Revelation 20:5 - Printer Friendly

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

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

NASB: The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

CSB: The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

NLT: This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.)

KJV: But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

NKJV: But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

This verse assures us there will be a resurrection of the wicked dead. It will occur at the end of the millennium. The first resurrection that John saw occurs before the millennium. Christ arose as the "firstfruits" (1 Corinthians 15:20), evidence of a future resurrection harvest. The resurrection of church saints before the tribulation comes next (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17), followed by the resurrection of the two faithful witnesses in the middle of the tribulation (Revelation 11:9–12), followed by the resurrection of tribulation martyrs and Old Testament saints at the end of the tribulation (Revelation 20:4; Daniel 12:1–3).

All these resurrected believers reign with Christ throughout the millennium. The resurrection described in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 guarantees believers a brand-new body. It will be incapable of dying or decomposing. It will be like the resurrected body of the Lord (Philippians 3:21). Sin, pain, sorrow, and death will no longer be the experience of believers.

Revelation 20:4–10 focuses on the reign of Christ during the millennium: the thousand years of Christ's rule on earth, as well as what happens at the end of that era. The millennial reign begins after the Devil is imprisoned in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1–3) and before the unrighteous dead of all periods of history are judged and consigned to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11–15). These events precede the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven (Revelation 21).

Revelation chapter 20 represents the final lesson, final judgment, and final victory of the end times. Satan is bound, but not destroyed, and released after a thousand years of peace and righteousness. Proving that no evidence or reason to believe in and follow Jesus is enough for those determined to rebel, some follow Satan and are destroyed in a rebellion. Those who died without faith in Christ, through all of history, are resurrected to face the great white throne judgment. There, they are sentenced for sin and consigned eternally to the lake of fire.

This chapter comes between the account of our Lord's decisive victory at Armageddon and the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven to earth. It focuses on the beginning of Jesus' reign on the earth and the great white throne judgment when unbelievers from all periods of history are judged and sentenced to eternal suffering in the lake of fire. Daniel 7:18, Isaiah 11, Joel 3:16–21, Obadiah 1:21, and Micah 4:2 are just a few of the Old Testament references to the reign of Jesus on the earth. After this point in the end times, evil has been entirely and completely defeated.

The word ''revelation'' means ''an unveiling or disclosure.'' This writing unveils future events such as the rapture, three series of judgments that will fall on the earth during the tribulation, the emergence of the Antichrist, the persecution of Israel and her amazing revival, as well as Jesus' second coming with His saints to the earth, the judgment of Satan and his followers, and finally, the eternal state. This content, combined with the original Greek term apokalypsis, is why we now refer to an end-of-the-world scenario as ''an apocalypse.''

Accessed 12/30/2024 12:55:35 PM