The vision of the seer of Patmos, as described in Revelation 20, logically falls into three parts: the binding of Satan, the throne scene of the martyrs, and the loosing of Satan with the resultant consequences. With reference to the first of these, John describes an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. The angel seized him who is called the dragon, the ancient serpent, the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the pit, shut it and sealed it, so its occupant could deceive the nations no more until the expiration of the thousand years. After that he would be freed for a brief period.
In general, we can determine the meaning of this vision. The heavenly messenger held the key to the abyss. A key is a symbol of authority, particularly the authority to open and close (Rev. 3:7). A chain or fetter is a symbol of restraint, or restrictive influence. One who is bound is dispossessed of his freedom to move about as before. The seizing of the dragon is indicative of the exercise of heavenly power over him to curtail his activities. The period in which he was to be thus kept under restraint is specified as a thousand years. It is specifically stated that the purpose of chaining him was to keep him from "deceiving the nations." This indicates that prior to this time he had worked deception over the nations of the earth, but now they would be relatively free from such deception.
With the chaining of Satan, the apostle saw the throne scene. It would appear that this was related to the binding of the deceiver of nations, and grew out of the circumstance. As Satan was deprived of his power, there were some who were elevated. They were enthroned as he was dethroned. John writes, "Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or in their hands. They came to life again, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years."
This is the only place in the entire word of God where the expression "the first resurrection" occurs. If the doctrine of the millenarians is to be found anywhere, it must be found here. If it is not taught, and clearly taught, in this instance, then it is not taught at all in the revelation of God. In our approach to the problem we must determine who sat upon the thrones, for it was these who took part in the first resurrection. Here the record is plain. John saw the souls of those who were beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and the word of God. These were the martyrs who suffered death in behalf of Jesus.
John did not see their bodies. The bodies were decapitated. He saw their souls. We are aware that the objection is made that the word "soul" is sometimes used as equivalent to man, and meaning the whole person. "Eight souls were saved by water." "There were added unto them about three thousand souls." "Joseph called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls." In each of these the word refers to persons. But while this is so, the expression, "the souls of those who had been beheaded" cannot refer to the entire persons, but must refer to the souls in contrast to, and out of, their bodies. While the term soul used alone may, and does, signify a person, the term soul of cannot be made to do so by any law of interpretation.
Many interpreters overlook the fact that John had previously seen many of these same souls, but under quite different circumstances. In chapter 6:9-11, he says, "I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?' Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been."
In this instance the apostle saw the souls of those who had been slain for their testimony. These souls cry out for vindication of their cause and for God's vengeance upon those who had shed their blood. They were each given a white robe as a symbol of their acceptance with God, to reassure them, and they were told to rest a little longer. Vindication or judgment would be granted to them, but first it was requisite that another period of persecution come during which their number be made complete by the slaying of another contingent of martyrs. It is not difficult to see that there are two eras of martyrdom.
The implication is that when the first group had died for the faith, there was a lull in persecution and a partial victory was achieved which led the martyred ones to conclude that the cause for which they had shed their blood was ready for final vindication. But they were informed that the victory was not yet complete and another series of persecutions would be required before their number could be made complete. The revelation would not be complete without depicting the final triumph of these slain martyrs. Accordingly, when we arrive at chapter 20 we see the great enemy bound, and the martyred saints upon thrones. Their number has been completed and now judgment (krima, the vindication of one's right) has been granted unto them.
It remains for us to enquire if there were any circumstances in the treatment of the primitive Christians which accord with these facts. The careful student of history will immediately recognize that there are. Be it remembered that Daniel saw four wild beasts, representative of as many successive world powers which were to act as persecuting agencies against God's people. The first three of these are described in the old covenant scriptures, but it was under the fourth that the kingdom of heaven was to be set up. Therefore, it remained for the new covenant scriptures to complete the canon of revelation and to detail the struggle of spiritual Israel under the last great world power. It was to complete this picture that John was granted the vision on Patmos.
