THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
The Unveiling of the Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven
Lesson 23
Succession Arrangements of the Covenant Treaty Continued:
Chapter 20
The Thousand-Year Reign, the Binding of Satan, the First Resurrection and the Last Battle, and the Prophecy of the Last Judgment
Eternal God and Father,
Help us not to become complacent
in our knowledge of Christ's victory over sin and death because the battle
against Satan and the forces of evil is not over; it continues and is a life or
death struggle. The Church on earth is the Church militant because, as Jesus' holy
warriors, we fight a spiritual battle against the influences of the devil daily.
We know that Jesus defeated Satan in His sacrificial death on the Cross and in
His glorious Resurrection, but he still strives to bring as many human souls as
he can into the Hell of the damned. The holy warriors of the Body of Christ
are their only hope to tear them from the arms of the devil and to deliver them
into the arms of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Baptism. Lord, empower us
with the strength of the Holy Spirit in this last war to win souls before Christ
returns to judge the living and the dead. We pray in the name of God the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
+ + +
(Jesus' reply to the Pharisees when they accused Him
of casting out demons by the power of Satan) "But if it is through the
Spirit of God that I drive out devils, then be sure that the kingdom of God has
caught you unawares. Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man's
house and plunder his property unless he has first tied up the strong man?
Only then can he plunder his house."
Matthew 12:28-29
Jesus said: "When
the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will
take his seat on his throne of glory. All nations will be assembled before him,
and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep
from goats."
Matthew 25:31-2
Before Christ's second coming, the Church must pass
through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers (CCC# 675). The Church still will enter the glory
of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord
in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a
historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by
God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to
come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the
form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.
CCC# 677
In Chapter 19, with the death of the old Bride who had become a false prophet with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, for the first time, John sees the New Covenant Church, symbolically imaged as the Bride of the Lamb, revealed in Heaven. He also hears the saints and angels' song of victory announcing, "Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun; let us be glad and joyful and give glory to God because this is the time for the marriage of the Lamb" (Rev 19:7). The fourth of the seven beatitudes in Revelation follows the praise of the Lamb and His Bride, blessing those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev 19:9; also see 1:3, 14:13; 16:15; 20:6, and 22:7 and 14).
The first of the last seven of John's visions follows the announcement of the "wedding feast of the Lamb," in which John sees the victorious Christ, "the Word," riding forth with the host of heaven to aid the Church in fulfilling the Great Commission He announced in Matthew 28:20 to carry the Gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth. He wears a bloody cloak, stained with the blood of the earthly saints who will give their lives in defense of the Gospel. We won the battle against the Old Covenant Jews and the sea-beast who adopted Christianity with the conversion of Constantine the Great in the fourth century, but the Church must strive to wage war against sin and to save souls for Christ. It is a battle that the Church fights today as, throughout salvation history, we have won and lost ground in the continuing struggle. However, the Church Militant can take courage from knowing that Christ is leading the fight and, therefore, we cannot lose.
Some Biblical scholars believe all the events in the Book of Revelation were fulfilled historically and spiritually in AD 70. Others think it is as much a mistake to interpret all of John's prophecies in the Book of Revelation as completed in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (and thereby the liturgy and worship of the Sinai Covenant) as it is to interpret John's visions in Revelation as future events with the Second Advent of Christ.
Perhaps the key lies in the record of Jesus' mini-apocalypse discourses found in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In each of these Gospels, Jesus speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem (Mt 24-25, Mk 13, and Lk 21), followed by His description of His glorious return in His Second Advent and the Final Judgment. For example, read Jesus' condemnation of Jerusalem and His prophecy of destruction in Matthew 23:33-24:25, His prediction of His glorious Second Advent in 24:26-44, followed by his warning to be ready for His unannounced return and Jesus' description of the Last Judgment. These passages and the other in the Gospels of Mark and Luke are the blueprints for John's last visions in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation Chapter 6 provided a kind of outline of the destruction of the Great City and Final Judgment, which we can compare with the same themes in the Synoptic Gospels of the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus' Second Advent, and the Final Judgment (see the chart on this comparison in the Synoptic Gospels Versus Revelation). The Gospel of John is the only one of the four Gospels not to include the destruction of Jerusalem or a discourse on the Second Advent. Is that because the Holy Spirit chose John to write about those events in the Book of Revelation that follows the same themes in the Synoptic mini-apocalypses? Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the fulfillment of the visions in AD 70 does not preclude a fulfillment at the end of time; instead, it establishes it.
The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70 is what happened on a provisional level. Its removal foreshadows what will happen to the "Temple of the Cosmos" at the Final Judgment. The concept of the earthly Temple as a micro Temple in contrast with the Universe as God's macro Temple appears throughout Jewish thought from the Old Testament prophets down to present age Jewish scholars. An excellent contemporary work on this concept is Sinai & Zion: An entry into the Jewish Bible by the Harvard scholar Dr. Jon D. Levenson, HarperSanFrancisco Press. For the Catholic view, see Fr. Yves Kandar's book The Mystery of the Temple.
It was common in Old Testament times to think of the "ages of humanity" and of the covenant that would come to fulfillment in the "Last Age." The "Last Age" of humanity began with the coming of Christ in His first Advent (as Peter declared in Acts 2:16-17) and the destruction of the Old Covenant Church in AD 70. However, even though this is the New Covenant and the New Age of redeemed humanity (or "the Age to Come" as expressed in the Old Testament), it does not mean that this New and Final Age does not contain ages/stages. In Ephesians 2:4-7, Paul writes: But God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ, it is through grace that you have been saved, and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus. This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how extraordinarily rich he is in grace (bold added for emphasis). Therefore, within this Final Age of the New Covenant, there are ages of the Church unfolding down through history until the final fulfillment of time in the Final Judgment and the End of Time as we know it.
Revelation Chapter 20 begins with the fourth of John's final seven visions, with each identified by the words kai eidon, "and I saw" (19:11, 17, 19; 20:1, 4, 11; 21:1). The references in the Book of Ezekiel for this chapter are Ezekiel Chapters 38-39, prophecies against Gog, king of Magog.
Revelation 20:1-3 ~ The Fourth Vision: Binding of Satan
1 Then I saw [Kai eidon = And I saw] an angel come down
from heaven with the key of the Abyss in his hand and an enormous chain. 2 He
overpowered the dragon, that primeval serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and
chained him up for a thousand years. 3 He hurled him into the
Abyss and shut the entrance and sealed it over him, to make sure he would not
lead the nations astray again until the thousand years had passed. At the end
of that time, he must be released, but only for a short while."
There is much speculation concerning the Abyss by Biblical scholars, but it does not appear to be the Hell of the Damned (Gehenna also called the Lake of Fire or the Pit), nor is it the abode of the dead (Sheol/Hades). Its description is not as a place of fiery judgment like the Hell of the Damned. It appears to be a separate realm filled with demons and appears nine times in the Greek text of Revelation (Rev 9:1, 2 (three times), 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3). Abyss is from the Greek word Abyssos, meaning "bottomless," unfathomed," or "unfathomable deep." It is the same as the Hebrew tehom, "the deep" in the Hebrew Old Testament (i.e., Gen 1:2).(1)
Question: When was the last time John saw an angel/ messenger
with the key to the Abyss. Who was the angel/messenger, and what did he do? See
Lesson 12, Revelation 9:1.
