important for you to study and know .... or just a confused jumble of trivia that cannot be understood?
Here is how many Sydney Anglican Amils would read Rev 20: something like this. And this all comes from respecting the hermeneutics. (The understanding of the recipients of the message back then).
1. 1000 HARDLY EVER LITERAL
1000 is hardly ever used literally in the bible. (See Footnote 1 below). One thousand is a number that celebrates completeness and impregnability in this context, like saying the "Third Reich will last a 1000 years".
2. MILLENNIUM REIGN IS THE CHURCH
Revelation is not a future timetable but a theological sermon encouraging Christians during the 2000 years and beyond. We are in the Last Days, and have been since the Holy Spirit arrived at Pentecost. Peter said the Holy Spirit was a sign of these Last Days. (Acts 2:17. Also see Hebrews 1. We've been in the Last Days for 2000 years!). That is, Revelation describes the church age, the reign of the saints, the time of the Christians. It describes life here and now between Jesus ascension and his climactic and final return on Judgement Day.
3. NOT PREDICTIVE, BUT DESCRIPTIVE
Revelation doesn't *predict* any particular, specific event at all! We are not meant to read this as a future timetable. Instead it's a sermon describing certain theological themes, not particular future dates. It describes Satan's persecution of the church through *all* ages, and how sometimes (generally speaking) this will involve 'beast' States that rise up against God's people. It describes how Christians are meant to live in obedience to God and not trusting in this world's money or security or power. It describes the gospel and God's love for and protection of his people, even if they die. And, of course, it finally and symbolically describes that great Day of the Lord when Jesus will return in wonderful salvation and terrible justice. But we are not meant to look for clues as to when this will happen! That idea is foreign to the New Testament.
4. NO TIMELINE
Revelation has no timeline. There's no linear sequence of particular events all lined up in order. Rather it waltzes around and around some general theological themes, like the repeated theme of Satan's challenge to God and final defeat. We see this in Chapters 17, 19, and 20. It's like watching a sporting event with cameras from every angle. Once the final try is scored, we can see it up close and personal, then from the sidelines, and finally from a 'God's eye' view from heaven. Check it out!
5. GODS ULTIMATE RETURN AND JUDGEMENT OF EVIL IS DESCRIBED THREE TIMES FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
In each repetitive sequence the beast does something, and then gathers for battle, and then is *completely* defeated by Christ. It's the same event from different angles, all of which describe Satan's attempts to wipe out God's kingdom on earth, and then God's victory on Judgement Day. Repeated again and again.
RETURN ONE: CHAPTER 17
In 17:7-14 the beast was, and is not, and then is again: with 10 horns (symbolic of great power) to persecute God's people, but is wiped out by the Lamb. (The use of the Lamb motif of course emphasises that our Lord's death on our behalf saves us. Should it surprise us that John keeps going back to focus on the gospel? He wants all Christians in all ages to *obey* this message, after all!)
RETURN TWO: CHAPTER 19
In 19:11-21 we see the emphasis from the point of view of the Kings of the Earth who are sometimes tricked by Satan into persecuting the church, especially through a 'false prophet'. This is symbolic of all the times false teaching corrupts government. The beast is defeated once again, but this time it is the Lord on a conquering horse! (Even though the blood is probably yet another reference to his sacrifice for us).
RETURN THREE: CHAPTER 20
Finally, in Chapter 20 we see that Satan is bound in a very specific way, and then rises to fight God's people and is defeated almost as an anti-climax. When God acts... it just happens. Game over. God has won!
So: what is Chapter 20 all about?
If Revelation keeps repeating the theme of Satan's war against God during this period and God's final victory over him, then what is different in Chapter 20? What angle is this 'action replay' from? It's from heaven! Verse 20:4 takes us back to the throne room (which we've already seen in Revelation Chapters 4 and 5). There we see martyred Christians who are safe with Christ in heaven.
We learn that even though Satan is very active against God's people (previous chapters), there is one specific way he is bound. He cannot deceive the nations. He cannot stop the forward march of the gospel. Satan is not bound totally, as some Dispensationalist seem to imagine. Rather this imagery is to be fitted into other sections describing this age. Satan is bound in a very particular way. He cannot stop Acts 1:8, the forward march of the gospel! This is not a promise that every nation will respond to the gospel, but that every nation will hear the gospel. Rev 20 is to be held in balance with the other chapters that show Satan to be very active indeed! But in *this* chapter is a very powerful fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, that his children (us) would bless the whole world!