The last of the four world powers was Rome, and it was with this nation that Christianity came to grips. The gospel of the Messiah was in direct opposition to the "emperor worship" which was the rallying ground of paganism. Rome soon recognized that she was up against an opponent such as she had never before met. She fought back with all that she had. She used the sword, rack, stake, strangling cord and banishment. The blood of thousands of saints flowed like rivers from the days of Nero to Diocletian. But it was a losing battle, and when Diocletian abdicated the throne in 305, due to his wretched health and desire for rural retirement, and Constantius Chlorus died a year later, the latter nominated his son, Constantine, as successor, and this was ratified by the army. Constantine, being favorable to Christianity, issued an edict of toleration, and the pagan persecutions were over.
When Roman imperialism was finally ended before the onrushing Teutonic hordes, it appeared that the people of God had gained the victory over the fourth beast. At such a time the souls of the beheaded ones might be expected to cry out with a loud voice for vindication and triumph. But they did not know that the last world empire would manifest itself in two parts. "One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder" (Rev. 13:3). "It was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth shall worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundations of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain."
The ferocity of Pagan Rome was manifest anew and increased under the sway of Papal Rome. The infidel historian, Gibbon, estimates the number of Christians slain by Pagan Rome as less than 100,000, but the number of Protestants slain in the Netherlands in five years (1550-55) by the Roman Catholic Emperor Charles V was in excess of that figure. The sword of Pagan Rome gleamed again in the hands of Papal delegates, and once more the blood of witnesses flowed in a stream. The souls under the altar who had rested a little while were now joined by their fellow servants and brethren until the number was complete of those "who were to be killed as they themselves had been."
But the days of the universal sway of Papal Rome were also numbered. In 1324 was born John Wyclifle, the "morning star of the Reformation." He developed into a man of intense conviction who was possessed of a genial and humble spirit, and who lived a pure but austere life. He was described as "the unsparing assailant of abuses, the boldest and most indefatigable of controversialists, the first reformer who dared, when deserted and alone, to question and deny the creed of the Christendom around him, to break through the tradition of the past, and, with his last breath, to assert the freedom of religious thought against the dogmas of the papacy." Wycliffe kindled a fire which was never extinguished. His most important task was the translation of the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate, a work which he completed in 1384, the year of his death. His enemies soon admitted that "laymen and even women know more of the Scriptures than the best educated of the clergy."
A quotation from J. J. Blunt is in order at this time. "An eager appetite for scriptural knowledge was excited among the people, which they would make any sacrifice and risk any danger to gratify. Entire copies of the Bible, when they could only be multiplied by the use of amanuenses, were too costly to be within reach of very many readers; but those who could not procure 'the volume of the book' would give a load of hay for a few favorite chapters, and many such scraps were consumed upon the persons of the martyrs at the stake. They would hide the forbidden treasure under the floors of their houses, and put their lives in peril rather than forego the book they desired; they would sit up at night, sometimes all night long, their doors being shut for fear of surprise, reading or hearing others read the word of God; they would bury themselves in the woods, and there converse with it in solitude; they would tend their herds in the fields, and still steal an hour for drinking in the good tidings of great joy."
The free circulation of God's truth was the chain which bound Satan. When the Bible was chained to the pulpits, Satan was free; when the Bible was free, Satan was chained. The Reformation broke the power of Papal dominion and set the captives free from Babylon's long enslavement. Now those who had died for the freedom of truth lived again in the exaltation and triumph over the forces that had killed them. This was not a resurrection of bodies, but of a cause, and those who died for it lived once more in the spirits of free men who were willing to die. But will this interpretation meet the demands of logic and fairness? Let us see!
