And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

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

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years [Rev. 20:4–6].

And I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and (I saw) the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God; and whosoever worshiped not the wild beast neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead, or upon their hand. And they lived again and reigned with Christ one thousand years. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath no authority [Gr.: exousian], but they shall be priests of God and of the Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Many are going to die for Christ in the Great Tribulation period, but they will live again and reign with Christ one thousand years. The Tribulation saints are going to trade in three and one–half years for one thousand years. I would say they are getting a pretty good deal. Those three and one–half years will be rugged and terrible, but the thousand years are going to be wonderful—imagine living and reigning with Christ upon this earth!

This prophecy is like any other prophecy in Scripture: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Pet. 1:20). That is, you cannot just lift out a verse of Scripture and base doctrine on it; you need to have the corroboration of other Scriptures. When this passage here is treated as a dignified statement of literal facts, it becomes reasonable, and it fits into the entire program of prophecy which we have been following. Any attempt to reduce it to the lowest common denominator of fanciful and figurative symbols makes the passage an absurdity. To spiritualize this passage is to disembowel all Scripture of vital meaning, making the interpretation of Scripture a reductio ad absurdum.

The thrones are literal; the martyrs are literal; Jesus is literal; the Word of God is literal; the Beast is literal; the image is literal; the mark of the Beast is literal; their foreheads and their hands are literal; and the thousand years are literal. It is all literal. A thousand years means a thousand years. If God meant that it was eternal, I think He would have said so. If He meant it was five hundred years, He would have said so. Cannot God say what He means? Of course He can, and when He says a thousand years, He means a thousand years.

The Greek word for "resurrection" is anastasei, which means "to stand up, a bodily resurrection." It is rather difficult for a spirit to stand up, and those who spiritualize this section are at a loss to explain just how a spirit stands up! This is the same word used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 for the resurrection of Christ and believers.

"And I saw thrones and they sat upon them" is the one statement that is not entirely clear. Who are "they"? It is my judgment that they must be the total number of those who have part in the first resurrection, which includes the saved of all ages.

The first resurrection began with the resurrection of Christ. Then it is followed by the resurrection (at the Rapture) of His church sometime more than nineteen hundred years later—but before the Great Tribulation (see Rev. 4). At the end of the Great Tribulation is the resurrection of both the Tribulation saints ("the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God; and whosoever worshiped not the wild beast") and the Old Testament saints (see Dan. 12:1–2). The diagram above gives the resurrection as a parade. Christ, the firstfruits of resurrection, leads the parade.

It is a rather simple and naive notion to think that somehow or another the world is going to end, Jesus will come, the dead will be raised, He will put the good guys on one side and the bad guys on the other, they will move into eternity, and that is it. My friend, God follows a very definite program; He always has, and He moves intelligently.

The Tribulation saints and the Old Testament saints will evidently reign on this earth with Christ. I believe that David will be His vicegerent. The church, which is the bride of Christ, will reside in the New Jerusalem where she reigns with Him from that exalted place and, I believe, over a great deal of God’s creation. Christ will commute from the New Jerusalem to the old Jerusalem on this earth. And I suppose that the church also will travel back and forth between its heavenly home and the earth.

Multitudes of both Israel and the Gentiles will enter the Kingdom in natural bodies, not having died. These are the ones, together with those who are born during the Millennium, who are tested during this millennial period. As Christ in a glorified body mingled with His apostles and followers, so the church in glorified bodies will mingle with the multitudes in their natural bodies here on the earth. In glorified bodies, the church will be able to move out into space. That will be the first time I will do any space traveling. I can assure you of that. Gravitation will not be able to grab me by my pants and pull me back to the earth in that day.

"They shall be priests of God" refers to the entire nation of Israel. This was God’s original purpose for Israel: "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel" (Exod. 19:6). Abraham was a priest in his family. Levi was the priestly tribe, with the family of Aaron serving as high priest. In the theocratic kingdom here on this earth, the entire nation of Israel will be priests.

In Scripture there is more prophecy concerning the Millennium than of any other period. The Kingdom was the theme of the Old Testament prophets. I do not know how else you would interpret it. In our day we hear very little about the minor prophets. There is a great silence, a great vacuum and void, when it comes to the teaching of the minor prophets, yet all of them look forward to the Millennium, that Kingdom which is coming on the earth. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophecy (Revelation 14-22) (electronic ed., Vol. 60, pp. 147–151). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.