Answer: In Revelation 9:1, the identity of the angel/messenger
appears to be Jesus Christ, who owns the keys to the Abyss and has the power to
released or bind Satan there.
Question: In what four ways is the evil one named in the Bible?
See Rev 12:9.
Answer: He is the dragon, the serpent, the devil, and Satan.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word satan always appears with the article "the" except in 1 Chronicles 21:1, where it is a proper name. In the Greek Septuagint (LXX), the word appears as diabolos (in English, "devil"); satan means "accuser," "adversary," or "slanderer." The basic reference to satan in Hebrew is an accuser in a court of law.
Satan in the New Testament:
The terms in Rev 20:2 identifying the "evil one" are throughout the Bible.
| Name | Revelation Reference |
| The Dragon | 12:3-4, 7, 9, 13, 16-17; 13:2, 4, 11; 20:2 |
| The Serpent | 9:19; 12:9, 14-15; 20:2 |
| The Devil | 2:10; 12:9, 12; 20:2 |
| The Deceiver | 2:20; 12:9; 13:14; 18:23; 19:20; 20:2 |
| Abaddon (Hebrew) | 9:11 |
| Apollyon (Greek) | 9:11 |
He is called the "destroyer" Abaddon (Hebrew) and Apollyon (Greek) in 9:11 when named as the "angel of the Abyss." But remember, powerful as this evil enemy may seem, he is no match for Jesus Christ!
Question: What action does Christ take against Satan in 20:2-3?
Answer: He throws him into the Abyss, chains him, and seals the opening.
3 He hurled him into the Abyss and shut the entrance and
sealed it over him, to make sure he would not lead the nations astray again
until the thousand years had passed.
The reason Christ locks Satan in the Abyss is so he can
no longer prevent the spread of the Gospel by deceiving the nations. The length
of his imprisonment is for a thousand years. That's the good news, but the bad
news is his release at the end of the thousand years but only for a short time.
The question is whether the thousand years literal or symbolic? A thousand is
a multiple of the "perfect" number 10, which in Scripture is symbolic of the
perfection of order in God's divine plan. Any multiple of a "perfect" number
(3, 7, 10, and 12), represents a superabundance. One thousand is 10 x 10 x 10,
a trinity of divine order! The number repeats six times in verses 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, and 7. Notice that twice John mentions seeing Christ lock up the
great enemy of humankind for a thousand years in the Abyss and seal it over him
(verses 2 and 3). The question is, does this event take place in the future,
or was this binding of Satan part of Christ's mission as the Messiah?
Some scholars see this as a future event that will usher in a Golden Age of the Church when Christ will rule a "heaven on earth." There is, however, strong Biblical evidence that the "binding of Satan" was part of Christ's mission in establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as the Universal (Catholic) Church. In 1 John 3:8, St. John writes: Whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil since the devil has been a sinner from the beginning. This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the devil (bold added for emphasis). When Adam and Eve fell into sin through the seduction of the serpent/Satan, they lost their spiritual dominance of the earth, and Satan became the "prince of the earth" (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). That is why he could make the offer he made to Jesus during the three temptations in the wilderness: Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to him, "I will give you all these, if you fall at my feet and do me homage" (Mt 4:8). After Jesus' baptism, the confrontation between Jesus and Satan became all-out warfare (see Matthew 4:1-11 and also Luke 4:1-13).
Before Christ could establish His Kingdom of the Church, he had to bind the one who claimed power over the earth and could lead the nations astray. Jesus declared His intention to "bind" Satan in His response to the accusation of the Pharisees that His power to drive out demons came from Satan when He said: "Now if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself, so how can his kingdom last? And if it is through Beelzebub that I drive devils out, through whom do your own experts drive them out? They shall be your judges, then. But if it is through the Spirit of God that I drive out devils, then be sure that the kingdom of God has caught you unawares. Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man's house and plunder his property unless he has first tied up the strong man. Only then can he plunder his house" (Mt 12:26-29). And in the Gospel of Luke, He said: "So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil" (Lk 11:20-22).
Jesus defeated Satan in His death as the final sacrifice for sin on the altar of the Cross, followed by His glorious Resurrection. He unlocked the Abyss and used Satan and his forces to bring the end to the Old Covenant, but now He is binding Satan as He promised He would do and is returning him to the Abyss. Therefore, it is unlikely that this is a future action, but instead, it is the fulfillment of Jesus' earthly mission. With the defeat of death and Satan, Christ establishes His New Covenant Church and fulfills His mission as Messiah by binding the "strong man" as He promised in Luke 11:20-22. The binding of Satan is the final act of the drama, confirming that the great moment of salvation and the fulfillment of the promise of the Kingdom of God has indeed come. Paul wrote about this in his letter to the Roman Christians just a few years before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under his feet (Rom 16:20). Remember, Paul made this statement more than 30 years after the Resurrection of Christ! The destruction of the Temple, which had become the "strong man's" (Satan's) house, is the final act that brought about the completion of the New Covenant and the binding of Satan.
But how long is Satan bound before his release? Most scholars agree that the unleashing of Satan from the Abyss will usher in the final eschatological battle at the End of Time. The only scholars who do not agree with this interpretation are those who think the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was the final "parousia" (presence or coming) of Christ. This interpretation, however, denies the Apostle's Creed that has come down to us from the Apostles. The Creed clearly states that "He [Jesus] will come again to judge the living and the dead." Looking at the next verse will help us tackle the issue of the "thousand-year reign" of Christ and the Church.
Revelation 20:4-10 ~ The Fifth
Vision: The First Resurrection and the Last Battle
4 (And I saw = kai
eidon) Then I saw thrones, where they took their seats, and on them was
conferred the power to give judgment. I saw the souls of all who had been beheaded
for having witnessed for Jesus and for having preached God's word, and those who
refused to worship the beast or his statue and would not accept the brand-mark
on their foreheads or hands; they came to life, and reigned with Christ for a
thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the
thousand years were over; this is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed
and holy are those who share in the first resurrection the second death has no
power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him
for a thousand years. 7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be
released from his prison 8 and will come out to lead astray all the nations in
the four quarters of the earth. God and Magog, and mobilize them for war, his
armies being as many as the sands of the sea. 9 They came
swarming over the entire country and besieged the camp of the saints, which is
the beloved City. But fire rained down on them from heaven and consumed them.
10 Then the devil, who led them astray, was hurled into
the lake of fire and Sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet are, and
their torture will not come to an end, day or night, forever and ever.
This passage is the origin of
the concept of the thousand-year reign of Christ referred to as the millennium,
a word that does not appear in the Bible. It comes from the Latin words mille
(which means "thousand") and the annus (meaning "year"). The Greek word
for "one thousand" is chilioi.
Question: How has the condition of the Old and New Testament saints
changed with the resurrection of Christ and the fulfillment of the Old
Covenant? Why?
