Chapter Forty/Crushing the Serpent's Head - Judges for a Thousand Years - Conclusion

 Now these conquerors live again! John reports: "And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4c) Does this mean that these judges are not resurrected until after the destruction of the nations and the abyssing of Satan and his demons? No, most of them are already very much alive, since they rode with Jesus against the nations at Armageddon.  (Revelation 2:26, 27; 19:14) Indeed, Paul indicated that their resurrection commences soon after the beginning of Jesus' presence in 1914 and that some are resurrected before others. (1 Corinthians 15:51-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17) Therefore, their coming to life occurs over a period of time as they individually receive a gift of immoral life in the heavens. - 2 THESSALONIANS1:7; 2 PETER 3:11-14.

Their reigning and judging will be for a thousand years. IS this a literal thousand years, or should we view it symbolically as being an undefined long period of time? "Thousands" may mean a large, undefined number, as at 1 Samuel 21:11. But here the "thousands " is literal, since it appears three times in Revelation 20:5-7 as "the thousand years." Paul called this time of judgment "a day" when he stated: 'He [God] has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness." (Acts17:31) Since Peter tell us that one day with Jehovah is a thousand years, it is appropriate that this day of Judgment be a literal thousand years." - 2 PETER 3:8. 

Next time: Chapter Forty/Crushing the Serpent's Head - The Rest of the Dead

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