One In Jesus

Verse 5

(Rev 20:5 ESV) The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

This is a highly controverted passage. The text implies that the faithful were resurrected early, perhaps at the beginning of the Millennium, whereas “the rest of the dead,” surely meaning the damned, aren’t resurrected until the end of the Millennium. But it’s really hard to fit a resurrection of the saved 1,000 years before the resurrection of the damned into the rest of the Bible, which plainly teaches to the contrary.

The solution is found in thinking less literally, but not all that much less literally. Continue reading →

Verse-by-verse

We continue going verse by verse —

Verse 4

(Rev 20:4 ESV)  4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the 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 their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Who reigns with Christ — and when? Well, sometimes the scriptures speak of Christians ruling at the end of time, but sometimes the idea is that Christians rule right now. Continue reading →

Verse-by-verse

Let’s now consider chapter 20 one verse at a time.

Verses 1-3

(Rev 20:1-3 ESV) Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.  2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,  3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

How long is 1,000 years? Well, most time indicators in the Revelation are symbolic, and we can’t just assume that 1,000 years is literal, when so many other numbers are not. And the rest of the scriptures make no mention of a 1,000-year reign. Rather, we find the 1,000-year reign in Jewish and Zoroastrian speculations. Continue reading →

The 1,000-year reign can’t refer to an earthly kingdom

(John 18:36 ESV)  36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

(Dan 2:44 ESV) And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,

Jesus declares plainly that the kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. And Daniel’s prophecy of the kingdom is clear that the kingdom to be established at the time of the Romans will last forever. There won’t be a second earthly kingdom that replaces the original spiritual kingdom. Nor do any of the numerous Old Testament prophecies about the kingdom speak of a transition from a spiritual kingdom to an earthly kingdom. Continue reading →

A little Southern blues to put you in the mood for the Apocalypse —

Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned earlier that I managed to grow up in church and attend Lipscomb University and not know what the “Rapture” is. Such was the authority of Foy Wallace in Tennessee and north Alabama in those days. We were so against the Rapture that we didn’t even bother to study why it was wrong.

But a large portion of the Protestant world believes in Rapture theology. Even many in the Churches of Christ believe in the Rapture; we just don’t call it that. Indeed, our hymn books often speak of meeting Jesus in the sky. Continue reading →