Answer: They are no longer consigned to Sheol/Hades but now
have access to the Kingdom of Heaven and the presence of God because Christ's
sacrificial blood has cleansed them of all unrighteousness.
The holy dead now reign with Christ as priest/kings in the heavenly assembly while those of us still alive continue the battle against evil and to spread the Gospel of salvation here in Christ's earthly kingdom of the Universal Church, the Body of Christ. It is a war that will continue until Christ returns, and it is why the Church on earth is called the "Church militant."
Question: When are these two parts of Christ's kingdom joined as one?
Answer: In the liturgy of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the
Holy Eucharist, when the faithful receive Christ Body, Blood, Soul, and
Divinity as the saints in Heaven celebrate with us.
From the earliest years of the Church, Christians are identified as the "Body of Christ" because they physically receive Christ into their bodies and are therefore united with Him in the Eucharist. We are what we eat!
Question: While Jesus was with His Apostles, what two promises
did he give them in Matthew 19:28?
Answer: 1) They would sit on thrones, and 2) they would
judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
With His death, resurrection, and ascension to His heavenly throne (Eph 1:20-22), Jesus began the inauguration of the Age of the Kingdom of God/Christ (Col 1:13) in which He invited all the nations of the earth to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and His Bride with the prophets of the Old Covenant and the saints and Apostles of the New Covenant (Is 52:15; Lk 13:28-29, 22:29-30). In this "New Age" of the Kingdom, the Apostles reign and rule over the New Israel (CCC# 877). They are the foundation of the New Covenant Church (Eph 2:20), which is a kingdom of priest/kings by Christ's command, and their successors, the bishops, continue their rule and authority on earth. It is what John witnessed in this vision of the saints who sat on thrones and judged. It also parallels what he heard after the seventh trumpet angel blew his trumpet in the same passage when the twenty-four enthroned elders announced: and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth (Rev 11:18). The phrase "small and great" is repeated five times in 11:18, 13:16, 19:5, 18, and 20:12.
Now Jesus, as the "Second Adam" (see 1 Cor 15:45) after ascending to His throne, has bound Satan, and His faithful disciples have ascended to rule with Him (see Eph 2:6). The triumph of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the dominion of the saints as His Church fulfills the mandate God gave humankind in Genesis 1:26-28 (see Ps Chapter 8 and Heb Chapter 2). Christ's New Covenant Church gradually continues to "disciple" (teach) the nations of the earth just as He commanded when He gave His disciples the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always, yes, to the end of time."
Question: In addition to the thrones, what else does John see in
the second sentence of verse 4? Did you notice any similarities to the description
of the martyrs in Revelation 6:9?
Answer: He saw the "souls" of all those who suffered martyrdom
by beheading. He also saw martyred "souls" in Revelation 6:9.
The First Resurrection is the Christian's spiritual rebirth in the Sacrament of Baptism. The Second Resurrection of body and spirit will take place in Christ's Second Advent. All human beings will receive resurrected bodies in the Second Resurrection; for now, after death and the Individual/Particular Judgment, only the souls of the righteous ascend to the Father.
In Revelation 20:4, the word
"beheaded" is interesting. The Greek verb is pelekizo. It does not
appear anywhere else in the Bible, but in other passages, Scripture mentions
the act of beheading using the synonym apokephalizo ( see
Mt 14:10;
Mk 6:16, 27, and
Lk 9:9).
Question: Can you recall a "beheaded" prophet of God named in
the New Testament? Read Matthew 14:1-12.
Answer: King Herod Antipas had John the Baptist beheaded.
St. John the Baptist, the son of the chief priest Zachariah, was the last of the Old Testament prophets and the forerunner of the Messiah. He was chosen from the womb of his mother and sent by God to announce the coming of the Redeemer.(2) John summed up the prophetic witness of all the prophets who came before him (Mt 11:13). Jesus said: "Because it was towards John that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the Law were leading; and he, if you will believe me, is the Elijah who was to return." And He also said: "Up to the time of John it was the Law and the Prophets; from then onwards, the kingdom of God has been preached" (Lk 16:16). The point is that the Old Covenant witnesses, who were all forerunners, symbolized by John the Baptist, are counted among the faithful martyrs who live and reign with Christ.
In Luke 24:25-27, Jesus spoke to two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His Resurrection, saying, "You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory? Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself." Also see Luke 24:44, where Jesus told the Apostles: "everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled." And in Acts 10:43, St. Peter said: "It is to him [Jesus] that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name."
they came to life, and
reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest
of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over; this is
the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection
the second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of
Christ and reign with him for a thousand years.
Verse 6 is Revelation's fifth
beatitude. Catholics usually do not get caught up in the millennium debate. Our
Protestant brothers and sisters, however, are very much concerned with the interpretation
of this passage. In Part 2 of the Introductory Lessons, we discussed the three
major millennium theories, each of which has variations. For a review of the different
"thousand-year" theories, see handout 2 from this lesson.
The question that concerns us is when is the Millennium reign of Christ? Is it before Christ's glorious return in His Second Advent, or after? That issue is what separates the Pre from Post Millennialists. Then there are the Amillennialists who believe there is no millennium. All views hinge on when Christ returns related to the thousand-year reign and when the Great Tribulation occurs.
|
Death Resurrection Ascension of Christ |
Age of the Church in the spread of the Gospel | 2nd Advent of Christ | Millennial Reign of Christ | Final Judgment | Eternal Reign of Christ |
Historic Millennialists envision the spread of the Gospel through the world in the Age of the Church, followed by Christ's Second Advent at the time the Gospel has reached every corner of the earth, completing the Church Age. The Final Judgment comes after Christ's Second Advent and takes place before God's Great White Throne, followed by the destruction of death and the Hades and the gift of eternal life for the blessed. Generally (but not all), historic Millennialists do not envision a period of universal tribulation.
|
Death/Resurrection/ Ascension of Christ |
Ministry of Church culminates in a lengthy period of peace (millennium) and righteousness before Christ's return |
Second Advent Final Judgment |
Eternal Reign of Christ |
Postmillennialists expect Christ's visible return after the Millennium and that the Church Age is the ideal millennial period. They look for God to use the Church's teaching and preaching to usher in a lengthy period, which some interpret as a literal thousand years of peace and righteousness before Christ's return that will come at the end of the Church Age. Others, however, see the thousand years symbolically like the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed souls in Revelation 7:4; 14:1, 3, and the cubits of the heavenly Temple in 21:17. So Postmills are divided into two groups: those who interpret the thousand years literally and those who see it as symbolic, but both believe Christ will return at the end of this period. Postmills are optimists and believe the world will get better as the Gospel spreads across the earth. Postmillennialists usually adopt the Historical or Preterist view of Revelation.