The book of Revelation is presented in four divisions. The first consists of a vision of the Christ, a detailed description of his appearance, and his commission to John to write. This occupies the first chapter of the narrative. The second consists of letters addressed to the seven messengers from the congregations of Asia Minor, and these are contained in chapters 2 and 3. The third and fourth divisions each picture history from apostolic days until the culmination of world events at the final judgment. The third division depicts the fate of the Roman Empire, the last of the four great powers of the earth. It opens with a vision of the throne scene in heaven (chapter 4:1) and closes with the sound of the seventh and last trumpet, the judgment of the dead, the rewarding of the saints, and the destruction of the destroyers of the earth (11:15-18). If the book concluded at that point world history would be complete.
However, the fourth division covers the same ground, but with a different view in mind. The third division is dedicated to showing the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, last of the four great world monarchies; but the last half of the book is given over to the rise and triumph of the kingdom of the Messiah. Chapter 20 is near the close of that account. It is not an isolated record of a special purpose to set up a kingdom on earth, but is directly connected with the history of a kingdom set up in the days of John (1:6; 5:10).
The final series of visions begins in chapter 11:19 with a view into heaven, as the preceding series began. In 12:1 John mentions seeing a woman, representative of the church. She is clothed with the sun, symbolic of the light of the gospel; standing over the moon, symbolic of the old covenant as an inferior revelation; having a crown of twelve stars, the chosen envoys or apostles. The woman is in the advanced stages of pregnancy, ready to be delivered. Before her stood a great red dragon (bloody persecuting power) ready to devour her child at birth. She brought forth a male child who was caught up unto God and his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness where she was pursued by the dragon. She was given two wings of a great eagle to enable her to escape, but the dragon ejected water from his mouth like a river in an attempt to overwhelm her. When the earth opened and engulfed the flood, the dragon was enraged against the woman and went to make war on the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.
The dragon is identified as the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world (12:9). This is the same being that is bound with the chain in 20:1-4 that he should deceive the nations no more. It is not to be understood that Satan attacked the woman in person. The dragon with seven heads and ten horns is symbolic of Rome, the last of the world empires. The key to the entire series is found in the expression, "The dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war with the remnant of her offspring." The woman's offspring are identified as those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. Thus we have a history of war between two great opposing forces--the church and the party of the dragon. One is Christian, the other is anti-Christian. The church is represented by faithful witnesses who stand for truth through many centuries. The witnesses are not the same persons throughout the centuries, but they belong to the same institution, and form the same party, and therefore, they may be said to be cast down or lifted up, falling or rising, as the party is activated or quiescent, overthrown or in the ascendancy.
The offspring of the woman in conflict with the forces of the dragon pass through various conditions in the prolonged war. Thus we come to chapter 19, and John says, "I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who sits upon the horse and against his army" (verse 19). This is the dragon-party arrayed for a decisive struggle against the forces of the Christ. The result is that the beast and false prophet were captured and thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone. "And the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits upon the horse, the sword that issues from his mouth" (19:21). Notice that the effective instrument is the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God. With it, the forces of the dragon-party are routed and decimated.
When the word of God overcomes the rest of the dragon-party, John immediately says, "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven...and he seized the dragon...and bound him for a thousand years...that he should deceive the nations no more." With the dragon under chains to keep him from deceiving the nations of earth, the truth-party was now in possession of the field, and John saw the souls of those who died for the sake of truth, on thrones. So long had truth been obscured by the darkness of error that it was actually like a resurrection from the dead for it to once more have the ascendancy. When the dragon had the nations deceived, the word of God chained to the pulpits, and the church was in the wilderness, the faithful were being slaughtered and truth was hidden. Now, with the enemy of souls imprisoned, and the word of God free, the truth-party is on thrones and victory is apparent. Those who died for the cause of the Christ live again as truth survives and triumphs upon earth in the persons of their successors. This is the first resurrection, the vindication of the cause of truth for which thousands were beheaded.