Dispensationalists reduce this rich theological passage to one of seeminlgy arbitrary events. This then that then that. But why? Amillennialists see the biblical symbols in John's writings, and know that John was yet again crafting a rich theological lesson full of symbol and metaphor and meaning and purpose. Satan being bound from deceiving the nations is the great mystery fulfilled, that God's kingdom would go out to all the world, not just confined to Palestine.
Finally we have the martyrs. Satan could not stop their 'first resurrection'. They are safe. The second death or hell has no power over them. Did you get that bit? These Saints are dead Saints. The second death has no power over them, even though the first one did have power over them when they died! In John's gospel he describes Christians as moving from death to life. Literally the phrase in Revelation 20 is "they lived and reigned with Christ". They *lived*, not they were resurrected! Even though it says "This is the first resurrection" that's John talking symbolically about how these were *Christians*, people forgiven by Christ who had moved from death to life! After all the horror of the last chapters in Revelation, we are told that should we be killed for Christ we will be safe. The view of this chapter is from heaven.
That the 'first resurrection' is John's way of referring back to his gospel should not surprise us.
John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for Gods wrath remains on them."
John 5:24 Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
John 6:40 "For my Fathers will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
We *have* eternal life now, but are only raised up on the Last Day, not 1000 years before the Last Day! If this were a 'bodily' resurrection it would be 1000 years before the Last Day, and not fit with the rest of the New Testament let alone John's own gospel.
In John 11:24 John says:
"Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.""
Compare this to John's writing in Revelation 20. "They LIVED with Christ" and they did not need to fear the second death.
Reading 20:4-6 as the actual resurrection doesn't fit 20:11-15 which really *is* describing actual bodily resurrection!
///11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. ///
It's Judgement Day, the dramatic language of the bodily resurrection of *everyone*, both good and bad, which is why the book of life is necessary. This is the final sorting between good and evil, between believers and unbelievers.
If THIS is when believers were bodily resurrected, then verse 4 cannot be. The Christians 'lived' in the *heavenly* throne room we know from earlier chapters. In other words, verses 11 to 15 are Judgement Day, the sorting of the Sheep from the Goats. Which makes sense of the rest of the New Testament instead of doing violence to it. The great Judgement, the resurrection, the end of sin and Satan and death itself, indeed the end of this very universe and installation of the next all happen on the Last Day.
FOOTNOTE 1: 1000 HARDLY EVER USED LITERALLY IN THE BIBLE!
There ARE times when multiples of a thousand indicate an actual, 'close enough', literal number, such as when describing how many men went into battle or how many people they captured. But this is clear from the specific context. For example: 1 Chronicles 5:21
"They seized the livestock of the Hagritesfifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep and two thousand donkeys. They also took one hundred thousand people captive,"
However these are usually in *multiples* of 1000. The USUAL usage of the actual symbol 1000 is anything but an actual number. It's like us saying 'about a gazillion' to modern ears. It's about exaggeration, not accuracy; it's about making a point, not counting; it's about completeness, not numbers.
The number 1000 is 10 times 10 times 10, the number of 'full completeness'. Just as the Hebrews repeated words 3 times for emphasis, for example, saying "Holy, Holy, Holy" instead of saying "God is extremely Holy", they also would throw some numbers together for emphasis. For example: 12 Tribes of Israel + 12 Apostles * 1000 (the complete number) gives you 144 thousand, the most complete number and picture of ALL God's people.
The two most conclusive verses that can ONLY be read as figurative for 'a gazillion' are;
Psalm 50:10
"for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills."
(Are literalists really going to conclude that God does not own the cattle on the gazillion other hills on planet earth?)
1 Chronicles 16:15
"15 He remembers[a] his covenant forever,
the promise he made, for a thousand generations,"
(1000 generations is being compared to 'forever'. Or are literalists going to say God backs out of His promises on generation 1001?)
But then many other verses also illustrate the number 1000 as 'a gazillion'.
Deuteronomy 32:30
"How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?"
Joshua 23:10
"One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised."
Job 9:3
"Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand."
Job 33:23
"Yet if there is an angel at their side, a messenger, one out of a thousand, sent to tell them how to be upright,"
Psalm 84:10
"Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked."
Ecclesiastes 7:28
"while I was still searching but not finding I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all."
Isaiah 30:17
"A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
Ezekiel 47:5
"He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim ina river that no one could cross."
2 Peter 3:8
"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