The Premillennial Views
Premillennialists believe that Christ will return before the Millennium, and His coming will usher in the Millennium. They interpret Revelation Chapter 20 literally and hold that Christ will reign on earth for a literal thousand years. Postmills are pessimists: they generally believe that things will get worse and worse, and then Christ will come again, bringing the Millennium reign, and things will be great. Most Protestant ministers, radio evangelists, and televangelists are Premills' (i.e., Charles Stanley, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, etc.). Within this basic agreement, the most prevalent variations are the Premillennial-pre-tribulationalists and the Premillennial-post-tribulationalist views:
| Death/ Resurrection/ Ascension of Christ | Church Age |
Rapture of the Church |
Great Tribulation lasting 7 years | 2nd Advent of Christ |
1,000 year reign of Christ |
Final Judgment |
Eternal Reign of Christ |
The Premill/Pretrib scholars argue that there are two different peoples of God: Israel and the Church. They believe that these two groups have two different prophetic programs. According to this view, the Church will be "raptured" before a seven-year Great Tribulation. Some of these scholars support a Premill/Midtrib' position and believe the seven years divide into two 3 ½ year periods with a short period of 3 ½ years that the Church will suffer before being "raptured out" by Christ (not supported by Scripture). Following the tribulation, Christ will return to establish a thousand-year millennial kingdom centered in Jerusalem and which will involve the reinstitution of the Old Covenant sacrificial system (not supported anywhere in Scripture). In their view, the millennial kingdom will end with a rebellion by the forces of evil when Satan is unbound, after which will come the Final Judgment and beginning of the eternal reign of Christ. Hal Lindsey, the author of The Late Great Planet Earth, is a Premill/Pretrib. The Catholic Church rejects this theory.
|
Death/ Resurrec-tion/ Ascension of Christ |
Church Age | Great Tribula-tion of 7yrs | Second Advent of Christ | 1,000 reign of Christ | Final Judgment | Eternal Reign of Christ |
The Premillennial/Posttribulational scholars teach that Christ will return at the end of a seven-year Great Tribulation, which the whole Church experiences to establish a millennial kingdom. This kingdom will end with a rebellion lead by Satan, followed by the Final Judgment. This view often interprets prophecy in a non-literal way and does not usually view Israel and the New Covenant Church as under completely different divine historical plans. Instead, they see Israel and the Christian Church as one people of God. Many early Church Fathers held a view that was similar to the Premill/posttrib interpretation, but they did not hold with the heresy that may Premill/Pretribs hold today that the Millennium will be a resurrection of Old Covenant Israel. Premills (of both types) adopt the "Futurists" school of interpretation of Revelation.
| Death/ Resurrection/Ascension of Christ | The Church Age = continual growth and continual tribulation for the Church on earth | Second Advent/ Final Judgment | Eternal Reign of Christ |
The Amillennialists scholars interpret Christ's millennial reign in an ideal or spiritual sense, with the thousand years being a symbolic number signifying God's plan for the authority of the Church over the world. However, they believe in a literal Second Advent of Christ. Some Amill scholars assert that Christ's reign began during His earthly ministry or at the time of His resurrection. Others that His Millennium began with the glorious reign of the saints in Heaven or it describes the spiritual authority of the saints of the Church here on earth. Some Amills believe both views are correct: the heavenly glory of the resurrected saints and the authority of the Universal Church now on earth because we can bind Satan in the name of Jesus. As a proof-text, they cite St. Peter's declaration that Christ now rules from the right hand of God the Father (Acts 2:33-36). They view Israel and the Church as forming one covenant people of God since the Church is now the "new Israel" (CCC# 877). The Amill's approach usually involves an "idealist" view of the Book of Revelation as a whole.
Dr. Scott Hahn has a rather unconventional view of the Millennium/thousand-year rule. Dr. Hahn was influenced by the Catholic scholar Eugenio Corsini who sees the thousand years as corresponding to the establishment of the Davidic kingdom in approximately 1003 BC and lasting until the birth of Christ in 3/2 BC, which as you have noticed is a literal one thousand years. Dr. Hahn sees this period as God's preparation for ushering in the reign of Christ. It is easy to agree with the last statement, but difficult to see the thousand years from David to Christ as a triumphant reign of the saints. Judah fell into apostasy, and the Babylonians, as God's agents, destroyed the Temple of Solomon in 587BC. Just before the destruction of the Temple, the prophet Jeremiah removed and hid the Ark of the Covenant. The new Temple, rebuilt in 5l7 BC, did not contain the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. Yahweh's Glory Cloud (symbol of the Holy Spirit) did not take possession of the Second Temple as He did Solomon's Temple (1 Kng 8:10-13), and Jesus called it an "empty house."
Saints Augustine and Jerome preferred to interpret the millennium of Revelation Chapter 20 as a symbolic reference to the age of the Church that spans the time between the First and Second Advents of Christ (St. Augustine's City of God, 20:7-8). Earlier, some theologians were "chiliasts" (from the Greek word chilioi, meaning "one thousand), and believed that Christ would return to inaugurate a literal thousand-year reign on earth for a golden age in human history marked by prosperity and peace, which St. Irenaeus (AD 130-202) denounced as heresy (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.35). Most Catholic scholars ascribe to Augustine and Jerome's view, although the Catholic Church has not officially endorsed it or any other theory. However, the Church has decreed by the Holy Office in 1944 that millenarianism, understood as a future golden age kingdom on earth, could not safely be taught as authentic Christian doctrine (CCC# 676).
Since so many of John's numbers are symbolic in Revelation (remember Jesus told him from the beginning of his visions that this is a book of "signs"), it is reasonable that the thousand years represents the perfection of order of the number 10 multiplied by itself three times (10 x 10 x 10 = a trinity of the perfection of God's plan). In other words, the Millennium reign of the Church will last the perfect length of time, according to God's will. The number one thousand appears in other Scripture passages merely to imply fullness or immensity, such as Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalms 50:10, and 84:10.
The thousand-year "millennium" may be the symbolic reference to the period that runs from the Incarnation of Christ to the establishment of His Church, reigning with Him until the end of time. It is what Christ promised us. The Messianic Kingdom is, therefore, established in two stages:
In the first stage, Satan is bound, but that does not mean he does not have influence. We still must fight evil, but evil cannot overcome us during the Age of the Church. Many Catholic scholars believe the Great Tribulation will come at the end of this Great Age of the Church, Christ's Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Although the Church has suffered persecution down through the ages, it will be much more intense at the end when Satan's influence is no longer limited, and as his agent, the Antichrist will declare war on the Saints. The Catholic Church does not support a "Rapture" of Christians before or during the Tribulation. There is nothing in Scripture to support two Second Advents of Christ. A "Rapture," followed by another appearance of Christ to collect the rest of humanity, makes two Second Comings. Also, why should God spare the Church from tribulation when He did not spare His Son or His mother from suffering? The time of intense persecution will end in the showdown between the forces of Christ and those of Satan. We will, through Christ, be victorious, and He will destroy Satan and death to establish His new, heavenly Jerusalem (see CCC# 671-677).
The Catholic Church does not support the Postmills' view of a historic triumph of the Church, nor does she embrace a literal interpretation of millennium/thousand-year rule: "The Church will enter into the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover when she follows her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause His Bride to come down from heaven" (CCC# 677). If you would like to pursue these various theories, a resource to consider is the book, The Rapture Trap by Paul Thigpen, Ascension Press.