"The rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were finished." Who are these? Please observe that "when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth." This indicates a resurrection of the dragon-party. While truth is free, universal deception is not likely, but the day will come when Satan is loosed. The dragon-party will then be in power for a little season which will culminate in the final struggle of truth against error, called the battle of Har-Megiddo (Armageddon). The first resurrection is the triumph of the party of truth when the martyrs live again in the persons of those who espouse it; the next resurrection is the temporary triumph of the forces of error and apostacy in the persons of those who revive deception and fraud with its persecuting tendencies. It is interesting to note that the word "rest" in "the rest of the dead" (20:5) is the same as in "the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits upon the house" (19:21).
Is this idea of a figurative or symbolic resurrection a forced one in the chapter? Does it wreak havoc with the context, either remote or adjacent? On the contrary. This interpretation does no injury to the text. It coincides with the remainder of the book and is maintained by the facts of history. The idea of two literal resurrections, one of the righteous, another of the wicked a thousand years later, has to be injected to sustain a theory. It denies other plain texts of scripture. It must supply by supposition essential parts of the theory which are lacking from the revelation of God.
Is there scriptural precedent for interpretation of a rising cause as "a resurrection"? Is it logical to refer to those who have died in behalf of a principle as "living again" in the persons of those who adopt that principle after it has long been buried from sight? In other words, can there be such a thing as a metaphorical resurrection? To this we reply that the word of God abounds in such illustrations. The prophet Isaiah brought comfort to Israel with reference to their captivity by saying, "Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!" (26:19). When the nation was in captivity in Babylon, with Jerusalem torn down and the temple destroyed, the people of Israel declared, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, we are clean cut off." But the Lord said, "Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home again to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people" (Ezek. 37:11-15). This does not mean that God proposed to literally raise from the dead those who died in the siege of Jerusalem, or those who perished in Babylon. But a remnant returned with Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, and restored the law. This was a resurrection of national hopes and aspirations from the graves of despondency and despair.
That there is such a thing as a figurative resurrection is plainly evidenced by the writer of the Hebrews (11:17-19): "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.' He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead, hence, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."
In Romans 11, the apostle Paul deals at length with the present state of the Jews. He shows that as branches of an olive tree they were broken off because of unbelief in order that the Gentiles might be grafted in. By their trespass salvation came to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. If they do not persist in their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God is able to do this. The writer asks, "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" (verse 15). Their rejection is equivalent to death, their acceptance to life. Since they are now in a state of rejection, if they return to God's favor it will be a resurrection from the dead.
For one to come in the same spirit and power as another is as if the original person came. Malachi wrote, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes" (4:5). The Jewish scribes accepted this literally and looked for Elijah to come personally (Matt. 17:10). But Jesus said, "I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased...Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist" (Matt. 17:12, 13). In what sense had Elijah come in the person of John? The answer is found in the words of Gabriel, relative to John. "He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just" (Luke 1:17). Elijah "lived again" when one came in his same spirit and power.
In this same sense the slain martyrs lived again when others arose in their spirit and power, contending boldly for the same truth for which they gave their lives. It was not necessary for the martyrs to return to earth any more than it was necessary for Elijah to do so. Jesus said "Elijah has already come" and in just the same way the slain martyrs lived again. The scribes looked for Elijah and did not recognize him when he came. They did not see him return personally and concluded that he had not come. In the same way modern scribes look for a literal millennium and may not recognize it when it is here. Because they do not see the "bodies" of the martyrs, they conclude their "souls" are not reigning with the Christ.
The reformers who died for the faith seemed to feel what I am now expressing. We offer as an example, John Huss, who was born in Hussenitz, Bohemia, in 1380. After graduation from the university at Prague, he became a bold contender for the truth. He strongly advocated the doctrine of Wycliffe, and was cited to appear before the general council in Constance, Germany, and answer to a charge of heresy. In spite of a document granting safe conduct, issued by the emperor, the pope, on the basis that "Faith is not to be kept with heretics," had him arrested and thrown into prison upon his arrival in Constance.
