So what we are looking at is a heavenly scene.
Now, who are we talking about? Well it is one group of people described in two different ways. Narrowly, the group of people we are talking about are martyrs. “I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the Word of God.” Now, Revelation does this in a number of places. It looks at God’s people in one sense as martyrs, because many of them were, but that is also something of a metaphor. God's people here are facing the temptation to compromise. So if they withstand this temptation, they maintain their testimony to Jesus in one sense they will all be persecuted. They will all be martyrs of a type. So, narrowly, what we are looking at are those who literally were killed because they were Christians. But more broadly, we are looking at anyone who has maintained faithful testimony to Jesus. Look at the next sentence in verse four. So first they are described as martyrs, and then it says, “They had not worshiped the beast, or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands." So we are talking, narrowly, about martyrs, more broadly about God's people, about overcomers, about you, I hope, who do not receive the mark of the beast, but maintained your faithfulness to Christ. Revelation 3:21 says, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." So we are looking at Christians who did not give in, did not compromise. These are overcomers. And they have received their reward, now, in heaven, sitting on thrones. So these are dead Christians in heaven as disembodied souls sitting on thrones with the authority to judge. And we will say more about that at the end.
So this brings us to the end of verse four, our question: “They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Now that is just a summary sentence of what I have just explained. This is a picture of believers who upon death come to life as disembodied souls and reign with Christ. Now, let me deal with a couple of problems with this interpretation. The first is the Greek word "zao." Zao means "they came to life." They live. Think of the word zoology. It has that Greek prefix of life, of living things. Zao means to live. And zao, often in the New Testament, means a physical resurrection. Matthew 9, Romans 14, I could give you a number of passages. But I want to argue that this is not a physical resurrection here. When it says, “They came to life,” it does not mean that their bodies came out of the ground and were made immortal. It is talking about a spiritual resurrection upon death. As a Christian, our ultimate hope it is the resurrection of the dead. But there is what theologians call an intermediate state. Before Christ comes back, and before they resurrection, our souls are with Christ in Heaven. They are not asleep. They are not just bodies in the ground, and we go out of existence for a while. Our souls--I do not know how it works–but our souls are separated from our bodies for a time during this intermediate state.
Remember premillennialists will say, “There is a first resurrection, that is the believers. And there is a second resurrection, and thousand years later, that is the unbelievers.” But Scripture seems to teach consistently that there is only one resurrection. Daniel 12:2, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the Earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” You do not get the sense that there is a thousand years between this. But all people are brought up out of their graves. Somehow, Christ puts all of their atoms together again, and some are sent to their reward, and some to punishment. Jesus says the same thing in John 5, “Do not be amazed at this, for an hour...” He means a specific time, a moment. Not over the course of a thousands of years. “…An hour is coming when all who are in their tombs will hear His voice and to come out.” Just like Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth.” What is Lazarus going to do? He is going to come forth. That is what Christ will say, “Dead, arise.” And in a twinkling of an eye, all of these atoms from in the ground, and decomposed into the earth, and in urns somewhere, are all going to come together. And Christ says, “Those who have done good will go to the resurrection of life. And those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” So Christ talks about this resurrection of the good and the bad happening at the same time.
And there is confirmation that zao does not refer to physical resurrection here. There’s confirmation from 1 Corinthians 15. Now, just follow this train of thought with me. 1 Corinthians 15 is where Paul is talking about the resurrection. And he says in verse 54, “When the perishable,” that is our dead bodies, “have been clothed with imperishable,” our new resurrection bodies, “and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory.” In verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 15, he says that “Death is the last enemy.” So do you follow what Paul is saying? When the resurrection happens, when our bodies are clothed with immortality, then we will know that death has been defeated. Death is finally over. Death, our last enemy, has been conquered. And yet if verse four is talking about a physical resurrection, and then another thousand years, and then another final battle royale, we can hardly say that death has been conquered. We can hardly say that there are no more enemies, because we have a thousand years and we still have the whole thing to finish. There is plenty of death left to come. So Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15 would not be true that when we have our new resurrection bodies, then we know death has been defeated.
So zao, this word, they live, they come to life, means that they live with Christ in heaven. What John sees here are believers who, though dead, are more alive than ever before. The coming to life describes the souls of believers who have died, but now share, even without their bodies, in the reign of Christ. Think of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:8 where he says, “I would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” Or Revelation 14:13, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord.” Or look at Luke Chapter 20:38. If you read the books that I do, people will say, “Well, this Greek word zao it never means this kind of spiritual resurrection. It always refers to real flesh and blood kind of life.” Except for Luke 20:38. This is where the Sadducees and Pharisees are arguing. Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, and the Sadducees didn't. And so they are having this debate. And Jesus takes the side of the Pharisees, because he believes in the resurrection. And there was the sort of intramural Jewish debate about whether the Torah, or anywhere in the Old Testament, taught the resurrection. Could you prove the resurrection from the books of Moses? This sort of what rabbis might do for a good time.
And so Jesus weighs in on this. And he solves the riddle, maybe not to their satisfaction, but he solved the riddle. And he says, “God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And they are saying, “Yes, that is true.” And then he says, “God is the God of the living, not the dead.” Zao, there. In other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living in a very real sense. They are living and yet there bodies are in the ground, not resurrected. Jesus used that to demonstrate to the Sadducees that there will be a resurrection, because we already have life in heaven. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living, are zao.
So the hope offered to the saints in verses four and five is the same hope that has been offered time and time again in Revelation. This vision is saying, “Look, Christians, it may appear that evil is winning.” Why do we have 24-hour news channels? I don't know except to make us all scared and paranoid, so we can know every single time some child somewhere is missing; every time someone in the country has been killed. It is fearful. But this vision says, “Christians, take heart. If you overcome in this life, you will be triumphant in death.” This is the picture right now, the saints--some of your kids, some of your grandparents, some of your siblings, some of your spouses--saints already sitting on thrones, judging, reigning with Christ during this thousand years; living as glorified souls in heaven even as they await their final hope, the resurrection from the dead. That is the first resurrection. The first resurrection is the saints who died, whose souls now reign with Christ in heaven. It is the reality of 2 Timothy 2, “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him.” So that if you experience the first resurrection, where you live and reign with Christ after death, then you will not experience the second death.
Chris White
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