The Biblical scholar David Chilton offers an interesting point concerning the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 and the age of humanity in Scripture. He asks who are the men in the Bible who lived the longest and what were their ages? Adam lived for 930 years and Methuselah for 969 years. What is significant about their ages is that human life has never reached the "perfect" 1,000 years of age.
Question: Whose kingdom will last forever? See 2 Sam 7:8-29
Answer: God promised David an eternal kingdom that should
have continued a thousand years until the birth of Christ.
David conquered Jerusalem circa 1000/1033 BC, and Jesus' birth was circa 3/2 BC (Luke records that He was thirty years old in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, which was 28 AD). But once again, humanity fell short. Only the Son of Man was able to bring in the thousand-year reign that as David's heir was His inheritance!
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the
thousand years were over; this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are
those who share in the first resurrection; the second death has no power over
them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him for a
thousand years.
The first line of verse 5 is
a parenthetical statement separating "the rest of the dead" from the blessed.
Question: According to 20:5, where does this reign of the saints
with Christ take place, in heaven or on earth or both? See Ephesians 2:4-6;
Romans 5:10; 11:15.
Answer: Both. Those who reign with Christ are the ones He redeemed,
whether now living or dead, and raised to a new life in Him in the Sacrament of
Baptism.
Question: If "those who had been beheaded" in verse 4 are the Old
Covenant faithful, who are "the rest of the dead" who did not come to life in
verse 5?
Answer: It follows that they would be the Old Covenant unfaithful
who are truly dead (physically and spiritually)!
The verse stresses the fact that the righteous dead believers of the Old Covenant are included in Christ's Ascension and glorious reign. They live!
Question: What is the "First Resurrection" as related to Jesus?
See Acts 2:31-33 and Colossians 2:12
Answer: Christ's resurrection is the definitive resurrection
that took place on Resurrection Sunday the 3rd day after His crucifixion
(as 1st-century people counted) for the sins of the world.
Question: How do we participate in Christ's resurrection that is
for us a "first resurrection"? See Romans 6:5-10
Answer: We partake of Christ's resurrection through the
Sacrament of Baptism in which He raises us to "new life."
St. Paul wrote: So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, we too should begin living a new life. If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his, realizing that our former self was crucified with him (Rom 6:4-6). Also see 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:12; 3:1 and CCC #1212, 1213.
The baptized believer as a new creation in Christ. As St. Paul wrote to the Christians of Colossus: You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator (Col 3:10). God created the human race in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26-27). But the family of Adam became "lost" in trying to see knowledge and wisdom apart from the will of God (Gen 2:17) and became slaves to sin. This is the "old self" that Paul wrote must die (Rom 6:6). It is the "new self" that is reborn through the waters of baptism into Christ, He who is the true image of God and who has come to restore fallen humanity to the splendor of that image that had been stained and distorted by sin.
In Romans 6:5-10, St. Paul focused on Christian conformity to the life of Christ. He made an argument in two steps, beginning each with a conditional statement in verse 5 and again in verse 8. Each statement expresses the hope that everything we believe will become a reality through the promises of Jesus Christ. His argument centers on the Christian's conformity to the ethical pattern of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection that brought about a release from slavery to sin, from God's wrath and His glorious Resurrection to new life:
Question: According to Paul, what
happens to our former life when we receive the Sacrament of Baptism? What is
freedom to the Christian? Look again at what Paul wrote in Romans 6:5-6 above
to answer the question.
Answer: Our old self is crucified with Christ. The new life Christ
calls the believer to live is not only freedom from sin but redemption from self.
In Romans 6:6, Paul writes: our former self is crucified with him, so that
the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed, and we should be freed from
the slavery of sin.
Question: Is our new life merely symbolic? See 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Answer: No, the regenerative waters of baptism yield a
transformation and rebirth.
In Scripture, a "sign" points beyond the event to something more significant. Baptism is a sign or symbol only in the sense that it is symbolic of the greater supernatural reality of the sacrament that shows in a visible form God's action to perform what the physical event signifies "resurrection to a new life in Christ. The sinner is immersed in water and is thus "buried" with Christ (Col 2:12), with whom the Christian is also "raised up" through the water to resurrection (Rom 8:11) as a "new creation infused with "divine life" (2 Pt 1:3-4; 2 Cor 5:17). And, as a member of God's family, he/she is one with the Body of Christ (the Church) and animated by one Spirit (1 Cor 12:13; Eph 4:4ff). However, the Christian's resurrection will not be complete or final until the End of Time (1 Cor 15:12). In his letters, St. Paul assures us that Christians, having been freed from sin, are also freed from the power of sin over their lives because God's grace is more powerful than the power of sin!
| Christ's crucifixion and death ==> | Christ's Resurrection ==> | Christ's glorified new life |
| Our crucifixion with Christ and our death to sin & self into the waters of baptism ==> | Our resurrection to new life through the power of the Holy Spirit = "born again" or "born from above" in the image of Christ "raised up" through the water of baptism ==> | Our final Resurrection and glorification in Christ's Second Advent |
In his commentary on Romans 6:1-14, St. John Chrysostom wrote about what it means to be dead to sin in baptism: "Being dead to sin means not obeying it anymore. Baptism has made us dead to sin once and for all, but we must strive to maintain this state of affairs, so that however many commands sins may give us, we no longer obey it but remain unmoved by it, as a corpse does. Elsewhere, Paul even wrote that sin itself is dead to assure us that virtue is easy. But here, since he is trying to rouse his hearers to action, he says that they are the ones who are dead."
The early Church Fathers regarded baptism by water and the Spirit as more than symbolic, recognizing the sacramental character of Baptism in which the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit dies to sin and self and experiences resurrection to a new life. This teaching has come down to us unchanged after 2000 years and found in the oral teaching of the Fathers recorded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "This sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to plunge' or immerse'; the plunge' into the water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as a new creature'" (CCC# 1214) and, "This sacrament is also called the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit,' for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one can enter the kingdom of God" (CCC# 1215). Also, see Church Father Tertullian's 2nd century AD treatise On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 47.
The transforming character of Christian baptism which regenerates the supernatural life of the Trinity into the Christian soul is what John means when he tells us that we have a part in the resurrection of Christ; it is a regeneration that will be celebrated in its fullness when baptized Christians who have persevered in faithfulness will enter into a state of "beatitude" in the presence of God.
Question: The Book of Revelation identifies what two classes of
people, especially in 20:4-6?
Answer:
The resurrection of the Christian martyrs in Revelation 20:4b recalls the "resurrection" promises of Isaiah 26:19 and Ezekiel chapter 37. Some Catholic scholars have interpreted the "resurrection" in Revelation 20 as symbolizing the rising from "near death" of the Church after the Roman persecution from AD 64 " AD 313 and the "reign of a thousand years as then following period of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth from the end of the Roman persecution to the Final Judgment. Other Catholic scholars like St. Augustine and others identified the "reign of a thousand years" as the period from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the "first resurrection" of Christians in the Sacrament of Baptism to the Final Judgment. The difficult phrase in Revelation 20:5 is that the unbelievers "did not live until the thousand years were completed." Some scholars conclude that the "rest of the dead," all who died unsaved, will live again only after the Millennium has ended in the Second Advent of Christ since John is concerned with telling us only about the Millennium itself and that the rest of the dead are excluded from "life" and "dominion" for this whole period. The question is, what is meant by "life;" is the reference to "life" spiritually or physically or both? Passages like John 5:28-29 and Acts 24:15 tell us that there indeed will be a general resurrection of both the just and the unjust at the end of time, and this is perhaps what John is witnessing in this particular vision.