When Huss was brought before the council, approximately forty charges and indictments were launched against him. At the close of his trial a resolution was made to burn him as a heretic if he did not recant. He was cast into a filthy prison, and laden with fetters so that he could barely move. At night his hands were chained to a ring in the wall. When four bishops and two lords were sent to urge his recantation upon the basis of the wisdom of the council, Huss said, "Let them send the meanest person of that council, who can convince me by argument from the word of God, and I will submit my judgment to him." When the chain was put about him at the stake, he said, "My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake; why, then, should I be ashamed of this old rusty one?" As the wood for the fire was being piled about his feet, the duke of Bavaria again tried to get him to renounce his teaching. Huss replied, "No, I never preached any doctrine of evil tendency; and what I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood."
While still in the prison, Huss made a very significant statement, as follows, "I maintain this for certain, that the image of Christ will never be effaced. They have wished to destroy it, but it shall be painted afresh in all hearts by much better preachers than myself. The nation that loves Christ will rejoice at this; and I awaking among the dead, and rising, so to speak, from my grave, shall leap with great joy." A century later Martin Luther shook the structure of Papacy to its foundations in Germany where Huss was burnt. Pope Adrian, in his letter to the Diet of Nuremberg, wrote: "The heretics Huss and Jerome are alive again in the person of Martin Luther." "They came to life again, and reigned with Christ a thousand years" (Rev. 20:4).
We view the millennium as a period of free circulation of the truth throughout the earth. It is not inaugurated by a literal resurrection of any from the grave, but by the rising of a cause which had been buried beneath a mixture of unholy superstition and tradition. It will continue while freedom of thought and speech are allowed by nations no longer under the deception of an apostate hierarchy. It will be concluded when men no longer cherish these ideals and again allow the forces of evil to throttle them. Then will be resurrected the deceptive spirit which for "a little season" will lead the nations of the earth into captivity.
We visualize the teaching with reference to this chapter as follows:
1. First resurrection. The revival of the party of truth and the rescue of the church from "the wilderness" of obscurity, into which it has been driven by fierce opposition of Satan's forces.
2. Second resurrection. The revival of Satan's party consequent upon his release from the abyss and their return to power at the end of a thousand years. Following the deception of the nations during a little season, the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire, and then will occur the universal resurrection of the just and unjust at the coming of our Lord. This is the prelude for the event described in Revelation 20:11-15, when John saw "the dead, great and small standing before the throne...and all were judged by what they had done."
Before we conclude, this chapter we beg permission to append a dissertation which we believe will serve for clarification. We refer to the article by Alexander Campbell on "The Resurrection of the Dead and the Pre-millenial Resurrection." We ask of our readers a careful study of the exegesis prepared by this profound student of the word of God.
That we may be understood in the contrast between the literal and figurative resurrection, we shall call the former the resurrection of the body and the latter the pre-millenial resurrection.Nicodemus was a great literalist when he asked. How can a grown man be born again? As great literalists, perhaps, may they be found who take "the first resurrection" of the apocalyptic visions, to be a literal one.
We have a minute account of a figurative resurrection of the house of Israel by the Prophet Ezekiel. The Lord "opened the graves" and raised from the valley of "dry bones" a living and puissant army. That was a figurative resurrection. In baptism we are both buried and raised with Christ--planted in the similitude of his death, to be raised in the similitude of his resurrection.
The restoration of Israel in Romans 11 is by Paul called "life from the dead." "Since you have been raised with Christ, ascend in your affections," is a part of the beautiful imagery of Paul to the Colossians. If there were two Elijahs, one literal and one figurative, we need not wonder that there should be two resurrections--a figurative and a literal one. Now in the book of types and symbols the presumption is in favor of a metaphorical resurrection, unless something be connected with it that precludes the possibility or probability of such an appropriation.