Question: Believers have already experienced the "first resurrection"
in baptism but, according to John's vision, what will be the "first
resurrection" for the unrighteous?
Answer: The Final Judgment.
But is there any reference to the "second resurrection" in the Old Sinai Covenant? In the Old Covenant, the imagery of two resurrections appears in the articles of the Law. The Levitical purification system foreshadows the double resurrection promised to the faithful in the purification prescribed after one became defiled by coming in contact with a dead body. Read Numbers 19:11-12. The cleansing ritual became a symbolic resurrection for the person who had become ceremonially "dead" through defilement by coming in contact with a dead body. The "death" was the separation from the community and the liturgy of worship. Such a person needed to be symbolically resurrected before he could return to fellowship with the community and with God.
Question: The fulfillment of the symbolic
resurrection was by the sprinkling of holy water on which days of the seven-day
period?
Answer: The ritual was on the third and the
seventh days. In other words, it was a double resurrection.
Question: What day (number) was Jesus resurrected, a
resurrection we share in through our baptism? See
Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19;
Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34;
Luke 9:22; 18:31-33. Count the days as the ancients counted.
Answer: Jesus' Resurrection was on the third day.
The third day was the first resurrection in the purification rite.
Question: What was the second resurrection of this
purification period?
Answer: It took place on the seventh day.
Question: What will be the seventh day of our Second
Resurrection? See John 5:24-25 and 28-29, and also see 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.
Answer: There is to be a resurrection at the end
of history that will be the seventh day, signifying fulfillment and completion,
the day the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is finally fulfilled.
Seven is symbolically the number of fullness and spiritual perfection (see the document The Significance of Numbers in Scripture). Time will be in all its fullness at the Second Advent of Christ. It will be the Last Day! See John 6:3, 8, 40, 44, 54; Acts 24:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 and CCC# 673-77.
Question: 1) What is the "first death," and 2) in Revelation
20:6, what is the second death that has no power over those who share in the
first resurrection? See Revelation 20:14d-15
Answer: 1) The "first death" is our physical death. 2) The "second
death" is eternal separation from God
The Fathers of the Church were fond of saying, "Born twice, die once, but born once, die twice." In light of what we have just studied about the Sacrament of Baptism, do you understand what they meant by this statement? The twice birth is physical birth and the rebirth in the Sacrament of Baptism. However, if one only experiences physical birth but not the spiritual birth of Baptism, they will die a physical death but also a spiritual death without the hope of eternal salvation. It is the meaning of the fifth beatitude in Revelation 20:6, Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection.
At the end of verse 6, John hears that the faithful will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. The phrase is a restatement of what John heard in Revelation 1:5-6: He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a Kingdom of Priests, making all Christians royal priests. Our baptism has opened us to a resurrection to eternal life; it is the "first resurrection." Christ is ruling now, and the first resurrection (the baptism of believers) is continuing now, and those baptized believers are ruling with Him now (in heaven and on earth). Does this mean the thousand-year/Millennium is taking place now, and the thousand years is symbolic of the perfection of order in the time of the spotless Bride of Christ? Does the millennium of the first resurrection continue until the "seventh day," the day of completion when Christ brings about the Second Resurrection? It is something to ponder.
7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released
from his prison 8 and will come out to lead astray all the nations in the
four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and mobilize them for war, his
armies being as many as the sands of the sea.
Read Ezekiel Chapters 38 and 39;
especially note 38:2, 9, 15 and 39:6
Meshech and Tubal, mentioned in Ezekiel 27:13, 38:2, and Isaiah 66:19, were ancient nations in Asia Minor. The "country of Magog" is an invented name that means "country of Gog." The Book of Revelation is tied to the Book of Ezekiel at many points, especially the last twelve chapters of Ezekiel and the concluding chapters in the Book of Revelation.
In Revelation 20:8, St. John uses the vivid imagery of Ezekiel Chapters 38-39, where there are ungodly forces called Gog and Magog, but it cannot be the same enemy as in Revelation. We cannot neglect the differences between the passages:
None of these details point to events taking place in the modern age.
Also, the war of Gog and Magog in Revelation cannot be identical to the Gog prophesy in Ezekiel for these reasons:
It is the same way that the Jezebel of Revelation 2:20 is not the same woman as the queen in the Book of Kings (1 Kng 16:29-31; 18:3-4, 19; 19:1-18; 21:5-16; 2 Kng 9:30-37). And as Sodom, in Revelation 11:8, is not the same Sodom as in Genesis 19. Nor is Babylon in Revelation 11:8; 18:8-9, 24, etc. the Babylon of the Old Testament books, and the "new" Jerusalem in Revelation 3:12; 19:7-9; 21:1-22:5 cannot mean the old Jerusalem. In each instance, the former serves as a Biblical type. Queen Jezebel was long dead, the cities of Sodom and Babylon had already received God's judgment, and the battle of Ezekiel 38-39 had already met its fulfillment within the setting of the time before the First Advent of the Christ.
Question: When God deems the time is ready for the final defeat
of Satan, what will happen to initiate the last great battle? See Revelation 20:7.
Answer: The last great battle will come about with Satan's release
from the Abyss.
You may remember that he was released earlier in Revelation Chapter 9 to lead the attack against the "Great City" that was old Jerusalem. That war was a prelude that foreshadows a final battle.
Question: For what reason will he be released in addition to
leading the nations astray? See Matthew 13:37-43. What was the outcome of Jesus'
parable?
Answer: When both the wheat (believers) and the tares (those
who reject Christ) come to full maturity, Satan will be released for a short
time to deceive the nations in one last attempt to overthrow the Kingdom
of Christ.
The defeat of Jesus' Kingdom has been Satan's goal from the beginning. Do you remember the sudden concentration of demonic activity during Jesus' ministry in the New Testament? Satan knew he was facing the ultimate fight. But God used Satan to fulfill His plan by allowing Satan to engineer his own defeat at the cross! This last and final battle will be the sequel to the final attempt to defeat God's plans for humanity's salvation. Satan will be released to bring about the last rebellion.
In this "Last Battle" sequence, John uses vivid imagery from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel Chapters 38-39, the prophet is likely predicting the Greek invasion of Alexander the Great and the Maccabees' victory over the pagan Syrian-Greeks and the reestablishment of Judah as an independent nation in the 2nd century BC. Ezekiel writes about Gog and Magog, but, as mentioned previously, they are not the same Gog and Magog as Revelation Chapter 20. In Ezekiel, Gog is a chief ruler, and in Revelation, a nation. In Revelation, Gog and Magog become the standard expression for rebellious nations just as Jezebel (in Rev 2:20) is not the same woman as the harlot queen of Israel in the Book of 1 Kings. Instead, the Jezebel of Revelation 2:20 is a "type" of the previous Jezebel, just as Gog and Magog are a "type" of the rebellious nations under the influence of Satan in the Last Battle.
These rebellious nations, symbolized by Gog and Magog, are "from the four corners of the earth;" in other words, they are not centrally located. They are numbered "like the sands of the sea," which is hyperbolic imagery to express their great numbers (see Josh 11:4; Judg 7:12; 1 Sam 13:5; 2 Sam 17:11 1 Kng 4:20, 29; Job 6:3; Is 15:8; 33:22; Hos 1:10; etc.). It is the same hyperbole used by Joshua for the Canaanite nations in Joshua 11:4 and the numbers of the Midianites defeated by Gideon in Judges 7:12. Joshua's defeat of the Canaanites and Gideon's defeat of the Midianites became two of the most significant victories in the history of the Old Testament covenant people. The victory over the armies of Satan in Revelation is going to be a repeat of those first victories to take possession of the Promised Land! And this time, it is the real "Promised Land" of Heaven that is at stake here! Just as God brought judgment on the Temple in AD 70, so too will He bring retribution in this final battle, and just as God brought judgment on the people of Judea and Jerusalem who heard the Word and rejected Christ, He will bring the same judgment on the nations and powerful cities of the earth that oppose His covenant people.
9 They came swarming over the entire country and
besieged the camp of the saints, which is the beloved City. But fire rained
down on them from heaven and consumed them. Then the devil, who led them astray,
was hurled into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet
are, and their torture will not come to an end, day or night, forever and ever.
John again writes in the
imagery of Ezekiel Chapters 38-39, where Ezekiel described how the invaders
advanced until they reached the mountains of Judah and the great city of Jerusalem.
The reference to the "camp of saints" recalls the kahal or "called out"
sacred assembly and the "camp of God" of the Sinai Covenant Church. When David
took Jerusalem in 1003 BC, the city which became known as "will provide peace" in
Hebrew, [yireh (jireh)-salem] became Jerusalem (in Hebrew, Yerusalem),
the "holy camp of God."
Question: What is this beloved city? See Revelation 21:9; 22:5.
Answer: Jerusalem has become the symbol of the "beloved city"
of the New Covenant Church.
Like Ezekiel's vision, the
invasion is suddenly halted by the overwhelming power of God, who destroys the
unbelievers with fire and condemns the devil to Hell and eternal torment. Satan's
release from the Abyss was a trap intended to draw the forces of evil out into
the open to bring about their destruction. Once again, Scripture teaches the
everlasting duration of divine punishment (also see
Mt 18:8; 25:41, 46;
Mk 4:43, 48).
One point to note is that in
the Premill view of a perfect Messianic kingdom before the Second Advent of
Christ, how could Satan be successful in orchestrating such a defection and
rebellion? However, if the thousand-year/Millennium rule is the Age of the Church,
it is understandable that there would be those in the world who have not
yielded themselves to Christ and therefore have yielded themselves to Satan.
Revelation 20:11-15 ~ The Sixth Vision: The Last Judgment
11 Then [kai edion = And now] I saw a great white throne
and the One who was sitting on it. In his presence, earth and sky vanished,
leaving no trace. 12 I saw [kai edion = And I] saw the dead, great and small[small
and great] alike, standing in front of his throne while the books lay open. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from
what was written in the books, as their deeds deserved. 13 The sea
gave up all the dead who were in it; 14
Death and Hades were emptied of
the dead that were in them; and every one was judged as his deeds deserved.
Then Death and Hades were hurled into the burning lake. This burning lake is
the second death; 15 and anybody whose name could not be found written in
the book of life was hurled into the burning lake. [...] = IBGE, vol. 4, page 697. The words "small and great"
appear five times in 11:18; 13:16; 19:5, 18; and 20:12 and refer to all classes
of people in the world.
This is the seventh and
eighth repeats of "kai edion" = "And I saw" in the sixth vision.
Question: What does this prophecy point to; is it something in
the 1st century AD, or future events? See Mt 25:31-46.
Answer: It points to the future, Final Judgment of humanity.
However, you may have noticed that nothing is "simple" in the Book of Revelation. Don't forget that John is witnessing this vision in his present and our past. His vision may be the eternal future breaking into the historical past and introducing the theological principle of "compenetration." It is a principle that expresses the action of Biblical prophets who describe a present event (or an imminent event) in terms that transcend the events that are about to happen because they prefigure what will occur at the end of time. St. Paul wrote that all the events in the Old Testament happened for our benefit, so that we should never set our hearts, as they did, on evil things (1 Cor 10:6).
For example, what did the events that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70 signify or prefigure? The destruction of the world at the end of time. In this way, Israel's history in the Old Testament is a prototype of the history of all the Gentile nations that will receive the Word of God in the New Covenant Age. So Israel's conversion (at Sinai) and lapses and renewals and final fall into apostasy, which led to judgment and destruction, foreshadows the unfolding of salvation history in the other countries of the world. What happened to Israel will happen to all nations when they come into God's judgment. What John sees in Revelation 20:11-13 is the unfolding of the Final Judgment at the End of the Ages of the New Covenant.
Once the devil is thrown into the Lake of Fire (the Hell of the Damned), evil ceases to be a force in the world. In that eternal fire, the unbelievers who rejected Jesus' gift of eternal salvation whose names were not in the Book of Life, will suffer eternal punishment. For those who doubt the existence of Hell, this verse confirms that there is an everlasting duration of divine judgment. The teaching of the church affirms the existence of the Hell of the Damned and its eternity (CCC# 1035) but also teaches that God predestines no one to go the hell (CCC# 1037). Such a punishment is a willful turning away from God. The existence of Hell may be an uncomfortable thought, but it confirms the existence of a just God (also see Mt 18:8; 25:41, 46; Mk 4:43, 48 and CCC#1861; 633, 1035-7).
Let's unravel the mystery of
the sixth vision verse by verse: 11[And I saw] Then I saw a great white throne and the
One who was sitting on it. In his presence, earth and sky vanished, leaving no trace.
Who sits on the white
throne? It is usually understood that God the Father sits on the throne in the
heavenly assembly, but in this case, it may be God the Son that John sees. In
Revelation 3:21, Christ says, "Anyone who proves victorious I will allow to
share my throne, just as I have myself overcome and have taken my seat with my
Father on his throne" (also see Mt 25:31-2 quoted in the introduction). That
"the One" sits on a white throne may also help to identify Christ.
Question: Previously, how has the color white been associated
with Christ? See Revelation 1:14; 6:2; 14:14; 19:11 (there are 18 references
to "white" in Revelation) and Acts 1:9.
Answer: It may have been Christ on the white horse in 6:2, it
was most probably Christ on a white horse in 19:11, and in 14:14, John saw a
white cloud and sitting on it, one like a son of man with a gold crown on his
head and a sharp sickle in his hand that was undoubtedly Christ. In Acts, the
disciples saw Jesus assumed into Heaven in a cloud that was probably white.