When any cause is almost or altogether dead, whether it be good or bad, should it suddenly or unexpectedly revive, we would with Paul think of "life from the dead," or with John call it a resurrection. Nay, it may yet appear that John has a first and second figurative resurrection--one before and one after his thousand years; for if, after a long prostrate, dispirited, and ineffectual profession of the faith, a great and unprecedented revival should take place, and a prophet should call it a resurrection, might he not, at the end of that great revival or resurrection of the good spirits of the olden time, when an opposite class began to rise into power, think of another resurrection, which in contrast he would call a second resurrection? This John virtually does by calling one of them a first resurrection; and by afterwards speaking of the "rest of the dead" living again. Whether I have the true secret of interpreting the Apocalypse (chapter 20) the following antithesis may in part demonstrate. We shall only add that while a literal resurrection has respect to the body dead and buried, a figurative resurrection in the Christian religion will not indicate bodies, but souls quickened, animated, and elevated by the Spirit of God. And that as in the same treatise John speaks of the death, and of "the spirit of life" re-animating and elevating to heaven the two witnesses, the presumption is that he is as figurative in the 20th as he was in the 14th chapter of his scenetic and symbolic representations.
1. The resurrection of the body is only a resurrection of the body; whereas the pre-millenial resurrection is a resurrection of souls, and not of bodies. "I saw the souls of the beheaded," says John, "and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection." Now of the body Paul says, "It is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body--it is sown a corruptible body and raised an incorruptible." The pre-millenial resurrection is a raising of souls.
2. The resurrection of the body is general--the pre-millenial is special. "All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth." "There shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust." These with other passages of the same significance, apply to the resurrection of the dead, as all admit. But in the account of the pre-millenial resurrection only some will participate in it: for, says John, "I saw the souls of them beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and whosoever had not worshiped the beast nor his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."
3. The resurrection of the body will be accompanied with the transformation of all the living saints--the pre-millenial will not.
No one pretends that all the living saints will be changed when the first resurrection (as it is called) transpires; and no one can deny that Paul says both the living saints shall be changed and the dead raised, and both ascend together to meet the Lord in the air.
4. The participants of the resurrection of the saints will live and reign for ever; while the participants of the pre-millenial resurrection are only to live and reign one thousand years.
I need not prove that the phrase, "we shall be ever with the Lord," applies to the subjects of the "resurrection of the just," nor need I prove that the limitation of the life and triumphs of the saints to one thousand years, precludes the idea of its being an eternal life and endless reign.
5. The resurrection of the body, its transformation and that of the earth, are almost coincident events: while the pre-millenial resurrection is neither accompanied nor succeeded by any such transformations; nay, it is to be succeeded by another resurrection of the souls of the wicked, called "the rest of the dead."
"The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were expired." Now as the phrase, "they lived a thousand years," intimates that in that sense and state they lived no more than a thousand years; so the phrase, "the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were expired," intimates that as soon as the thousand years were expired they lived again.
6. The resurrection of the dead immediately precedes the destruction of the last enemy; but the pre-millenial resurrection leaves not only Satan, but death in the field, to gain new triumphs, more than one thousand years after its consummation.
So far from death, the last enemy, being destroyed before the Millenium--so far from Satan being for ever crushed by the first resurrection, it is intimated that he will be loosed, and that he will deceive the nations and raise a war against the saints even after the thousand years shall have been fulfilled. Can any man reconcile this with Paul's affirmation while expatiating on the resurrection of the dead? "Death the last enemy, shall be destroyed." "Death is swallowed up for ever." "Grave, where now thy victory!"
7. It was before shown that the final conflagration and the new creation of a heaven and earth more congenial with the new bodies of the saints, will immediately accompany the resurrection of the body; while the pre-millenial resurrection indicates a residence on the present earth for a thousand years after it is burned up!
These seven specifications of antitheses between the literal and figurative resurrections, may suffice for the present. There are other points that have occurred to us besides these; but these, we presume, incontrovertibly show that the Lord cannot possibly come in person before the Millenium; and that with me, at present, is all that I wish to establish. The events that do accompany, and those that must, according to the very plainest oracles, precede his personal return, are such as forbid any one well read, or profoundly attentive to the subject, to believe or teach the personal coming of the Lord, or a literal resurrection of any portion of the saints, before the Millenium.