Verse 11 may also be a connection to the bishop's chair and Christ as our Priest/King. In 1 Peter 2:28, Peter speaks of Christ as the great Shepherd and Bishop. We also have evidence that in the earliest centuries of the Church, it was the custom to spread a white cover over the chair of the Bishop, but we do not know how early this practice was in use.
If this is Christ that John sees seated on the Judgment throne, it would be in agreement with the great Creeds of the Church.
The Creeds support the teaching of Sacred Scripture. The New Testament texts tell us that Christ is the judge charged with this duty by the Father (Mt 16:27; 25:31-46). The power to judge belongs to Jesus in His own right because the Father gave it to Him (Jn 5:22; 9:39; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Cor 5:10).
Earth and sky vanished
Everything transient
disappears and is laid bare before the awesome Judge on the great white
throne. Everything necessary is accomplished to prepare the way for the New
Heavens and earth (Rev 21:1;
2 Pt 3:13; Rom 8:23).
12 [And I saw] I saw the dead, great and small alike,
standing in front of his throne while the books lay open. And another book was
opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged from what was
written in the books, as their deeds deserved.
Verse 12 had the seventh repetition
of "kai edion" = "And I saw," but it is still part of Vision Six.
There are seven visions, but "and I saw" appears eight times. Eight is the
number of salvation, redemption, resurrection, and re-creation. It is the
number of Jesus. The gematria (addition of the numerical value of the Greek
letters) of Jesus' name is 888, a trinity of salvation and redemption.
Question: How are the dead judged? See Mt 25:31-46, Jam 2:14-26
and CCC# 1038-1041.
Answer: Their judgment is according to their works!
Question: What information do the books in verse 12 contain? See
Dan 7:10; 12:1;
Is 65:6;
Jer 22:30;
Ex 32:32; and Jesus' statement in
Rev 3:5, Anyone
who proves victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes; I shall not
blot that name out of the book of life.
Answer: One book records the actions of all people The second
book contains the names of those chosen for eternal life.
Verse 12 reveals two mysteries: 1) We have freedom of choice, and 2) There is a grace of predestination. Humankind cannot attain salvation solely by his/her own efforts. God, in His grace, offers the gift of salvation, but He also knows who will accept His gift. We must act in such a way to respond to the destiny God planned for us. If we fail to respond, we run the risk of having our names blotted out of the Book of Life
13 The sea gave up all the dead who were in it; 14 Death
and Hades were emptied of the dead that were in them; and every one was judged
as his deeds deserved. Then Death and Hades were hurled into the burning lake.
In verse 14, Hades does not refer
to the Hell of the Damned, but Sheol, in Hebrew, the abode of the dead. Sheol/Hades
no longer held the wicked dead after Jesus liberated those souls held captive
there between His burial and His resurrection. From that time until the Final
Judgment, Hades became a place for those destined for Heaven but still in need
of purification (CCC# 1030-1032), while the righteous dead went to Heaven
(CCC# 1023-1029) and the wicked to the Hell of the Damned
(CCC# 1033-1037). With the
destruction of death and Hades, the grave no longer had any hold on humankind.(3)
Question: How careful are you about the words that come from your mouth? In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, "So I tell you this, that for every unfounded word people utter they will answer on Judgment Day, since it is by your words you will be justified, and by your words condemned" (Mt 12:36). Also, see 1 Corinthians 3:13b where Paul writes: The Day which dawns in fire will make it clear and the fire itself will test the quality of each person's work.
15 This burning lake is the second death, and anybody whose
name could not be found written in the book of life was hurled into the burning lake.
The "burning lake" is the
Hell of the Damed and the second death, the first being physical death. The
Catholic Church teaches that the Last/Final Judgment is a truth of faith. This
passage refutes the heresy of universalism, which proposes that all people will
be redeemed, and no one will face eternal damnation. The Church, from its
earliest years, has condemned this heresy. Pope Paul VI in Creed of the
People of God wrote: "He ascended to heaven, and he will come again, this
time in glory, to judge the living and the dead, each according to his merits;
those who have responded to the love and compassion of God going to eternal
life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not
extinguished ... We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of
all those who die in the grace of Christ, whether they must still be purified
in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes
them to paradise as he did for the Good Thief, are the people of God in the
eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the
Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies" (Creed
of the People of God, 12 and 28).
We who have experienced the first resurrection in the Sacrament of Baptism can call on the promise of Christ that we need not fear the second death, for Emmanuel (God with us) always keeps His promises! Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection; the second death has no power over them (Rev 20:6). In His love, Jesus assures His disciples in every generation: "And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time" (Mt 28:20).
Endnotes:
1. The term Abyss occurs at least 34 times in the Greek Septuagint
(LXX), where, in 30 instances, it appears in the Hebrew text as tehom (or
its plural); once for mesula = "depths" (Job 41:31, in the LXX 41:22 and
Jewish translations in 41:23); once for sula, "depths" (Is 44:27); and
twice where the text is uncertain (Job 41:32a; LXX 41:23a, and in the Hebrew in
36:16 and 41:24a). See The Anchor Bible Dictionary, volume 1,
A-C, page 49. The Old Testament does not mention the Hell of the Damned since
its covenant blessings and judgments were all temporal and not eternal like the
New Covenant in Christ. All the twelve references to Gehenna in the New
Testament apply metaphorically to the place of fiery judgment (except James 3:6,
which refers to the tongue being set on fire by Gehenna). All the other
references are in the Synoptic Gospels as sayings of Jesus
(Mt 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33;
Mk 9:43, 45, 47;
Lk 12:5). Gehenna/Hell is preexistent
(Mt 25:41), and its fire reserved for the destruction of the wicked who deny Christ
(Mt 5:22; 13:42, 50; 18:9;
Mk 9:43). Its punishment is eternal
(Mt 25:41, 46), and the fire will never last forever
(Mk 9:43, 48). The New Testament distinguished
the Hell of the Damned from Hades (the abode of the dead before Jesus' death and
Resurrection). Hades (Sheol in Hebrew) is the provisional place of all the
dead, both righteous and the wicked before Jesus liberated the souls imprisoned
there who accepted His Gospel of salvation (1 Pt 4:6).
2. Beheading was the practice of the Jewish leaders in Judea, but the Romans crucified non-Romans like St. Peter and beheaded Roman citizens like St. Paul. Saints Peter and Paul died on the same day on June 29, AD 67.
3. After Jesus emptied Sheol/Hades of its dead (1 Pt 3:18-20; 4:6; Apostles' Creed), it became a place of purification for those souls destined for Heaven but in need of additional spiritual cleansing, a state we now call Purgatory (CCC# 1030-32). From that time, all those who died in a state of grace go immediately to Heaven (CCC# 1023-29), and all those who reject Jesus' gift of salvation to the Hell of the Damned (CCC# 1033-37). Hades/Sheol/Purgatory will still have a role to play until the Final Judgment when there is no longer a need for a place of purification, and God will destroy Hades and death in the Lake of Fire that is the Hell of the Damned (Rev 20:13-14).
Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates Scripture quoted
or paraphrased in the citation):
Rev 20:7-10 (CCC# 675*-677*);
20:12 (CCC# 677*; 1038-41)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2000, revised 2020 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.